Poland 2023 Part 1!

Hi blog! Nick and I are back from our adventure in Poland! I expect our 2023 Poland trip to be a multi part blog since we fit so much into 4 days and have had to come back to real life right away.

Wednesday evening, after work, we headed straight for the Chicago airport. I was nervous to fly out of Chicago because of my past experiences at O’Hare. (I got stranded there not once, but twice!) Anyway, the drive to O’Hare was a breeze, we even had enough time to stop at Culver’s for dinner! It took us a while to find parking but we found a lot that was only $15/day. Getting through security and finding our gate was easy. As we waited for our flight, we made friends with a woman headed to Romania. The airport was pretty busy for as late as it was. Surprisingly, our flight was full. Finally, at 9:45pm CST, we boarded our flight to Frankfurt. I honestly don’t remember much of the flight because I was in and out of sleep for the 8 hours we were in the air. I think I slept through the drinks/snacks and meal.

We arrived in Frankfurt on Thursday at 2pm. Immigration was a breeze and we didn’t have to go through security again. The Frankfurt airport is huge so it took us a while to find our gate but we had plenty of time since we didn’t have to stop at baggage claim. My Frankfurt airport tradition is buying a pretzel, mezzo mix, and apfelschorle. I was happy to introduce this tradition to Nick and share yummy German treats with him as we waited to board our flight to Krakow. At 4:30pm we boarded our flight to Krakow! It was a short flight over and we landed at 6:00pm. I guess I should switch to the 24 hour clock now that we’re in Europe….

After another smooth flight and nap, we took an Uber to our Airbnb. Our Airbnb was only a 5 minute walk outside of Old Town! We climbed to the top floor of our building and took it all in. Our Airbnb had the most beautiful view of the city from the loft. Nick changed and headed out for a run while I tried to get my sim card set up. My old sim card wasn’t working, but a Zabka was right next door so I was able to buy a new one easily. I got 6GB for $1.25…crazy! After the run and sim card, we headed out for pierogi! We walked through Old Town and found a spot that was still open and not too touristy looking. We both got ruskie (potato and cheese) pierogi and they were delicious. As we were headed back to our Airbnb, I spotted a bar I used to frequent with my study abroad friends so I knew we needed to stop in and grab a drink. We shared a tyskie beer and ordered monte shots. The monte shots are hazelnut vodka with milk. It sounds gross to mix vodka and milk but it tastes like nutella or a ferrero rocher, so delicious! After dinner, drinks, and a long 24 hours of travel, we headed back for the night.

We both naturally woke up on Friday at 6:00. If you know me, you know I won’t get out of bed that early unless my life depended on it. But, the sun was out and I was back in Poland so there was no time to waste! We got ready for the day and headed out. We walked through Old Town again in the light and decided we wanted pazcki. I knew the perfect spot so we headed in the direction of my old university. We grabbed a paczki and walked to UEK campus and I was able to show Nick where I had classes when I was abroad. We walked campus and headed back. We checked out the mall, Galeria Krakowska, on our way back. We went into Carrefour, the grocery store, to see what products we don’t see in the US. We left with bananas and walked back to the Airbnb for a short break.

After a snack and break, we headed back to Old Town. We followed Rick Steve’s Royal Walk Way Tour. We went at our own pace and checked out all of the iconic sights of Old Town Krakow. We started at the Barbican and city walls. Then, we made our way to the Planty which is the park that surrounds Old Town. It used to be a moat to protect the city, but when the Austrians were ruling Krakow, they changed it into a park. We saw the Grunwald Monument and a statue of Jan Matejko. We made a pit stop at Stary Kleparz, the Old Market, to look for some oscypek, smoked cheese from salted sheep milk. We were successful! I think I liked the cheese more than Nick. We walked under the Florian Gate and admired the replica of the famous Black Madonna of Częstochowa painting. We strolled Ulica (street) Floriańska. Some of my favorite spots from when I was studying in Krakow are on Floriańska street like McDonald’s and Bania Luca. Then, we got in line to buy tickets into St. Mary’s Church. As we waited, we heard the bugle player play the hourly hejnał song. Once he was done playing in our direction, he waved to us below. We bought our tickets to get inside the church and to be able to climb to the top. You can enter the church for free if you’re going inside to pray but we decided to pay to get close to the altar. The altar was under restoration and renovation in 2020 so I wanted to make a point to see it up close and finished.

After buying the tickets for St. Mary’s, we took several moments to take in Rynek Główny, the Main Market Square. We took in the Adam Mickiewicz statue, St. Adalbert’s Church, the Cloth Hall, the Town Hall, Igor Mitoraj’s gigantic head, the pigeons, and all of the people walking around. It was so different to visit the square at 11 instead of 6. At 6 in the morning, it was peaceful and quiet. By 11, it was busy and full of people! There were multiple groups of children on field trips, college students on break, and tourists that came to enjoy the sights and sounds. After taking in the square, we headed to the second oldest university in Europe, Jagiellonian University. This wasn’t my university in 2020, but I still wanted to show it to Nick because of its history and beauty. Then we walked to St. John Paul II’s residence while he was the archbishop of Krakow. Above the window, where he would lean out of to talk to the people of Krakow, is a painting of him smiling. Then we stopped in St. Francis Basilica, which was St. John Paul II’s home church. We admired the stained glass instead and a painting of St. Maksymilian Kolbe. St. Maksymilian Kolbe was a priest who served at St. Francis Basilica and was a prisoner and victim at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He died at Auschwitz II-Birkenau by sacrificing his life for a fellow inmate (more to come on this). We walked on Grodzka street to visit the Dominican Church. We stopped in Mary Magdalene’s Square to see the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and St. Andrews. We walked down Kanoniczka Street to Wawel. We checked out Wawel Castle, Cathedral, and grounds. We admired Wawel from the outside and skipped the museums since we wanted to spend our precious time on other things. We walked down Wawel Hill to see the iconic Krakow dragon. The legend says that the dragon was eating all of the livestock of Krakow and was soon going to start eating the people if Prince Krak didn’t find a solution. Prince Krak and a genius shoemaker knew what to do. They filled a sheep’s skin with sulfur and when the dragon ate the sheep’s skin, he needed to drink all of the Vistula river to stop his heartburn. After he drank the entire river, he exploded and was no more. Then Prince Krak let the shoemaker marry his daughter. Now, the dragon statue blows fire out of his mouth every few minutes to commemorate this legend.

We started to feel hungry so we headed to Kazimierz for lunch at Plac Nowy. We both got zapiekanka with sauce, mushrooms, cheese, and salami and ate it on the sidewalk under the sunshine. It was the perfect lunch stop. Knowing there was a Good Lood nearby, Nick obliged to an icecream treat. Good Lood was a spot I frequented during my time abroad. I mean, who can resist $1 for a scoop of very good icecream? When lunch and dessert was over, we headed back to St. Mary’s because it was our turn to view the altar and climb to the top! We climbed 271 stairs to have the most beautiful view of the city. Down below, we saw a group of break dancers performing for the crowds. At this point, we needed a break so we went back to the Airbnb.

Sometime after resting, we headed to Kazimierz for the Rick Steve’s Kazimierz walk. This started with the Kazimierz monument that honors the 65,000 Polish citizen of Jewish nationality from Krakow and its regions. Unfortunately, the sun was going down by now, so we were only able to walk past the Old Jewish Cemetery and not visit the inside of it. We walked down Ulica Szeroka and saw a statue of Jan Karski, shop fronts of Rattner, Weinberg, Nowak, and Holcer, some other shops. Multiple restaurants that were on Ulica Szeroka had live klezmer music. We peaked into the New Jewish Cemetery and stopped in front of Helena Rubinstein’s childhood home. We walked past the Popper Synagogue, town wall, and the Old Synagogue. We walked past Plac Nowy again and saw the Schindler’s List Passage from the movie. We saw Kazimierz’s main market square, Plac Wolnica, and decided it was time for dinner. I remembered there is always a parking lot full of food trucks at Judah Square, so we went that way for dinner. Not surprising to any, we got ruskie pierogi from one of the trucks.

After an entire day on our feet, we took a break until it was time to go out to one of my favorite dance spots. We spent a few hours dancing and ended late at night.

We walked 49k (!!!!) steps and saw the condensed entirety of Krakow and Kazimierz! It was an incredibly successful and busy day. I think my favorite part of the first full day was the familiarity of the area. It was really fun to show Nick all of the places I used to frequent and funny stories that went along with each location. I was surprised by how much I remembered and was able to navigate without using my phone. My brain stored all of the Polish knowledge I acquired from 2020 knowing I would one day go back and I’m thankful it did.