Poland – Krakow

In the courtyard of Wawel Castle

It was my first time in Poland, even though Grandpa came from here. It had always seemed very distant to me, in the shadow of the Iron Curtain. In fact, it’s gorgeous and there are so many tourists in the historical centre that almost all the Polish people there speak at least a little English, so it’s easy enough to get by.

The main market square

I arrived at almost midnight, but there was still enough nightlife happening in the main square to be worthwhile having a look around. While most of the people still up seemed to be heading in or out of pubs or clubs, there were quite a few people just strolling like us. It’s pretty magical by starlight!

Cheeeeeese!

My first proper day we spent being tourists, walking around the main square again, stopping for some grilled smoked cheese at a market stall, before heading up the hill to Wawel Castle and cathedral. It’s an impressive sight, perched on the hill with its imposing stone walls and towers.

Gluten free pierogi at Cakester cafe in Krakow – almost everything is gluten free and sugar free

The grounds were also gorgeous, but like the main square, it was crowded with other tourists. We could access the inner courtyard section, which was in the process of being restored. The floor was marble, and it would be amazingly slippery in the rain and snow!

The castle grounds

There is a legend that the caves under the castle used to house a dragon, so the souvenir shops here are full of little dragon toys. Very cute. I found a children’s book in Polish, German and English telling the story of the dragon (spoiler alert: it explodes!) and also finally found touristy tea towels, so added them to our souvenir haul.

Souvenirs (may you always roll 6s)

After noticing that some of the amber shops were selling six-sided dice, we made it our mission to find a couple of nice dice to bring home. There weren’t too many variations around, but I settled on a large “pressed” one (composite amber, not natural) and a small natural one, and R picked up two medium-sized ones. I also found a lovely silver and amber thimble. Great souvenir shopping: small and actually useful!

At a 650-year old cellar, made into a pub

We had dinner at the market stalls off the square, trying a boneless pork knuckle, bigos, a chicken and pork skewer, and sautéed mushrooms, before finishing off with a selection of goodies from a stall that sold sugar/gluten free fruit/nut-based sweets. These were quite rich, so they went into the hotel room fridge for later.

R, beer and sausage

The second day we met up with some of my cousins on my grandpa’s side, who my uncle had connected with only a couple of years ago. We had lunch with some of my second cousins – delicious chicken noodle soup and then a chicken schnitzel/parmigiana type of dish – then visited my dad’s cousin who was still living on the farm that Grandpa grew up on. R joined in with some Polish beer (in 500ml cans!) and we snacked on a wonderful garlicky pork sausage.

Family

My cousin M speaks English, so she was the interpreter for the day and organised for us to meet everyone, which was absolutely amazing of her. I promised her that next time I visited I’d know a lot more Polish, so watch this space!

Cheese!

On getting back to Krakow, we needed to do some laundry, so we headed down to the laundrette/café R had located earlier in the week. Perfect setup – you put your clothes in, order some drinks and food, and by the time you’ve finished, your clothes are ready! They have a lot of burgers etc on the menu that looked great, but no GF bread, so I chose the cheese platter, thinking it would be a small plate of maybe three pieces of cheese. What arrived was definitely a platter – five types of cheese (soft camembert type, a mild semi-hard blue, a soft fresh white mould that was my favourite, some of the smoked cheese we’d had the day before, and a spreadable cream cheese with sundried tomatoes), olives, walnuts and an olive tapenade. Enough for about ten, so there was no way it was getting finished, unfortunately. I feel like I’ve now thoroughly experienced the cheese in this region!

Some of the beautiful landscape we passed

After only three nights, we’re off to the airport again to hop to Frankfurt. Next time I/we’ll try to see more of the country rather than focusing on the Krakow tourist zone.