Poland 2023 Itinerary

Hi All!

Since the majority of our trip is figured out and booked I can share our itinerary and bucketlist! Something important to note is that the theme of this trip is “We’re doing XYZ because it’s something I learned about during my semester abroad but never got to visit because COVID sent me home before we got to visit during class”. It’s going to come up a lot in this post as I share our itinerary, sorry in advance for the repetitiveness.

Day 1: Since we arrive in the evening, the plan is to drop off our bags at our cute airbnb and head out for dinner somewhere in Rynek Główny. Then it’ll be time for ice cream at Good Lood. Let’s be real…we’ll probably be on the hunt for pierogi for dinner. We’ll walk around and settle in early to get a good start on the next day.

Day 2: I assume we’ll be tired from the flight and slightly jet lagged so we’ll have a relaxing exploring day. I’d love to show Nick the famous sights of Krakow like Wawel, St. Mary’s Church, and the Cloth Hall. We’ll walk around and stop where we feel called to stop and explore. I’m hoping we’ll run into paczki and obwarzanek for a morning snack. Then we’ll make our way to the Kazimierz, the Jewish district, and have zapekanka for lunch. After lunch, we’ll continue exploring Kazimierz and Podgórze. I’m hoping to show Nick the Helena Rubinstein house and mural in the area. I’d also like to visit Schindler’s Factory Museum since I didn’t get to in 2020. We’ll find somewhere yummy for dinner (probably zurek soup) and spend sometime enjoying Krakow’s nightlife.

Day 3: I booked a guided tour at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum for the morning. This is something I was supposed to do during my semester abroad but it never happened. My professor gave us an online tour but I know it won’t compare to the real tour. I think this will be a very hard and emotional tour to go on but I think it’s really important to make it part of our trip. After our tour, we’ll head back to Krakow and relax and reflect. I’m hoping we can do some shopping in the evening. Then, as long as the weather holds up, we’ll head to Kosciuszko Mound for the sunset. This mound is a place I learned about in my classes but never got to visit.

Day 4: We won’t really go to sleep after day 3 because I booked us on an overnight bus to Gdańsk. We leave at 1:05 am and will arrive in a new city by morning. This might be a tough night and we might be cranky all day but at least we will have seen a new city! Gdańsk is a city that never got checked off my bucketlist so this will be exciting because Nick and I will get to experience it for the first time together! We’ll spend the majority of the day exploring the city and port, visiting churches, eating whatever speciality food is there, and hopefully buying a few pieces of amber. We’ll leave in the evening and arrive back in Krakow at 6am.

Day 5: On little sleep, we will head out in the morning for the Wieliczka Salt Mine! I loved visiting so much and want to make sure Nick gets the chance to visit it since this isn’t a common experience. Don’t worry, I will make sure he licks part of the mine. I’m going to lick it again too, so don’t worry about me either. After a busy morning 300+ kilometers underground, we’ll head to Nowa Huta or Ojców National Park. Or both? It depends on the time and the weather.

In 1949, Nowa Huta was created to be the ideal Socialist Realist city, the city the rest of the country could model itself after. There were many cities that planned to be built like Nowa Huta, but only one other was actually built. The other is in Magnitogorsk, Russia. Nowa Huta used to house the largest steel mine in the country. I’m kind of expecting a utopian city described in books like The Giver, Divergent, or The Hunger Games. We’ll see if its what I’m imagining.

Ojców National Park has caves, crazy rock formations, castles, and a natural history exhibition. There is so much to see here! It would be peaceful to spend some time in nature instead of the city for a bit.

After checking out one or both of those spots, we’ll decide what we want to eat one last time and retire for the night since we have an early flight out of Krakow the next morning. On the way home, we’ll stop in Vienna! Once landing in the US, we’ll drive home and rest up until work the next day.

Work is going to hurt but it will absolutely be worth it. Now is the time for us to do these crazy trips since we’re young and can survive on little sleep. I mean… how else are we supposed to see all of the cool spots and make great memories?

Until next time! Do widzenia!