Adventures in Kraków!

From the beginning, when we told people we were moving to Poland, we were usually asked one of two questions - "Are you going to be on House Hunters International?" and "Kraków is beautiful! Are you going to be living there?" We knew that Kraków was a must see and that we would try to get there there within the first year!

As Poland celebrates their Independence Day on November 11, we had an extra long weekend to take a trip - perfect time to head south! Kraków is about a 4.5 hour drive, which is doable with children, but then we were told about the IC express that could get us there in 2.5 hours AND our kids LOVE trains - booked!!!

Fun facts about Kraków (maybe not so fun, but some background info):

• It is the second largest city and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Poland.
• According to Polish legend, the city is protected by a mighty dragon - more on that later! 
• Kraków was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596. 
• Kraków is a city with the largest number of students in Poland - there are more than 200,000 students and only 700,000 inhabitants.
• Kraków's market square was named as the best market square in Europe by Lonely Planet in 2013.
• As Kraków was not destroyed in a war, as Warsaw was, most of the buildings are originals and not rebuilt.  

We took off on Thursday morning, bright and early!

These two were ready to go!

Andy & the kids at the train station

Morning traffic in Warsaw is unpredictable, so we left home two hours before our departure time and when we got to the train station early, we had time for breakfast!

These two and their big, over exaggerated laughs!!! It's their new thing!

The kids (and Andy!) were SO excited to take the fast train! Andy & I haven't been on a European fast train since college - being at the train station brought back a lot of fun memories!

We made it! Best part was that we had our own little table - perfect for two active and squirmy little ones!

We arrived in Kraków!!!

We decided that we were going to walk from the train station to our rented apartment as it was only 8 blocks.  We envisioned the kids happily pulling their suitcases, we would have our one bag, the sun would be shining, maybe a song or two, and it would be a quick jaunt! Ha! As we have learned with two little ones, things never go as planned! Plus we didn't have the stroller - cue whining, complaining, throwing themselves on the ground in agony as their little legs hurt, and tears! Where is the eye roll emoji when I need it...

Taking a break - two blocks from the train station!

Artwork vendor just outside of our apartment!

The kids rode on the big suitcase like this most of the time! 

We rented a cute apartment from booking.com - Stradonia Premiere Apartment - right inside the Stare Miasto area - very close to the main square.

B checking out our view!

Our beautiful view!

The kids took a quick nap and then we ventured out into the city.

First stop - LEGO store!

Beckett making faces at himself in the mirror at Hard Rock Cafe!

Friday, November 11, was Poland's Independence Day.  We saw that there was a parade in 2015 in the main square from some online research, but for the life of us, we couldn't find any information about times for this year.  So, we started off our morning at a coffee cafe in the main square, in hopes that we would find out more!

Waving his flag around!

And then we ran into this cart full of goodies!

We were pleasantly surprised by the prices - Reese's purse was $5, Beckett's wood sword and shield were $7 together!

As you can tell, he was a happy knight!

People started gathering along a street in the main square, so we knew that the parade must be coming! There were multiple groups of boys, dressed in costumes, handing out roses to the ladies (and Beckett!).

The parade started at around noon - mostly military personnel, horses and chanted songs - very different than our American Fourth of July parades.

Oh and Justin Bieber was in town, so his bus pulled up to watch the parade - lots of screaming girls!!

The US Presidential election is even covered on the front page of a Polish newspaper.

After hearing chants from local protestors from our apartment, we decided to avoid the crowd and head to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner!

Saturday was our last day in Kraków so we made our way to Wawel Castle.  If it was just Andy and I, we would have easily walked from our apartment, but since we had no stroller and the kids, we decided to take the tram!

Isn't he just the cutest! 

Wawel Castle - beautiful!!! The Wawel Castle (w's are pronounced as v's in Polish) is a castle residency built at the behest of King Casimir III the Great, who reigned from 1333 to 1370 and consists of a number of structures situated around the central courtyard.  It has been added to and some areas rebuilt since this time. As you can see, it is HUGE and higher up, which meant more walking - uphill this time. By the time we reached the top, I was ready to sell the kids - kidding - not kidding!

We made it to the top!

The main attraction for us, that we knew the kids would like, was the Wawel Dragon.  The Wawel Dragon is a famous dragon in Polish folklore and it is told that a prince, who founded the city, built his palace over the slain dragon's lair - which is known as the Dragon's Den.  The Dragon's Den is now a very popular tourist attraction, which is unfortunately closed for the season.

Picture of the Dragon's Den - unfortunately we did not see it.

Fortunately, we were able to see the metal sculpture of a dragon outside of the Dragon's Den.  It was build in 1970, has seven heads (which most, including us, thought was one head and 6 arms), and breathes fire every couple of minutes.

And to top off Beckett's knight costume, we got him a knight helmet (again, amazing prices from a street cart - $4).

We rode the tram back to the main square and found a fun little pizza factory for lunch!

Afternoon shenanigans in the apartment!

Taking shots of milk! Best way to get your kiddos to drink their milk!

Not sure who was having more fun!

That night we headed to a nearby Polish style restaurant as it had started to snow!

Conveniently sat right next to the kids' play area!

Pork lard spread is commonly served with bread in Poland

Pancakes, aka funnel cake, served for dinner!

We ended the night by catching some snowflakes on our tongues!

Overall, it was a fun trip! Nice to get away from Konstancin and explore Poland.  Next time, we will go without the kids, and explore the salt mines, go back to Wawel castle, and see the Jewish quarters.  We are still pinching ourselves that we get to travel Europe and make these incredible memories!