I had the chance to spend a couple of days in beautiful Krakow, Poland. My personal expectations for the town were honestly not extremely high – the main goal was to catch up with my family.

As expectations were not met but exceeded, I want to recommend the town for anyone enjoying good food, beautiful architecture, versatile history, small-scale art exhibitions and jazz bars, so feel free to spot some locations for your vacation!

As always, participating  a “free” walking tour was well worth the tips. It gave a great overview about the whole town and its history. I wish I could have fitted also the macabre tour within as I kind of like real ghost stories, but next time… Because that will definitely come!

Here some of the best parts of the trip.

Cute, cute, such a cute, beautiful and compact city center! And, how you ever seen such fancy horses? Check what they have on the top of their head…

The town hosts numerous amount of restaurants who gained the mention in the Michelin guide, right around the central square. Polish food is though quite heavy, so good strategy was to try as much as possible as entrees and share! The restaurant selection is though rather wide from Polish to French, Italian and some Asian food as well. But when in Poland…

One I needed though… Quite a a heavy dessert as the definition of Borsch soup in one restaurant was something else than our group expected. Instead of classic borsch I got red water and two eggs. The good thing was, that we discovered an extremely nice, though quite Berlinish coffee place Karma coffee and I got a yummu seaweed salad (vegan/vegetarian food only).

Cozy jazz bars, like Jazz Club u Muniaka which we visited twice. Lovely lady sells the tickets, picks the right table for you, serves the drinks and brings the bill when you feel like it is the time to leave.

Athmosphere, where reading and books are appreciated. I grapped a literature map of Krakow in one bookstore absolutely worth visiting, Massolit. English books and coffee shop.

So, basically Krakow is a place to spend time, a great opportunity to catch up with the nearest and dearest. Everyone can spread during the day to discover whatever part of the town they are interested in and gather every now and then for food and drinks and shared activities.

At least when for the first time in Krakow, there is something too close that can not be dismissed. That’s why also we decided to visit Auschwitz, even though that was not an exact mood booster. Though, would regret if hadn’t, and thinking about reality, past or present, is good sometimes as well.