Off to Krakow, Poland!

We got up early in the morning to catch the S-Bahn to the airport. We were greeted by a nasty surprise though- there was a public transport strike going on, which meant that only one train was going to the airport (instead of two). So there we were, rather stressed out by the thought of missing our flight! Groan.

Thank God we managed to get there on time; and we checked in quickly using those check-in kiosks; very convenient.

Munich airport

Our adventures for the day were far from over. When we arrived in Krakow, the Immigration Officer at passport control gave us SUCH a hard time. He inspected our passports with a magnifying glass, asked for our return flight and accommodation details; and through it all he wore such an unpleasant expression on his face. I think that was seriously the longest I have ever had to wait to get into any country. Was so darn annoyed- duh, seriously, if I were an illegal immigrant leaving my country in search of a better life elsewhere, would I choose Poland???

Anyway, we finally got through, picked up our backpacks and then proceeded to catch the bus to town. I have to say that the signs in Krakow, in general, are really not that easy to follow. We finally found the bus stop, waited half an hour for the bus and then off we went to town. The route to town was rather odd, because the bus seemed to be going through small villages all the way (i.e. not a highway or trunk roads).

We finally got to town, and then decided to be gung-ho and walk to the hotel, instead of catching a taxi, and we ended up getting lost. Walking up and down with a huge backpack was certainly no fun at all. :p

The hotel was situated very near the Old Town so that was nice. Hubby commented that the layout of the town was rather unique, as there was a ring of greenery around the town centre, which made the walk quite pleasant.

The beautiful Old Town Square (Rynek Glowny) is the largest medieval town square in Europe. It is dominated by the spectacular 16th-century Renaissance Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), the 14th-century St.Mary’s church, and the Town Hall Tower. One thing I noticed was that people seemed to be really like flowers- quite a lot of people brought bouquets to greet their loved ones at the airport, and you can see people buying and carrying flowers everywhere. Even Rynek Glowny was filled with flower vendors!

The beautiful Cloth Hall

Munching a pretzel we bought from one of the many street vendors, we walked down ul Florianska right up to the Florian Gate and the Barbican, a defensive bastion built in 1498. After exchanging Euros for Polish Zlotys, we went in search of dinner.

We stumbled upon this nice restaurant called Nostalgia, featured in our Lonely Planet. I was so excited about trying Polish food, heh. Hubby ordered the pork loins in green pepper sauce, and I ordered a traditional Polish soup called ‘zurek’, which had sausages and slices of hard boiled egg in it. Now I’m not sure whether ‘zurek’ is meant to taste like that (*cough* *splutter*); if I may say this in the words of dear Fatboy- it was saltier than the Dead Sea! :p

My super-salty 'zurek'

I was so stuffed from having to eat the soup with some bread, that I had little room left for my main course- Russian dumplings, which were dumplings filled with cheese, and complimented with a sprinkling of bacon bits. They were so filling, and I simply could not manage to eat all of them.

Oh, and beer was Zywiec this time! :)