Continuing with Part 2 of my trip, where we head to Poland. First exploring Krakow, including a day trip to Auschwitz and the Salt Mine, followed by a stopover in Lodz to watch a volleyball match, and finally ending the trip in Warsaw.
Day 7. Travelling from Berlin to Warsaw - AN ORDEAL.
We checked out from our Berlin hotel and headed to the train station nearby, intending to catch an 8.13am regional train to the airport. Bad luck with transportation continues, as we were waiting on the platform and eventually realised that the little x next to the train on the monitor meant that it was cancelled, apparently due to due to staff shortage. Luckily, there is S bahn which also goes to the airport. Dropped off our bags, and took awhile to even find a gate that was open to clear security. Germany was not the efficient country I thought it was! We made it to the boarding gate, and of course, the flight was delayed. We were taking a flight from Berlin to Warsaw, then onwards to Krakow (because somehow there weren't any direct flights that day). We only had a 55min connection time, and our first flight departed late by 30min. so obviously, was super duper anxious. When we finally landed in Warsaw, we still had to board a bus to bring us to the terminal. So we speed walked to the boarding gate which was having its final boarding call, and made it to the plane to Krakow.
I was all happy and relaxed now, but then we landed and waited too long for our baggage. So I headed to the info counter, and of course, our baggage was stuck in Warsaw as there probably wasn't time to send it to the connecting flight. The lady at the counter told us it would arrive "either tonight or tmr morning". I just about fainted. Tomorrow morning means we wouldn't have all our bathing essentials, sleeping clothes, chargers, EVERYTHING. I intended to take a taxi from the airport to our accomodation at Stradonia Serviced Apartments, but there weren't any taxis in sight at first and I realised that it was more expensive than I initially thought it was (fixed price of 109 pln to the Old Town). Now that we didn't have our luggage, we decided to maybe try taking the train. Unfortunately, the ticket system is so difficult to understand and I took too long trying to key in the correct station and the train left and the next train was 30min later, so we headed back to the taxi area and eventually managed to grab one and were finally on our way to the accoms, Stradonia Serviced Apartments.
Since our accoms was a serviced apartment, they don't provide anything other than towels and body wash. I initially planned to walk around the Kazimierz (jewish) district and visit the old synagogue but was in no mood to do this now, and it was snowing so heavily. So we decided to just go for dinner as I had made a 6.30pm reservation and head to the shopping mall after to get some essentials.
We went to Starka for dinner, just a 10min walk away from our apartment. Tried pierogis, cauliflower soup, pork tenderloin and beetroot gnocchi (with veg!) and the food was all so different and interesting! We also ordered vodka and a coffee liqeur that was suuper good. At least a satisfying meal after an extremely stressful day.
Uber is cheap in Poland (average 20pln, or less than 7 sgd per trip), so we took an uber to one of the main shopping malls called Galeria Krakowska near the train station to buy essentials in case our luggage didn't arrive that night.
We were gathering stuff in Carrefour when I received a text message that my luggage was in Krakow (yay!), but we weren't sure if the courier would deliver it that night or the next morning, so decided to get toothbrushes and some long pants for sleeping anyway. On the uber back, I saw that my luggage airtag was already at the accoms and could finally breathe a sigh of relief!! Lesson learnt - never book a flight with such a short connection time ever again!
Day 8. Explore Krakow day!
It was still snowing like crazy and the snow was like at least 5 inches deep so it was a struggle to walk. We started the morning with a walk to the Kazimierz district for breakfast at Poranki. Got the chimichurri waffles and the french toast and it was soo good. Never seen so many fruits on french toast before. Luckily we went early too as it got full super quickly.
Walked around jewish district and tried to eavesdrop on other people's walking tours haha.
Then headed to Okraglak which is like a food court/flea market to get the famous zapiekanki which is is this mega huge toast that is super cheap. We had to ask to cut it in half because it was too long to handle! The original ver is just mushrooms and cheese on toasted bread but we had the spinach ver and it was also super good.
Uber-ed to Schindler's Factory, which is another WWII museum, but this time from the Polish point of view. It looks small on the outside but we spent more than 2.5h and were still rushing a little bit.
Next, headed over to the Square of Ghetto Heroes, with all the chairs covered in snow.
Next stop was a quick lunch at Krakus, which is a traditional Polish milk bar that serves super cheap and filling food. Definitely a different and unique Polish experience.
Took Uber again to the Wawel cathedral and castle. The cathedral was quite worth visiting, and there's a tiny bell tower to climb to get to the top with nice views of the city. But we thought the castle exhibit was pretty boring.
Finally, time to head over to the Old Town of Krakow which is just 10min away by walking. It was about 5pm but already dark so all the Christmas lights were up and it was very pretty. But also super duper cold and extremely difficult to walk because of the snow.
Went to the St Mary's basilica and Cloth Hall, which sells lots of souvenirs.
Then visited the Rynek Underground Museum which talks about Krakow as a medieval old town. pretty interesting!
Finally, headed to the Christmas Market for dinner. It's one of the larger Christmas markets so far and it was also really crowded as it was a Sunday. Tried the grilled cheese which is a THING in Poland, and surprisingly really liked it. Also ordered some kebab with veg and I didn't realise the meat is by weight, plus I may have gotten double charged for the veg so my dish ended up costing 40 bucks! Oh wells.
Before going back, headed to E.Wedel choc cafe right in the Old Town to buy many chocs and try the hot chocolate
and omg, it was SO thick. One of the best I've ever tried. it was
practically drinking melted chocolate.
And also stopped by the Chimney Cake Bakery to get one of these, which is similar to trdelnik in Czech Republic.
Day 9. Day trip to Auschwitz and Salt Mine.
As we were to be picked up at 8.15am, we bought some bread from the bakery next door for a quick breakfast.
I had booked a private transfer and private tour guide that amounted to 440 euros for 3 people, because I'm not a fan of huge tour groups. Our driver picked us up at 8.15am as agreed and it was a 1.5h drive to Auschwitz. The weather happened to be really good so the views were awesome, and our driver also doubled up as a guide and told us lots of interesting tidbits and anecdotes as well as some history of Auschwitz along the way. When we arrived, we got our tickets and had to go through a quick security check, then headed for the first part of the tour at Auschwitz I with our private guide. It was still super crowded in the exhibit rooms and we had to get through the rooms quite quickly, but at least we could squeeze our way to the front and see the exhibits clearly instead of being stuck in a large group.
I have read many historical fiction books, and lots on wiki, but of course, there were still many things i didn't know, and having a guide really helps to provide the context for the exhibits. It was really horrifying to know that the Jews were tricked into moving to the camps, and were told to bring 25kg worth of baggage for a new life. Then they arrived at the camp and all their belongings were taken away because what new life? It was selection for work or the gas chambers. There was one display which was just thousands of shoes, and another display of thousands of suitcases.
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| Entrance to Auschwitz camp. Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work Sets You Free" |
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| Death Wall |
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| Entrance to the gas chambers |
After they were killed in the gas chambers, the Nazis took everything valuable from the corpses, like gold fillings from teeth, and even hair to make textiles.
The second part of the tour is at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where the trains led straight to the gas chambers, although they
were all destroyed by the Germans to remove evidence. There are some barracks but the entrances were all covered
in snow so we couldn't go in. Still, the explanation by the guide
was quite sufficient to depict the horrors.
This is the memorial to the murdered.
Auschwitz is definitely worth a visit if you get the opportunity. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
We headed back to Krakow, and I quickly dropped by Chalka to get their famous challah bread, and doughtnuts from Dobra Paczkarnia.
Then headed for lunch at Napnap cafe. Specifically came here because the Highlander breakfast looked SO GOOD. Oh and it was a beautiful day with clear skies too.
Unfortunately, we had to rush through our lunch because I had booked 5pm tickets to the Salt Mine, which was supposed to be less than 30min drive away. But as our bad luck continued, it suddenly became more than an hour to reach the mine. So we quickly got an Uber, and were super anxious on the way there thinking we would miss the tour (and it was the last tour of the day). Luckily, we barely made it on time. Had a 2h guided tour of the underground salt mine, taking 54 (!!) flights of stairs down. The salt sculptures were really quite impressive!
Finally, uber-ed back to Old Town
where I had reserved dinner at Pod Aniolami, which seemed to be a highly recommended restaurant. The food was good and
the Christmas decor was intense haha.
And one last final look at pretty Christmassy Krakow Old Town.
Day 10. Stopover at Lodz for volleyball!
Had a quick breakfast in the morning, then checked out and headed to the train station for our 9.24am train to Lodz. Well well, of course, the train was delayed again, but that wasn't the problem. The route shown on the monitors was wrong, so instead of heading north, it stated that the next stop was southwards! Of course, we started panicking, but thankfully, this kind man sitting next to us was like calm down, you're on the correct train, the monitor is wrong. Whew, crisis averted. What's up with the transportation in Germany and Poland :(
Anyway, we arrived at Lodz Kaliska
station an hour after schedule, and it was such a tiny station with no proper counter or
anything, including no luggage storage. So we ended up
having to uber to the other station, Lodz Fabryczna, which has luggage
storage (according to google). This was such a bizarre station because
it was very huge and fancy but almost completely empty. And since it was
so huge, I decided to ask the ticketing officer where the luggage storage is but she didn't understand English, so I had to use google
translate and finally got the info I needed. Poland is not an
easy country to travel if you don't speak Polish!
Since we were so delayed, had to cut the itinerary and skip Manufaktura. Headed to Piotrkowska street which is their main street which was nicely decorated.
Walked around a bit, went to flying tiger which is the european store full of cute things, then headed for dinner at Anatewka. First time eating at a jewish restaurant! Had the fried salmon, some pork dish, sauerkraut and fried cabbage. Also tried jewish coffee which has vodka and it was so strong! And ordered halva ice cream for dessert and it had such an interesting texture and taste! We really liked it.
After the previous day of rushing, decided to uber to the Sports Arena and reach early, but we were TOO early haha. We arrived at 445pm for the 6pm game and the doors weren't even open yet. Which meant we had to wait outside...in the freezing cold. At 5pm finally the doors opened, managed to find our way to our section and the players were already warming up. So it's one of the early rounds of Champions League volleyball, and its LKS Lodz (who won last year's Polish league) vs SC Prometey from Ukraine. And the reason I'm even interested in watching this is because Roberta, the setter from the Brazilian national team plays for LKS!
Before the games, the fans stand up to sing their club song and wow, it was an experience! The fans will hold up their scarves and really SING. So the game started on time and in the first set, LKS won narrowly by 25-23. LKS lost the second set, and narrowly won the third set by 28-26. They should have closed it in the fourth set but they have a tendency to falter. So we're going to tie breaker with a fifth set. It was 7-7 and there was a challenge with the point going to LKS, and from then on LKS managed to widen the gap and win the match.
Post-match, there was still lots of fanfare. MVP award went to their middle blocker Aleksandra Gryka. And then there was this super long celebration with the fans, and finally at the end, the players go around the arena to hi five EVERYONE who sticks their hand out.
Managed to stand at the railings and hi-five a
bunch of players including Roberta, who
said thank you (: I guess it was worth it spending an entire day to detour
to Lodz for the match - got treated to a 5 setter, the full works of the
fan experience, and a hi-five. Way more than what I asked for haha.
It was about 9pm by now, so we took an Uber to the station to pick up our luggage, and then another Uber all the way to our hotel in Warsaw which is 1.5h away. I was initially considering other options like the train or Flixbus which are of course much cheaper, but I'm travelling with my parents who are on the older side haha. Checked in to NYX hotel, which is pretty new, and got a free upgrade to a much larger room as well!
Day 11. Full day in Warsaw.
Woke up at 6.30am to go
to the gym to run. Early bird catches the worm...or the treadmill. I
was the first in, and by 7am, quite a few more people came in, but there
were only 2 treadmill machines and both were already in use.
Decided to try the public transport in Poland for the first time by taking a tram to our breakfast place. A single ticket costs 3.40pln per person for a 20 min ride. Went to Na Bank Specialty Coffee, and ordered turkish eggs, sweet brioche, this pastry which looked good, a flat white and a flavoured latte. Yummms.
From here, it's a 15min walk to the Presidential Palace, which you can enter through a tour I think (we saw a line), but I wasn't too interested in this.
Walked along the Royal route to reach the Royal Castle of Warsaw, and realised there's free tickets on Wednesday so yay! I do regret not getting the audio guides though because there weren't many descriptions for the exhibits.
Area around the Castle had lots of pretty Christmas decor.
We walked past a street that looked like a Christmas market with Christmas decor and food stalls so I thought that was the old town Christmas market we were supposed to visit. We got some crispy prawns which were super yummy!
Then went to a super cozy cafe called Shabby for more
coffee and cakes.
Headed to the main square of Old Town and realised that oh THIS is where the Christmas market is supposed to be haha. The square is super pretty but the market was pretty small with very few stalls and all of them sold mulled wine.
Next stop was the Polin
museum for the history of Jews. Just outside is the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.
Spent almost 3h in the museum and still had to rush through the end, because it started from literally the beginning in the early centuries, all the way to WWII and post-war years. Definitely worth visiting for history buffs.
Next stop was the Palace of Culture and Science which is like Warsaw's Empire State Building. I wanted to take the tram but the one ticket machine was down, so ended up ubering again! The building is super pretty from the outside when it's lit up at night, though we skipped going up. Instead, headed to do some quick shopping at the huge mall opposite.
Finally headed for our last dinner of the trip at Stara Kamienicka, which serves traditional Polish food.
Day 12. Last day of the trip!
It was snowing in the morning so we took uber (again) to Bułkę przez Bibułkę, a very popular cafe. We went early so we managed to get a seat quickly. Ordered a bagel and this soft boiled egg breakfast that was not the yakun soft boiled egg we were expecting haha. As well as a flat white and a nut-flavoured latte which was really good!
For our final museum of the trip, we went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum which luckily
opens early. The layout was so confusing though! Nearly missed an
entire section because it was underground. But I really liked the section which highlights the contribution by the females to the uprising and war.
Passed by Vincent Boulangerie so
decided to takeaway some pastries for lunch before our flight. Headed back to the
hotel to change into flight-appropriate clothes, and were on our way to the airport, where we did MORE shopping. And for the hundredth
time this trip, our flight was delayed again! Due to de-icing. We
were seated in the plane when it was still bright and by the time it
left, it was pitch dark. We left about an hour late, but luckily, we had a 3h layover in Doha so
we had plenty of time. It was also a super strange flight. It was only 4h but there
were so many people standing up and talking and it was almost like a party haha. And apparently there was some drama with many people trying to switch seats lol.
The service was pretty bad for this flight, and worse, for the meal, there
were only two options - vegetarian pasta and beef. How is that possible! I've taken my fair share of flights and there's usually at least 2 non-veg options. I don't eat beef so I took the vegetarian pasta which had no vegetables, only carbs. Luckily, the second
flight had better service and better food. And that's the end of our very eventful trip!