January was another difficult month to plan travel. We didn’t want to go somewhere where it would
be freezing, but we wanted to travel nonetheless. My brother happened to be going to Poland
that month to see is girlfriend and propose.
We had known about this plan for months and decided to drive to Poland
for that 4-day weekend.
We drove about 6 hours just over the German-Polish border
and stayed in a cheap, but nice hotel for about $30 euro. It even had a great breakfast! In the
morning, we drove the next 2 hours to Auschwitz. This was something we both wanted to see, so
I am glad we arranged a tour and got to see something we had both learned so
much about. We booked an English tour
that lasted about 3 hours. We got the
chance to see both Auschwitz and Birkanau before we drove into Krakow.
We found a great apartment on Airbnb to stay in for the
weekend. Things in Poland were much
cheaper and we only paid about 105 Euro for 3 nights at this place! It had
great parking and WIFI and was only a 5 minute walk to Kasia’s house. It was also a 2 minute walk from the Tram
stop that takes you straight into downtown.
That day we explored a bit and found a great pizzeria for
dinner. The next day, I had us scheduled
for a 2 hour free walking tour. This was
a great way to orient to the city and learn a lot about the history. You can easily hop on the tram and take it
into the city. From there it was a short
5 minute walk to the main square. We got
to see a lot of city’s highlights through this tour. By that time, Ross had arrived in Krakow, so
after an amazingly huge and cheap lunch, we went back to the apartment to meet
up with them.
They took us to a great restaurant where they had both been
before. We knew that Ross was planning
to propose on this night, we just didn’t know how or when. He had asked us to take video and pictures of
it happening and we kindly accepted that task.
After dinner, we walked over to some Christmas lights in
front of the Castle and that’s where he proposed! It was so sweet and Amelia,
Kasia’s daughter, was running around all happy and excited. It was awesome to get to be there to
celebrate with my brother and new sister in law to be! We had a great night that night celebrating,
dancing, eating yummy street food, and sampling some Polish Vodka.
On Sunday, Kasia showed us around town a little more and
took us shopping. Polish malls are
really similar to American malls, so nothing crazy to report there! We had some
AMAZING Pizza at her favorite place in Krakow.
Ross has been telling me about this pizza for over a year, so I was glad
we go to have some.
The last day of our trip we explore more of Krakow downtown
and the Underground Tour. It’s a pretty
interesting thing to do that shows ruins of the original medieval streets that
are below the current market square! The city used to sit that much lower than
it does now. It is covered in history
and old artifacts they found during the archeological dig. By then, it was lunchtime and we found a
great place for some Polish dumplings!
We really loved Krakow and especially getting to see
family. I would add this place to your
list of place to visit for sure! Next
stop in Poland will be POTTERY SHOPPING! WHOOP WHOOP!
