Day 2: 1st of July

Day 2 was about traveling around Krakow to see the main sights. I woke up very early, and had breakfast, some cereals, a yoghurt and a toast with ham and cucumber, yeah, the breakfast was for free, such a big deal, including coffee!! That hostel was nuts (great at all, really). During breakfast I talked with a guy who shared room with me, he looked like Polish but he ended up being French, he explained me his trip and whatever, we ended up talking about beer and Uniqum during breakfast, lol

So after this I went out to the Old town square and took many pictures of the clock tower, the cloth hall, the Saint Mary Basilica, etc. 

Old Town Square

Sukinice (Cloth Hall, UNESCO World Heritage site)

After taking many pictures of the town hall I wanted to go visit the Basilica of Saint Mary but it was still closed, so I went walking through Grodzka street till I arrived Wawel Castle, it took me less than 10 minutes from Old Town square. I took some pictures from the outside and went in.

Wawel Castle from Grodzka street

Once I started taking pictures like crazy, such a great place!!! the gardens were cool!!! I started walking around and tried to enter the castle but my entrance was denied because I did not bring a ticket so I went to purchase it. 

Inside Wawel Castle

More inside Wawel Castle

On my way to the Castle I came across Wawel Cathedral, it's the most sacred place in Poland, many kings and Pope John Paul II were buried there. I bought the ticket and visited in. Why not? Just some zloty, not so expensive at all.

Wawel Cathedral

After the visit to the cathedral I reached the castle ticket office and waited for like 20 min in a queue. When purchasing the ticket the lady of the ticket office told me If I wanted to visit the royal rooms the next show would be at 15:30, it was like 11 30 so I was hesitant. Finally I decided to buy it, visit the other parts of the castle and then go to the Jewish Quarter, lunch and come back.

So I went first to the Lost Wawel, it was a museum of old pieces and history of Wawel, I did not enjoy too much because I don't understand about that. After that I went to the Dragon's Den, it's like a cave that resembles a Dragon cave - note that Krakow symbol is the dragon.

Dragon's Den

After the fast visit to the Dragon's Den I was in the shore of the Wisla river so I headed to Kasimierz which is the Jewish Quarter. It took me like 20 min by foot with the help of Google Maps. Once I arrived there I started to walk around with no destination at all just to enjoy all the places.

Some random pics of the Jewish Quarter

It was a pretty hot day and I was a bit tired so I went to rest in a bar and drank a milshake, 10 zloty, quite cheap and refreshing at all.

It was nearly 1 PM, time to go lunch, for my first lunch I wanted to try real Polish food, so I had to ask my friend by facebook to suggest me Polish food. Then I opened tripadvisor and it happened that there was a good restaurant close to the Jewish quarter, so I headed there.

The name of the place is Starka. I ordered as starter a beef tartar and as main half pork knucle. The tartar was delicious with a raw egg yolk and the knuckle was so juicy, it came with apple and horseradish sauce (like Austrian dish tafelspitz) which ended being delicious, better than many I ate in Germany. Overall it was not expensive, around 70 zloty, around 17 € with a beer included, quite good.

 Tartar of beef

Half knuckle with apple and horseradish sauce

After lunch it was time to go to the Wawel Castle for my Royal rooms tour. The guide showed us in 1 hour most of the rooms, the excellent tapestry and pictures of the castle, it was nice, unfortunately I could not take pictures because it was not allowed.

After the tour I went back to Old Town Square to walk around I met up like a inmense parade, it ended up being a conmemoration of the Uprising of Warsaw which took place in 1st August 1945 at 5 PM, it's a very important date for lots of Polish, that's why they were conmemorating it in the main square.

Remembering the Uprise of Warsaw

After that I walked around in the Old Town Square and put my feet into a huge fountain where lots of children were playing, it was so refreshing. Then I went around to take some more pictures.

Saint Mary Basilica

Finally I went back to the hostel to rest a bit and eat some stuff. Before going back I went to buy some beer and a light salad for dinner.

After dinner some guests of the hostel and Chris (one of the staff) started playing drinking games, beer pong and flip pong mainly, was so fun to meet new people and drink together. At around 11 PM was time to go to bed, better be a good boy because next day I had a tour departing at 8 AM to Auschwitz.