Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Krakow Part 1


We arrived in Krakow on Saturday evening.  The weather was so nice so we decided to head to the city center to take some pictures and walk around.  I will tell you a bit about that in my next post.  This post is to tell you the legend of Krakow. 

 Krakow was supposedly founded on the defeat of a dragon that lived under Wawel Castle.  It is said that the dragon that lived in this den so long ago was nasty and would take off across the countryside eating people and livestock.  King Krakus wanted to put a stop to this and promised his daughter’s hand in marriage to whoever could defeat the dragon.  Knights came from all across the land and all failed.  A cobblers apprentice named Skuba decided to try but knew that he didn’t stand a chance against the dragon when so many others had failed.  So he thought of a plan to outsmart the dragon and took a lamb, stuffed it with sulfur, and left it outside for the dragon’s den.  The dragon ate it up and soon got a stomachache.  He went to the Vistula River to drink some water.  He drank and drank but it didn’t help.  His stomach kept expanding until it exploded.  Skuba soon married the King’s daughter and lived happily ever after.    





Today you can visit the dragon’s den and see the fire-spitting dragon.  We went to the dragon’s den and just outside was the dragon! I was so excited. Of course we had to stay a while so everyone could get their picture with the dragon.  It only spits fire every once and a while and the intervals didn’t seem to be very consistent so it was exciting every time. 








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