Poles Apart

Auschwitz concentration camp and Wieliczka salt mines are normally the main reasons for a visit to Krakow, but there are actually a lot more interesting reasons to make a trip here:

1. The Vodka is actually tasty! The last time I had Vodka was a brand called Alcazar to get high really fast before a college party at NMIMS. But here in Krakow, there are some exotic and tasty flavors of Vodka

2. Krakow is one of only 6 cities privileged to have a Da Vinci. The Lady with the Ermine is located here that many call the mother of Mona Lisa since it was painted 20 years earlier and critically called prettier than the famed painting at Lourve

3. The whole place is incredibly inexpensive. We stayed in a fancy duplex apartment with fireplace and the works, right in the center of Old Town, for just €60 per night. The food is inexpensive too. Fine dined at a restaurant where the bill came with the figures 120, and I was all prepared to pay €120 till I realized this was 120 in Polish currency, which is 1/4 of the Euro.

4. The food is awesome by itself. Dumplings are a local delicacy here and made with meat, cheese and potatoes (Europe's standard ingredients) instead of sea food and veggies you find in the South Asian version.

5. You actually get treated with a lot of respect as a tourist. The country is not in the best economic health, and therefore you have people trying pretty hard to please across cafes and bars and the nocturnal gentleman clubs.

6. There is a lot of ancient architecture to see thanks to the Germans considering this area as one of their own and not destroying it as much as many of the other big European cities during the world wars. So you can actually see buildings from even the medieval ages here.

7. The duty free allows you to purchase 10litres of alcohol (or alkahole as they call it) on your return flight per person. This itself must be enough reason for some people to visit.

In summary, you experience everything a typical European City has to offer; architecture, paintings, food, culture.. but pay for all of it like you're back in India.

Jan 19

The flight from Amsterdam to Warsaw was delayed given the aftereffects of the storm from the previous day that even cancelled many flights departing Schipol.

We therefore moved the flight from Warsaw to Krakow from 11am to 1pm to 3pm and back to 1pm, which thankfully brought us to our Krakow accommodation with a total of just a 2 hour delay.

The journey was tiring nevertheless, and after pouncing on the food mom sent for us through Divya few days back, crashed out on the bed. Geet tried but afternoon siesta evaded her as usual.

We stepped out in the evening to a place called Wodka that Naan and Aanchal had already tried out since they arrived here the previous day, on the occasion of Aanchal's birthday.

We tried out 12 of the numerous Vodka options this place had to offer, liking the taste of quite a few of them.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274772-d2572233-Reviews-Wodka_Cafe_Bar-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html

Then we visited a concept restaurant for dinner and stuffed ourselves with gorgeous South Asian in mock non vegetation options.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g274772-d4022685-Reviews-Pod_Norenami-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html

We tried exploring some of the jazz bars this place is known for after this, but Geet was completely beat from the day, and hence called it a night leaving Naan and Aanchal to continue their Krakow night life exploration.

Jan 20

Early start to cover both Auschwitz and Wieliczka on the same day, something people usually do across 2 days, but also offered in one single day for time poor tourists like us.

We started at 9am towards Auschwitz, where the drive took 2 hours and the concentration camp tour another 2 hours.

This is the largest of all concentration camps where over a million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies were killed, and going through the tour can be a painful and gut wrenching process seeing the things on display and hearing about the atrocities behind them.

Nevertheless it's something people should still undergo, as only if you know your past can you avoid repeating your mistakes.

Wieliczka salt mine was thankfully a much easier process, and fascinating to see how an entire world existed up to 300mts under ground, mining salt from the largest salt mine in the world.

The horses used here for example were born and raised here and never seen the ground above. So when the last horse was taken out in 2002, she couldn't eat grass or walk the fields like the other horses.

We had a quick lunch near the salt mines and got back only at 8pm and after a break, headed out for some scrumptious Italian food to conclude the day.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g277819-d4368200-Reviews-Karczma_Halit-Wieliczka_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g274772-d1098712-Reviews-Pizzeria_Cyklop-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html

Jan 21

Another early start to make breakfast at a quaint little restaurant called Cafe Camelot, from where I ran to catch a walking tour, Naan and Aanchal ran to the airport, and Geet chilled around shopping.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g274772-d784617-Reviews-Cafe_Camelot-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html

I went around the Old Town seeing the small square where meat was sold to keep the smell away from the big square where the main market existed, the torture tower and the church in the big square where a guy opens a window from the top of the church to play a trumpet every hour, the Jagiellonian University which is the second oldest University in CEE (after Prague) where people like Coppernicus and Pope John Paul 2 passed out from, and finally the main Castle with the legendary mythology of King Kraw (on who the city is named) slaying the dragon, from where you can actually see a statue of a dragon that occasionally spits out fire.