Poland - Krakow

Trip: 14th June 2013 - 17th June 2013

14th June 

YAY! Really happy to go Krakow because I would be meeting one of my bestie to travel :) Haven't seen her for like 4 months! It's also my first time traveling by Ryanair and hahaha got a little bump in the airport which was thankfully solved in time before the flight! And bleah, bad idea to fly from Dortmund (when im in Karlsruhe).

Saw an ice cream stall outside the galeria when I reached~ Couldn't resist the temptation of eating ice cream :D

And we had a really cheap dinner on the first night! It costed us only 14PLN for a main dish, salad and a bowl of soup. Plus the portion is really big! We had a really happy time eating~

Looking at the menu, I thought the "A piece of meat with garlic sauce" was really interesting and ordered that. Well apparently... it was really a piece of meat. LOLS.

We also ordered additional dishes to share and try.

Pigeon with tomato sauce. Apparently I have no idea why it is named pigeon when I don't see anything related with pigeon!

Dumplings with spinach~ Not bad~

Finished our dinner and randomly walked around taking some photos.

Went into St Mary's Basilica. Really magnificent inside!

Me at the town square

15th June

Went to the old town to get breakfast before going to our first stop: Wawel castle.

Saw this really interesting art on the wall! Trololol!!

Market square and a nice weather

We went up the fortification tower hoping to have a panoramic view of Krakow (It cost us 4PLN to get up). Apparently the view wasn't that magnificent though.

This was the best shot I got from the top of the tower.

A quite glam photo of me. LOLS. Quite rare that my hair looks neat.

Me and my bestie in front of the castle :)

Then we went into the dragon's den (for 3PLN) which is apparently not that bad, except that it's just a cave which is really cooling inside. Legend is that a dragon lived inside the cave before and HAHA I was half hoping I would see a dragon. Retarded me.

The cave

There were spotlights on the ground to illuminate the cave. I just couldn't resist the urge to pose for a scary photo (like what I did in Marina Barrage back in Singapore!). And well that's basically our most fun part inside the cave! :P

At the exit of the dragon's den is the famous dragon sculpture of the wawel castle. And it spits fire every 3 minutes or something.

A clearer view of the castle~

Then we visited the state rooms of the castle which cost us like 19PLN. We wanted to visit the private apartments initially, but the next guided tour was just too late for our schedule. Not bad, but so far the best I have seen is still Neuschwanstein castle.

And then we headed off to salt mine! Just the name itself is refreshing already. We decided to make our way there ourselves instead of going with the hostel because it might be cheaper this way. True enough, it only cost us 4PLN for the bus to and fro there and 58PLN for the salt mine entrance fee (for tourist route). Whereas the hostel tour would have cost us 105PLN!

The salt mine

One of the sculptures inside the salt mine. And the special thing is that all these sculptures are made of salt.

What really made me went "WOW!" was the chapel inside the salt mine. (Maybe the photo doesn't show the full beauty of it). The tour guide made a really funny comment about people likes to hold their marriage here because they believe that salt can preserve their marriage. HAHA but sounds legit!

And the murals on the wall are also sculpted from the salt!

And I was really fascinated by the chandliers, which are made of salt crystals. 

Stalacites! Which take about few months to form which is quite short as compared to that of limestones.

After the tourist route visit, we went to the museum tour which I thought was a pretty waste of time. Wasn't really interesting :| Then we took the bus back and had dinner at galeria.

16th June

Instead of going to Auschwitz and Birkenau (which are famous concentration camps), me and my friend went to Tatry mountains in Zakopane because we have been to Dachau concentration camp before and would like to spend our time on happy stuffs.

The day trip to Zakopane was like 2 hours long but really worth it. We were pleasantly surprised that the bus ride to Zakopane only cost 20PLN! After we reached there, we had a hard time trying to find out how to get to Tatry because of language barrier. Nevertheless, we managed to get our way there (3PLN for a private bus ride which are also pleasantly surprised by the price, and 40PLN for the gondola up the mountain).

On the gondola/cable car

Really beautiful scenery! It was actually kind of chilly up the mountains (about 9 degrees celsius) but hehe I took off my windbreak to pose for photos ;)

The sun came out and woohoo this is a really awesome photo of Tatry!!! Can even see the blue lakes!!!

After we came down from Tatry we went to a nearby rapid to take photos hahaha. 

Me having a waffle with green apple jam that cost only 5PLN while waiting for the bus back to Krakow.

17th June

Parted with my bestie and heading back to Germany. YES. Finally get to savour KFC after like 4 months!

3 days in Krakow is probably too short (In fact I think I would consider mine as 2 days only). However just the trip to Krakow itself makes me want to return to Poland again! Probably after exam I will explore Poland more. Pure awesomeness! Pretty and cheap!