We arrived in Krakow pretty late in the evening, we knew the majority of the stores around our airbnb would be closed so we grabbed some airport food. We got a chicken wrap and a pizza. Airports can often have a reputation of having okay food, but these were not good, but I digress.
Our first morning we went out in search of the supermarket, which was conveniently less than a 5 min walk from our place. We also got a really good look at the apartment complex we were in and it is gorgeous! There are these beautiful vines crawling up the apartments. If you’ve ever seen “100 years after humans” it kind of reminds me of when the plants start taking over the land. When we got to the supermarket we realized it was in a mall, which was interesting because we’re not accustomed to that. This supermarket was excellent, literally everything we could need, I was very impressed with the asian section as well in there. We even found chanterelle mushrooms in there! If you know me you know I like my mushrooms. We only got enough food for that day because we realized we didn’t actually have a plan for what we wanted to cook. When you’re traveling on a budget you really need to stick to it.
Later that day we had a food tour. We were planning on taking the bus. In Krakow there’s an app you use to buy your bus ticket, which is “Jakdojade” but you can only pay with Apple Pay. Aaron doesn’t use Apple Pay so we were going to buy his ticket at a kiosk at our bus/tram stop. Unfortunately we never made it to the stop because we couldn’t find it. I’m usually pretty good at navigating around the city but this was confusing. We ended up calling an uber so we could make it in time.
We arrived to the back of Saint Mary’s Basilica and as we walked around you could see just how gorgeous it was. I love seeing the architecture of places, especially churches, so I knew I would be returning to go inside. While we were waiting for our tour to start someone started playing a bugle which ended up stopping abruptly. Our guide told us the story behind it was that Saint’ Mary’s was the highest point in Krakow 100s of years ago. When the Mongols were invading the watchmen took to the tower and started playing to alert everyone. It turns out the Mongols were excellent archers and hot the watchmen in the neck, which is why the bugle stops abruptly. Our tour guide did a really great job incorporating the history into the food tour, which isn’t always the case with food tours. If you want to see more about the food tour, a video will be posted on Instagram.
It’s Party Time!
Occasionally from time to time we still like to go out and have a good time. So I signed us up for a pub-crawl because it was only $4 per person and came with a shot at each bar we went to. Turns out there were additional fees. If we wanted an hour of open bar it was an additional 100 PLN (~$27USD) and if we didn’t want that it was and additional 50 PLN. When I read the reviews someone said the alcohol wasn’t good, so I opted to skip the open bar. As most people know, what is a night of partying without a good pregame. So we got some vodka and coke, made some drinks and played some music while we waited. I also just so happen to have a plastic pouch which is great for bringing drinks on the go.
We arrive to our first location which was a Karaoke Bar called Manhattan Project. We met our guide Arthur and he welcomed us with shots. The group we were with were Spaniards who all happened to know each other because they were on a work trip. Since they all knew each other they had their group formed, but they were still friendly. I’ve been to a karaoke bar once while abroad (in Barcelona) and essentially every song they sang was in English so it was really cool being in this polish bar where they’re singing Polish and Spanish songs. I even got to hear the Polish version of “Let it go”.
After about an hour we head to the next place, which was kind of dead at the time, but they had this great Brazilian DJ playing. At this point we’re all heading to the dance floor, our group was big enough that we were enjoying our own company. We were out there dancing and we even had a makeshift limbo going. Even though the music was great we probably stayed 30-45 min and then on to the next club.
At this next club is where things started to pick up. The club was called La Bodega del Ron. I don’t remember specifically what the music was but I think it was EDM but popular songs and maybe some top 40, but the music was great. Ambiance was perfect the club was packed, people were dancing and they even had lasers shooting all around. Arthur was coming around pouring straight from the bottle into our mouths. A time was had at this place. I’m not even sure why we left, but allas it was time for another club.
We went to some place that I don’t really remember and we didn’t stay long so moving on. At this point everyone is having a great night. We’re even conversing with the Spaniards. We know enough Spanish that we can converse (Aaron is better than I am) and they knew enough English so we made the conversations work. Where else does this happen, you don’t normally get something like this happening in the US. This is the part of travel that I don’t think a lot of people experience and these are the moments that make it worthwhile. We make it to the next club and the music is great, they’re playing reggaeton. Conversations are still going on but it’s hard to hear so we go to the dance floor. Dancing doesn’t last too long because I’m exhausted and Arthur is talking about going to the next club. Mind you it is 3:30am! At this point we’re catching an uber back home. I do regret not getting anyones information to keep in contact, but c’est la vie. We make it back and I’m lucky enough to get a piggyback ride from Aaron because my feet were hurting after that night and the next day so would the rest of my legs.