I decided to go to Krakow for Thanksgiving. It was cheap, it was a small town I could walk around, and I wanted to check out the Christmas Markets.

Finding a flight for about $200 round trip, I decided hostels would be the best way to go. For about $15 a night and with lock boxes underneath the bed, I paid $45 for accommodation over the weekend. My choice was Let’s Rock Hostel, which was about 2 blocks away from the square and since Krakow itself was easily walkable it was the prime location to be in.

I mean how can you beat such a good deal, right in the center of the city, cheap, able to meet people from around the world, and my hostel was into the nightlife so had bar crawls set up for almost every night I was there.

KRAKOW POLAND

It’s almost Christmas!!! They were putting up the Christmas markets as I walked by the square. I couldn’t wait to get back over once they were done.

As most of Eastern Europe, it gets very chilly as in the fall, winter, and spring seasons. Although the air was crisp and I brought gloves and a hat to get by with. I managed to stay relatively warm while I was out walking around the town.

On the same road as my hostel and the street above was a place called Bar Grodzki. Recommended by Rick Steves he’s right in saying you need to get over here for a filling and cheap meal. Seriously, so good!

This my friends is the potato pancake with goulash. Seriously, it was #20 on the menu when I was there and it is worth every bite. No extra sides needed, this will be extremely filling.

Potato pancakes! The 2 things I had my sights set on in Krakow were the potato pancakes and pirogies. Growing up in Pittsburgh, we’re all part Polish even though I’m mostly German but I wanted to see if the pirogies in authentic Poland had anything on my mom’s home cooking.

I had been starving when I stopped for lunch, so after eating, and when I wasn’t hangry anymore, I headed out to walk around the town and see some of the main attractions.

Wawel Castle in Krakow is just down the road form the main square. I did not take a tour of the castle however, there is quite a legend surrounding the castle concerning a Dragon’s Den which you’ll have to go over and tour to find out more!

As it started getting darker for the evening, I decided to stop in at a bookshop and read for a bit before heading back to my hostel and joining in on the nights festivities.

Massolit books was the perfect place to stop in and browse the shelves and sit at one of the eccentric tables in the back. I picked a classic, Anna Karenia and sat in the corner. Sometimes one of my most favorite things to do is act like a local in a town I just got to that very day!

Christmas tree in the main square!

I’d heard about the Cloth Hall, which back in the day was a major center for international trade. Today it is full of mostly tourist wares, but it definitely is worth a walk through.

I was standing in the center of all the hall, snapping a few photos when I heard, “CASSEY?!” Who in good God knows me in Krakow Poland? I turn around and there’s one of my co-workers Rocky with his whole family and a couple other friends. What are the odds? haha. We laughed so hard and I snapped a picture of them.

Rocky, his wife, 2 daughters, and another couple they were traveling with. We discussed our plans and I told him I might head out to a jazz club later that evening if they wanted to join. He said he might and we parted ways.

I headed back to my hostel to have a few drinks and see what everyone was up to there but then I did decide to head to the jazz club to listen to some of the music. I’d heard some great things about the jazz scene in Krakow. Located in underground caverns, it’s the best place for acoustics. Rocky decided to join me and so I sipped on some gin and hung out in the jazz scene until my eyes started drooping.

Harris Piano Jazz bar is located right in the main square and the perfect place to hear some good jazz.

Shortly afterwards, I headed back to the hostel and went right to sleep.

AUSCHWITZ

The next morning I woke early and walked to the bus station to catch a bus to tour Auschwitz.

When I got back later that evening, a friend Clare who had found time to meet me in Poland the day before met me at the hostel and we went out for some really really good dinner at a locals restaurant.

WEILICZKA SALT MINES

The next morning we went to an award winning bagel shop for breakfast called bagel mamma, the salmon cream cheese bagels are to die for, we grabbed a taxi to the salt mines.

If we are going way down into the mines, the perfect place during a zombie apocalypse might I add, then we had to get into the mood, which is why I was immediately reminded of the misty mountain song sung by the dwarves in The Hobbit.

The salt mine goes down to 327 meters, and yes you walk down quite a few steps but you take an elevator to get back up don’t worry.

There are all kinds of different sculptures down here, carved right from the salt.

Our guide told us that if you were to walk the entire mine, it would like over a week to get down every corridor, so the area that we were touring is just one small area of the mine.

Back in the day, to test for harmful gas and to blow it up before everyone started walking through the area, men would hold torches at the end of long sticks and walk through the tunnels hoping to burn up all the gas and make it safe for everyone passing through.

They used to use horsed down here as a type of elevator, where the horses would push and pull around and around to lift and lower items deeper into the mines.

There are multiple churches carved down here, Christianity being the main faith. During the tour, you’ll see four throughout the area.

The most impressive of them all, is this cathedral carved into the rock. You can even get married down here!

The last supper carved right into the salt. It’s only a few inches deep, and very impressive.

Really really neat down here in the mines.

I decided to lick the walls and see what it tasted like. Yep, tastes like salt. Now where’s the fresh water?

Clare tried it too.

Really impressive.

Walking back out and around we went through a few narrow hallways.

You can see the purity of the salt here. When he flashlight is placed upon a salt structure the light penetrates fairly deep.
There are even underground lakes down here.

A listing of the world heritage sites.

After the tour of the salt mine we got a ride back into the city but this time to the Jewish quarter to check out Schindler’s Museum.

SCHINDLER’S MUSEUM

The museum is the actual office where Oskar Schindler worked out of running his enamelware and ammunition business during the height of the Nazi regime in WWII.

World War II began the day the German’s invaded Poland and the Jewish quarter here in Krakow was put on lockdown, the entire area surrounded and deemed the ghetto, polish people and germans yelled and disrespected the jews as they were being led to the ghetto to be locked in the houses here together.

A full wall of the types of enamelware that more than 1,200 jewish people would produce at Schindler’s factory. Anyone who was able to get a job here knew that they would be safe from other horrors during the war. The question was, would they be able to wait it out?

Oskar Schindler’s office.

So much history here.

The week after I got back to Italy from Krakow I invited a friend over to watch Schindler’s List with me as I had never seen it in high school, although most of my classmates had.

It’s a very sobering movie to watch. I was upset for quite some time after my trip to Krakow and watching the movie. Interestingly enough, they are still trying to charge and trail Germans from WWII for the after-effects of the holocaust. Having to live with all that they had done through the years should be enough of a crime, but at 88 years, they do deserve what’s coming.

After WWII the Jewish community had been rocked and Jerusalem became the new home for anyone who wished to move there. When Oskar Schindler died, his remains were taken to Israel where generations from the Jewish families whom he saved during the war still visit his grave today and leave rocks and flowers as peace offerings.

In many ways Oskar saved all of them, but in the end, I think they truly saved him.

KRAKOW CHRISTMAS MARKETS

That night, after dinner, we got to one of my favorite parts of the trip, the Christmas markets!

They covered everything in chocolate here, strawberries, banana, kiwi, you name it, they most likely had it. We came back a couple of times.

I admit that I’m glad I didn’t buy any books at the book store a few nights prior, I ended up having pretty much another carryon full of Christmas decorations to take back to Naples (luckily they ended up letting me on the flight without paying although I wasn’t so sure they would!)
Decorations made of metals. Some of the stuff around here was so neat.

Christmas wreaths! I was like a kid in a candy store. Christmas was everywhere and I jumped right into it all.

Show with Christmas ornaments and decorations. There was one shop right outside of our hostel that I went back to twice to buy a few extra things. So much fun.

Giant loaves of Christmas bread. I could only imagine a bread bowl with goulash. Yum!

Sausages, meats, vegetables, they had all kinds of foods over here.

And we ended with some delicious cheese and a nativity scene I picked up at the stand right next to it.

At the end of the night we headed back to the hostel. I had to wake up very early to get back to the airport the following morning. Clare was headed North for a few weeks in a ski town.

It was an amazing trip that I ended up really enjoying!

This article appeared first on The Cassey Excursion.