Its only taken about 3 days of trying to upload over very shitty internet connections in Kosovo, leaving my laptop running every night, but we finally have Chapter Two of our monthly videos up :)
Check it out here or in the videos tab above :)
0 Comments
Feeling a little sick of wandering around picturesque town centres (oh yes.... woe is us) we decided to do something a little different and head underground instead.
The decommissioned salt mines are about an hour from the center of the city in a small village called Wieliczka. Loads of people go there on organised tours, but it's pretty easy to get there on your own if you want to save some cash. Just head to the main train station and look for the mini buses run by Darbus. They will have a sign on the front saying 'Wieliczka'; just jump on and it's 3zl per person. To see the mines you have to go on a tour which is a little pricey and slightly corny but it's worth it. The tour glosses over the trials of the miners lives, painting a picture of a fairy tale world where they spent their spare time carving statues from salt and one could only assume whistling as they worked. I'm sure reality was quite different but never less you get to see some pretty cool stuff like the worlds largest underground cathedral and beautiful green and blue saline lakes. ~Emma 🐝 Kraków is full of any kind of dining you could wish for. North of the square you'll find fancy white table cloth dining strangely mixed in with strip clubs. The south side seems to be where you'll see the locals hanging out in charismatic cafes and bars with authentic, cheap and delicious Polish food. We stumbled across Koko on our first night here, and ended going back two nights in a row. For less than £8 we were served more than we could posibally eat... Including soup,mains, dessert and drinks. Koko seems to be the kind of place the locals of Kraków will hang out to casually meet up with friends or drop in solo for a quick meal. You orderly the bar from the set menus which include options of chicken, duck or pork, and before you know it your table is so loaded up with food it's at risk of collapsing. Try the pancakes if you go, they are amazing. And beware if you order the duck it's literally half a bird. You can find it at Świętego Krzyża 15. There is a small cafe area at the front on the street, if this is full go around the back where there is another larger room and a big courtyard at the back. ~ Emma 🍺 Ps. If you are missing your Australian quality coffee, go to Karma coffee on Wawrzyńca St. If you are pining for your East London hipsters you'll fit right in here too :)
Still need more hipster? Head to Bal in Zahlocie and you'll feel like you never left Hackney. The pancakes are delicious! (Also good coffee and super funky neon typeface signage if that's your thing). P.P.S. We're now in Katowice at midnight and it's a beautiful, warm, newly built station - there are trains running all night long so people are lounging around. Emma reports in that the paid-for bathrooms are full of things to buy, from toothbrushes to tampons, and the ticket office is still open, as is McDonalds and a coffee chain. Maybe this adventure isn't so bad after all! Well, we've been bent over the barrel for this one. We actually searched for ways to get Emma's parents TO Kraków from Prague a few months earlier, and if you believe the first few results on the Internet, you'd be hard pressed to think it's even possible.
But since booking our beloved Polskibus.com back (Kraków to Wroclaw, then another one from Wroclaw to Prague), we have since found two other methods, none of which turned up on rome2rio.com or anywhere online. One was a flyer at the bus station for Darbus and another le.cz - Leo Express - which we found at the Momotown Hostel. And they look cheap. So don't believe all of what's online - you can get direct buses between, well, pretty much every city! (Other options include trains and bus connections, usually to Ostrava, with details offered but not book able on Db.de... But they were all huge pains in the ass and had horrid connections) In regards to prices, we took mid-week Polski buses from Prague to Wroclaw, then again from Wroclaw to Kraków - both cost 25PLN per person, one way - about £4.50. The buses are super comfortable, have toilets and the wifi works on the Polish side of the border. - Pete P.S. Don't do what we did and only give 45 minutes connection between your buses. We're now having the joy of getting a train to Katowice and then an overnight train to Prague, so we can make our 8.30am appointments in Prague. Our bus was diverted due to highway maintenance. Blarrgh!!! |
EMMA & PETEWe're just two Aussie's who met in London, married in Prague and travelled overland back to Australia.
CATEGORIES
All
INSTA-EMMAGRAMPETE'S FLICKR |