Question to the Polish Chicken Wingers, if there are any

[4X-NTY]

Hello all!
In march 20th I will be flying with my school to Poland to see where our people have suffered, we will be there for about a week.
My first question is, we will have some free time in Krakow, is there some interesting attraction to see there?
The second one - I know that smoking is frowned upon in Europe, but is it worse for who is smoking hand-rolled cigarettes? How many suspicious looks will one get if he's smoking a hand rolled cigarette, and what are the chances of being searched by a police officer?
Thanks in advance!

[Fabo]

Granted I am not Lt.Fubar, and as such, not a Pole, but still.

Krakow is a very nice sity itself, you can easily kill a day or two just in there.

AAnd while smoking is frowned upon in western Europe, it is not quite so in eastern parts. As per hand-rolled cigarettes, well, surprisingly many smokers among youth actually roll their own cigs. I only refrain because I have both hands left and could not roll to save my life. If you are hinting at certain not-quite-legal substance (unless in Amsterdam), well, it has pretty distinct odour, does it not? My bet is, if a cop were to harrass somebody about drug abuse, he would know the smell. Also, weed cigs are rolled quite differently, at least around here.

By the way, I should not hold my chances that you might be lurking around Prague, eh?

[4X-NTY]

Thanks Fabo!
Unfortunately, I won't be leaving the country,except for Poland, in the next four and a half years, in the good case. But I do have plans on visiting Prague sometime!

[Oddball]

if you came to "Sunny" Scotland you wont have any trouble smoking roll ups just smoke them out side in the liquid sunshine.

[Fabo]

NTY, with any luck, I wont be in Prague in four and a half years anyway... Not that it is not a beautiful city, but I want to return home after school.

[Lt.Fubar]

Krakow is pretty much THE place for tourist visiting Poland if they come here to see some history. Unfortunately I was there maybe two times for pleasure - going there for business is completly different story

Best I can do is to direct you to the official city website: http://www.krakow.pl/en/?chl=EN
What I didn't saw on that website is the Museum of Aviation, which have some pretty interesting exhibits, like part of Goering's World War I collection, Viggen, Starfighter, interesting collection of MiGs etc. etc.

Oh, and an F-5 that was acquired in Vietnam some time ago... still have bullet wound in his wing

Now when it comes to smoking, for the past few months there were some changes in legislations and smoking in public places is considered prohibited... though for many people "old habits die hard" and you can still see some people smoke, and law enforcement have other things to worry about than reminding people to care for their addiction in their own homes  Seriously though, if you really have to, you can try and the worst case scenario is being lectured about the current laws.

As for hand rolled cigarettes, those are quite uncommon here, and most people smoke fabricated ones as they are still cheaper than anywhere in Shengen countries, therefore yes, people will think your're smoking a joint

As a foreigner you will be treated rather lightly when it comes to breaking those kind of laws, and as Israeli while in Oświęcim (Auschwitz / אָשפּיצין) you will probably go with a group everywhere and will not be bothered by anyone, it's an unwritten rule.

Enjoy your visit, and if you have any other questions just ask.

[4X-NTY]

Thanks Lt. Fubar!
Unfortunately, by "some time" I mean about two hours.
By the way, the tranlsation for Auschwitz that probably is from wikiepedia is not hebrew but Yiddish, In Yiddish, apperantly they say "Ashpitzin" while in hebrew we say "Oshvitz", I find it kinda weird that "Ashpitzin" is similar to the biblical word "Ushpizin", which means guests.

[Lt.Fubar]

Yes it's from Wiki, sorry for that 

Two hours is definitely not enough time, last time I spend a whole day at the aviation museum alone
Krakow is best seen after dark in summer time. Heard the same about Prague, although was there only once, morning to afternoon... in winter 

[Fabo]

Fubar: Actually, Prague is beautiful in winter. And I like it more in the day than in the dark, but its just me.

[Lt.Fubar]

You know the beautifull kind of winter weather we sometimes got in this part of world? A winter wonderland, white and sunny... well it wasn't that one 
When it's grey, rainy and depresing, even Shagri-la won't make much of an impression 

[4X-NTY]

Hey, at least you have winter! Here there are three seasons - 50C in the shade, nice enough to keep you pants on and cold enough for the rain not evaporating. The last time I saw snow was at 2009!
I'll get to an Aviation museums tour in Europe after the army, not anytime soon.

[4X-NTY]

I have arrived krakow last night, we landed in katovitch, the terminal looks like a bus station but the staff was very nice!
We went to what was the ghetto and visited what was the Jewish quarter.
We had some free time at some market, everything is so cheap! Instead of twenty zloty the meal costs thirteen, but the burgers are so small!
Unforunately, I feel like I'm in a hostile country,  but I feel safe because everywhere we go I see lots of security guys from the Shabak.

[Lt.Fubar]

Apparently Katowice terminal haven't changed since 1998 when I visited it briefly on a flight back from Cyprus... It's probably the smallest terminal that process international flights. On the way back you should go from Babice International in Krakow, it's a bit bigger

As for the food - that depands where you yeat Mc Donalds have really small burgers, that's why I prefer Burger King
If you'll get a chance eating in one of the smaller, not branded fast food point, you may be somewhat surprised, as you'll get more vegetables, than the bun and meat combined  Have no idea where those came from, it's probably cheaper to stuff people with vegetables... although the side effect is - that food is healthier than typical American fast food

And for feeling hostile... well, there you have social programing on both sides at work, although this is not topic for discussion on public forum, it require few beers and a cozy bar

[4X-NTY]

We won't be taking of from balice, we end our trip somwhere up north.
I kind off overcame the hostility feeling today after meeting someone in Auschwitz with the same film camera as mine, so we talked for a few minutes and I felt better about the polish people.
It was a pretty much hard day for me, seeing where my grandfather's family died, I could only wish that theybwere went immediately to the gas chambers, "living" there seemed like a much worse option.

[Lt.Fubar]

Up north ? 

Either Majdanek or Warsaw Ghetto... or both, don't think you would go all the way up to the Wolf's Lair. Although you can throw a rock in random direction, and you'll hit something of an history value. But I know it's not that kind of tour.

As for Auschwitz and Birkenau, one have to see it to believe it. In Poland most kids at the end of grade school go there on a tour, it makes quite an impact.

And out of around 64 Nazi camps that were located all over the occupied Europe only Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek in Poland were left standing in their entirety to this day, others were rather quickly erased from existence, although some were used for imprisonment of Nazi war criminals until the mid 50's, which was kind of ironic.