Adventure 12: Krakow in more detail

So, seeing as we now have 5 days in Kiev and I have loads of time to spend at dodgy internet cafes, I thought I'd write a bit more about Krakow, and then chuck some pics up tomorrow.

The 9 hour bus to Warsaw wasn't nearly as bad as we expected, except when we got to the bus station, the bus/train set up was so confusing that not only could we not figure out how to buy a ticket to the central train station (even after lining up for 20 mins at 2 separate counters) but we couldn't even find the right platform! So we hedged our bets and jumped on a train that said warsaw centralna. Despite having this clearly written on the front of the train, the destination was not Warsaw, but Krakow. Fine by us, we thought, except we don't have a ticket - woops! Train guards were very nice though and let us off without a fine and in 3 short hours we were in Krakow!


I loved pretty much everything about Krakow except for the pigeons. These rats of the sky were everywhere! As I mentioned in the other post, we pretty much lazed around and saw the main tourist sights like the big cathedral in the main square which was one of the most spectacular inside that I've ever seen despite being described by Emma as "it's ok". We also went to the Georgian restaurant Eva, and it was fantastic and we generally super over ordered at every restaurant we went to, trying all of the dumplings and different kinds of borsht.

One notable highlight was my first temper tantrum. In eastern europe you have to queue for everything, and i mean everything! Behind a counter is a relic from soviet times who seems to take pleasure in making you wait as long as possible while they answer the phone, talk to their colleagues and generally mess around. The best part is after you have waited for about an hour and reached the front of the queue, they decide to take their hourly ten minute break - leaving you there fuming.

We dutifully lined up to get our tickets to the castle in Krakow. The price was 17 zlotys. I put down 27 (because people yell at you if you need any kind of change) and said in my clearest voice "1 ticket please" a barrage of polish ensued and then once it became clear I couldn't understand, the ticket lady yelled "1 NORMAL ticket?!?!?!" I snapped and yelled back "YES of COURSE 1 NORMAL ticket". Please see 1 normal ticket and it's proud bearer below.


It seems that Poland is well and truely in the EU now, as it has a big new shiny mall complete with Zara and H&M. I was extremely grateful for this as it gave me the chance to replace the sunnies I'd lost with a pair that actually look decent and have some kind of UV protection.