After a quick stop in Vienna, well the Vienna train station, we met back up with the rest of our group and headed off to Krakow, Poland. Our first full day in Krakow started off with a visit to the city square and the market inside of it. Full of little shops with amber jewelry, intricate woodworking, and other small items, all four of us did some family souvenir shopping here.
After some shopping, it was time to cross a vital item off of my Europe bucket list: pirogies in Poland. There was an adorable family run Polish restaurant a couple blocks from the main street that satisfied this desire. They definitely lived up to the buildup. I could have eaten my whole body weight in pirogies there. There are many intricate legends surrounding the origin of pirogies, including one that features a Saint feeding them to the people during a famine. Whatever the origin, they were delicious.
One of the girls I was travelling with really likes horses, so her eye was immediately caught by the horse drawn carriage rides around the old town. After some slight convincing from her, we were on a carriage ride that would take us all around the old town and give us great views of the Krakow castle. It was an amazing experience and we absolutely loved it. For a lot of our trip we had chosen budget options and opted out of little luxuries and add ons, so it was really nice to be able to do at least one thing like that. After our ride, we wandered over to a group of food trucks, including one doing loaded baked potatoes, and picked up some dinner to bring back to our Airbnb.
When my grandfather had heard we were going to Prague he passed on a recommendation from a friend of his to go to the Salt Mine nearby. So on the morning of our second day, that’s what we did. Descending deep into the earth we were led by our tour guide on a radio earpiece. As she led us around the mine she explained that as air was cleaner in the salt mine than above ground, the miners ended up spending large portions of time underground. This led to the creation of a salt chapel and many pieces of artwork.
After our adventure in the salt mines, we returned to the city centre for more pirogies! As well, we picked up some waffles and doughnuts. We had originally planned on going on a ghost walk but considering the fact we were falling asleep in our food at 6pm, we decided a movie night at home was the better call.
Our last full day in Krakow had been set aside to go see Auschwitz. We took the bus from the city to the site and, after some mild confusion and ticket mix ups, we began our tour. We had chosen to do the 3.5 hour tour that went through the museum and first camp and then to the second camp (Birkenau). Established in 1940, Auschwitz was one of many German concentration camps. It, however, would become one of the largest extermination centres, with over a million lives stolen on its ground.
Choosing to do a tour and be guided by an educator was definitely the right call and something I would recommend to anyone else who chooses to visit. We were warned by her before we entered the “hair room”, a room full of the hair shaved from victims of Auschwitz, because many people find it hard to look at, and rightfully so. Personally, the room I found the hardest was the “shoe room”. Wall too wall is piled with shoes taken from prisoners as they arrived or died. Some are fancy dress shoes, others slippers that reminded me of my grandfather’s, some are babies shoes not even big enough to fill your palm. Some single shoes, some in pairs, some in good condition, some in terrible condition. But all belonging to someone. Someone who had been ripped from their home and forced to be imprisoned in Auschwitz.
Auschwitz definitely wasn’t the lightest day of our trip but I think it was probably the most important one. We have remnants of war in North America and family members who fought in wars but there is a different level of reality to the atrocity of WWII from Auschwitz.
We were all travelling different ways to our next destination so everyone was on their own for the next morning. It just so happened that a couple of us had similar timing and we decided to go out to grab breakfast before leaving. We found a cute cafe not too far from our Airbnb and walked in. As we were reading the menu, my best friend and I both found ourselves entranced by the idea of a caeser salad. We had been travelling for 24 days and I genuinely don’t know if we had had a vegetable the entire time (our mothers would be so proud). As we ate our salads we both proclaimed them “the best salad we had ever eaten”.
Krakow was an unforeseen highlight of the trip. It had started as a one day layover that we had decided to extend but ended up being my favourite city we visited. It was perfect for students on a budget as well as having a good combination of history, good food, and modern activities. It is definitely on my bucket list for the return trip.