A Trip to Krakow Poland!

Stuttgart Alex 30 Hostel.

Our next journey finally has arrived and we are headed to Eastern Europe. We packed our bags, headed to our German final exam and then took our last test abroad. After the test we headed directly to the train station to go to Stuttgart where we were to spend the night at a hostel before an early morning flight from Stuttgart airport to Krakow Poland. We arrived in Stuttgart at about 11 pm after taking two trains. We then made it to our hostel where we checked in and tried to get a little bit of sleep before having to wake up at about 4:30 am to make it to the airport.

DB Train to Stuttgart Airport.

After waking up to one of the worst nights of sleep due to it being extremely hot, and noisy in the room, we headed to the airport via a U-Bahn and then an S-Bahn train. We got to the airport, made it through security and off we were to Krakow Poland. After boarding the plane, I was pleased to find an empty row in front of me, and thanks to Lauda Air, I now had an entire row to myself for a cost of only $30 which included a personal item as well as a carry on.

Three fried eggs with bacon and toast.

An hour and 15 minutes later we landed in Krakow Poland. We took a 30 minute Uber ride to drop off our bags at our hostel before heading out to grab breakfast in the old town. We ate at Segafredo Zanetti Espresso, where I ordered three fried eggs with bacon with a piece of toast, all for $5.30. It was one of the best breakfasts I have had in my time in Europe, highly recommend for a quick bite to eat in the main square in Krakow.

Polish street pretzels.

After breakfast we headed downtown to walk around, do some souvenir shopping, grab a drink to eat and tried the local pretzels that street vendors were selling for about 50 cents. We got to our hostel, took a few hours nap to catch up on some sleep from the night before. It was one of the better hostels we have stayed in, with well kept, clean rooms, and air conditioning, something that felt super good after suffering through the last month or so of heat waves. After our nap we woke up, hailed an Uber and headed to the Wieliczka Salt mine, about a 30 minute drive that costs only about eight Euros, much cheaper than in the US.

Salt carvings 135 meters below ground.

We bought our ticket, including a 10 PLN charge to take photos within the mine and purchased some ice cream/frozen yogurt while we waited for our tour. We entered the mine by climbing down 54 flights of stairs. It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. After reaching the bottom we learned about the mine, it’s history, and all about the operations of salt mining. It was a truly unique experience getting to learn about what life as a miner might have been like..

Chapel carved out of Salt, 54 floors underground.

We were then able to visit multiple chapels that where constructed by the miners, some of which took decades to complete. They were completely decorated and constructed straight from the salt in the mine, with sculptures, church alters, floor tiles, and even the magnificent chandeliers lighting up theses incredible rooms.

Horse drawn salt mine elevator.

It would have been easy to get lost within the mine, which has hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, many levels, which go all the way to 1000 feet underground. There were restaurants, bathrooms and even shops, all at 135 meters below the ground, the deepest our tour took us. It was truly an awesome experience and well worth the 18 Euro entry fee.

$5 Traditional Polish pirogiat Pierogarnia Krakowia.

After our tour we hoped on another Uber and headed back to the city of Krakow to get dinner at a Polish restaurant we had researched. We all ordered a different type of pirogi, some traditional, some with meat and some veggie. They where absolutely delicious, and definitely a must eat, our dinner cost us only $7.72 for a full meal and a half liter of beer. Delicious and cheap, just how we like it. Afterwords we headed back to our hostel where we got one of the best nights sleep we have had. It was a great hostel and I definitely recommended a stay at the Ginger hostel if you are ever on a really tight budget and visiting Krakow Poland, as a one night in an eight bed dorm room will cost only about $17 and come with free breakfast.

Hostel free included breakfast.

The next morning we ate the free breakfast included in the hostel and then headed to our bus that we would take us to Auschwitz, and learn more about the history of this horrific time as well as get a glimpse into what those imprisoned here had to survive. I will include a short description about about my visit to Auschwitz but this will be included in its own blog post for those who feel up to reading that. This post will contain graphic information and photos so if you do not want to read or see those, skip Monday's post and wait until next Thursday.

Traditional Polish beef and beer at Staropolska Karczma.

After our tour we headed back to Krakow, stopped at a coffee shop to get a drink and relaxed for a while. After we walked downtown, eating some Polish jelly donuts and headed to find a place to eat dinner. We ate at Staropolska Karczma In Krakow's center square where I got a traditional beef meal with potatoes and beet salad and one of the best beers I have had. It wasn’t my favorite food I’ve had, but yummy and definitely Polish. It also only cost us about 15 euros for food and a beer.

Sunset in Krakow's old town main square.

Our trip to Krakow Poland was absolutely amazing, we learned so much about history, got to walk in the old town of Krakow and of course try a bunch of traditional Polish food. We then had a night bus from Krakow to Prague where we will be spending our next two days of our eastern European trip. Stay tuned for the Auschwitz blog if you are interested and if not, see you next Thursday.

To view my photos of Krakow, Click Here!