How to Make the Most out of a Trip to Krakow, Poland

How to Make the Most out of a Short Trip to Krakow, Poland

Place to Stay:

I highly recommend the Greg & Tom Beer Hostel. This hostel is a very clean, cheap, friendly place that offers free Traditional Polish dishes for dinner every night as long as you sign up for it during the day at the reception desk. The staff is extremely helpful and it is so easy to meet people no matter if you show up in a big group or by yourself. I met many people there that made my stay that much better. Take the suggestions of the staff about what to do, where to eat, etc.

Click Here to Access Their Website

Address: Floriańska 43, 31-019 Kraków, Poland

Phone:+48 12 421 28 64

Places to See:

1. Auschwitz: Take a bus to Auschwitz (about $7 US dollars roundtrip and 1.5 hours each way) for a day to visit the main Nazi concentration camp. Take the tour in your language for about $10 US dollars. It is something so amazing that you will never forget. History actually comes to life. I have a very short attention span but I never once lost interest during the entire 4 hour tour. Words cannot describe this experience. Take a day to go there!!

Below: The entrance to the main camp

Below: Inside the camp, the different buildings.

Below: The camp of Burkenow (sp?) The railroad enters into this large camp with the two biggest gas chambers. Breathtaking.

Eating is always important!

1. Eat at U Babci Maliny! Getting into the restaurant is a bit strange. All you see from the road is a sign, similar to the picture below, then you walk through the huge doors into a museum looking place and walk straight until you can turn left into a courtyard and see a sign that again looks like the one below and walk through the doors on your left, go down the stares, follow the hallway to the right and enter the doors on your left to find many picnic tables. The entrance was interesting and made us a bit nervous but the food was to die for! We each ordered different items and everything was delicious and cheap once again! Leave it to Poland to have the most amazing food you will ever try in your life for the lowest price!

Click Here to Access The Website (sorry it's all in polish)

Address:

17 Ulica Slawkowska and 38 Ulica Szpitalna., Krakow, Poland (Stare Miasto)

Below is an example of the food we tried! Ruski Pierogies, Polish Potatoes, and another amazing dish! YUMMY!!!

Below: Inside of the restaurant. Great place for groups!

2. Go to the Chocolate stores! Below is a picture of the chocolaterie right across the street from our hostel. The chocolate was cheap and delicious and the people inside were super friendly! They also have different chocolate drinks and a place to sit down and enjoy your food!

They also have colorful chocolates!

Fun Things to Do!

1. Do anything & everything your hostel suggests! We went on the pub crawl which gave us drinks & entrance to all the different pubs, along with getting to meet some awesome people! We had a fabulous night & I made many new friends! The Greg & Tom Beer Hostel really knows what they're doing!

2. Visit the Beautiful Sites in Krakow! Unfortunately, I did not have as much time in Krakow as I would have liked but I believe they have a free walking tour... DO IT!!! I cannot tell you how beautiful this city is!!

Even gloomy, early mornings are absolutely beautiful and made saying goodbye to Krakow very difficult!

How to get there? FLY!

Easy Jet is a very nice airline... as long as you don't bring more than a backpack or plan to eat or drink on the plane! The seats are comfy, the service is nice, however anything additional will cost you a bunch of money! Who cares! Getting to and from Krakow on this airline was cheap and totally worth it!

Reserve Your Eurotrip Here Today!

Goodbye Poland, Until Next Time! (There WILL be a next time!)

8 Things to Do & See in Warsaw Poland

8 Necessary Things to Do & See in Warsaw, Poland

Before Naming these things, I highly suggest one stay at the "Fest Hostel." 

It is extremely cheap, clean, & the man who runs this hostel is absolutely awesome! It is located right next to old town warsaw and the newer downtown area!

Address:

Oboźna 7, 00-332 Warszawa, Poland ‎

+48 506 285 286

 Click here to go to the Fest Hostel Website in English

1. Take the Free Walking Tour of Old Warsaw from the man or women under the orange umbrella! There is a free tour everyday that meets by the huge column in the middle of old town warsaw, right by where the picture below was taken. Although this tour is free, it is an amazing experience and the guides are very passionate about what they are showing you. They work on a tip-only basis, however they typically have to pay a certain amount per person on the tour (this means each person that STARTS the tour, even if people don't stay with the guide till the end, the guide must pay the company for that person). AKA you should tip well. Obviously, it does not need to be an insane amount, unless you absolutely loved it, but the equivalence of $7-15 american dollars per person would be appropriate.

Click here to visit their Facebook page and see the daily times!

The bell displayed below is one of the places on the tour. In this spot, people are supposed to put their hand on the top, and hop on one foot around the bell a certain amount of times for goodluck.

Below: a lovely passage during the tour

At the end of the tour, our guide took us to this bar and explained to us how the polish drink their vodka. They eat very fatty foods then take it in ice cold shots with one quick push down their throat and into their bellies. The fatty food helps them to not get drunk too fast & to not have hangovers.

Of course, we had to try this. The guide gave everyone a slice of bread with lard (fat) & a pickle on top, right before our ice cold shot of vodka. I hate lard & pickles but I had to try it, & surprisingly it was delicious! This was a great end to a fabulous free tour!

2. Eat Pierogis!!! (AKA polish dumplings). Below is the place we first tried them. Ask your tour guide for the perfect place (not the touristy ones). Try as many different kinds as possible! They are all amazing and nothing is expensive in Poland, but the food is incredible! The restaurant we chose was Pierogarnia na Bednarskiej which was recommended by our tour guide and was absolutely delicious.

Click here to view their menu in English 

(remember these prices are in polish money. There is about 3 polish currency to 1 US dollar. 12 polish currency = 4 american dollars)

Hours & Address:

12:00 - 20:00
ul. Bednarska 28/30
Warszawa
tel. 022 828 03 92

There were so many types, we couldn't choose just one. We got 9 (half orders) of different types and split them between myself and my two friends... which was perfect because each half order contained 3! There were spicy ones like the red one, ones with spinach like the green one, dessert ones with the cream on top, and my absolute favorite periogi ruski (russian periogis with mashed potatoes and cream cheese inside).

As you can see, there are many different types for everyone to enjoy!

3. Venture around to the newer part of the town at night. There are many people walking the streets shopping and eating. There are beautiful buildings like the one below to admire during this time. It is a fun experience and atmosphere that you don't want to miss seeing!

4. Eat at one of those random restaurants for an adventure! We chose to eat at "The Mexican." We were looking for some good mexican food, but as poland is far away from Mexico, it was nowhere near my idea of Mexican food but was still pretty good. Below is the burrito I ordered and received cabbage and rice on the side. It was delicious but not what I expected. I also ordered a margarita, excited that someone in Europe actually knew what that was, but was surprised to taste something with vodka in it & my "salt" was actually sugar. Pretty much, I was given a daiquiri but it was great non-the-less and totally worth it for the experience. In the middle of dinner the lights went off and we heard a table scream with excitement. We saw the table stand up and a cake with candles was brought to the table and they sang a loud happy song in polish and were all screaming. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen but it was awesome!

5. Visit the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It is very hard to follow the order of the museum but it is interesting to see. This is probably not the place for children as there is a good amount of reading, but there are also short films, radio edits, and many things to see. Definitely hit this up if you are a history fanatic!

6. Take buses to places you can't walk. Most places are walkable, however, if you are on a time schedule as we were, the bus system is cheap and goes many different places. Talk to the person at your hostel or your tour guide to figure out which buses you need to take where. If you're staying at the Fest Hostel, the man (Martin) is extremely helpful and eager to talk to you about anything.

7. Visit the Landmarks noted on your map. There are many beautiful places to be seen in Warsaw! Don't take these for granted & make an effort to see them!

8. For late night (8-12ish) food or drinks, eat at Grawitacja Klubokawiarnia. Don't ask me how it's pronounced but this place has great food and many students go here. This is also a bar scene and is very close to the fest hostel. The people here speak English and the food & drinks are pretty cheap. Martin (the man who runs fest hostel) can give you discounts on the food as well.

Address: Browarna 6 00-311 Warsaw, Poland +48 510 501 051

All in all, Warsaw is one of the most amazing places to visit! It is extremely cheap and you are sure to have a good time! Don't be afraid to ask questions to those who speak English and explore as much as possible! Crazy Adventures sometimes make for the best stories!

From Vichy, France to Berlin, Germany

Monday Morning around 11:30 am we were on the road to Paris from Vichy (railroad that is). After a 3 hour train ride, we arrived to a typical day in Paris, rainy. Paris isn't all that far from London after all. Jacob had wanted to head to the eiffel tower, so with our suitcases we took the Metro to arrive at Bir Hakeim, the metro station next to the eiffel tower. We walked through the horrible rain, which kept getting progessively worse, and we were some of the only people at the eiffel tower. We got the typical picture and headed to find some food. 

If you've ever been to France, you know that this is no easy task, especially when trying to stay on a budget. After awhile, the rain got so bad you could barely see five feet in front of your face so we stopped at the first cafe we found, Salon de The. We all ordered sandwiches for about 7 euros, and they weren't even that good. Jacob, however, did not receive what he ordered. Instead they gave him a salmon sandwich that was about 7 euros more than his choice. Being a nice guy, he told the waiter he would eat it anyways. When the bill arrived, Jacob immediately regretted that decision because he was charged for the salmon sandwich that he didn't even want to begin with. Clearly, Jacob was no happy camper. 

Finally, we went to the Orly airport and hopped on our plane with a final destination of Warsaw, Poland. Two hours later we were in Berlin around 11:30 pm with only a backpack & no place to sleep for an 18 hour layover (yes, we thought that was a good idea). After 4-5 miserable hours of sleeping on top of heaters in the airport, we woke up, grabbed some starbucks, and headed out to explore the city. We originally planned to walk to everything to save money, but when a man approached us and showed us the distance and told us we could pay 16 euros for a group bus pass for the entire day, we each paid our 4 euros and jumped on the bus. When we arrived downtown, our first mission was to find the berlin wall. This, however, was no easy task. We got lost about every 5 minutes and had to let Jacob and Zach stare at the map to decide where we were and where we should head. I had a great time just tagging along as you can see.

After about an hour of being lost we finally arrived! It was incredible to see the wall still set up & read the stories written around it. It seemed so surreal that someone could set up a wall to keep people in a city. The distance between the two walls was much further than I had pictured, probably a little less than a football field apart. I can imagine seeing my loved one die trying to escape. It's crazy how many people died attempting. I was very glad to be able to see this landmark from history.

Next, we headed to see all the pretty buildings we had passed on our way. Women kept coming up to us asking if we spoke English so we could sign their paper or tell us about their hard life and ask for money. It's sad to see, but it's impossible to give money to everyone who asks.... so we tried to ignore them and pass on. This church was gorgeous. We tried to walk in but it was a paid tour and we didn't have time to do a tour.

One thing I learned about Germany is that everywhere you go, there are bizarre signs, stores, and objects. Below is just one example of the things we saw. Germany is such a different world.

We found another building, I believe this was the Justice building. The architecture everywhere in Europe is absolutely incredible.

Our next stop was the president's house. Naturally, we all took jumping pictures in front of the president's house. This is comparable to the white house in the United States.

Our last stop in Berlin was this beautiful tower just down the road from the president's house. It was in the middle of a roundabout and all the way around it were statures of famous military officials. It was beautiful. As it was our final stop, we paid 2 euros to climb to the top.

After what seemed like a thousand stairs, WE MADE IT! Our trip to Berlin had been complete and we were able to look and see all the beautiful places we had seen during the day from one spot. It was incredible and very refreshing. Back to the airport we headed to catch our flight to Warsaw, Poland!

Lyon, The Most Underrated City in France

Waking Up Wednesday morning to a text saying my only class for the day was cancelled put me in a fabulous mood! I was able to spend all day relaxing with friends and even made homemade peroogies! I used ricotta instead of cottage cheese for the inside but they ended up still tasting amazing!

Thursday I decided to go to Lyon with my friends and went to open a French bank account… we had to make an appointment to set up an account so we decided to go back on Friday after school.

Friday morning I had a class on the European Union and it turned out to be my favorite class that I am taking! I can’t wait to understand this craziness a bit better! After class we decided it’d be better to leave early Saturday for Lyon than late Friday and save about $40 each on the hotel for one less night.

Around 8am Saturday morning we were off to one of the most underrated cities in France. Arriving in Lyon, seeing the beautiful French buildings, the metro, the tram, and the beautiful churches, I knew it was going to be an amazing two days. We went to another “kebab” shop to save money for lunch then hopped on the metro and headed to the center of the city. Walking out of the metro, which was extremely clean, we instantly saw a Ferris wheel and a big open square surrounded by beautiful French architecture. There was a huge protest going on in the square at the time so we kept walking when we arrived at a huge river. Across the river was one of the most beautiful sites I had ever seen. There was a big city on a hill with the “Notre Dame Basilique” at the very top. We crossed the bridge and began our journey up the hill to see this beautiful place. On the way we passed another huge church with beautiful architecture and three red doors to get in. I was mind blown and I had only been in this city for less than two hours. On the way up the hill we stopped at an overlook of the city and again I was speechless. We had a perfect view of the river, the bridges, the buildings, and the whole atmosphere. It was absolutely astonishing. Upon further continuation up the hill, we ran into beautiful roman ruins. It was like a theater set up. This city was not going to let me take a breath even for a second. Seeing the stone mixed with the green grass in a stadium set up made me feel like I had entered a whole new world. We continued further and reached the basilique. Hearing a man play the accordion set the mood to bring me back to the realization that I was in France about to enter one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Each inch of the walls on the inside and outside of the church were covered with detail that would take days to even be able to fully see each part. I couldn’t imagine how long it took to build it. Once we entered the church, there were candles everywhere and beautiful colored stain glass windows the architecture being even more detailed and mind-blowing than the outside. We spent a good amount of time trying to grasp the moment and beauty of the basilique before we headed on our way back down the hill. Once we arrived at the bottom we found a street that was just bursting with excitement! An irish pub to our left flowing with people, an old Moroccan store to our right, a guy making crepes on the left again, and so much more. It was so lively and full of new things. Finally, on the left we found what we were looking for, an ancient “traboule” aka underground passageway that used to take the silk makers from their shops to the merchants between the streets. It was cool to see, although we only ever found that one, as they were a bit hard to find. I felt like I was back in the old days walking through the traboule. After this it was getting late and we thought it was a good time to head back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. We took the metro to get to “Chinatown” which was supposedly the third biggest Chinatown in France after the two in Paris. However, after we got off the metro, we all felt a bit funny as if we had entered the ghetto. It had an odd atmosphere and we walked a street over and found this “big Chinatown” which was actually only a small intersection with some restaurants and some lanterns hung over the streets. After scouting out china restaurant, a china buffet, a Vietnamese restaurant, and a thai restaurant, we decided to eat the first Chinese restaurant we had seen. We all decided to order “Nems” which we thought were eggrolls and then everyone ordered something different. When the “Nems” came, we were pleasantly surprised with some of the best eggrolls we had ever had. Following the nems, my “chicken fried rice” came to the table. Unfortunately, their chicken fried rice is different than in the states. I was handed a plate with white rice in one part, fried chicken (or some type of gross meat) beside that, a carrot beside that, a cucumber, and some onions beside that. It was awful! Luckily, everyone else had picked some pretty awesome meals and we laughed about my plate and had a great time! After that, we took the metro to the “Croix Rousse” thinking there were a bunch of bars where we could grab a quick drink before heading to bed, but we only found a small bar after walking a good while then grabbed a drink and jumped on the metro about 10 minutes before it closed for the night at midnight. We were exhausted and headed to bed thinking we had seen everything we wanted to see in Lyon, but when we woke up in the morning and checked the internet, we realized we had missed some things. We headed back to the “Croix Rousse” to find the famous “chokolat” which was a chocolate store with a wall of liquid chocolate. I bought the most amazing chocolate bar I have ever had in my life then we headed through a small French Sunday market and saw the things they had to offer. It was mostly produce and vegetables with a few flowers and then one man was selling flavored “nougat.” We tasted a sample and it was amazing but we had all just bought chocolate and did not buy anything from him. Afterwards, we thought it would be cool to walk through Lyon to find the Opera House instead of taking the metro again. On our way we passed this colorful wall of graffiti that looked awesome. We stopped there and took some pictures and relaxed for a bit together. Finally we started walking again and came to the Hotel de Ville. Again, I couldn’t believe how breathtaking this site was. We took pictures and just admired the place before continuing to the other side of this enormous structure. On the other side was another big open square with one of the most beautiful roman fountains I have ever seen in my life. There were restaurants on one side of the square with the “musee des beaux arts” on the other side. It was beautiful. We were all hungry so we continued on to find a restaurant. It was absolutely beautiful outside so we wanted to find a place to sit outside, but, as the French like to spend 2-3 hours on lunch, its hard to ever find a place to eat so we settled in this cute little restaurant that specialized in muscles. Everyone ordered muscles except me, because I wanted a chicken that was cooked in sour cream, cheese, and some other tasty dishes. We also had unlimited free fries that were unbelievably delicious. Everyone agreed that altogether it was one of the best meals we have had since arriving in France. It was so nice to sit down and relax and enjoy each others company like the French do. Afterwards, we set out to find the opera, only to realize that it had been right beside the hotel de ville the whole time but we hadn’t noticed because we had been blown away by the beauty of the hotel de ville. Unfortunately we could not enter the opera and it was nothing too exciting to see. However, there were some men playing music and breakdancing right beside it so we enjoyed their “show” for a bit then headed back and were on our way back home to Vichy. Lyon was not a place I had ever planned to visit, but is definitely underrated by those visiting France. It has the city atmosphere and is lively like most places one would visit, but has less people, and is cleaner than most cities. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this dreamland and would highly suggest this trip to anyone who is travelling to France.

Finally Home Again

This week flew by… I can’t even figure out how it’s already Monday again! Last Monday and Wednesday we had different teachers for French class. The first was a lady who was much more strict than our normal teacher. I liked her because it was a bit more challenging although I can’t remember her name… Wednesday we had Sebastien and he was awesome! He was hilarious and taught us so much. Instead of going over the assignments as a class he came around and helped us each individually with our mistakes and explained it in depth to us. I learned the most that day.

Monday night, my friends and I stayed up till 4 am eating nutella and chips and hanging out. It was a good bonding time… I absolutely love the people here. I already consider them some of my closer friends.

Tuesday and Wednesday we all just laid around hanging out. Nick showed me a new grocery store where I found baking soda! I was ecstatic! I ended up making cookies Thursday night for Lauren’s birthday! Then we all went to Said’s house to celebrate with her. The house was absolutely packed with all the people in our program and he turned his house into a club type space with strobe lights. We all had a blast… I crawled into my bed at a decent hour that night and made it to class in the morning. Friday we watched a movie with the intermediate class. It was about foreign exchange students going to school in Barcelona which was pretty cool since it relates directly to my life now and my life in about 3 more months! After school I took the train from Vichy to Nevers then from Nevers to St Pierre then from St Pierre to Angers to see my host family for the weekend. The ticket there and back cost about 80 euros which wasn’t terrible. It took me about 5 hours each way. The train from St Pierre to Angers was a TGV and was a double decker! I was overly excited for that! I arrived and Nicolas & Vincent picked me up and took me home. Everyone was there and I had so much fun being back home again with them! I missed them all so much! I truly think of them as my family. My mom had made me chocolate mousse and an amazing sponge cake with nutella in the middle. We stayed up and talked for a bit then headed to bed. In the morning my mom cooked an amazing appetizer with eggs, sour cream, and cheese. It was awesome! Then we had lasagna and chicken cordon bleu and I was absolutely stuffed! I had forgotten how much the French eat… still have no idea how they aren’t all obese! I couldn’t even bare to look at the cheese or chocolate mousse that they all ate after lunch! Nicolas and I headed to what he claims is the biggest mall in all of France, although I don’t know if I believe him. We shopped for a bit then headed back to the house where Coralie met us to take me to Rennes for Marella’s birthday. It was so amazing to see them both again!! It seems like it’s been so long but we picked up right where we left off and nothing had changed! It was such a great night! We went to a big discotech outside of Rennes that had 5 rooms. The first was the huge main room with couches and tables wrapped around the ginormous dance floor in the middle with crazy lights flashing to the beat of the music that the DJ was playing. When you went up the stairs, there was a big dance room/bar to the left playing really random songs and another big dance room/bar to the right playing old school French music. Finally there was another room off to the side which was a bar that was like a cinema playing a movie… despicable me to be exact (extremely random), and there was a huge hulk statue in there. I think it was the most random discotech I have ever been too. There was a private club downstairs as well that wasn’t exactly any place I wanted to go. We stayed there dancing until about 5 am when we drove back to Marella’s apartment. We arrived back there around 530 and her cat had peed on the bed Coralie and I were supposed to sleep on so we stayed up till about 630 cleaning that and finally went to bed… well attempted to go to bed. We had put her cat in the laundry room so she wouldn’t pee on the bed again and she apparently hated it because she banged on the door all night. It was so loud, it sounded like someone was trying to break in, and you would have never known a cat was making such loud noises. Around noon we gave up on trying to continue to sleep and woke up and ate breakfast then Coralie and I headed back to Angers. We stopped at Mcdonald’s on the way, which was so different than the USA. Nobody came to the counter to ask for our order because they assumed we would be using a credit card which means you have to put in your own order on their little screens. Unfortunately, my American card wouldn’t work in that machine so Coralie paid for mine with hers and I paid her back… It was crazy expensive and the food wasn’t even good and greasy like normal! I paid 7.50 euros (about 10 dollars) for a McChicken Meal which would be about 4 dollars in the USA. France is so expensive! Finally I arrived back at my host families house and hung out with them for an hour and then Nicolas and Manon took me to the train station and we said our goodbyes. It was such an incredible weekend and felt amazing to be Finally Home Again with my host family and friends… however taking the train back to Vichy also made me feel amazing to be finally home again in Vichy. I will never again have one specific home; I am blessed to have many homes with many wonderful people in my life. When I arrived back in Vichy, Nick made me an amazing Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo for dinner. It was delicious!

            Monday afternoon we had our first French test. It was surprisingly hard… at least the grammar part. We had one page (front and back) of grammar, then one page (front and back) questions about a story we read, then we had to write one page (front and back) story about a murder that had occurred. The grammar was my main troublesome part. Learning French from speak has both its pros and cons. After the test Kim and I walked to Carrefour… except we didn’t make it there because we found “Leader Price” on the way there, which is a discount grocery store, and we bought all of our groceries there. It was awesome and cheap! Then we headed to the park to watch the boys play soccer and Frisbee. It was a beautiful day! At least 60 degrees farenheight with the sunshine! (It’s been a wonderful 45-50 degrees everyday but yesterday was extra special!) On top of this amazing day, I received valentines day cards from my entire family and they brightened up my day completely! I couldn't stop smiling!

            Today, I had my first business class in English, International Marketing. The professor had a thick accent but spoke pretty good English for the most part. It wasn’t the most entertaining class I’ve ever had but I think it will be good overall. However, the professor tried to tell us certain French words meant things in English that they absolutely didn’t mean…. It was interesting to say the least. After class, Kim, Jacob, and I headed to Happy Cash to get a deep fryer for everyone to use. It was 20 euros so about 6 of us paid about 3 euros. When I brought it back, Nick and I made fries and they were unquestionably delightful!! Clearly, my time here this far has been nothing but perfect! I can’t wait to see what else is in store for this adventure!