Hello Polska!

It has felt like, a really long and stressful two months; obviously it's time for another adventure.

This time Poland.

It was another early start; we left the house at 3.45am, arriving at the airport just before 4.30am. Check-in was reasonably fast, and thanks to fast-track, we were in BrewDog drinking beer just after 5am.

We were flying Ryanair to Krakow and had a private pick up booked at the other end. I'm not the biggest fan of Ryanair but the flight was decent, although I did sleep for most of it. The airport was only 20 minutes drive from our hotel, the Queen Boutique Hotel, located on the border of the old town district and Kazimierz district (Jewish quarter).

Thankfully we were able to check-in, so we dumped our luggage before taking a walk up to the old town in preparation for the "Old Town Walking Tour" and 2.5hours of Krakow history and sightseeing. We obviously managed to sneak in a quick beer and some Polish food when we came across a market in one of the squares.

The walking tour was good, albeit tiring. I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the early start than the walking, but it was already 5pm by the time the tour ended and we headed to the nearest restaurant for schnitzel and a rest. 

We were determined to stay up and not crash too early so we headed to the Jewish quarter to find a bar; the first one we spied was a place called Shot Bar so that was us sorted for the rest of the evening, shots and cocktails!

Sleep Glorious Sleep - Day 2

I'm pretty sure we slept for 10 hours, but it was much needed.

We had a leisurely breakfast, which was continental with a choice of eggs; we had no plans as yet but decided to visit Schindler's Factory. There is nothing left of the factory, but it is now a museum about the history of Krakow and was only a 20 minute walk from the hotel. 

The museum had mixed reviews but we really enjoyed it.

After the museum, we wandered back along the route we had taken from our hotel until we came across a small path that everyone seemed to be taking; it lead to one of the squares in the Jewish quarter where both the old and new synagogues are situated. It was almost lunch and it was so warm so we decided to have a beer and some Jewish cuisine. I opted for potato pancakes with a mushroom and cream sauce and Iain had a selection of dips and bread. 

It was already roasting so we decided to take it easy and visit The Princes Czartoryski Museum. There were two works of Art that we wanted to see, a Rembrandt and a da Vinci. We spent a few hours in the cool before heading back out in the sun. It was time for another beer, so we chose a spot just beside the basilica; this gave us the perfect opportunity to see the "Trumpet Call" from St. Mary's tower. It is played every hour on the hour, four times in succession in each of the four cardinal direction. According to a popular 20th-century legend, during a Mongol invasion of Poland, a sentry on a tower of St Mary's Church sounded the alarm by playing the Hejnał, and the city gates were closed before the Tatars could ambush the city. The trumpeter, however, was shot in the throat by an arrow and did not complete the anthem, and this is the legendary reason as to why performances end abruptly before completion. At the end of each tune the trumpeter waves at the people in the square who are expected to wave back.

As the sun started to disappear, we thought we would try Movida cocktail bar which was recommended by a friend.

The cocktails were amazing and we spent a few hours there before heading to a Food and Vodka tasting. We showed up slightly worse for wear but ready for vodka. Our guide was called Dale, he was English and had worked in a few different cities throughout Europe but had fallen in love with Krakow. He took us to three different places including two family run traditional Polish restaurants. In the first restaurant, we had "sour" soup or Zurek. It is a traditional Polish sour rye soup, and although it sounds disgusting, its very tasty. We also had some Pierogi, or Polish dumplings. I've had these before, but I'm not the biggest fan of dumplings. And obviously, these were accompanied by some Polish vodka.

Our next stop was a place serving Ocypek out of a small window front shop. Ocypek is a Polish highland cheese; it is smoked and made of salted sheep milk and is exclusively from the Tatra mountains region of Poland. It was delicious, but incredibly filling.

The final stop of the tour was another traditional cellar restaurant; here we had Golabki which is stuffed cabbage rolls with potatoes and a tomato sauce, followed by Pązcki, a traditional Polish doughnut. We also had another two vodka tastings, with one special tasting at the end. Maybe "special" isn't the correct word as the shot is called "Mad Dog;" it has three ingredients: vodka, raspberry syrup and last but not least tabasco! It was actually quite delicious and we were even told that its considered to be the national drink as it resembles the Polish flag (not that you can see from my picture!)

After the tasting, we walked straight to the river to see the Krakow Dragon Show on the Wisła river; the guide from our food tour explained that its an annual festival with fireworks, lasers and dragons. This would be the first show since lockdown, so it was extra special. We enjoyed watching the fireworks and performance which lasted over 30 minutes, it was spectacular. It was starting to get late, and we had an early start in the morning so we wandered back to our hotel to have an early night.