Skåne Old Boys tour to Krakóv - Part 1 - Krakóv by night and Rugby (22-Sep - 25 Sep)

The next trip was with the Skåne Old Boys rugby team and we to Kraków in Poland.

Kraków (or Cracow) is the second largest city in Poland (after the capital, Warsaw) and one of the oldest - having not been bombed or destroyed in the war (Warsaw was leveled and completely rebuilt).

Now we all know what happens on a Rugby tour stays on the rugby tour, but here's my summary:

We had a late flight out of Copenhagen, so we headed to the airport early and caught up for a few starter drinks:

Drinks at O'Leary's in Copenhagen Airport

We arrived in Krakow at around 10:30pm and after dropping our bags off at the hostel we headed out to the team pub for the trip - The Non Iron Pub.

The room I shared with a team mate

Drinks at the Non Iron

By 1am we realized we hadn't eaten, so we headed out to find something to eat. Most of the places were closed, and after being approached by several ladies trying to get us to visit strip clubs ("You can have Jacuzzi with the girls", "we have nicest girls", "Hey guys, do you have plans?")  we eventually found a pub that was selling burgers.

First view of the Krakow Barbican

We passed the Barbican which was a fortified building once forming a gate way into the old city through the city walls.  It was built in 1498, the walls are three meters thick and the building houses a courtyard 24.4 meters in diameter.

Barbican at night

After the Barbican, we walked through St Florian's Gate, built in the early 13th century to protect against the Turks:

St Florian's Gate at night

We ended up in bed around 2:30am and were up at 8am the next morning for breakfast.  The Old Boys had arranged a restaurant to put on a smorgasbord breakfast for us each day.  Afterwards we had a team meeting then headed out to get some lunch. At 1:30 we took the bus out to the rugby ground.  We were meant to play at Juvenia Rugby Club, but rains had flooded their pitch, so we played at an alternative ground.

Heading to the change rooms

The pitch was astroturf with small black stones.  It was much softer than I expected, however after the game I was picking out stones from everywhere.

My Player ID - the 2 shows how many tours, the cup shows how many of the cup wins I've played and the P is for Prop.

Getting ready

I wasn't originally planning on playing as I'd had surgery earlier and wasn't 100%, but we were short of players and I have a bad habit of saying yes to rugby, so I ended up playing about 50 minutes of the hour game.  We won 20-5.

Lineout

We were due to play both Juvenia (Poland) and the Lviv Grey Lions (Ukraine), but Juvenia didn't show so we played three 20 minute thirds vs Lviv.  The Old Boy rules are no lifting in lineouts and uncontested scrums.

The team

Us and Lviv Grey Lions

And us with our nice gear on

After the game we headed out to the the Juvenia club for a meal and presentations.  Dinner was a really nice goulash and sausages:

Goulash

Sausages

After dinner, we walked back into Krakow.  Some of the guys headed back to the Non Iron Pub, but I was pretty tired from the game and wanted to check out some more of Krakow and find some presents for the kids, so I went with a few of the guys and wandered through Krakow.

We walked through the main market square in Krakow and saw Saint Mary's Church (Church of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven or Kościół Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny, Kościół Mariacki) built in the 14th century.

Saint Mary's Church

In the end I was in bed pretty early but got a decent night sleep before an early start the next day.