Czesc Z Krakow - Hello from Krakow!

Krakow Castle
see all photos »

We discovered this morning that Barclays Bank had blocked Hannahs ATM card, as the fruad squad were investigating it. Turns out that as we were in Poland, we are clearly theives who stole someones card! Got it all sorted and we were on our way south, to the wonderful city of Krakow.

Spent Tuesday arvo exploring the town, and sucked up the atmosphere. The whole place was buzzing with energy, lots of young people, most of them friendly! We went to a Polish bar, which was pretty cool, saw a local band that was playing covers of all the classic 80's and 90's. Cheesy, but kinda fun...

Perogi (a cross between dumplings and ravioli) was served on massive plates made out of bread. Strange!

The main square in the castle
see all photos »

On Wednesday we checked out the castle, which was quite impressive from a distance but didn't really have much going for it. We reckon we've had more than our fair share of castles, churches and museums, but that doesn't stop us going into more! Checked out the old Jewish quarter, which was supposedly cool. We found it to be dirtier and lacking character. Apparently, it's only cool at night time! We went out for dinner with our Aussie room mates Seb and Cara, to a traditional Polish cafe. Perogi (a cross between dumplings and ravioli) was served on massive plates made out of bread. Strange! Didn't eat the plate (well, would you?) and wondered if they survive a round in the dishwasher... Went to a local bar that night, tried lots of different vodkas. Hannahs favourite, honey. Seb and Cara were cool, was good to swap stories and find that we're not the only people sick of backpacks, rude foreigners and room mates who snore!

Krakow's square at 4pm
see all photos »

We spent most of Thursday walking along the river, and climbing a man made hill called Kosciuzco Mound. Story is that when this Kosciuzko fellow died, people threw a customary handful of dirt on top of the grave. Being a popular man, the mound grew and grew until it offered great views of Krakow. It was cool to climb up, but as it was a pretty smoggy day and Krakow is almost surrounded by industrial parks, the city didn't look nearly as nice from up there. Checked out the Jewish quarter again, this time it was really busy, with lots of jazz bars and cafes.

And the square at 6pm
see all photos »

On Friday we caught a train abck to Warsaw, where we were going to head to Lithuania. Had a very amusing journey, the two of us jammed into a cabin with 6 Polish people. Turned out that one of them was a Polish - English translator, so a few attempts were made at conversation. Went and saw a movie in Warsaw, as not much else was going on!

On Friday night we jumped on a bus, for our 11 hour trip to Vilnius, Lithuania