Day 3: Krakow

Wawel Castle

After the bus day and the visit to Auschwitz the day before, we spent a full day in Krakow, including a very packed morning!

Unlike a lot of the cities we were going to, I had in fact been to Krakow a long time ago; it was part of a Guides holiday when I was 14, but I don't really remember much of it - so I was excited to get some real memories from it this time....

I left the hotel with Andrea and Mikaela to explore the city around half 9 in the morning, firstly going to the Old Town. It's absolutely beautiful, especially in the main square with all the horse-drawn carriages everywhere. It's remarkable how they've got all each pair of horses to completely match - not just so there's 2 chestnuts or greys together, but with the exact same patterns!!

Walking down the streets, I got separated from the other girls while trying to take pictures - typical....

After going round in a few circles, we thankfully found each other again at the Wawel Castle - just as stunning as the Old Town, only 5 minutes walk away.
It is definitely worth a look around the grounds, which you can do for free, and is a perfect place to take lots and lots of pictures; plus I would also recommend the cathedral inside the grounds (one note though if you decide to look inside it, no photos allowed).

After the castle, we took an Uber to Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter of the city (although ironically we saw more of the Christian side of it than the true Jewish side). It's a ghetto that actually reminded of Manchester's Norther Quarter in that it's a little bit different and separate from the rest of the city.

All this we did before lunch!

It was clear in the Uber on the way back to the hotel direction that we were pretty hungry, so we went and got some food in the food court in the shopping centre 5 minutes away from the hotel - I went with a salad, very healthy!

After lunch and 2 seconds shopping to get myself some ear plugs (I didn't sleep too well the night before as the road outside the hotel was so busy with traffic!), we went back to the hotel so we could freshen up before our tour around the Krakow Salt Mines - and I jumped out of my skin going back into my room.... There was another girl inside!

No, this didn't end up being a randomer, but Bethany, an American girl who was meant to start with us in Vienna but was held up due to a flat tyre on the way to the airport...! Crap - I'd forgotten up until that point that there was meant to be another girl on the trip! Once I got over the surprise though, we spruced up and joined the others in the foyer to go to the Salt Mines.

It was quite a wait for our tour to get sorted, so we all got ice creams - they did a vanilla and chocolate mix, like a really tall and thin Mr Whippy! 😋

This statue, and many others like it in the Salt

Mine are made up of at least 90% salt.....

The mines are around 45 minute drive from Krakow and are at least 90m underground. We had to go down a million stairs down to reach the first point of the mines tour, and it felt like we were going down forever - also do NOT look down the crack between the stairs while going down..... Or back up again for that matter....

Good news is you get the lift back up.

We were met by our tour guide, who took us for around 1 hour and 1/2 tour around the mines, telling us the history of them and showing us the statues made up almost entirely of salt, mechanisms of the mine, pools and even a giant chapel blown out in the mine with chandeliers (again, made up of entirely of salt)…..

Throughout the tour, we also got to touch and even lick the walls (if you wanted to that is)….

The tour was the perfect length for us, as you do A LOT of walking - the full thing is apparently 3 hours, so we were lucky that Darius managed to get us one for only half the time. To be honest, as cool as the Mines are, I'm not sure how the trip can extend to 3 hours...

After getting back to the surface (and picking up a Babushka doll from one of the souvenir stands), we made our way back to the hotel to get glammed up for our Pierogi (or traditional Polish) dinner, located in a restaurant in the Old Town, and greeted with 2 free glasses of very smooth red wine.

Next stop, Bake Off!

This wasn't just a dinner though, as we got a chance to "make" (well, really roll out and stuff) some traditional Polish dumplings, the same ones we had as a starter in fact. They can be filled with either meat, mushroom and cabbage, or a type of cheese curd.

Following the dumpling starter, the main was a platter of meat, schnitzel and potatoes that reminded me of the platters we serve on the weddings at work...! SO MUCH MEAT!!
Pudding was more dumplings - this time filled with strawberries and definitely needed the sprinkle of sugar over them.

Just as we were leaving to go to a bar Darius recommended, we were given one last surprise - a certificate for the "dumpling making" - sweet touch!

Onto the bar: we were greeted for vouchers for a free shot of cherry vodka when we bought any other drink. That was the good news. The bad news was that when we got there, we found the only other group there was for a 16th birthday party..... I'm not even kidding!! The legal drinking age is 16 in Poland, but it was a school night for these babies! It felt really uncomfortable with a group of young kids next door and I don't think we could have gotten out of there fast enough....

Thankfully the next bar fared SO MUCH BETTER!  A Cuban salsa-themed bar just club a couple of streets away, which was much more up my street.

Know that I'm not normally a clubbing person; for me, it depends on the company I'm with and the music they're playing - no drum and bass for me - and both of these factors fitted perfectly. I'd now become friends with a lot of the group and a lot the music was Latin America inspired, similar to the stuff I dance to at zumba. When we got there, I ended up having 2 tequila shots virtually in a row being bought for me (thanks Naomi and Benji!) and then stuck to the rum and coke (bit more appropriate).
It was about 2am by the time Bethany, Andrea and I got back to the hotel - and totally worth it! :D

Thank you Krakow - much better memories than being dragged around to goodness knows where!

Next is another bus day towards Budapest - with a pit stop in Slovakia