On June 24th, that day was our last day to stay in Poland. I wanted to stay longer,but we had to go back…

@ the Krakow station

The train we took was an old style. There was a cabinet with 8 sheets. It took to get to Warsaw from Krakow for 2.5 hours again. As usual, we slept in the car

After we arrived in Warsaw, I requested to Andeas that visiting to Old Town again. Yes, he agreed with my idea!

some of my favorite pics

It was on Sunday, I saw more local people at the Square.

Old town square again,hihihi

peace

Here is a disgusting beer

—–> Look at his face

We just had some beer at the terrace, but Andreas ordered some strange beer. It had some cinnamon and the beer was warm It was my first time that he did not finish his beer, hahaha.

Then, we went to the market to buy a lot of Polish foods, especially Pierogi!!And Andreas bought 24cans of beers. And that beer was 300ml. OMG, could not believe it he was carrying with those beers and heavy stuff with swollen ankle and legs But somehow we made it

On June 23rd, we were still in Krakow. But our legs and feet were hurting so much from a lot of walking So that, this day was very easy day, hehehe. Today’s our destination is to go to The Wawel(Pronounce : Vavel)

Ready for today’s walking

On the Wawel, there is a Royal Castle, Cathedral, and some exhibitions. It was limited with the visitors for a day, so it is better to go to in the morning In the Royal Castle, Royal Apartments, State Rooms, and Crown Treasury and Armoury places were limited. We wanted to go to this three museums, but the visiting time was already given by ticket office. Yeah, we waited for a while to get in

@the entrance

My favorite garden court

By that time,we visited to the Cathedral. There were Royal tombs and saw many Polish kings’ ghosts Also we went up in the church and saw a large bell. It was made in 1520, and weighs almost 11 tons, wow!

a huge bell

view from the top of this church

Then we went back to the castle. I really liked the Castle courtyard. It was very beautiful and nice Renaissance style

Here is my video part1

The Royal Treasury and Armoury museum was a rich collection of arms and armour. Everything was in good conditions

The State Apartment, one of the room was so scaring which was the Deputies’ Hall. The reason is that on the ceiling there were 30 heads sculptured in wood Only 30 out of 194 original pieces have been preserved, but even with 30 heads I was so scared…Imagine 194 heads on the ceiling….

The Royal Private room was with guided tour. The guide was giving by a Polish lady and her guide was well done.

Since I could not take a photo inside, I bought some books about this castle. I will not forget about this beautiful castle.

Andreas wanted to see a show at Barbican, so we went back to there and saw a show “Queen Bona’s Masquerade” It was very cute and fun!

Masquerade’s video

After the show, I encountered with Medieval Krakow’s handcrafts men. There were so many collections of WAX SEAL from each regions of old age´s Poland. You could buy them with 5 PLN!! Of course I bought one for my souvenir:) Here is my master’s video!

The last activity was my shopping. There was a big shopping mall in front of our hostel. I was so lucky that every shops were on sale, yay Also we bought some foods at the supermarket.

Krakow’s shopping mall

Fortunately, during our visiting the forecast said that it would be raining, but it wasn’t at all.

We really had a great time. Okay, let’s go to the next diary now!

In early morning, on June 22nd, we took a train to go to Krakow. It was 2,5 hours and nice PKP train. The train was nicer and safer than what I expected

Palace of culture and science, this building was still sleeping hihihi
From the first day, I felt that Poland was much cleaner, nicer and safer than what I thought. People were very kind and friendly. They understand English so if you need some help, just ask some young people at least in Warsaw and Krakow. In fact, one young lady helped us at the train station when we were trying to buy the ticket. And during the activities, when I was almost lost, people always helped us where we should go next, and something like that I don’t think people give some help for tourists everywhere. For example, in France, they never spoke to us in English even they understand. Hehehe, this is just my thought and impression.

Well, both of us took some nap at the train as usual. I can sleep anywhere, even it is noisy place, hahah. This is one of my specialities One time, I falled asleep at the night club in Berlin. Andreas made fun of me a lot!!

Our hostel was called Greg-Tom hostel and located on the front of the station. It was also good location and clean. I was happy about that.

Everything was from Ikea. I could realized,hehehe. We have the same sofa.

First activity was to walk around the city. Barbican was our first stop. It is one of the remaining from Krakow’s medieval stuff. This Barbican was built in 1498-9 to defend the city. We went inside and walked inside of the walls. That was cool

outside

inside

Then, getting to Mail Market Square! This Square was larger than the square in Prague. According to my guide book, it is one of the largest in Europe. There were several interesting building at this square. Cloth Hall, City Hall Tower, Dominican Church, Church of St Mary, and etc… In the Cloth hall, you can find souvenir shops on the first floor and it is quite good deals. We bought a hand made wooden box and card. Oh, Andreas bought a beer glasses with Krakow logo. It was cute

—>

We went to the Church of St.Mary. It was built from 1355 to the mid-15th century. I liked the top of tower that had pointed shape and crown. Inside was very colorful and gothic style

Church of St Mary

City Hall Tower

—> Cloth Hall

I was there

Yes, next was our lunch time. Since there were some event at the Square which I still don’t know, we bought some fast food from a stand. I chose one sausage and french fries, and Andreas chose one sausage and black pudding. The taste of black pudding was funny.

We reserved a bus tour to go to Wieliczka from 3pm, so we had to go to the meeting point.

Wieliczka is famous for its ancient salt mine, which was opened 700 years ago. Only 2km of underground and a couple of chambers are opened for public. And that is only 3 percent of the whole salt mine. The tour was 2 hours and our guide took us to underground chambers, saline lakes, and underground buildings. Everything was amazing, but my most favorite was Chapel of St. Kinga!! I never imagine that there is a underground chamber like that!! It was worth visiting this salt mine I sent a postcard using the underground postbox,hihihi. If you want to visit, get ready with so many steps and walking underground. This tour was quite tough, but old man was our guide. He said that he has to do guide three times a day. Tough oji-chan

Let’s go inside

Princess from the Polish Legend

king

Hopefully ,my mail will not get lost !

After this tour, we went back to the Old Town Square to see the event. There were so many people and everyone was taller than me…You know what, I COULD not see anything , because they blocked out. I just heard the sound I wish I was taller a little bit more…

Another Beer time, Kanpai

Anyway, that was my first day in Krakow. Now let’s go to the second day of my diary

On June 21st, we left in Helsinki to travel to Warsaw. It just took one and half hours by plane.The airport was very small and it was easy to find public transportation. We took bus #175 which was going to city center. It costs only 2.40PLN (Polish New Zlotych, 0.6 EUR)

You need to get stamp from that yellow box

Our hostel was called Oki Doki Hostel. Yeah, it was funny name The hostel was quite convienient to go to everywhere.

Our first stop was “University of Warsaw”. This University grew from a summer palace. In the first half of the 17th century, the place belonged to the Vasa Dynasty. (Remember, I visited to Vasa museum in Stockholm. That ship and this Polish university is from the same dynasty. Swedish conquered Poland, wow) We entered inside and took a short walk there. It was very pretty I would not mind studying at this University. Then we continued walking along the Krakowskie Przedmiescie street. This street was impressive. I really liked this street a lot

beginning of the Krakowskie Przedmiescie street

@Church of Holy Cross

University of Warsaw

Where can I go next?!

Residence of the president

Also, this street links to Old Town Square, Presidential place, Royal castle, etc.

Then, it was our lunch time Yay yay

The lady from our hostel recommended to us to go to Pierogarnia!! One of the Polish traditional dishes was called “Pierogi” , and our main target that day,hihihi. I love to eat the foods!!!

Pierogi is like dumplings, but they are usually boiled and you can choose the stuff inside. I chose pork meat with some veggies, and Andreas chose potatoes with cheese. I think his choice was better than mine…Our dishes was included with soups and salads, and it was a big volume and made me so full After finishing our lunch, we went to the bar to try a Polish beer. OMG, it was so tasty and soft

**Na zdrowie!!** (Cheers in Polish)

In front of the restautant

It was really tasty.

My favorite brand of beers

Continued our trip. Royal palace(Zamek Krolewski) was our next stop. This castle was also completely destroyed by German forces in 1944 and rebuilt between 1971 and 1984. So it was still quite new building. The building was used with Baroque style by Italian architects. I was amazed with how people managed to rebuilt such a nice way There were several different type of collections, like paintings, furniture, a lot of historical coins, and interiors. I enjoyed with this castle a lot!

Royal castle

After the war.There is nothing around.

inside!

collections of coins

Next stop was my most interest in Warsaw, Old Town Square (Rynek Starego Miasta). It is the oldest historical district there. Well, these buildings were also destroyed during the war. Many of the original bricks were reused to rebuild. The rubble was shifted for reusable decorative elements, which were reinserted into their original places. This one was also amazing that it is almost same as before

@Old Town Square

At the corner of Old Town, there was a museum of Warsaw. That was our favorite museum. You can’t imagine how big is this museum from the entrance. I would like to visit to this museum again. I really love it, because they showed the Polish history and rich exhibitions.

We took a rest at this square and see the view. There were so many terraces. According to my guide book, the local people also like to come to this square. Yes, I saw many local people and school kids.

Keep walking and walking. Our next stop was Barbican and City Walls. This wall was a gate and defense the northern part of the city. The wall was still under construction.

Happy smile with Polish beers

Then we saw several monument and went back to the hostel.

Cathedral of St John

Monument to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising

Too much walking was killing our legs. Next day was trip to go to old capital, Krakow!

Now I am traveling to Poland from June 21st to 24th.

My plan is like this:
June 21st :Staying at Warsaw. Visiting@ Old town, Royal castle.
22nd:Going to Craciw by train. Exploring in the city, Cracow.
23rd: Trip to Wieliczka where is ancient salt mine and opened 700 years ago.
24th: Going back to Warsaw and go sightseeing.Then back to Helsinki at night.