Kuba, Kristina & Krakow.

I spent a couple of days in Krakow which is my favourite city in Poland. I have a friend Kuba who has two of the nicest bars - including the first (established 10 years ago) in the Jewish Quarter which is the most bohemian part of Krakow and has not yet opened up to swarms of tourists and hordes of stag parties charging from one bar to the next.

I arrived late and Kuba swiftly furnished me with a drink in his dungeon like candlelit tavern. He had a 'meeting' with his solicitor and soon disappeared, but not before confidiing to me that it was to see his third ex-wife with whom he recently has had a child. His girlfriend Kristina with whom he has lived for the last four years didn't believe him... "Solicitor? At this time of the night?!" Watching him slink out the door she asked me if I knew anything but I couldn't betray his trust, although he betrays hers all the time.

Kristina is a pretty girl half Kuba's age. She told me while guzzling red wine that she has found prostitutes numbers in his mobile, brothel business cards in his wallet and keeps a count on the condoms in the bedroom as they regularly disappear. It's true, when I first met him he told me that he didn't know how to be faithful to one woman. He's been married three times with a kid for each, the last child with his third ex-wife just a year ago whilst living with Kristina. Yet Kristina is still with him, checking his mobile and grilling his friends.

Kristina told me how she'd had enough, how she wanted to move to another city, start again, that Kuba didn't love her. I've heard this drunken speech before but the next morning she's back on him again as if everything is hunkydory. After some time and a lot of alcohol an older man and his female student joined us. Having armed themselves with large lagers, they promptly got out a pile of text books and commenced a Persian language lesson. This is at 2am in a loud and very dark bar. Apparently this wise old Pole speaks twelve languages and lived in - amongst other places - Afghanistan for eight years. Kristina whispered to me that he is around 68 and she is 20... I nearly fell off my chair when she confirmed that they are a couple.

Krakow is a medieval city and feels like it, with narrow alleyways and curious nooks and crannies. It is far more European and cosmopolitan than other cities, including Warsaw. Krakow is a city for dreamers, full of crumbling grandeur, students and artists. It is the cultural and intellectual capital of Poland, and unlike elsewhere in Poland, the people are happy not to earn money but just to be in Krakow. The suburbs are blighted by ugly communist blocks like every Polish city, but the Old Town and Kazimierz remains untouched.

Kuba reappeared but didn't stay long as he was tired... not surprisingly. He got out his fags and offered the pack to me across the table... Kristina piped up "Is that all you have? You had a full pack when you left. You smoked them all??" He'd been caught off guard but recovered quickly and launched into a brisk monologue wherein he explained how he had unintentionally swapped the full packet for the near empty packet in the car. I was impressed by the detail, he couldn't possibly have known she would ask him that. He had another speech polished and ready in reply to her inevitable "What was the meeting with the solicitor about?" This is a scene they have been playing for four years. Kristina later whimpered "You see how he lies to me?"

I often think of moving to Krakow although it's much more expensive than Lodz, but what a difference! Cool and laid back, great bars and interesting people. Lots of foreigners around to liven things up and not far from the scenic mountains on the southern border with Slovakia, the rest of Poland being as flat as a pancake.

We left the Persian lesson in full swing and stepped out into the cold. I kissed Kristina goodbye on the corner and watched as she ran back home.