Poland isn’t an obvious places to go for a short holiday, but it should be. I have been here about eight hours and I’m already very impressed by the sights, sounds and tastes of Krakow.
We flew by EasyJet from Gatport Airwick, which is 850 miles and took about two hours. Krakow is in the south of Poland near Slovakia, and is in the middle of the invasion route for armies over the last thousand years. The Poles did see off the Mongols in the 13th century, but to be fair they had arrived by pony from Mongolia, which is a very long way.
To enjoy some local colour, we took the bus into the Krakow Glowny where there is an enormous shopping centre. We ate at almost the first cafe we came to, and had a spicy soup in a Mexican place. It was like a runny chilli con carne, very tasty and sweat-inducing. Thus replenished, we hoofed it down Pawia street to the apartment we had rented on Sukiennisca close to the Vistula river. The flat is modern, comfortable and devoid of any decorative touches, but it did have loads of hot water and a very good telly!
Its only five minutes walk to the Okol district which is at the foot of the hill where the castle sits. The main road is Grodzka, which is very popular with tourists, for good reason. It is full of beautiful old houses and churches, but also restaurants and shops. The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is a gorgeous Baroque edifice, like our own Saint Paul’s on a smaller scale.
By 6pm it was getting dark so we returned to the flat. The TV gave us a good selection of Polish TV, but Polish Masterchef didn’t keep my attention for long. I had brought and iPad and Chromecast, and by wrestling with the iPad and wifi managed to connect to Netflix. We watched “We’re the Millers”, which contrived to be both very funny and very filthy, a winning combination!
Julie had found a local restaurant called Pod Walwelem, which is close to the castle. It was big and noisy and busy. The waitresses looked like they were wearing Austrian dresses and carried the food and drink on large circular trays on their shoulder. I had pork pierogi (like ravioli) to start, which were very tasty, washed down with Tyskie beer. For my main meal I had the Soldiers Platter, which was a large plank covered with rice, fried potatoes, sauerkraut, and grilled chicken, liver, pork, bacon and sausage. It was a mixed grill on a massive scale! It took a while but I ate most of it apart from the very soft and squidgy blood sausage. As a digestif, we had lemon vodka, more lemon vodka then cherry vodka.
I like Krakow, but I may eat myself to death by the end of the holiday!
timharnesstravels 