Kracking Krakow

After a string of weekends away, the last trip on the agenda was a long weekend away in Krakow - and it proved to be not the least. The trip had been organised by Jab's cousin Emilia, who had lived in Krakow for a year - so we had our own little tourist guide. And what a great job she did too.

Arriving on the Friday night, we had a bit of a temperature shock installed for us. It had been snowing in Krakow the previous couple of days and it was no different when we arrived, with the odd flurry or two that night. From London, where we had been enjoying the last gasps of summer, we cowered away from the cold wind and temperatures that couldn't have been far from zero.

First great surprise was the accommodation Emilia had organised for us all (there was 15 all up - apart from Anna, myself and Jabs, there was also a large group of Aussie friends of Emilia's who turned out to be a lot of fun - though it felt weird not to be the big group for once). We had two large apartments, all decked out inside with timber and large beams - all for the princely sum of something ridiculous like £10 per person per night. This would be the theme of the trip as Krakow is incredibly cheap. In fact, we all put in the equivalent of £87 each into a kitty for the weekend and that ended up covering our accommodation, three meals and some vodka on top of that!!

The Friday night we all went out for a traditional Polish dinner - plenty of pierogi and meat - followed by our first venture out into Krakow nightlife. Lots of the Krakow bars are below the ground in basements, and Emilia took us to a very cool one with a maze of little rooms. And being in Poland, we also had to start sampling the local tipple - and found a new favourite drink, vodka and apple juice. Of special mention was the Zubrowka vodka, otherwise know as "Bison grass" vodka, because it is infused with special grass from a region where Polish Bison graze.

Waking up the next morning a little worse for wear, we were horrified to see that Jabs had gone out and got some juice for breakfast - apple juice!! - which brought back memories of the previous night way too quickly. Being a beautiful day in Krakow - dark, cloudy and snowing - we ventured out to get "Emilia's Walking Tour" of Krakow. It is certainly a nice old Eastern European city and did well not be flattened in the Second World War. The Main Square (or Rynek) is particularly impressive - it is suppose to be the largest in Europe. However, the highlight of the day was the cool cafe in the Jewish quarter we escaped to later in the afternoon after be had been turned into popsicles looking around Wawel Castle. It was dark and arty, with old cinema seats against the walls and made a pretty good latte (in fact, we found the coffee in Krakow to be excellent). Though the hot beer (a Polish "delicacy") that Jabs had was less to my taste!

With some reluctance we had to eventually leave our cosy spot in the cafe as we were booked in for a proper feast that night with some more traditional Polish fare. And what a mighty feast it was too - a meatlover's heaven. That's me playing Robin Hood with a sword that was the skewer for which some of the meat was cooked on. And of course, when in Krakow, the night is never over after dinner and Emilia led us to another bar you would never find if you weren't a local. Another very cool place this, with art spotlighted on the walls and comfy sofas. More vodka and apple juice and another brilliant night out was to follow....

The last couple of days we pretty much had to ourselves as the others left that day to head back to London. We had planned to go out to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, but hopelessly missed the bus out there by 2 seconds. So instead we substituted in the next day's activity - the much recommended Salt Mines. And - what a disappointment that was! Still can't work out what the fuss is about. For those of you who don't know, the Salt Mines is a very old mine full of carvings and sculptures that the miners made. Some of it is actually quite impressive, like the huge chapel along with its own Last Supper (you guessed, carved out of salt). But it just really didn't do it for us, and we wished we had instead whiled away the afternoon in another cool Krakow cafe.

Though that night we were lucky enough to find a tiny local restaurant recommended by Emilia and Jabs. For the princely sum of 12 Zloty (2 pounds) we got soup and a main (I had a huge slab of schnitzel, Anna some delicious veal). It was as ridiculously good as it was ridiculously cheap.

Last day in Krakow and we were determine to pay a visit out to Auschwitz so we were up early to make the journey. Tip for anyone thinking of going - it is a long way out, especially by local bus (nearly 2 hours each way). So, embarrassingly we only had 2 hours to look around both the Auschwitz Camp and the sister Birkenau Camp (the later being the more impressive - and more chilling - and the picture comes from there). This was certainly not enough time to do it justice, but we were still pleased we made the effort.

Back into Krakow to make our flight back to London, we reflected on what a great city Krakow is to visit. In terms of the touristy things, I would have to say there isn't really anything spectacular, especially if you have been to Eastern European cities before. What we were really impressed with was the overall vibe around Krakow and the cool cafes and bars that you can spend you time taking in that vibe. I could have happily gone back there the next weekend and spent it sitting back in aforementioned cafes and bars with either a coffee or vodka-apple sitting in front of me. A kracking weekend it would be.

For some more pics, click here.