Krakow

My posts from Poland are not in exact chronological order, because after Krakow, we headed back to Warsaw before going to Prague. But anyway, I thought that Krakow was very beautiful, much more so than Warsaw. 

First stop was the Kosciuszko Mound that is basically a little hill that took 3 years to build. It was built as a look out point, so it's wrapped by a fort. 

so this is basically what it is, and we can climb to the top for a good view of Krakow!  I was pretty scared because there are no railings at the side, but it's actually quite a wide path, so it's okay. actually not okay, i was scared and imagining falling to my death at any moment lols.

 after that, we wandered around the Krakow old town looking for dinner! We didn't feel like having Polish food, so we had Georgian food! we basically looked at the lonely planet guide and picked the most exotic sounding thing we could have

 a really nice bread that tastes more like cake

 cheese pita which was supposed to be a specialty, but was super not worth it. just like cheese bread.

 grilled chicken with cous cous! I felt healthy for once

 Krakow old town is really pretty, but rather expansive too, that it is quite difficult to capture it in a picture. it just has to be enjoyed there and the, for the pretty cafes, large square and chill atmosphere

the day we went, there was a nice large market going on, and so we wandered around for ages, buying little snacks, and doing some souvenir shopping. we bought a chess set, some boxes carved out of wood etc.

 cheeses!

 grill bars

 grilled bratwurst

 more fried cheese

 pastries

 amazing potato pancakes

then we headed to the Galica Jewish Museum, which was a photo gallery, and a rather sombre one

 i thought that this was heart wrenching ):

after that, we drove to the Jewish quarters of Krakow, which surprisingly seemed desolate and quite run down. We weren't exactly sure why.

 this is a famous Jewish restaurant, that was apparently used in some movie. We were more amused by the owner of the cafe who had a nice little speech and was basically repeating it like a tape recorder to potential customers.

 but anyway it was a nice place to enjoy some Kosher beeer! tastes exactly like beer, but it has no alcohol in it! that's my type of drink man!

We had bought tickets to a chamber orchestra concert, held in a grand church. The program was Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I was happily taking pictures of the evening scenery around me, and the pretty buildings

concert tickets!

and concert program! it's super common to find these all over poland, and prague too actually. haha, arts are well developed there. It was quite a treat to enjoy the music, even though i'm not super enthusiastic about music. Nevertheless, it was nice because the acoustics were very good, and the musicians were awesome.

after the concert, we headed to a milk bar for supper. love that you can pick whatever you want and weigh it and pay for food by weight. haha

yum!! i think i have been deprived of green veggies, so i heaped veges on my plate! as well as potato pancakes of course! I LOVE milk bars, because it's like a buffet so you can pick whatever you like and try a bit of everything (: and it's quite cheap too!

The rest of these food pictures were actually taken in Warsaw on the day before we left Warsaw for Prague:

 Udon in soup!

 Our sushi boat which I thought was so cute

 polish milk bar again!

after this, we also caught a movie, Divergent, before we went to catch our overnight train that would take us to the gorgeous city of Prague!

Love,
Shermine