Blogmas 2023, Day 7 – Travels to Poland

For a short vacation during Easter, I visited Krakow, Poland. It’s not a country I thought I would visit but after visiting Krakow, I had no idea why not. They got a rich history with tons of museums and they got dumplings! ❤ It’s basically right up my alley. 😀 The old town is very modern but still filled with historical buildings. It’s best of both worlds. You can find fine-dining restaurants and also very cheap but delicious dumpling shops. The bar scene was very colorful too. I don’t party but the club scene doesn’t seem boring either. 😀 Read more about my travels here and here. I would love to revisit Poland, especially in Warsaw and Gdansk. ❤

Travels 2023 – Krakow, Poland part 2

Whenever I am in a new city, I try to avoid tourist attractions such as churches and monuments, cos I’m not that interested in them. But there are two things that I love to explore – museums and bookstores.

While in Krakow, I visited three bookstores, and my absolute favorite was Massolit Books & Cafe. It’s a charming bookstore with a small cafe and they sell new and second-hand books. It hides several small rooms just around the corner and if you follow the sign ‘More books’ and go through the door to the staircase and from there to a totally different ‘apartment’, you will find tons of more books and cozy sofas and armchairs. There are books in both Polish and English and I did a little book haul there. The books are very affordable, at least compared to Finland. I also visited American Bookstore and found some rarer Stephen King books. It is small but their collection is excellent.

I didn’t research museums that extensively, I basically just picked one that’s pretty close to our hotel – The Princes Czartoryski Museum. I went there right after it opened its doors which I do highly recommend cos towards the end, it was getting really crowded. It has both paintings and historical displays, most popular painting of theirs is, of course, “Lady with an ermine”. Like most popular paintings, this one also turns out to be smaller than I expected, and the room was jam-packed with people so I didn’t stay there for long. The museum also has many replicas that you can touch and explore and I absolutely adored the old replica books and documents that I really enjoyed exploring. All in all, it’s a great museum. They also rent out headsets if you prefer a guided tour. They also have a great cafe inside the museum and a museum shop where they, among other things, sold ermine plushies. XD Not gonna lie, I was very tempted to get one. 😀

When visiting Krakow, one of the most popular activities would be visiting the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. It’s about 1 hour and 45 minute drive from the Old Town and there are tons of websites selling guided tours. I highly recommend booking the tour as soon as you start planning your trip there cos they are highly popular. The one I got was about 55€ and it included the pick-up and drop-up from in front of our hotel in Old Town. The price also included the entrance ticket and the guide. I was part of a group of about 20 people. I do regret not paying more of a private guide cos then there would be more opportunities for questions and stories. I’m going to be honest, it wasn’t a fun place to be. It was fascinating and I was very interested in the history of it all but no doubt, it was a horrific place. It’s also a very important piece of history that everyone should bear witness to, and reading it from a textbook or watching documentaries couldn’t compare to seeing the sheer scale of it on sight. This is something I don’t think humanity could afford to repeat.

My easter in Krakow turned out to be quite educational. I enjoyed the city quite a bit, even the rainy weather didn’t dampen my spirit. I would definitely love to come back someday and see more and eat more.

Travels 2023 – Krakow, Poland part 1

On Easter this year, I visited Krakow, Poland for the long weekend. Poland is definitely a country that I’ve never thought to explore but now that I think about it, I’m not sure why. It is very close to where I live (Finland), it’s only a 1.5-hour flight to Warsaw from Helsinki. It has a rich and colorful history that I really appreciate as a history geek. It is also full of museums and bookstores plus the food culture is very vibrant.

I’m very happy to report that Uber works in Krakow. An uber from the airport to the middle of Old Town where our hotel was, it only costs 10€ or so. Be mindful that Ubers don’t always do pick-ups inside of Old Town since it is always so busy so you might want to walk 10-15 minutes out of Old Town to designated pick-up points just outside of it. But Old Town itself isn’t that big, so unless you have giant luggage, Uber is still worth it.

I booked an apartment hotel in the middle of Old Town, right next to the main square. It was a little more pricey, but the location can’t be beaten and it was on a quieter side street so it was relatively quiet during the night. Unless you count the church bells. 😀 Krakow is quite a popular destination for bachelor parties so be mindful of the hotel location. I can warmly recommend Fragola Apartments, it has self check-in and check-out and their room-service breakfast was brilliant. I usually prefer guesthouses and apartments to traditional hotels because I find their customer service more convenient and warm. Apartments also have tiny kitchens and sometimes even a balcony. And most importantly – they almost always have wooden floors. I can’t stand carpet floors.

Old Town is full of restaurants and bars and pubs, varying drastically in price points. Pierogies, Polish dumplings are sold everywhere and you can’t really go wrong with them. Small rustic restaurants named Pierogarnia Krakowiacy can be found in multiple locations inside and outside of Old Town and they have delicious dumplings till late in the evening. The prices are very affordable and the serving sizes are giant. Surrounding the main square would be the priciest restaurants, some of them fine dining. Some of them are well worth the price, such as Szara Ges w Kuchni, specializing in goose and duck dishes, which offers culinary experiences that I wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

The place I visited the most on this trip was a little pub called Dog in the Fog. It has a dining room kind of feel, decorated with red leather booths and old car posters and the music is strictly old-timey classics, played not too loud. It serves food, I had my first pierogis there, and the hearty pub food just warms my heart and soul. It’s by no means a party place or where the action’s at, but I really like the feel of it. ❤

Stay tune for part 2 of the Krakow travels. 🙂