We decided to visit Krakow a couple of months ago, after a drunken night saying we need to go somewhere as a foursome. Me, the wife and our 2 friends (Ben & Charlotte). We have been friends for years and our only weekends together have been in the Lakes and Norfolk. We decided to go for 3 nights.
We booked the flights cheaply (£120 each, they were £70 the day before) through Ryan Air. I have used them before to fly to Ireland and Barcelona. I am 6″5 tall, so I can only manage 2-3 hours on the “cattle truck”. Krakow is only 2hr 25 mins from Leeds/Bradford so it was fine.
We then started looking for a hotel. The hotels were reasonably priced but we were trying to do it cheaply (tight Yorkshireman). Our friends are getting married in a year too, so they are saving everything they can. Ben then emailed us with some apartments he had seen on AirB&B. None of us had ever used AirB&B before so we weren’t sure what it was about. We decided to go with it anyway and booked a full apartment 5 mins from the old town. This cost us £34 per night or £8.50 each. Bargain!!
Anyway, like I said, we flew from Leeds Bradford Airport. Our flight was at 09:30am. We left home from Barnsley at 5:30am (My wife is a plane geek and wanted time to look at the planes). The drive took us about 50 mins to the airport parking. We used a company called Sentinal. We parked the car, dropped the keys off and got on the bus to the terminal. All this took around 5 mins. Very efficient and organised. When we got to the gate we couldn’t check in until 7:30am so we had an hour to wait. After around 30 mins we noticed a RyanAir staff member at the self check in/Baggage check in. She told us to scan our passes and print the luggage tickets, she then let us put our luggage through. Passport control was nice and easy (A little wait but nothing major). Time for the pre flight beer.
We decided to get something to eat and drink at the Saltaire Bar & Eatery within the airport. We ordered a beer each and some breakfast. They had sold out of Croissant’s (at 7:30am) & 3 of the 4 lagers, (glad I had Guinness) so we chose to have toast and jam. Although I would call it warm bread because it was anaemic & certainly didn’t resemble toast. We commented on this to the waitress when she brought it out, she was then very rude to us and implying there was nothing wrong with it. What do you think? Would you call this toast?
Anyway, we finished our drinks and boarded the plane. Everyone is very critical of Ryan Air and the charges for Add ons. I totally understand that. We only paid an add on for selecting our seats (£6 each). They let us off with the much publicised new baggage charges. I have now flown with them for 3 city breaks. I can honestly say we have never has an issue with them. The staff were friendly and helpful, they even photobombed the girls selfies.
We arrived in Krakow, straight through Passport Control & pretty quick getting our bags from the carousel. We went outside for a taxi of which there was large numbers. The Taxi driver told us it would be 90 Polish Zloty (£18) to the apartment we were stopping in. The taxi driver was friendly throughout the journey and spoke to us throughout and in some acted as a tour guide. He advised us of some places to go and some things to do. He dropped us outside the apartment. The whole journey took 20-30 mins.
We had a quick look around the apartment and unpacked. The Apartment was basic but clean with ample space and furnishings.
We then took a walk into the old town through Planty Park and side streets, this took around 5-10 mins. There was ample shops, restaurants & fast food on the side streets. The side streets as with lots of Krakow are cobbled streets. Before we knew it we were suddenly in the large main square. What a beautiful square it is too!
We had a quick 15 minute stroll around the square as we were ready for some food and a drink. All around the square are bars/restaurants. Most are quite small inside but they all have outside area’s with patio heaters. They even give you fleece blankets if you require one. It is quite nice to sit outside in November and just people watch. It was 17’c whilst we were there so it was quite pleasant. But the week after it dropped to -2’c.
We settled for an English type bar called the Bull which is just to the side of St Mary’s Basilica. Although we didn’t eat anything, we had a drink. We looked at the menu and realised just how cheap Krakow is. We paid 8 Zloty for a pint of Tyskie (£1.50), This was the standard price throughout Krakow. Charlotte had a G&T which cost around 12 Zloty (£2.40). The bull is busy at all times of the day and night and has a very good atmosphere. It shows all english sports and live events including premiership football and rugby. It also had the Pay-Per-View boxing on the Saturday night.
We left the bull with the intention of finding somewhere to eat. Outside the Bull you find a number of golf cart type vehicles. The people who manage these are all over the square asking if you would like to do the tour. If you say ‘no, thank you’ they will leave you alone. I never felt pressured by them. The carts hold between 4 & 20 people depending on the size of them and have heating if needed. These carts take you on a tour of the city. There are quite a few options of varying prices. We decided to give the tour a go, our thinking was that we could look at the different areas of the city and decide from there which places to visit during the weekend.
We decided on the Old Jewish Quarter, The Ghetto, Schindlers Factory tour. This cost us 300 Zloty (£60) for the 4 of us. The tour lasted 1.5 hours and had an English speaking driver to explain everything we could see and the history behind the places we visited. You can also plug you ear phones in to make sure you can hear. On the tour we visited many churches, synagogues, the old town, the Ghetto, Ghetto Heroes Square & the pharmacy, the Jewish Quarter including restaurants unchanged since the war, Spielbergs hotel whilst filming Schindlers List as well as Schindlers Factory. The city of Krakow is full of stunning architecture, buildings and parks. The tour was definitely worth the money and gave us ideas for the rest of the trip, I was disappointed with the factory as we pretty much just drove past it, but I’m glad i did get to see it. I will talk about the other places later in days 2 & 3 as we visited them throughout the weekend.
Prior to coming to Krakow, I had a vision (naively) of grey skys and lots of high rise communist looking buildings with lots of graffiti. I think we all have a vision of what we think it will be like before we set off and we are almost always wrong. I was wrong, the sun was shining, I think I saw 2 high rise blocks. The city is Stunning.
We finished the tour and was dropped back the Bull. We then spent the evening drinking some fantastic Polish beer in the many bars in the Old Market Square area of town. We also had a pizza in a polish bar/restaurant which was one of the best pizzas i have ever eaten. This cost about £4. We then found the Irish bar we had heard about prior to visiting, in the bar they had traditional Irish music including acoutic guitarist and violinist. I had had too much beer by this time and can’t remember much more of the night. I vaguely remember getting a Burger King. All I know is I woke up the next morning feeling fresh and ready for day 2.
I will write about day 2 later in the week. I hope you have enjoyed my first official blog. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.
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If you have enjoyed reading this, please read about Days 2 & 3
Krakow – Day 3 -10/11/2018 – Auschwitz/Birkenau
Cheers
Boe’s Travels 