5 Days in Krakow.

Krakow - Poland.

27th - 31st of January 2020.

Royal Pergamin Apartments.

Hotel: Royal Pergamin Apartments, self catering.

From the airport we got an Uber for a 20 minute ride it only cost £5, but our Uber could only take us so far as he said it was a no entry zone. It was only short walk up the road and we were onto the main square, literally smack in the middle of everything it was a perfect location. It was hard to find at first as we looked for an actual hotel but it was just a door, with a buzzer to let us in, there was a flight of stairs to get to reception and luckily we were on the same floor as the reception no more flights of stairs with two suitcases as there was no lift in the hotel. Reading the reviews before we went I was a bit worried as many people said it was noisy with it being on the main street and luckily our room was on the side of the hotel, however our only complaint was the buzzer, being on the same floor as reception, we didn't need an alarm the buzzer would go around 6.30ish every morning. That was literally the only bad thing we could find with the apartments.

Trips:
Our first trip was to the Wieliczka Salt Mines.

SO MANY STAIRS,
800 in total but not to worry it's always going down and you get the lift back up, cramming you in there like sardines aha.
I booked this tour through Discover Cracow, our ticket included a pick up transfer from our hotel and it allowed us to skip the line. Our shared transfer got us there a little early so we had a look around the grounds until it was time to go in.
Once we eventually got down the 50 odd flights of stairs, we headed into the mines there was something in every section ranging from a church, salt statues, souvenir shops, an underground lake and examples of the transportation for the salt.
At one point our guide asked for a volunteer to lick a wall and surprisingly someone did, I didn't think anyone would with all the germs, I mean imagine how many other people licked the wall, rank!
Half way through, there was a cafe and a souvenir shop we stopped off for a bite to eat unless you're really interested in salt there wasn't much to buy.

 

Our next trip was to Auschwitz.

Just wow, its so eerie, cold and quiet. 

For people who have an interest in history this is amazing and for partners who are dragged along not really interested like Ryan was, make sure you have a Spotify playlist ready. 

The tour itself is quite long we went to both camps the travel and time spent there equated to around 7 hours. You can choose to go around on your own but we went round with a guide, you don't go into every house but most of them have displays in. If you don't know much about Auschwitz and the camps like myself and you just know the basics, it's so so sad. A few examples being you seen prisoners mug shots, which told you the day they arrived and when they were executed. Two rooms displayed all the suitcases that the Nazi's took off prisoners, upon getting off the train, suitcases having names on and the other room just turned my stomach. It was a display of all the prisoners hair the Nazi's shaved off when they arrived, you weren't allowed to take photo's in some rooms out of respect. 

Once we were done with Auschwitz we went to Auschwitz II, I never knew there was another one. They exterminated the prisoners at the second camp, you get to see the gas chambers and where the prisoners were held it's so sad.

 Definitely worth going, you can't go to Krakow and not visit Auschwitz.

 

Fooooood:

The Bull Dog Bar -
We went here for breakfast most days it was so nice, a full English breakfast and a cup of tea nothing better.

Hard Rock Cafe - We went here our first night, it didn't look that busy, there was a wait of 30 minutes so we had a drink waiting for a table to become free. The one thing you can always rely on with the Hard Rock is that their cocktails are amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the food as I suddenly became ill as much as I wanted to eat my food I couldn't.

Moo Moo's Steak House - We got lost trying to find this place it's kinda out of the way. Sooo many people recommended this place and I'm glad they did it was so nice, the portion size was a little small but so tasty! Apparently it is always busy, so we booked a table ahead of going, but we didn't really need to, it wasn't busy at all though it was January when we went so could it definitely be seasonal.

Sioux - Walking around the main square quite late and we found Sioux, an American Steakhouse. A few restaurants on the square have glass outhouses which you can eat in so we decided it being our last night we'd go in one and it was so romantic and cosy. We both had starters and mains with a few drinks, the price was so reasonable could not fault the food at all.

Chimney Cake Bakery -  *Drooling just remembering this*

Shopping - 

It's so cheap! There are so many places to shop in the main square and the surrounding streets, plenty of souvenir shops, sweet shops, cafes. The main places we went to was The Cloth Hall a stunning building which sells mainly souvenirs and bric a brac. 

Within a 10 minute walk from the main square there is also a big shopping centre Galeria Krakowska, with a food court and brands such as Nike, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, C&A and Sephora, big enough to spend a few hours in, which we did.

Overall, Krakow is such a beautiful place. The architecture is beautiful everywhere you go, the locals are friendly and everything is so cheap. I'd recommend it to anyone. 5 days was more than enough time to explore Krakow, you could do it all in a weekend. 

Stay safe xo