Poland

Krakow was another city I drastically underestimated. The city centre (old town) is small enough to walk everywhere and, like many European cities, is quite picturesque. The main square in particularly is always lively, and there’s always entertainment of some sort there.

Add to this, a variety of good restaurants and bars and you’ve got the makings of a good city. What makes Krakow a great city, is that everything is ridiculously cheap (at least for an Australian).

The first thing I had to do was choose a hostel. The two best hostels were ‘Greg and Tom’s Hostel’ and ‘Greg and Tom’s Party Hostel’. I stayed in the normal hostel for a couple of nights to chill out. It was great. Free breakfast and dinner was included and both were excellent. They were giving out free wine and vodka to anyone that wanted it as well.

Soon I was ready to upgrade to the party hostel. The first night there they had a ‘vodka tasting’ night, which is a euphemistic term for what really is everyone drinking a ton of vodka shots, none of which taste good. After we had tasted enough vodkas we headed out to a few bars in the city. I met Polish Paulina at one of those bars/clubs and we agreed to reconvene tomorrow for some sightseeing. And by sightseeing, I meant that she could show me the cheapest/best places to eat/drink. I also got to come out and see the area where she lived, in the ‘burbs. She even taught me some Polish and in return I taught her nothing. As the bible says, it’s better to receive than to give (or something). Anyway, my time in Krakow would not have been the same without Paulina. 

On my last day in Krakow, I decided I should visit Auschwitz, which is of course is where the biggest concentrations camps in World War 2 were located. There were a bunch of old people and couples on the tour, the two kinds of people I generally avoid, but thankfully, there was a couple of Belgian girls (Josephine and Lise) on the tour for me to talk to on the bus ride there and back.

Some of the concentration camp was original, a fair bit was rebuild after the war (as close as possible to how it was) and some of the camp was non-existent (because it was set on fire by the Nazis). It was a good enough setup to give you a feel of what went on there. In summary, nothing good.

On the bus back, the Belgian girls kept talking about this Italian restaurant they had been to a few times, like it was the best thing since sliced bread, so I decided I would try it out. It was indeed much better than sliced bread (although sliced bread isn’t hard to beat). Actually, I’m going to make an outrageous claim and say it is the best Italian restaurant in the world! After dinner, we had a few drinks and then I went home, because I had an early train to catch the next day.

Really didn't want to leave Krakow. It's definitely one of the best cities I've ever been too.

Summary

Awesome:

Cheap, nice people, great nightlife, great food, lively city

Craptacular:

Nothing

What's Next

Germany. More war stuff.