Krakow- Poland (day one of two)

This post might well be called “First Day in Krakow- I had no idea what I was doing”. My summer 2019 trip started on June 25, when I flew from Columbus to Miami via American Airlines, then after a 4 hour layover to London gatwick with Norwegian airlines (perhaps the worst airline I’ve ever flown), with my final 5 over layover in London before flying with EasyJet to krakow, where I arrived at 3pm local time on June 26. It was a long flight day on mostly budget airlines that didn’t give me any free food or drinks, but it was inexpensive and I made it!

once I arrived in Kraków I gathered my luggage and was approached by a taxi offering to take me to my Airbnb. But I had looked up prices on Uber and an Uber going into town was much cheaper than what the taxi could do. After a half hour drive in my Uber, where my driver taught me some basic words in Polish and offered me some suggestions on what to do, eat and drink while I was in town, I made it’s my Airbnb which is very centrally located. I was greeted by the owners (I’m staying in a room of an apartment lived in my locals Goga and Pazur who showed me the gluten free bread and vegetables they had bought me for my stay), but after changing my clothes, giving my teeth a brush and charging my phone, I was off. I am self-admittedly not a great planner, so I didn’t know what I was getting into, but one thing I always do when I go to a new town is look into free-walking tours. I had one planned for the next morning, my first full day in Krakow so I first wanted to walk to the meeting Point for the tour so I could catch my bearings. The meeting point is at St Gilles church, only was a five minute walk from my Airbnb. I seemed to be in the middle of town, so I enjoyed walking around a looking at some of the beautiful buildings. Let me tell you what, I’m also here during the middle of a heat wave so it was 94° despite it being 6 PM! I was sweating and seeking out in any shade I could during my walk. one of the beautiful buildings I passed was the church of San Bernardino of Siena.

I was also very near one of the biggest tourist Attractions in Kraków the Wawel castle . Used as the residence of the kings of Poland, and a UNEDO world heritage site, this walled community has lots of different architectural styles, but this space is now an art museum. I decided to walk up the hill and wander around the grounds and I quickly came to the cathedral which is more than 900 years old and in Karol Wojtyla gave his first mass here, though in 1978 he became known as Pope John Paul II. there was a lot of things to see up at Wawel castle grounds but everything was closed so I just strolled around and snapped some pics, enjoy! I had worked up an appetite after wandering around in the heat so I used Yelp to look up a recommendation for where to eat and found a spot that had great reviews called Kuchnia u Dorty. The spot was clearly popular because there was a long line of people waiting to get seated but since I’m here by myself I was shown to a table for one pretty quickly. I had ascertained from my Uber driver that being a vegetarian and gluten free might be a little bit difficult in Poland (all the foods that he had suggested I tried were meat) but I did decide to indulge and try a national treasure pierogi. No- not gluten free, but they did bring me three different types of vegetarian pierogies: cheese and potato, spinach with garlic and mushroom and cabbage. The classic cheese and potato was definitely my favorite and they were all topped with some sautéed onions. Since I was having gluten anyways I also decided to try a Polish beer and after the heat of the day with no air-conditioning in sight, the cold beer was very refreshing. My whole meal, which also came with a cold bottle of water, was 33 pkn, or $8. After dinner I continued to roam around town heading towards the direction of my Airbnb so I could go back and get a full night of sleep. I did walk through some very beautiful areas including the Jewish quarter, which I knew I would have to explore more of later.

That was my first few hours in krakow, I headed back to get a full night of sleep because there was much I wanted to do and see the next day. So here I am, sitting on the balcony of my Airbnb enjoying a cup of (instant) coffee, I join my walking tour in 40 minutes. Check out my blog later for day 2 of krakow!