Half a Week in Cracow
It’s Tuesday afternoon, which means that half of our week in Cracow is over. So far we’ve had an amazing time and I highly recommend this city to anyone who wants to spend some time in a pretty and charming European town. You shouldn’t be worried about communication problems. The standard answer to a shy „Do you speak English?“ is „Of course!“. My Polish vocabulary has about tripled in the last days, which means that instead of zero things I can now say three and happily show off my brilliant language skills by saying „Please“, „Thanks“ and „Good-bye“ in – as I imagine – flawless Polish.
We’re staying in an apartment right on Grodzka street, the connection between the Rynek Glówny and the Wawel castle, so there’s people, cars and horse carriages bustling around the whole day. It’s awesome to be right in the middle of the city with all the lively city noise around you.
We arrived here on Saturday around noon. I had booked a transfer from the airport, so we driven right up to where we are now, could settle in right away and then go out for a late lunch at the Chimera Salad Bar, which I would highly recommend to anyone who likes to eat. There are dozens of salads on display, the tables are set in the sunny back of the building, with colorful vegetables on display. After that we went for cake and coffee (or hot chocolate in my case) at the U Literatów, once again the tables were set in the back yard with little birds chirping for the delight of yours truly.
From then on we spent most of our time here eating, sleeping and hanging out in jazz bars. There’s live music every night in one of the countless jazz bars, the best one so far being The Piano Rouge right at the square, which is all kitschy and velvety, with glitter and plush where you can make yourself comfortable on one of the sofas and listen to a jazz quartet while sipping on a cocktail. I haven’t made any pictures yet, because we didn’t bring the camera the first time we went there, but I will and we plan on returning there this very night.
The rest of the time we walk around the city. So far there’s been no need for us to use any public transportation. The main attractions are all within walking distance. There’s a salt mine we want to visit which is a bit farther away (naturally, since you rarely see a salt mine in the middle of a city), but apart from that, we are happy with what we have around here.
And just about now, the husband’s getting ready, and we’re about to leave and go down to the river, have a look at what’s there.