My weekend trip to Krakow with my friends Rachel and Eleni came about like this:

I have this arbitrary goal to go on a weekend trip away from Rome once a month. January was almost over. I went on SkyScanner.it (great site, in which you can put in your dates and your departure city and it tells you the best deals to go ANYWHERE in Europe. Perfect for people like me who want to go … everywhere). The cheapest flight for the last weekend in January was to Warsaw.

Warsaw! I’ll go to Warsaw. My cousin lived there for four years. I’ve heard it’s lovely. Sold! Before buying the ticket I started looking up the things to do there. I knew I wanted to see Auschwitz. I also knew I wanted to see the Wieliczka Salt Mines, a UNESCO site that a friends’ parents had visited and raved about. They were hours and hours away from Warsaw, near Krakow, but I figured I could take some day trips out there and read on the train.

Wait – back up – they’re both near Krakow? Maybe I could just go to Krakow, then, and forego all that time in the train. *Checks flights to Krakow. Find they are twice the price as Warsaw.* But, oh well, by now I had convinced myself to go to Krakow for the ease of visiting Auschwitz and the Salt Mine, so I pulled out my credit card and booked it.

At some point in the next day or two, I mentioned my solo travel plans to my friends Rachel and Eleni. Both of them were instantly up for it (one reason I love these girls), and suddenly my solo trip to Poland was a girls’ trip.

You know you’re getting older when your girls’ road trips are no longer to party in Vegas, but to see concentration camps and UNESCO heritage sites.

We booked the Tango House Bed and Breakfast for our stay. Highly, highly recommended. The wifi worked great, the breakfast was nice (and we were encouraged to take some to go in our bags for later), and the girl who checked us in was so nice and helpful. Also, each room has an intercom in the wall that you can turn on for 24-hour streaming tango music. Nothing says Poland like the tango.

SIDEBAR: Sometimes I think I’m psychic, y’all, and I’m not kidding. They day we left Rome for Krakow, all morning I just had this premonition that I was going to lose something. In the airport shuttle in Rome, in the airport, on the plane, in the Krakow airport, I kept thinking I had lost my keys or wallet, and then I’d sigh with relief when I’d find them in my purse. I just felt like something was slipping through my fingers. My friends were joking about how I was being paranoid. Then, when our Polish airport taxi dropped us off at the Tango House and sped away, I realized I was without my passport. For real this time. I don’t even remember taking it out of my purse in the taxi, but I must have, probably looking for something else. Miracle of the day, Rachel had taken the taxi driver’s business card AT HIS INSISTENCE. So we had the Tango House girl call him, and he came back with my passport. Rachel, the taxi driver, and the Tango House girl really saved the day. Thank you, friends and strangers.

ANOTHER SIDEBAR: We showed up drenched and miserable to the Tango House. Our departure from Rome had involved pre-dawn hiking through record-setting Roman floods to our airport shuttle pick-up spot. The rain was practically horizontal. My umbrella covered the very top of my head, but not my backpack or the rest of my body. So the three of us dragged ourselves onto the plane, to Poland in January, with drenched shoes, socks, jeans, and hair. We unpacked at the Tango House, laid our wettest clothes over radiators and towel heaters, and went out to find food, freezing.

And find food we did! We found a darling and delicious pale for lunch, Pad Wawalem. It was on a little park and it had a wall of windows overlooking the snowy city. I had ribs with two dipping sauces, kraut, and potatoes, and my friends got pierogis. These New Yorkers I was with were amazed I had never heard of them. I tried one and I imagine my face was like that of a child who tries ice cream for the first time. Kind of like ravioli stuffed with potatoes and cheese, with a yogurt dipping sauce, pierogis would be on my plate three more times in the following two days. The ribs were good, too, with peanut sauce and barbecue sauce, and some kraut on the side. Everything was hot, which warmed up our freezing little selves, and so did the cherry vodka shots (sipped) at the end of the meal.

 

 

I’ve already written about our day trip to Auschwitz, which was the highlight of the trip my life. But I would also like to thoroughly recommend The Wieliczka Salt Mine. The best way to get there is to organize an excursion through your hotel. Many companies will do it, and they’re all about the same price. You can get in a taxi and head out there on your own, buying an entry ticket when you arrive, but we did a lot of research and concluded that the entrance fee plus a taxi (or even train tickets, depending on how big your group is) is not a cost savings. So ask your concierge (or the sweet gal at The Tango House) to organize your excursion and be done with it.

The Salt Mine stays at a constant temperature in the 50s (F). The website warns visitors to take a jacket. I guess most visitors must come in the summer, because 50 degrees underground in January seemed like a spa. I hope you like the following pictures, because I had to pay an extra fee at the Mine for the privilege of taking them.

A wall inside the Salt Mine. I licked it. And lived to tell the tale!

Inside the salt mine. Chandelier is made of salt crystals.

The great hall in the Salt Mine. Weddings and other events are held here.

Everything you see here is made of salt, including sometimes me.

Pool in the salt mine. The white spots in the water are… you guessed it.

The Salt Mine is just outside of Krakow. Hundreds of years old, the mine has an interesting history that you will learn all about on your guided tour. You’ll wind through tunnels and caverns of pure rock salt, see corny wax figures representing miners of centuries past, and enjoy a plethora of sculptures, carvings, and even chandeliers made out of salt. The tour guide mentioned that we could lick the walls to confirm that they are, indeed, made of pure salt. She reminded us, though, that the mine is visited by a million tourists a year. Think we licked the wall? Yes. Yes, we did.

We also visited the Main Market Square, the hub of life in Old Town Krakow. We ate more pierogis, drank more vodka, and stomped through the city snow. We visited the gothic St. Mary’s Basilica, which was stunning, and Rachel even attended mass there on our last morning. It is right in the square, so no advance planning required to see it.

St. Andrew Church, Krakow

Main Market Square, Krakow

Snowy Krakow

Main Market Square, Krakow

Main Market Square, Krakow

I was totally charmed by Krakow. I was sorry we only had two days. Besides Auschwitz and the Salt Mine, you can visit Oskar Schindler’s Factory and Museum, The Royal Castle, and The Wawel Cathedral. I would love to go back and see those, too.

Krakow is a super-duper-mega-easy trip from most European cities. I flew roundtrip from Rome for about $200 (more expensive than most of my intra-European flights, but still less than a one-way from Dallas to Nashville). Three days would be ideal, but you can cover a lot of ground even in two. So the next time you’re planning a European tour, I wholeheartedly recommend jumping off the usual Paris-London-Berlin-Rome path and take a couple of days in Krakow.

And do not miss Auschwitz.

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