Krakow is one of Poland's top tourist destinations. It's a beautiful city with n fun night-life and many historical attractions. The oldtown of Krakow was the first UNESCO World Heritage Site ever declared in the world.
I arrived to Krakow by bus from Wroclaw. I stayed in a nice hostel that is located in the main square. The Cracow Hostel is in an awesome location, but the rooms were a little on the small side.
One nice thing, for me in particular, was that there was a Hard Rock Cafe right by my hostel. I know a lot of tourists think it's a sin to not eat the local food when traveling. At this point in my life, I had been away from my country for almost 9 years. I'd had more than enough "local food". Everywhere I went, I looked for the food that I wanted. And what I wanted was Mexican and American food. And doner kebab. I wasn't trying to have a cultural experience, or test my boundaries, every time I got hungry. The Hard Rock Cafe became a favorite of mine during my travels.
It's hard to say what was going on with me in Krakow. I think I was suffering from what I'll call "building burnout". After taking so many building photos in Wroclaw, I didn't feel motivated to take a lot of building photos in Krakow. Looking through my photos, I don't really have many from Krakow. Maybe I was just a little tired.
On my second day in Krakow, I did one of the free walking tours. It was nice for seeing parts of the city that I would have missed.
Like Wroclaw, many parts of Krakow were beautifully maintained and decorated.
I'm always curious about the people who's faces end up on the buildings. It seems like you'd have to be pretty important to end up on the side of a building.
This castle was pretty cool. It had a bunch of additions added to it over the years. Each addition followed a different style. So the building ended up as a funky mix of styles. Sort of a building mashup.
After the walking tour, I went to find some dinner. As much as I like Hard Rock Cafe, I had already eaten there, so I went for something else.
I can't tell if this is a hot dog or a Polish version of doner kebab. I'm thinking it's doner, but the pickles are confusing me. I checked Facebook because I was holding a World Doner Championship, but I can't find any mention of this particular meal.
If it was a doner kebab, it wouldn't have made the top 10 of the championship. The Polish use a mayonnaise sauce instead of a yogurt sauce on their doner kebabs. Gross! Even the doner kebab in Vietnam is better than that, and the Vietnamese have a very interesting take on Turkish cuisine.
After dinner, it was time for some beer!
I went to a few different places for some drinks. I ended up at some random bar, sitting at a table outside. I started talking to the group of guys at the tables next to me. They told me that they were Scottish and everything went downhill from there 😁.
It was a fun night. Lots of times I went out for drinks and didn't make any friends. So it was fun to hang out with this group.
We even saw a hedgehog. It's the first time I've seen one in the wild. I guess for some people this would be as cool as seeing a squirrel would be for me. Squirrels are all over the place where I live.
I woke up the next day hung over yet determined to take a tour of a salt mine. I took a train and bus to the salt mine and did the tour. It was cool, but my camera did a horrible job of taking pictures of it.
I got one picture that was kind of cool. It's a river in the salt mine. Even this photo is pretty bad.
The next day I jumped onto a train and headed to a new city and a new country. Check back tomorrow to see where it is!
Something unique from Krakow
This might not actually be in Krakow. It was taken from the train to the next destination. Where ever this is, I like the weird style and subject matter of this graffiti.