Lesser Poland: Where UNESCO mines meet snowballs and Darth Vader

from the latest on Caribbean cruises to kosher safaris pilgrimages to Jewish Eastern Europe and award-winning wines and international cuisine in sundrenched Tel Aviv sit back and enjoy the trip with the travel edition of the Jerusalem Post podcast morning David good morning Mark where are we are you trying to get me to absolutely butcher another foreign language I think for those of you who have listened to any of our podcasts in Polish well not in Polish in Poland we're clearly not going to be doing it in Polish we are struggling a little bit with the pronunciation but we've moved to a region which I think we can pronounce if you look at it in writing the third letter looks like an L but if you look very closely it's got a sort of diagonal line through it which Mark and I have learned through bitter experience is a kind of w so the region that we're in is called Mawa pska when we were in Lodge we were actually in woodge and so L is W but just to make things a little bit easier W is V and on top of all of that if you get an S and a zed together and believe me there are lots of those in Polish it's kind of yes on the border with Germany there's a city with a c an sc and a zed followed by another c and a zed if we ever go there we'll learn how to pronounce it but I'm not going to say Shin it's a bit like being in Wales actually we are in maula as we said if you can hear noise in the background we'll explain to you what that is in a few moments time but we're surrounded by eager beavers lots of young people about to descend into the depths but we're in maula we're in lesser Poland is a translation of maula and now Mark is going to tell you the name of the city that we're in we are on the outskirts of kov and and the L and the V rule applies here because we're in a place beginning with a W which is pronounced vitka vitka I'm not going to be able to say that more than once what we're going to do now is Place ourselves in the very capable hands of a tour guide and in a moment you'll hear from her and she will explain exactly where we are and what we're about to [Music] do hi this is David Harris from the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp pod or mail us at Mark davidp pod [Music] gmail.com are you coming in David yes I am I hope you're not claustrophobic no when you said sha David I thought we were going to an exhibition about the 1970s detective no we are about to descend and we're doing it in the company of two ladies there is Magda who is from the regional tourist office and Patricia who is our guide for the next hour and a half we are heading down pretty quickly people who are listening to this don't yet know where we are so maybe you could explain sure we are in the village castal mine which is the best known tourist site in Poland the mine which was in operation for 700 years producing salt it was used to preserve food and now it's very famous it's a UNESCO heritage site it was named the UNESCO heritage site in 1978 the elevator that how would I describe this mine I've been down a coal mine before and it's very dark and lots of coal uh on the walls and then a few wooden poles holding everything up you get a feeling that you're basically being kept Alive by a toothpick this feels slightly different I just want to say first of all there are no poles holding up the walls here we're in as you heard a UNESCO recyc it's a heavily touristed area we've not been in here before we don't know what to expect other than the few photographs that we've seen but the people around us descended 380 yard steps we came down in the original Shaft that the miners came down in and we're about to discover what's inside we are on the first level of the vka salt mine now that the is uh 64 M there are nine levels visitors go deeper but not all the way down to the bottom of the M the first three levels are open to the public what is really interesting about visiting the mine visitors are allowed to lick the salt on the way it's all right to taste it so if you want you can pinch this white salt off the wall and taste it there are no limits you can eat as much salt as you want to during the tour it's antiseptic there is no bacteria on the surface so it's not dangerous but how much salt can a person consume that's healthy for them oh well we should not put salt on our food at all because almost everything we eatat contains salt already we should not eat more than a teaspoon a day and everything we have to remember everything contains salt so I don't know if I can say that but I don't put salt on my food I think I absorb so much salt every day working here that I don't need salty food anymore but I don't think it's it will hurt you if you just taste a little bit if I lick the walls that's it for the week you've got a particularly big tongue so you'll get a spoonful in one lick so Mark is now actually breaking a wall a 500y old wall is now in my hands it's salt it's like eating salt because it's salt I have to explain when Mark says salt to those of you listening in America he's actually saying salt it needs soy sauce I think just that's really strong ah wow it's much stronger than what you would take at home at home presumably it's been refined this is pure sodium chloride later on you will also see salt which is not pure the color of it is gray because of the impurities and that gray salt is a little bit less salty so we won't eat that you will Li the wall Have you listened to the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition I'm David Harris and together with my co-host Mark Gordon we bring you the best from the world of travel and tourism we have people who literally fly to Park City just to do the ski minion and it has that Heavenly taste that you don't really find nowadays in the market when was the last time you went to a restaurant and they bought you a picnic basket about eight courses in the Dracula tour that's a very unusual honeymoon option really the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition brings you the joys of travel and tourism so why not subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts cheers Mark cheers [Music] David it's a very busy salt mine I just saw about 30 dwarves walk by singing hi ho we buy what looks like a lake would you mean it looks like a lake it is a lake it's not a lake what is it if it's not a lake I don't know it's water and it's more of a pond it's artificial so we can call it a pond I think ponds are artificial aren't they I don't know we call it a lake it's a Salt Lake the water of the lake is uh super salty 320 gram of salt in a liter of the water it must be that salty because if it wasn't it would dissolve the walls of the chamber the walls are salt and that would cause a massive collapse of this chamber the chamber is on the top of this one and of the surface where 20,000 people live water is not good for the salt mine but the water of this lake is 10 times more salty than sea water so it's not dangerous to keep it here it's not going to dissolve the walls of the chamber it doesn't absorb salt anymore as we've been walking around we've discovered that you have many talents one of those is that you speak a little Hebrew and you were learning at University do do you know much about the Dead Sea and how this Pond Lake would compare to the water in the Dead Sea I have to tell you something once I went to Israel to bring some water from the Dead Sea to our laboratory at the mine however the person working in the laboratory told me that it's not possible to compare the water from this Lake and the water of the Dead Sea s the temperature of the water from the dead SE changed during my way home and it's a lot about temperature you know that you can dissolve more salt in water if temperature is higher so the level of saturation depends on the temperature of water what we know for sure is that there are more minerals dissolved in the water of the Dead Sea than here what this tells me is you should never trust the tour guide in a scientific experiment and you should leave it to the scientists yes yes but I really wanted to know many visitors ask about it everybody knows about the Dead Sea so the first thing they ask about entering this chamber is is the water here as salty as the water of the Dead Sea do you get many Israeli tourists coming through here oh we used to have many many teenagers before the pandemic the pandemic changed everything I think we had more than 20,000 a year coming towards aitz learning about the Holocaust but they always came to the mine and we were really happy about it because I didn't think they had much enjoyment during their stay in Poland and we didn't want them to see Poland as the place of mar yes so we were happy they were coming here this was the only fun thing for them in Poland actually and we had many of them coming and we have sometimes families coming as individual tourists during summer we've spent 2 hours underground I think it's probably impossible to imagine what an 8-hour shift would have been here on uneven ground without proper lighting you do this because you love the place you're not bringing salt to the surface anymore yes it's a job but tell us a little bit more about your passion for this place well I love the mine I have to say it's amazing place a lot of history behind it everybody likes it we have something to impress visitors with visitors coming from all over the world with Many Wonders they all like the mine I learn a lot from tourists coming here I do my exercise every day salt preserves me so there are many benefits you exercise in the mine yes I walk a lot like 3 kilometers with every group people working here are lovely all the miners who are still here for the maintenance and tour guides we support each other if necessary it's a very enjoyable job to guide tourists here in Village do you have a favorite part of the mine I like the wood what Carpenters did so that big chamber with the white wooden construction is my favorite chamber of the to rest somebody listening to this who wants to know more details how to find the place how to learn about the place how do they do so visit our website the first thing you should do so you know the opening hours we are open pretty much every day and the mine is accessible for everybody children are allowed to go we have tours for visitors on wheelchairs it's important to know the temperature which can be very different from the temperature outside good shoes you have to be prepared for a lot of walking but everything is on the website also photographs of the places situated outside the tourist rout if you want to know more about the mine you need to tell us the name of the website velichka salt mine actually if you only write down the name of uh the mine like only vitka or he salt mine only that's enough because it's very famous vitka that's w i e l i c z k a vitka or Z or or Z in fact Patricia thank you for whoa thank you very shush thank you very much indeed for showing us around and for your passion for what you don't even consider to be a job H thank you for coming because I can tell everything the same about you you are passionate about what you are doing I think yes and you are having fun doing your job I think it's more the after effects of licking the walls around here I'm really going to be unfair even though we've said thank you and goodbye to to you but as we were coming up in the elevator through 135 M with the wind and we were squished against everybody else and your nose was basically crammed into the gates on the side of the lift you said you know some Israeli Hebrew songs are you going to sing for us oh my God I'm not a good at singer L head L head CL that's all I can do thank you so much for your time thank you thank you thank you maybe you should cut it Ma pska fact file the main airport in MA poka oressa Poland is krakov bicha John Paul II International Airport there are direct flights to krov from Tel Aviv with whiz lot and LL you can fly into the City from Chicago with lot there are direct flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi and many cities across Europe including London Amsterdam Paris Frankfurt and numerous cities in the UK it's a 30-minute taxi ride from the airport to krakov and 50 minutes longer by public transport there are also buses and a train service to the tourist areas of the city you can reach the city of tarov in about an hour and the town of zapan in under 2 hours in krov we stayed in the comfortable and superb located hotel saski part of the curio collection by Hilton tanov has many small hotels including the apart Hotel yuana zacha Pani also has some beautiful five-star Resort Hotels such as the noal lovi Park Hotel Aries and Radison blue1 us will buy you four polish zatti maula has a continental climate it's warm in the summer and cold in the winter the average annual temperature for maula is 13° C or 55° F and there's about 240 mm or 10 in of rain a year perhaps the best time to visit kov is from mid-may to mid-september since it's the warmest and sunniest period of the year due to the higher location of zakani it snows in the winter months the most popular Regional products in maula are ospek which is cheese from the tatra mountains and OB V Janek which are parboiled D rings treat yourself to a vegan tasty menu at Gant with its floor to sealing Windows overlooking the eponymous Mountain kosher food is available in krov check kabad cv. morning David good morning Mark so here's a story in the summer we were in Tel Aviv and we were invited to a party by the polish Embassy the Israeli government always sends a minister and they sent Moshe arbel who is the or was at the time the health Minister and the interior Minister and Moshe arel is from the Shas party a middle eastern mrai party he's a religious man and he stands up and we thought maybe they've sent the wrong person because this is Polish this is Eastern European and they've sent someone who's completely the opposite so mosha arell spoke very well and at the end he spoke about his holiday he said I've been to Poland and I went to zacha pan and I had a wonderful time so David and I looked at each other and we looked at D from the Polish tourist Authority we thought that sounds interesting and here we are six months later hello my name is yat jashinski or Jack Finch like my nickname in English yeah I'm the tatra guide and also the city guide I do Heritage trips and Mountain trips too I'm local I'm 45 and almost all my life I spent here in zakana and I really really I love that place still um I think the best thing I can say about that attitude is I still I can feel like a tourist when I walk around the streets of zakana zakana is the really unique place in Poland is only place only town which lies so high with the view on the high mountains with completely different climate uh especially Long Winter the most significant things and a strong presence of the most original and strong local culture in Poland I think the Highlanders culture Highlanders culture which is very colorful still living and you can observe it on every step on the street we've come into what was the epicenter of life I guess when zakani was much younger as a town tell our listeners where we are and why this was such an important Place uh we are right now in so-called old church that was the first church in zakana it was founded constructed uh in the middle of 19th century of course immediately it started to be a center of every form of life the spiritual physical intellectual mostly because of the person of the Parson first persons in zakana staric because his house his home was the first place when people from outside the first tourist we we could say today were staying yeah and that was also the person who developed the tourism in zakopane Old Town is also old charch is also very nice place just to be in here just to sit in here you don't need to to to pray you can just step inside sit in the Pew and just feel it and smell it because it's a wooden building and has a very nice silence climate Zak is filled with wood everywhere you walk the houses are wood the schools are wood the museums of wood does it have a very unique style for Poland yes and no why people were building buildings from the wood because they couldn't afford anything else only rich people were building from the stone or from the bricks that was the poor way to build anything and later it became a significant element of local architecture culture and so on and even today people are making buildings made of conrete but outside they put it the wood just to keep that you know expression in a short while we're going to hear a little more of of the history of this area when we step out towards the cemetery but for now in addition to seeing the older buildings we also walk through I guess what you would call the modern heart of this town which has become a mecca for tourists what does a tourist do see experience when they visit here in 2023 2024 I have to be honest and most of them are going to kuki street because that's the like a landmark and the brand of the city and just want to be at the kovi street like on Eiffel Tower in Paris yeah of course many of them are going to taton National Park just to hike and there's a huge number of people amount of people every year last year it was almost 5 million people and if you're looking for PE and silence on the touristic Trails there are very few of that but that's a good phenomenon because it's better for people to walk to the mountains than to sit in the bar yeah but Zak Unfortunately today we cannot see it but even walking around the streets of Zan you still have a beautiful view because it's just a stick to the high mountains and from every place in the city you have nice view this is the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp pod or mail us at Mark davidp pod gmail.com whilst this is a busy town full of tourists of course the locals at least 30,000 and people the vast majority of whom work in the tourism industry we found a very quiet very peaceful corner and that is the old Cemetery which was used until the earliest part of the 20th century and I believe there were some well-known people who are laid to rest here yes we are on Old Cemetery which is 50 m from the most noisy and crowdy place in zakana and the lower part of kuki Street there is a big Market just outside the wall but we are on the other side of the wall in the silent place in Old Cemetery where many many great Polish people from the history of our nation is buried many of them were artists the sculptures for example so you will find completely unique forms of tombstones here like from the ruler every Tombstone is very similar to one another here you cannot find two similar to one another many in Toms are just form of Arts as we were walking through the town earlier you were saying that zakani in many ways became a refuge perhaps for the intelligencia for people who were fiercely polish but were not living in Poland for 123 years from 1794 5 to 1980 Poland was ripped between the empires Russia Prussia and Austria and zakopane as they say was the most free place during that period especially between 19 and 20th Century that was the reason many great writers poets pianists painters intelligence and high cultural people were coming to zakopane just to feel free to create here to compose to write to paint to sculpt that was one of the origins of Legend of zakapa it's not a very large Cemetery we can see the gate behind us and we can see the end wall over there and just behind the end wall we can see what I think is the lowest station to go up the mountain you mentioned that it was a bigger Cemetery once but what happened to it about 1942 during the second world war the nais just deleted part of the cemetery about 30% the reason was typical German or because they wanted to make the straight way from the k Street to the lower station of cable car to gubka uh so that was the reason there was no exclamation they were just the big Mach machines came here and just deleted that part of the cemetery as well uh as the synagogue which was on the other side of the wall and the Jewish Community was like the 177% of people at the time it's nice to to be in the warm again this is a running theme on your visits to Central Europe my friend I'm reading this upside down we're in gajo Kia is that actually where we are almost Gazo that's close enough for me right if I get above 80% I think that's a pass for me now we did say we were going to do the next bit of the interview I think we said up on the top of a mountain or a hill yes and we still couldn't see anything up there and having thrown David in the snow I think we decided to come inside and get warm uh there were seven-year-olds throwing snowballs at each other and then Mark went for it sorry it's okay it's very nice you will be able to find hopefully some photos or video on our social media at Mark David pod David what's your least favorite word in the world other than Mark um actually it's David when either my wife or my children are saying it because I know it means something that means you have to do something yeah apart that it's celebrity why are you asking cuz our tour guide ah Jack Finch which is his Hollywood name is an extremely talented person we found out in the the half hour walking that we've done since the last interview what do you mean so if I hum this tune or sort of sing it does it mean anything to [Music] you let me think yes ladies and gentlemen we are actually in the company of the Polish Darth [Music] V when we say that it's not the YJ or Jack does it on stage as like a joke or something with his friends in the Polish dubbed version of Star Wars he is Darth Vader uh yes that was a part of my life when I was not producing but giving my voice to the Polish version of the video games and one of the version of um Star Wars released in Poland was with my voice as a Darth Vader that was like 15 years ago and that voice was obviously processed by the computer and so on but but yes it was my voice do people stop you in the streets and say we recognize you or your voice unfortunately never that's as far as I can tell that game wasn't very popular in Poland plus that voice was processed and in other games I saw I played few games with my voice and that was so processed so changed that you can just recognize on the street like the people from pocast or something like that but Jack is definitely not my father yeah you did say that George Lucas had to approve your voice yes I was told by the producers that the the procedure was like this uh then George Lucas wanted to personally accept the main characters like Luke Skywalker death V and that Vader and so on so they told me that every samples of voices were sent to him and he personally accepted every voice so I was chosen by George Lucas enough of of fame or in for me and so on somebody coming to this beautiful town from overseas in our case from Israel or or Jewish people and other people who follow the Jerusalem Post come to visit what would you like them to take away what is it you want them to remember from an experience in such a wonderful part of the world through the year you can experience really beautiful moments from the hot summer to the harsh winter outside of the main Market Street there really many original places and you can meet original people uh not crazy people but but just original very honest and good people how do people get in contact with you if they want a tour of zacha pan or the planet ho I have an email of course and Mark is about to read out the email pens at the ready and you may run out of ink by the time we get through yat sex's name so y's email is j a c e k t a t r y That's yek tatri gmail.com yek thank you very much for taking us around for giving up your time to show us the town of zacha pan and trying to show us the mountains of zachan which weren't coming out to play today it's been a real fun morning with you I know that's the common sense and the way of ending the meetings saying my pleasure but in indeed it was my pleasure and that's the best part of my work to meet the people like you and just to have a meeting and conversation with the capital M and capital c so thank [Music] you so what better to do after A Hard Day's hiking through mountains and Villages the tatras the subcarpathians well we managed to do our 10,000 steps and Mark was so absolutely exhausted at the end of it that he decided the only thing possibly to do was to come back to our lovely hotel and have a massage and right now massuse is working his legs very hard from calf to thigh right now and I'm not sure if Mark is actually conscious because the last time that I happened to be in a spa with Mark during a deep tissue massage he was snoring which is quite remarkable but let's see if we can bother him for a minute what I'm actually going to do is I'm going on my knees so that Mark can talk through the massage bed into the microphone so I'm actually going to lie on my back how you doing Mar yes I'm having a very very strong massage evina here is got hands of Steel but it's very nice and my tight muscles in my legs from all of that walking are starting to relax I assume you'd like to have one every day yeah in fact I'd like not to go to work and just have a massage each day then take advantage of the swimming pool and all the other facil ities in this hotel I'm grateful we're doing it at the end of a long week it's just a very good way to unwind and finish the week off I'll let you get back to the massage and just say that we're not quite finished because you're going to hate us but we're about to take you to a missioning guid listed restaurant [Music] we have had the most amazing day definitely one of the best days that we've had since we've been doing this and we've been doing this for almost three years now I started with a bit of trepidation when you see your tour guy turn up and he's in mountaineering gear and he looks thin and fit and he's about to lead you through the snow and far more attractive than either of who us well I wasn't going to say yes I was a little bit nervous that he was going to run us ragged but it was a wonderful tour of zakan we got to go up on a finicula one on the tick list yes check got back to the hotel had a massage a very deep tissue massage and this time I didn't fall asleep can you remember the name of the hotel the hotel is the nozal laav park approximately roughly if you look up something approximating Mark pronunciation in zakani it's highly recommended it was very very pleasurable and we want to a particular thank you there to evina who is by far the best Muse that I have had the honor of being punished by and when the feeling comes back into my legs I will also say thank you to evely no really really relaxing and we have crowned today off by coming to what I would say is the best restaurant I have been to in Poland one of the best that we've been to in all of our travels around the world it's supposed to be a six course but with these tasting menus 9 10 courses surprises and different drinks all along the way not only what was on the menu but the staff here brought out homemade Quints homemade vodkas just a stunning stunning vegan meal and to top it all off after a tour of the Gant complex which contains Apartments a private dining room and the most amazing views of the mountain which the restaurant is named after I say amazing views we haven't actually seen many mountains today because of the low Cloud it's actually snowing outside right now but the restaurant has floor to ceiling glass balconies and is just stunning it is really in terms of architecture food and as we always say most importantly the people from the restaurant that were serving and I hate to use the word serving CU I feel it has negative connotations but I would say throughout the meal they have been friends towards us the explanations of the food impeccable service and the tastiest tastiest grub that I've had in a long long time we've come to the cigar room and Kuba who has looked after us throughout the meal is preparing our last digestive apparative I don't know what is booze from a really stunning looking drinks cabinet we are going to finish off in style here I got for you sir the Vodka which is called Purity it's a Sweden produce vodka and they got the three kinds like a 17 34 and 51 I've got for you the 51 cuz the numbers means the number of distillation so the vodka is a very very smooth delight and the suweet thank you very much indeed big thanks to D from the Polish tourism organization who has made this possible and Magda from the ma pska tourism organization who has been our accompanier and chaperone and made sure we haven't stolen anything the poor lady last days she's had to listen to our alleged sense of humor so that's been a great pleasure we want to also say a big thank you to all of the people who have guested on this podcast do you remember who they were a big thank you to Patricia who took us around the vitka salt mine it feels like days ago but what an incredible experience to Jack Finch who's a Polish name we're never going to try to to Darth Vader and is that everybody that's everybody thank you for listening please share the podcast tell your friends all about it give us a five-star rating send us a message at Mark davidp pod on social media and our email address Mark davidp pod atgmailcom and we hope we've inspired you to come to Poland and to come to the maraolo region as we are about to take part in the final sadly alcoholic beverage of the evening we wish all of you a wonderful we know you're going to be listening to this in 2024 but from us to you in 2023 have a happy New Year May the New Year bring peace to the people in this region don't forget we're very close to what's happening in Ukraine and of course to everybody at home in Israel so shalom shalom from here goodbye shalom [Music]