We took a weekend jaunt across the border to Krakow, thanks to low-cost airline WizzAir. Buying tickets was a bit of a drama, as a bank request from Ukraine (land of cyber crime) triggers your credit card's fraud department. And when I called to unblock the cards, it turned out that someone had actually hacked one of our Visa cards! Now what kind of stupid criminal steals a card number to sign up for Chemistry.com? Where you have to enter personal information. I mean, really.
Anyway, we can fly to Kratowice airport, which is about an hour and a half by car from Krakow proper. We rented an apartment in the Jewish district - a really nice location and once again it proved that VRBO.com is a great website. For $100 a night - the same as a hotel - we got a kitchen and the care of the apartment owner's parents! You can see the apartment in the photos - the big comfy beds. And they had internet, so a certain teenager was pleased. 
The city looked a lot like our trip to Lviv - which was only about 100 miles west, but a world away. As M said - this is a real country, they have more than one chain restaurant. So yes, mom, we did eat at KFC and even bought Subway sandwiches for the flight home on Monday night. Things you wouldn't think twice about at home are a real treat abroad.
Anyway, we can fly to Kratowice airport, which is about an hour and a half by car from Krakow proper. We rented an apartment in the Jewish district - a really nice location and once again it proved that VRBO.com is a great website. For $100 a night - the same as a hotel - we got a kitchen and the care of the apartment owner's parents! You can see the apartment in the photos - the big comfy beds. And they had internet, so a certain teenager was pleased. 
The city looked a lot like our trip to Lviv - which was only about 100 miles west, but a world away. As M said - this is a real country, they have more than one chain restaurant. So yes, mom, we did eat at KFC and even bought Subway sandwiches for the flight home on Monday night. Things you wouldn't think twice about at home are a real treat abroad.Krakow is centered around the Stare Misto - the old city. We stayed just outside, but to walk end to end takes about 45 minutes, so we saw quite a lot. I'll talk about the trip to Auschwitz 
separately, but we spent a lot of time on the main square by the Cloth Hall. We saw Wawel Castle - where the Polish President who was killed in the tragic plane crash last month was just buried. Due to an oversight by our tour guide (me) the Royal Tombs were closed when we went on Monday. But we saw the main building, and it was sunny and warm.
The photos to the left at the Main Square.
separately, but we spent a lot of time on the main square by the Cloth Hall. We saw Wawel Castle - where the Polish President who was killed in the tragic plane crash last month was just buried. Due to an oversight by our tour guide (me) the Royal Tombs were closed when we went on Monday. But we saw the main building, and it was sunny and warm. In fact, we missed a lot on the trip, I was tired and it's hard to travel with 3 kids, especially when they don't have set schedules. I was very grumpy when I had to nurse while actually walking the streets of a strange city. And it did rain on and off most of the time, but I was actually smart enough to bring raincoats for everyone and an umbrella, and we bought another when we were there - as I was buying it an older Polish man came up and said something we didn't understand, but I did get the words girl and healthy, so I think he approved of us protecting the kids from the evil cold-inducing rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment