Kracow!! (pronounced Crack-off apparently).

So it's blog time again! This time we headed off for the Easter long weekend to Poland - Krakow to be precise. And we were joined by my lovely sister Naomi! The three of us met up with Ainsley and Paul once we were there. The majority of the weekend was spent wandering around the old part of town, looking at TONNES of markets, eating sausages, drinking beer, more markets, sausages, beer etc etc. The interruptions (pleasant ones) to this cycle was a visit out to the salt mines, which i'll write more about later, and a trip to Wawel Castle, which is pretty impressive. Most of the pics here are from wandering around the old part of the town though.



Pirogi stall! yummmmmm. I'll be visiting my local polish supermarket VERY soon to get more. Basically a mix between wontons and sausage rolls. Although more decorative. And they can be sweet too. Tasty.


The first night out was a lot of fun - its Pauls birthday soon, so this was a sort of special Polish-pre-birthday-party (Paul's family is Polish you see). We ate italian food. Ha.

These markets were really cute... didnt think id get something made from grass through customs though.
Wawel Castle! It was difficult to get a good pic of the whole thing cos it was so big... but I liked this one of Ains and Paul walking through the gate there.
Easter eggs a-plenty! But no chocolate in sight.
This is probably the most impressive part of the salt mines...Basically the salt mines have been utilised since the 13th century, and during this time (i'm pretty sure just in the last 200 years though) various rooms have been sculpted out of the rock - including several chapels, including this MASSIVE one, which had chandeliers of salt rock, and bible scenes carved into the walls. Also a massive statue of Pope John Paul II. There was actually a wedding going on there as we were walking through. Dunno if i'd pick a tourist hot-spot to get married in.
You had to walk down a massive spiralling staircase - 54 levels of about 7 steps each, and you get kinda dizzy... thankfully there's lifts to the surface again, but they're very cramped... Here's Luke and Paul getting cozy. Luke loves it more than Paul obviously.
LOTS of detail on all the buildings around the old part of town. This one is one of my favourites - that's one serious chastity belt.
Here's all of us outside the station as Ains and Paul were about to leave. We realised we didnt have any photos with us all in it, so we took a couple in the square there. I've only just noticed you can see my red diary we were standing the camera up on. Ooops.
There's a really nice loop of gardens that basically borders the whole old part of town, really nice to walk through and the weather was GREAT.







A good deal of our time was spent at a small market in the centre of town where you could buy cheap beer, and meat, and lots of it. I also bought a gingerbread shoe, cos it seemed the thing to do. It was tasty. If your'e wondering what the red stuff is at the bottom of my beer, its raspberry syrup. REALLY nice on a hot day.
Here's some strips of lard from Luke's kebab - basically consisted of pork, onion, and lard, alternated. Actually really tasty, but couldnt stomach the though of eating all that fat.



And that's pretty much the lot of it! Next trip is to the Isle of wight in a few weeks, with ains and paul again.