Europe Travel Diary: Krakow

Our Europe Travel Diary is an informal rundown of our day-to-day activities while backpacking Europe, starting with Madrid. This travel diary entry is based on our six nights in Krakow. If you are after recommendations for Krakow instead, we have a Krakow travel guide coming soon!

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Day 35: Budapest to Krakow

_09/11/21

Arriving at Krakow bus station we soon realised it was quite a maze to get out of. The bus station was situated directly below the city’s main shopping centre AND adjacent to Krakow’s train station. Thankfully, our hostel was located pretty much opposite the shopping centre so we didn’t have to walk far.

I was feeling quite worse for wear at this point and Alex was starting to feel ill too; Alex being ill is a pretty big thing as he never gets sick. Despite this, we wanted to see the sights of Krakow so we took a short walk to the Old Square. I’d previously visited Krakow a few years ago so I was able to show Alex around some of the sights. It was late evening and as we were starting to get quite chilly, we settled into one of the first restaurants we saw. We both opted for some soup to start in the hope it would make us feel better; for some reason, Alex decided to order a plate of (very traditional) fajitas?!

On our way back, we stopped off at Hard Rock Cafe as I’ve always had fond memories of them growing up. Thankfully, Krakow’s branch was much better priced than the one in Florence; this was where we pretended to have a reservation elsewhere after seeing the price! Once back at the hostel, we wanted to be polite and socialise but everyone was drinking and we were still feeling pretty rough; Alex even had water! However, after feeling like we were bringing down the party mood, we retreated to bed.

Day 36: Krakow

_10/11/21

Alex woke up bright and early and decided to check out the free breakfast put on by the hostel. Unfortunately, he didn’t think the cold scrambled eggs or stale croissants were worth the rise; he obviously woke me up to complain which I was very grateful for, not.

By this time we were still feeling quite poorly so spent most of the day moping around our dorm room; we did do a covid test each to make sure it wasn’t the dreaded Rona, thankfully it wasn’t. We attempted booking our tickets to Auschwitz-Birkenau for the following day but were asked to change as it coincided with Polish Independence Day.

Once we got agitated from sitting around, we decided to go out in search of food and a hat for me; I was hoping it would put off an ear infection I could feel coming. With no luck, we decided to grab lunch at a Turkish restaurant in the shopping centre which was really nice. Still feeling sorry for ourselves, we went back to the hostel for some more moping around.

Later in the evening, we decided to go for another walk around Old Square and search for dinner. We ended up at a nice Italian place where we ordered (more) amazing soup. It was then back to hiding in our dorm in order to avoid the nightly bar crawl.

Day 37: Krakow

_11/11/21

To Alex’s shock, he wasn’t feeling any better in the morning and I was feeling even worse. Safe to say we opted for a big lie-in. We didn’t want to miss more of our time in Krakow so we took a stroll in the Jewish Quarter. We stopped for some street food which was amazing but definitely not gluten-free so not ideal. On the other hand, it was cheap!

On our walk, we did our best to avoid any parades due to the warnings of things turning violent. Luckily everything seemed very celebratory and there were police everywhere. We went for a wander and came across a cute courtyard restaurant where we shared a hot chocolate and mulled wine. The latter tasted like it was 90% vodka so hopefully, it burnt some of the viruses in our bodies. As the cold was starting to get unbearable, we started the long walk back to our hostel for some rest.

After our power naps, we headed back into Old Square for another Italian where we had Poland’s most stressed waiter. Luckily my risotto made me feel a lot better, even if it arrived about 20 minutes after Alex had consumed his whole pizza. We then headed home to crawl back into bed. This didn’t stop Alex from taking a pit stop to try another chimney cake; which he said was even better than the one he had in Budapest!!

Day 38: Krakow

_12/11/21

Today was our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We had a 10:30 am slot which meant a 9:30 am pick-up point around the corner from our hostel. Having got to Auschwitz Museum we realised our tour guide (who had two/three other groups on the go) was a bit of an idiot; we can not stress enough how much we regret not paying more for a better tour.

As we were a massive group, he told us it’d be easier to split up in order to get through the bottleneck of a queue; when I say bottleneck, imagine about 100 people trying to squeeze in a gap only big enough for two people! As you can imagine, everyone else had the same idea so there were a lot of shoulders barging about.

We eventually got inside, we made our way through security before waiting in line for the reception. We had expected to receive our physical tickets at this point but there was some confusion and our guide was nowhere to be seen. After many calls, our tour guide finally showed up and he helped us get our tickets. It was at this point we were informed we weren’t getting a guide and we couldn’t enter Auschwitz until 2 pm. We decided to grab a coffee and a snack before taking the free bus over to Birkenau.

Top Tip: Make sure to get a proper tour guide as the extra money is worth it! You’ll also learn a lot more about the sites if you do.

Birkenau was extremely enlightening and shocking for us as you can imagine; we were obviously taught of the atrocities in school but until seeing the size of the place it was hard to put into perspective. We regretted not getting a tour guide but we managed to listen to some of the English-speaking tours. Unfortunately, there were a lot of disrespectful people. If you ever get the chance to go, don’t pose for selfies or take insensitive photos at either of the sites; we thought this was obvious but apparently not.

We spent just over an hour here before heading back to Auschwitz in time for our time slot. Unfortunately, due to how disorganised our tour was, we were a little tight on time. The Auschwitz Museum takes roughly two hours and the bus was leaving at 4 pm; this gave us just a little under two hours for our tour. Whilst incredibly sad, the Museum was very eye-opening and had loads of exhibits which allowed you to visualise the scale of the atrocity that went on here. Both disturbing and heartbreaking we made sure to go into every exhibit and read into everything we could.

One of the temporary exhibits showed the type of sports that happened on-site; including notable sports stars that were sent here. We found this really interesting as neither of us had any idea that “sports” at Auschwitz was a thing let alone how deadly it was. After covering every part of the museum, we headed back to the bus with barely any minutes to spare.

On our way back from the bus stop, we stopped off for our first Indian in about two weeks; Alex said he had the best Peshwari naan he has ever had. Who’d have thought he’d be saying that in Krakow. which was very nice. We then went back to the hostel for a well-deserved nap.

Energised from our nap, we decided it was time to be social and mingle with our fellow backpackers; this meant going on the daily bar crawl organised by the hostel. Our nap meant we were late to the party, as dinner finished at eight, and people had already started to mingle. Eventually, we made friends with three 18 y/o from Cambridge who were on their first “lads” holiday; it sounded like they’d only seen the inside of Cambridge pubs to this point!

We get to the first “bar” which was just another hostel; hostels always look after their own. Unfortunately, the party was already in full swing and everyone was at a totally different level to us.

Included in the price of our wristband were two hours of free drinks at this venue only. This meant the bar was constantly rammed and it was always a struggle for Alex to get drinks. We eventually got served and immediately realised the spirits were potentially the strongest and worst tasting we’d ever tried; paint stripper comes to mind! We don’t blame Polish alcohol but the “bar” definitely just found the cheapest spirits possible. By this point, we’d already got to know five Irish lads who were a funny but boisterous lot; constantly starting chants and fiddling with the hostel’s map which was very amusing.

We eventually left and marched through the cold to the next bar, which was actually a bar this time. Whilst we didn’t think it was anything special, the 18 y/o’s thought it was the best club they’ve ever been to; I unfortunately nearly walked face-first into a mirror which I thought was another club room; Alex obviously found this hilarious. I ended up leaving after a few hours as my head was throbbing but Alex had a great time with his new Irish friends.

Day 39: Krakow

_13/11/21

As you can imagine, we, and the whole hostel, woke up pretty late. I was surprisingly in a better state than Alex so I made him get up for another day of shopping. We had to settle for a Subway and KFC as the food court options were pretty limited. We grabbed some Subway and KFC in the shopping centre before walking around for a few hours to try and find me some new trainers and a woolly hat.

Today’s mission was to find me some new trainers and a wolly hat given the recent change in weather. After hours of looking and a lot of Alex complaining, we returned to the hostel after a successful trip. We had some new roommates so we chatted to them for a while; turns out they were doing pretty much the exact same trip as us.

It was then to the Jewish Quarter where we had to nicest meal so far on our travels; the restaurant was beautiful and the food even better! After three courses and a cocktail, we dragged ourselves back to the hostel.

On the walk back, we found a karaoke bar which was apparently full of every English person in Krakow; all singing along to Sweet Caroline. Obviously, it would have been rude of us not to grab a cider and join in with the festivities. Once it all got a bit too busy for us, we headed to one of the outdoor tables for people watching and boy did we get a treat. We watched a middle-aged British man buy fake drugs before being arrested by Polish police. He then called his wife to apologise for what he’d done; quite entertaining.

Day 40: Krakow

_14/11/21

Alex was on laundry duty when we woke up and as the hostel didn’t have any facilities, he had to go on a bit of a mission to the nearest laundrette. Whilst we waited for our clothes to dry, we grabbed some brunch in the shopping centre.

Given that we had been quite ill (and hungover) the past few days, we had quite a lot to see on our last day. This included walking through the Old Square, in the daytime, and past the Jewish Quarter to the Wawel Royal Castle. As it was quite cold, we grabbed a coffee on the way to keep our hands warm. Whilst we wished we went up into the castle, I was still feeling pretty rubbish and the steps would’ve set off my asthma. However, we did take a walk around its walls and stumbled across a fire breathing dragon that was amusing to watch. We spent most of the afternoon sitting on a bench by the river, people and dog watching before heading back.

Once at the hostel, we bumped into our new English roommates and started swapping stories about places we’d both visited; we ended up getting on really well with them and the four of us were the only ones attending the hostel dinner. Unfortunately, one of our friends was vegetarian and despite being assured otherwise, accidentally ate her first bit of meat for seven years!

We ended up getting on with them so well that they convinced us to join the daily pub crawl. We were reluctant to join as we hadn’t packed for our journey to Prague the next day. Needless to say, after three clubs and me performing the cha-cha slide to a full kebab shop, we had a pretty good night and were glad we came out.

Day 41: Krakow to Prague

_15/11/21

We ended up getting a full five hours of sleep before getting up, showering, packing and leaving at 8 am. Thankfully, the bus station was on the other side of the shopping centre so we made base camp at a Starbucks. This allowed Alex to get his breakfast (obviously a KFC) and snacks for us both, for the journey. Unfortunately, Alex’s wrap and my chicken salad ended up being quite soggy so we shared a tube of Pringles instead.

We eventually found our bus stop and Alex proceeded to stand like an airport dad waiting for the bus. We eventually got on and the journey took over eight hours, exhausting, to say the least! I managed to get some sleep (although on a lurching bus it wasn’t great) but Alex didn’t and his eye bags weren’t looking Gucci.

Krakow Summary

Whilst we really enjoyed our trip to Krakow, we were really ill during our visit. Luckily we had booked 6 days which gave us enough time to see the sights and also recover from our colds. Krakow obviously has a lot of history and we think it’s really important to learn about. As such, when you take the trip to Auschwitz make sure to get a proper guided tour. Overall, we loved the culture in Poland and would love to go back and visit some more areas one day.