krakow vacation

So here's what I did in Krakow, Poland. I absolutely loved the city. There's not a lot to see monument-wise, but the atmosphere is great. Plus, it doesn't hurt that they're on a different currency, so everything was really cheap! We could eat a huge dinner (like 3 courses) for about 4-5 euros. That's nothing!

Monday
Hart and I met up with Michaela in Paris, and we made our way to Orly airport. Thanks to the strikes at the airports, our flight was delayed for about two hours. Better than being canceled! We finally arrived in Krakow and took a small old rickety train into the city center. We found our hostel which was right in the city center off the Market Square and then got a very yummy dinner at a Georgian restaurant. Let me just say a few things about the hostel as well. It was so cheap for the location (like 12 euros a night!), and it was voted the best hostel in the world in 2007 by Hostel World. The staff was amazingly nice and the free breakfast was delicious! Plus, the people there were really great to hang out with.

Tuesday
We decided to go to Auschwitz, the WWII concentration camp. We figured it would be better to take a tour (and save ourselves the headache of public transportation). While the tour guide was pretty much useless, the place itself was really interesting. It's definitely an experience. You can't help but just feel overwhelmed by sadness for what went on here. We saw both Auschwitz I and Auschqitz II - Birkenau (which was the worse of the two camps). I don't think words can really describe the feelings I had there.

Later, we had dinner at a delicious pierogi place called Zapiecek. Back at the hostel, it was the manager's birthday, so there was a party in the common room. Fun!

Wednesday
We did some exploring of the centre ville. We went to St. Mary's Basilica. Next, we got hot chocolate from a place on the Square. It was pretty much melted chocolate. It was so thick and delicious! Afterwards, we went over to explore Wawel Castle and took a tour of the State Rooms. For lunch, we had bagels at an American bagel place in the Jewish Quarter. It was so good! I've missed bagels! Oh, and cream cheese! You can't find cream cheese in France.

Michaela was taking a tour of the Salt Mines for the afternoon, so Hart and I headed to the Singer Bar. It's a bar that has sewing machines on the tables! It is so cool! We had our favorite Polish drink tatankas which is Zubrowka vodka with apple juice. Next, we met up with my Polish friend Katie. Katie studied at my high school for a year, and we recently reconnected on Facebook. She took us to a bar/cafe that had really good hot chocolate. The best in the world according to her. It was really nice catching up with her. Hopefully, I will be back in Europe next year so that I can go to her wedding.

For dinner, we went to U Babci Maliny where we ate so much food! We all split fried ewe's cheese with cranberry sauce, pancakes with Hungarian goulash, mixed pierogis, and pancakes with sweet cream and fruit. Amazing! We all only spent about four euros each. Then, everyone at the hostel ended up going to the nightclub across th street. It was a good time.

Thursday
We went to the St. Valentine's market in the Square before doing a little shopping. I found a new purse. Good thing, my old one is falling apart. We had lunch at the market and then headed over to the English bookstore Massolit. We spent the afternoon there hanging out and drinking there good hot chocolate and coffee. The entire hostel went out again that night. We went to some place called Prozak for a bit. It was huge! There were so many different rooms. I really liked the atmosphere.

Friday
We were out of bed before the crack of dawn to head back to the airport to catch our flight back to Paris. The strikes were only just ending, so our flight was yet again delayed. Got to love France.

Even though I didn't really write a lot about my week there, I adored Krakow. Definitely want to go back. It just already feels so long ago and Tunisia has sort of taken over my brain. Hopefully, I will be making a post about that trip either tonight or tomorrow. I'm currently in the process of uploading all of my photos.

Pictures
Krakow