To really experience Krakow, stay awhile

If you stay in Krakow a day, you will wish you stayed a week. If you stay a week, you will wish you stayed two.

What's the attraction? Krakow is part college town and part fairy tale.

It was from this beautiful region that hundreds of thousands of Poles emigrated to Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis and other American cities around 1900. They fled occupation, oppression, poverty and high taxes.

But what a treasure the city is now. Go to see it, and you'll be a rare American doing so. Just 331,000 Americans visited last year, which is a shame because Poland, which does not yet use the euro, is still one of the most affordable spots in Europe.

My favorite thing about Krakow? For an old city, it feels young. Since Copernicus was an undergrad here at Jagiellonian University in the 1400s, Krakow has been buzzing with more than 100,000 students.

It is a 1,000-year-old city that has never been bombed. Occupied and defiled, yes. Scene of sorrows and evils, Nazis and Communists, yes. But its 14th- to 16th-century landmarks -- its churches, medieval towers and grand, stunning market square -- have survived it all.

At a crossroads

Krakow, a city of 800,000 people, is nestled between Ukraine to the east, Slovakia to the south and the Czech Republic to the west. It is not far from Vienna and Prague, and it has elements of these, plus touches of Italy, France, Sweden, Lithuania and Russia.

It is often included as a brief stop on quickie tours of Eastern Europe. But it deserves more time.

I am here on my own with a local guide, Barbara Wloch, who takes me sightseeing each day. She shows me where the good ice cream is (Lody's on Starowislna). She tells me to bargain in the Cloth Hall main market, where sellers hawk amber jewelry, hand-made boxes, wooden toys and folk art.

The native Krakovian is trained as a lawyer, musician and translator. When I get gushy, she says that Krakow is not so remarkable, that there is a lot of bureaucracy, and people love to complain. Life is not so great here, she says.

Musical interludes

My hotel, Senacki, is on a main street in the old town, which allows no cars. My room has white lace curtains at the enormous windows. They open up to the cobblestone street below. At night, I hear people strolling past and slips of music. By day, I see three weddings at the church across the street. Below is a lady with a cart, selling bagels and pretzels for 1.20 zlotys each -- about 57 cents.

Three nights in a row, I go to a chamber music concert, each at a different hall nearby, and hear Vivaldi, Chopin, Mozart.

I eat pierogi. Sit at sidewalk cafes. Wander bookstores. Visit churches, including St. Francis Basilica, with its Art Nouveau stained glass window depicting God done by local artist Stanislaw Wyspianski in about 1900. Walk to the old Jewish district and to Wawel Castle, which was home to centuries of Polish kings and queens and is now a museum full of ancient huge tapestries, royal apartments, a chapel and a famous bell tower.

In Krakow, you really don't need to rush around.

Stroll. Absorb. Enjoy.