Few days in Krakow

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day 1

We had an early flight that morning at 6.40, and because we were flying with a budget airline we were a good 50 minutes away from the airport so we were up at about 3.40am :-o.  Thankfully our flying wasn't delayed and we were on our way to Krakow!  A quick two and a half hours latter we had arrived. As we landed and exited the plane, thats when the overwhelming heat hut us and it was unbearable.  After collecting our luggage - which we had to pay £10 each to check on :-|,  we made our way out of the airport.  We had arranged for a airport pickup by a company we found on the internet, they were supposed to be at arrivals with our name on a board.  However as we made our way passed the arrivals our name was no where to be seen.  We waited for a good 20 minutes and decided just to make our own way there.  We had heard a lot of bad reviews about the taxi drivers in Krakow, so we were a bit wary about using them but we did anyway and everything was fine, and it only cost 45zÅ‚oty which we thought was brilliant considering that the the company who was supposed to take us from the airport was charging 70 zÅ‚oty.

a huge bang at the execution wall!

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Anyway the taxi driver dropped us off and also handed us a map of Krakow, which I thought was really good and then he went on his way.  As we approached the building it didn't look to welcoming, we entered the huge, old, wooden doors and saw a sign saying premium hostel 3rd floor.  So we made our way up the stairs through this old building which looked like something that has never changed since the war.  We eventually reached the hostel and it was totally different from the rest of the building.  Everything had been modernized and looked amazing, we checked in and since we were early we were told our room wouldn't be ready for another 20 minutes, and to wait in the common room/kitchen.  Five minutes latter he arrived with our key and that was us.  We got into our room and it was brilliant we even had our own bathroom, sat t.v and free internet.  After a quick shower - it was really warm, we then went to explore this amazing city.  Our hostel was about a 7 minute walk from the main square, which was surprisingly easy to find(we usally get lost going anywhere).  So when we reached the main square I never realized how big it was going to be, we then just sat in the first bar/cafe we could find and ordered a drink and something to eat.  After our lunched we done some more exploring around the sqaure just to find our bearings.  We then went to a tourist information and got some info about the the sights round about such as cloth hall(sukiennice),st mary's church, wawel hill etc.

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So after all the info we decided to go and have a look in the cloth hall to see if we could get and gifts/souvenirs.  After looking around most of the stalls, we noticed these fur hat which were sort of polish/russian.  So we decided to buy them - think they might be real fur :-s not to sure about that.  We then had a look about st mary's church then continued down to wawel hill and the amazing castle and wawel cathedral by the river wisla and got some good photos ;)  By this time we were getting quite tired so decided to head back up to the hostel.

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However before we went into the hostel we notice a plack up on the wall, but is was in polish but we saw the word Gestapo.  So we ask the man at reception and he said that there was a museum on the ground florr, so we walk down and found this amazing museum which was hidden away.  The main part of the museum is an exhibition of Krakow between 1939 and 1956.  The museum consisted of mainly photographs, documents, propaganda posters, machine guns uniforms etc.  As well as the main exhibition there was also gestapo prison cells,  and the 1st and 2nd floors of our hostel building were used for interrogation rooms.  The cells have all remained the same and you can still see carvings on the wall such as name, dates and even drawings.  After all they horrific scenes, we just had to go up to the room for a sleep.  After our sleep we headed back down to the main square for something to eat, and had an amazing pizza out of dominium and was really cheap to :) .We went back to the hostel early that night as we would be up early for our Auschwitz tour

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Day 2

After breakfast we set off early that morning we had arrange for a tour of Auschwitz - We paid 99zÅ‚oty for our tour this included a air condtioned mini bus,  tour of both camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau) with english speaking guide.  The journey to the camps to about an hour and be warned the roads aren't that good and you will probably get thrown all over the place.  When you arrive in the camps you are basically in the middle of nowhere.  The weather that day wasn't to good and was overcast and look as if it was going to pour.  Thankfully we managered to get round most the camp without any rain, but once we were got the the execution wall there was a huge bang, everyone jumped but it was only thunder and  lightening.  The weather that day added to the errie effect of this tour.  Aftetr the tour of Auschwitz I we all returned to the bus to go two miles up the road to Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

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This camp was different from the first, not just because it  was much larger than Auschwitz I but also beacuase everything from the camp was left exactly the same - such as beds have never been move, wooden barricks are still there etc.  However Auschwitz I has been designed into a museum style, and you have to see both the camps to unterstand how bad the condtions in theses camps were.

Overall Krakow is an amazing city and will definetly be returning, hopfully before next year.  There is so many things a didnt have time to do when I was there such as the salt mines and also never got a chance to go to the jewish quarter but will definetly be seen when i return - Can't Wait!!