The flight was to Gdansk, a beautiful seaside city.
We spent the first night in Gdansk, walking through old town and the city. We also had dinner at a great vegetarian restaurant. Our stay in Gdansk was not long. The next morning we were supposed to catch a bus to Krakow, at 5.35 AM. Well, we went to the wrong bus terminal and missed the bus by 7 minutes. Gotta tell ya folks, it wasn't a great morning. That early bus was also the only fast and direct bus. We booked the next bus at 7 AM but it was 4 hours longer with a stop. So we spent the whole day at the bus. 14 hours altogether. That's how far it Krakow is. On the bright side, we had a stop in Wroclaw, and had amazing burgers for dinner. We also had heaps of time to book everything we wanted to do in Krakow while in the bus. We booked Auschwitz and Birkenau for the next day.
In both cities, we stayed at Airbnb apartments.
We had a guided tour that included a pick up by bus. Our bus departure was around 8 AM from a nearby hotel, it was simple and easy. On the way there we watched a documentary about Auschwitz. It was a very cold and snowy day and I reckon it made the experience even better in a way. I think it was a better way to really understand the suffering of all those people when it was cold and uncomfortable for us as well. It wasn't a happy and pleasant tour but it was necessary. Everyone knows how many people died during that war, but everyone needs to go there and actually understand. It was heartbreaking. Out of respect, I didn't take any photos inside.
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| ''Work sets you free'' Filthy little liars. |
I was feeling a bit ill the whole day and soon after we got back my fever rose and I threw up multiple times. I slept the rest of the day and felt OK the next morning.
On the second day in Krakow, we went to the salt mines. The whole tour only lasted 3- hours. It was perfect. I learned a lot about Poland's history and the whole mine was amazing to see. With all the pools, mining equipment, statues and more. We were more than 50 stores underground. Unlike the other day, I took plenty of photos. After the tour we went for a stroll in the city, walked through the old town, the monastery and had some Polish food for dinner. It was great. I also noticed that in Poland there were a lot of vegetarian and vegan restaurants and options. Krakow was beautiful, the architecture, snow and the river.
I was determined to find myself a fur hat, been wanting one for 3 years now. I found a perfect one from a secondhand shop for 15 euro. Cheap!
I also had my laser done, since it's ridiculously expensive to do in Finland. And by expensive I'm talking about hundreds of euros. In Australia it was 39$. However, I got tricked and I'm just reminding everyone to be careful. I went to 3 different places and all of them had really good prices but no more available appointments for such short notice. The price was around 60 euro. I found one place from google, a place that was a bit further, called them and found out they still had 2 appointments available. Asked about the prices for 2 areas all together. They told me it was around 80 euro. I told them I'll call back cause it's a bit expensive. However, everything else was booked out so I called again. I confirmed the areas and the price once more. The next morning was our last day in Krakow. I started the morning by getting my laser done. Costume service was great and everyone's English was really good. When it was time to pay, they asked something around 200 euros. 200!! I said I called twice and was told 80 e. I cannot afford 200 e. They sat me down to ''find out the misunderstanding.'' They came back and showed me the price from the website that was around 120 e. Better, but still ridiculous. We argued for about 15 mins and I just gave up, paid and left.
Only reason I wanted to do it there was the fact that it was supposed to be 60% cheaper. Turned out to be almost the same price as it would be in Finland.
After the unfortunate morning we had a great lunch and circled the shops till our late afternoon bus. We had 2 buses to Gdansk and during the transfer we had time to grab quick dinner from the mall. Bus ride went fairly quick and we got to Gdansk around 4.30 AM. From the city we went directly to the airport.
What a trip!
Tomorrow I'm going to Sweden and Wednesday I'm going to Lapland, for the first time!
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