Imagine having just arrived in Poland after an exhausting trip of almost half a day, reuniting with a Portuguese girl you had met a week before in Slovakia and instantly meeting two other Portuguese girls who you would be staying with for about two weeks. Oh the major feeling of being able to speak in my own language again! Goodbye sign language!
Now imagine just out of curiosity checking the Polskibus website to see the prices from Warsaw to Krakow, and discovering they are having an Easter sale and a 5 hours bus drive costs you exacly 0,5€ (no, you're not reading it wrong: FIFTY CENTS!!). Can I say I fell in love with Poland instantly because of this? OMG!
Now imagine just out of curiosity checking the Polskibus website to see the prices from Warsaw to Krakow, and discovering they are having an Easter sale and a 5 hours bus drive costs you exacly 0,5€ (no, you're not reading it wrong: FIFTY CENTS!!). Can I say I fell in love with Poland instantly because of this? OMG!
The next morning the three of us ran to the train station to by the tickets to Krakow, where we were told there were no seats left, but we could go on the train standing up. We wanted those return bus tickets for fifty cents badly, so we said "hell yes" and got ready to go standing on a moving train for three hours.
Getting the train was just one of those funny travel moments to say the least. The corridors were too small for two people to stand side by side, people were coming back and forth and almost killing anyone on their way to cross to the other side. We sat on the floor of the corridor, and as it happened we were not the only ones with no seat, so there was an entire corridor of people sitting on the floor. And there was even a moment when the man controlling the tickets decided he had had enough and he pull off a fuck it moment and just jumped between people like a freaking ninja!
We eventually discovered the next compartment of the train was totally empty, so we moved from the dirty chaotic floor to some comfortable seats, and watched a sad war movie as the landscapes outside our window were covered in snow.
We arrived in Krakow full of excitement. We walked to our hostel crossing the Old Town and I fell in love. I had only seen Poland at night, in Warsaw, and I was not impressed, but this was so, so different and I felt like that train had taken us to another time. The people, the streets, the architecture, the horses in the Old Town Square. I was about to get the first taste of my love for this country, which turned out to be one of my favorites and one that made it very hard for me to leave.
We got to our hostel, only to find it was brand new and that we had the room all to ourselves. We realized soon enough that the 24h we had in Krakow were about to be great and that this city would make it very hard for us to leave so soon.
We dropped our bags and went back to the Old Town to a typical Polish restaurant were we had a great, amazing meal for less than 5€ each. I mean, who doesn't love to leave a restaurant with a full and happy tummy for as little as that? Poland is just the best!
We dropped our bags and went back to the Old Town to a typical Polish restaurant were we had a great, amazing meal for less than 5€ each. I mean, who doesn't love to leave a restaurant with a full and happy tummy for as little as that? Poland is just the best!
After a great meal, and with only a day to get to know as much as possible about Krakow, we decided to take the free walking tour. It was my first ever Free Walking Tour, even after travelling for almost two months, I had never gone to one, and you know what happened? The girls went crazy over street food and after a few minutes we lost our group and couldn't find it anymore! And all because of some cheese food that tasted so bad no one could actually eat it. We took hand of the situation and decided to play city guides ourselves.
I believe I can say we walked pretty much every street in Krakow. We walked up to the Castle, we saw the dragon spit fire (is that it? Oh...) and we saw the guy playing the hornet on top of the tower at the Old Town square and we waved back at him, we had a hot latte in our hands trying to stay warm as the weather tried to kill us and we discovered city stories and little details that only locals know about. We were in love and believing we were great at this city guide thing by ourselves.
By the end of the day we found a restaurant and decided to make a reservation for dinner for 21h, but the waitress said that was too late for dinner and made our reservation for 20h30. He should've accepted that 21h was perfect, because we're three Portuguese girls and our country is well known for never being on time. What happened was that we went back to the hostel but we lost track of time and ended up arriving at the restaurant by 21h and lost our reservation. We said we wanted at 21h! Why wouldn't he accept that we like to have dinner late? Loosing the reservation officially started a crazy and horrible search for a place to have dinner that wouldn't kill our budgets!
We eventually found a place and ate some pasta, in which I asked what was the "delicious sauce" in the description, and the waitress gave the perfect answer by saying "I don't know. It's delicious!"
The night ended in a pub in the Old Town, where we decided to try Polish beer that was disappointing and terrible. But at least we had time to hang out and everything was great - except for the beer -, and where a drunk guy started to talk to me in Polish until he left disappointed when I said I wasn't Polish, I was Portuguese.
The night ended in a pub in the Old Town, where we decided to try Polish beer that was disappointing and terrible. But at least we had time to hang out and everything was great - except for the beer -, and where a drunk guy started to talk to me in Polish until he left disappointed when I said I wasn't Polish, I was Portuguese.
By the time we got back to the hostel we were not the only people in the dorm and one of our beds had been stolen by some weird guy. Got to love hostels, ahn?
The next day we would spend it visiting Auschwitz, and that was the day that I had two wishes come true: I got to finally see Auschwitz with my own eyes, and during our visit we were blessed by snow, which I had been wanting to see for a very long time during my trip.
To finish our visit to Krakow, we still had that fifty cent bus to catch back to Warsaw. The thing is we almost lost the bus! One of the girls had gone to visit the mines and was late, so I tried to hold the bus as much as I could, but the driver eventually gave up and closed the door on my face. I was so sad and angry to think we had lost the cheapest bus ever, and that was when the girl showed up running, and the other ran and got herself in front of the bus yelling "WAIT", and by miracle we got on the bus!! Can't tell you how happy I am that we can say we paid 50cents for a 5hour bus in Poland. Best country ever!!!