A few recommendations gleaned from my recent week in Cracow, for anyone who is heading that way soon. We stayed in an apartment called Galaxy, rented through <a href="http://warsaw.old-town-apartments.tobook.com/Poland/Hotels/Old-Town-Apartments">Old Town Apartments</a>. It cost just over £400, which between four of us worked out very reasonably for our four-night stay. We also booked their driver to pick us up from the airport, which though more expensive than a normal taxi, meant we were whisked straight to our flat rather than having to employ our own, somewhat weary, navigational skills. I went on two day trips whilst in Poland: the first was to <a href="http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/">Auschwitz</a>, the second to the <a href="http://www.krakow-info.com/wielicz.htm">Salt Mines</a> at Weiliczka. I won't dwell on the emotional experience of Auschwitz: I want to take a few days to digest it, and I'm sure I'll write about it at length later. For the moment, I'll restrict myself to practicalities: don't bother going on one of the organised tours, just get the public bus from the station. It costs about ten zloties, roughly two quid, and takes you straight to the door. The Salt Mines are really quite astonishing, and a good destination on a rainy day. The sheer size of the mine is incredible, and the variety of its current uses remarkable: it has a chapel where people can get married, regular performances by its own orchestra, and it currently holds the record for underground bungee jumping. Though I suspect there's not much competition for that. The only difficulty we had was figuring out how to get there: eventually, we stumbled upon a muddy car park full of minibuses, one of which took us to Weiliczka for two zloties fifty (about 50p), but I'm fairly sure there's an easier way: try getting the train. The mines are fairly expensive by Polish standards (from memory, it worked out about £12 each), but definitely worth it. We also visited <a href="http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/">Wawel Castle</a>, in the centre of Cracow. It's beautiful and surrounded by other equally lovely buildings, but a little confusing for the visitor. Well, this visitor anyway. You pay separately for visiting different parts of the area: so for example, we chose to visit the State Apartments and Dragon's Den, but not the Armoury or any of the separate exhibitions. To be honest, I'm not sure it was worth it. The Apartments are located in the Royal Castle and are stunning, but I didn't learn much from our visit. Each room contained a sign explaining the origin and age of every piece of furniture within, but nothing about who had lived there, or what the room had been used for. Considering that the Castle is about 700 years old and must have a fascinating history, this seemed a shame. This lack of context seems to be a Polish custom: the Salt Mines provided endless information on the size of each chamber, but none on the lives of the men who'd worked there. The Dragon's Den was a bit of a disappointment too. The story goes that the Castle used to be terrorised by a dragon, and that the King, in traditional style, offered his daughter's hand in marriage to whomever could slay the dragon. No-one seems to have bothered recording the daughter's response to this rather unfortunate piece of parenting, but anyway, some clever person fed the dragon sulphur, causing it to explode. Now I'm a sucker for any story that involves an exploding dragon, so I was quite keen to see the site of this remarkable event, but it turns out it's just a cave. Not even a very scary cave at that. Our apartment was just round the corner from the Grand Square, <a href="http://www.krakow-info.com/rynek.htm">Rynek Glowny</a>. This gave us plenty of opportunities to test out the many bars and restaurants dotted around it, purely for the benefit of you, the discerning kimire.com reader. Based on this extensive research, my top recommendations are: - Yummies bar. Can't find a web link, but I'm sure this is the right name: this friendly bar has a lengthy and reasonably priced cocktail menu. When we visited, mojitos were on special offer, working out at around £1.80 each. We tested several, just to be sure. - <a href="http://www.weselerestauracja.pl/">Wesele restaurant, </a>which serves traditional Polish food in elegant surroundings. At the more expensive end of Polish eateries, but still ludicrously cheap by British standards: our meal for four, with wine, came to about £70. - <a href="http://www.wedel.pl/">Wedel cafe.</a> This place is devoted to filling its customers with delicious cakes, desserts, hot chocolates and coffee. I can't say enough good things about it. <p>Final tip: make sure you take a phrase book that provides phonetic pronunciations. Polish as it is spoken bears no resemblance to its written form, at least not as far as I could fathom. As a result, I had to rely on the willingness and ability of other people to speak English, and though most waiters and bar staff do speak good English, I still felt like a bit of a colonial Brit. Which may or may not be rhyming slang.</p> Final word: Cracow's lovely, go if you get the chance.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
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