Day 6: Krakow

View walking from train station to city center

Day 6 was one of mostly traveling, and an afternoon to explore Krakow, the former capital of Poland. Gotta say, when we first drove through to get to Zakopane, I wasn't impressed. But going to the Old Town, and seeing how it was, oh gosh I understand now. Krakow, unlike Warsaw, wasn't destroyed in the Second World War or the following Polish uprisings. So everything is basically still intact. And its gorgeous! 

The outside of our hotel, in the courtyard through the outer
door from the main street

I'm writing this as I'm on a 3-hour train ride to Prague, which has spotty wifi. So I'm not sure if these pictures are being loaded fully, as only about half the picture is uploaded on my computer. So we'll see how this goes and I can always fix it later!

After getting to the hotel, I immediately headed to the Old Town- which was only a 5 minute walk away. It was so beautiful!! And so was the weather!

Krakow Old Town

Under the big brick building in center of the square was this market tunnel. Its called the cloth market, since in the olden days, they all sold fabric and such. Now, they range from trinkets to beautiful jewelry and such. Most jewelry they sold was either silver or amber, but the most present was amber (which was also gorgeous). Basically everything in this town was gorgeous. 

In the square, pigeons were EVERYWHERE. I always get a kick out of birds, so I took way too many pictures of them. Here you go. 

Lucy trying to feed them...didnt work to well

In the Old Square!

You can see me, very tiny, in the bottom center in front
of the horse and carriage 

Here in Eastern Europe, people park on the sidewalks most of the time. The sidewalks are generally big enough to walk and have cars parked on them, but sometimes things just get ridiculous. Like this driver. I thought only Californians were this nuts. 

If I remember correctly, this is the front of the Royal Castle... or at least one side of it.

The castle is huge, and you need tickets to see it- but you need a ticket for each section of the castle. Yes, section. So we just walked around it. This back part is the cathedral section, and each different style of building is the chapel build by the ruling King of the time. So you have Gothic style, Baroque style, Renaissance or whatever...basically a ton, all squeezed into one area. Every time a King took rule, they wanted to add to the cathedral their own unique design, build to their particular taste. That is why there are so many different eras and designs on one building. 

When you turned around from the multi-style cathedral, this was the view you got- you can see the ocean! Or whichever body of water is nearby. And of course, hot air ballooning (still on by bucket list!) If you look closely, you can see the twin peaks of another cathedral on the right above the stone wall.

Selfie in front of the modern area of the Castle! 

Here we were still on the castle grounds, over looking the water (obviously). Below, theres a statue of a dragon that supposedly shoots fire every 3 minutes....i don't think safety is as much as a thing in Europe as in the US. 

ACTUALLY i know its not...i don't think I included it for the Warsaw post, but when we were checking into the hotel there, they were doing construction on the elevators...there was a worker, standing on the top of the ladder, straddling it, so a food was on the top rung of each side. And when he wanted to move, he just waddled back and forth to skootch over. Not wearing a helmet or anything! Another worker was sautering/cutting metal, so there were sparks flying everywhere, 6 inches from his face! And he wasn't wearing any sort of facial protection. All of this was 5 feet away from us! 

Eventually, we headed to the Jewish district to see what there was to see. We ended up just getting drinks at one of the restaurants, with music playing in the background. It was very classy, as you can see from my picture.

The walk back at night was beautiful- the town completely lights up! 

The church of Peter and Paul, I think

The Square at night!

And of course, Lucy got her new favorite shirt! Meg would definitely agree... Ive already picked a couple out for her ;)

Dinner was at a place near our hotel...this is Boar loin in mushroom sauce... with potatoes. Unfortunately, the potatoes were the best part. But hey, at least I tried it! Momma would be proud!
The tea pot, though...I'm definitely getting one when I get back to the states! Its a pot with a cup on the bottom so you don't need to clutter the cabinet with unnecessary items.

Overall, I'd say Krakow was way better than I expected. I would definitely recommend!! 

Day 5: Zakopane and the High Tatra Mountains

Day 5 started off with a hike...not my ideal morning. At all. But I went along with it anyways...because I had to. After about an hour of a steep and slippery and sheep poop-filled climb, we made it to the summit of one of the Tatra Mountains. 

At the top, a small market greeted us...much like a ski resort lodge with vendors around. 

We tried smoked cheese, which is a delicacy here. However, Lucy and I quickly discovered it is one of the most foul things we have ever tasted. But its everywhere! The smell alone has scarred us for life... nasty. 

The hike to the beginning to the hike

  The view at the top of the hike was gorgeous, however! I don't know if I would say it was necessarily worth it, but it made the trek slightly better.

Some random haystacks we found around the market at the top!

Front row of the cable car!

We were lucky enough to be able to take a cable car down to the bottom of the mountain- thank heaven!! Our guide decided to walk down instead of taking the car, and said it was quite dangerous, since it was steep and slippery. I definitely would have tumbled down.

Once we hit bottom, we arrived at another market! At first it was kinda touristy, but after walking about 5 minutes, we came to a area that was obviously the locale's city square- where they themselves did shopping. So we did some shopping ourselves!

The market at the bottom

Lucy found a new hat to wear for the trip

For lunch, Shari, Lucy, and I chose a random restaurant and sat down. We ordered 3 different things and shared all of it. 

 The food was AMAZING, like usual. We split traditional meat dumplings, a mushroom pasta where the noodles were solid rather than hollow (but so freaking delicious!), and french fries. A perfect lunch!

The view of the town from the restaurant

Entrance to the market square

Small festival going on in the square

I had to try the ice cream! Its very creamy, with a
tad more sugar, and a hint of caramel

The view on the walk back to the hotel

After shopping and hiking for hours, we headed back to the hotel and bummed a bit before dinner...and spent hours debating the different terms and slang used in each of our countries. Apparently the 'dunny' is a term used for the bathroom in Australia. And they say 'avo' to mean afternoon. Who knew.

Dinner was at the same place as last night, which was just as amazing. This time I got the goulash with potatoes, and Adwocat liquor, which is a type of orange/mango colored rum- very creamy, but oh so good!!

Tomorrow we head off to Krakow! A 3 hour travel time I think, with the afternoon to explore!

Day 4: Warsaw/ Zakopane, Poland

The street view while walking the streets in Warsaw

Started off the morning by having a few hours to do our own thing. While many people went to the Warsaw Rising Museum, or slept in, or just wandered, Shari and I tried to go shopping, and get some coffee from a local cafe.


The shopping center wasn't stupendous...the inside was beautiful, with gold-trimmed escalators and pillars, and double glass elevators. But turns out there were only about 3 shops, and the rest were offices or medical clinics.

The cafe, however, was absolutely amazing. We sat in overstuffed armchairs next to a window, watching people go by, and drinking the best hot chocolate Ive had in my life. I had a latte too, but that was before I discovered the magical drink Shari ordered.

Plus, the place mats on the tables were proof that the cafe was made for me.

The Cafe from the outside

After that, we hopped on a 2 hour train, and 2.5 hour bus to Zakopane, south Poland. We drove through/around Krakow as well, the former capital. Its very industrial, to the point of being run-down. Plaster is missing on much of the buildings, and things look very dilapidated. I didn't snap too many pictures, simply because it wasn't terribly impressive...

This is one of the many industrial looking
 buildings in Krakow/Zakopane...in
 better condition than others

Very cool to see actual smoke come out from
 actual chimneys in the Polish countryside

My two drinks of the night

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, then walked to dinner to a local and traditional Polish restaurant- one of the best places I've/we've been! The food was AMAZING- between our 6 person table, we tried Goulash (a beefy, dumpling-y stew), cannellies(?) (like an enchilada with bacon and onions on top), traditional fish, rabbit, Bigtos(?) (meat and cabbage mixture), and ribs with potato dumplings, ice cream with rum poured on it, traditional cheesecake, wine, cherry vodka, polish vodka, straight white vodka, and beer. But also! we asked what Chittings was while deciding what to order... when hearing it, we decided against it. Our waitress brought out a sample though, and it was SO GOOD!

You know what it was? Animal intestines. Never found out which animal...but it was delicious! Tasted like chicken noodle soup! And the goulash was probably some of the best stew I've ever had. And all the alcohol is fabulous here...the best part is, its super cheap!

 I ordered my Cannellies, a glass of beer, and wine for dinner, with everything coming to 25 Polish Zoltzys...which equates to less than $8. My wine? 5 pz which is a dollar fifty. And tip is only 10% here, if at all (mostly the custom is to not tip). 

Germany was much more expensive, normally on par with American food. But here in Poland, food is significantly less expensive! Which of course we love!

Jeanine, Shari, Lucy, Jess, Helen2, Me, Helen1

Intestines, beer, and wine!

Proof I ate the Animal Intestines! (Chittings)

Outside of the best restaurant!

Also fun fact....I'm pretty sure there arnt any safety regulations when it comes to the workplace...we saw a construction worker in the hotel working...he was standing on a ladder, with one foot on the top rung on each side, essentially straddling it, but standing up. Then to move, he would just rock back and forth and scootch along. He wasn't wearing a helmet or anything! Then another guy had to cut a piece of metal, and just used his electric hand saw to do it, with sparks flying everywhere! No helmet or protective eye wear, and we were 5 feet away!