Disclaimer: all the bar and restaurant names are based off of my shit memory and lots of Google map searching if I didn’t write it down. I didn’t write a name in any of my blog posts unless I was at least 95% confident that it was correct to try and avoid steering anyone in the wrong direction.

Day 2 (continued): Krakow, Poland

After everyone started to come down from their emotions from visiting Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II -Birkenau, conversation started to pick up. A sheet was passed around the bus for room assignments when we arrived in Krakow. This time is was 2 people per room unlike the rooms of 4 in Vienna. By the time the sheet got to me, most of the pairs were already filled in. I saw a name of a girl that had joined the tour when Doug & I did, so I quickly wrote my name next to hers since I felt like I kind of knew her already. Her name was Devin; she’s from Philadelphia (which is very close to where I live for any of my non-Americans here) and she’s so much fun. We settled in our rooms and got ready to have dinner with everyone and then to hit the town for a night out.

Since it was only the second night with the new group together with the old group, people will still getting a bit acquainted, so dinner was a lot of getting to know you chat. The dinner was held at the hotel next to our hostel. I think they were connected, but we were in the budget/hostel section. The dinner was delicious and filling, which I am thankful for because of the amount of drinking I was unknowingly about to partake in.

After dinner, we all went back to the hostel to freshen up a bit and then made our way into town. Our tour manager took us to a shots bar, which is exactly what it sounds like. Nothing but shots. They had all different types and mixes, which was dangerous because there was a lot of mixing of alcohols happening. Anyone who knows me personally knows this is a recipe for disaster for me.

After way too many shots, we all stumbled to a club down the road. It was really cool looking. It was down a relatively creepy and dark alley and then down some steps. It was all stone and had an ancient-type aesthetic to it. There were a few different rooms for drinking, for socializing, and for dancing. Everyone was really all over the place. I know I made my way around to each room to mingle, grab a drink (or twelve), and dance a little bit.

Everyone was started to head back to the hostel to either hangout, go to bed, or partake in other drunken nighttime activities (I’ll let your mind take you wherever you want to go with that one). We were all stumbling all over the place, and, I cannot even begin to think of how we made it back safely or even at all. During this drunken stumbling, I started chatting with an Australian named Dylan. The two of us decided it was a wonderful idea to go back to the hostel and drink MORE. I still had some vodka that I purchase the night before in Vienna, but we had no mixers, so why not drink it straight, right? Awful idea. Awful. While it may have been fun in the moment, it was not fun later on.

Ready for an embarrassing Nina moment? While changing into my pajamas, I felt it coming. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the bathroom. I grabbed the shirt I wore that night and puked right into it. (not wearing it, thankfully just holding it). I used my shirt as a bucket. So disgusting. THEN my stupid, drunken ass FOLDED IT AND PUT IT TO THE SIDE. I found it the next morning only because I vaguely remembered it happening and unfortunately so did Devin (sorry Dev), and I was half looking for it. I was so sad because I really did love that shirt, but had to throw it out for obvious reasons. Disgusting moment in my life, but hey it’s a pretty funny story now.

Day 3: Krakow, Poland

Most of us slept in pretty late the next day, which shouldn’t be surprising based on what I just told you. I was a bit of a zombie and didn’t want to move, but I also knew I was in an incredible city in a beautiful country and couldn’t stay in bed all day. Besides, I had paid for one of the Contiki free time add-ons and the bus was leaving at 1:45PM. We were headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I knew I needed something so I wouldn’t collapse at the mine. I chugged a Coca-Cola and started to get some sugar in my system and hopefully of my energy back.

This was a mine, right? Mines are underground. Oh and by the way…there are no elevators here. We had to walk down approximately 400 steps to get into the mine. FOUR HUNDED STEPS WHILE THE MOST HUNGOVER I’VE EVER BEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. The staircase was spiral to add to this fun. I cannot even begin to explain how dizzy I was. First off, I hate heights and creaky stairs I have to climb, so I would have been dizzy even if I was stone cold sober. Every once in a while, the guys ahead of us (who were part of the Contiki tour) would reach through the steps and grab or hit our feet causing us to freak out. It was really a lovely experience. Finally we made it down to the bottom, and I have to admit it was totally worth it..aaaaaand I didn’t collapse so that was a nice plus.

Everything in the mine was salt: the walls, the floors, and the ceiling. Throughout the mine, there were sculptures made out of salt too. Our tour guide told us the story/legend of the salt mine as we walked by a few sculptures that represented the people involved. We were told we couldn’t take pictures but shhhh…. I snuck a couple.

At one point of the tour, our guide told us we could lick the walls. That’s right: lick the walls like with your tongue. Hard pass. Do you know how many people probably did it before us and left their nasty germs behind? No way. A few people from the Contiki tour did it. One of the girls from New Jersey that I roomed with in Vienna did it without hesitation. Disgusting.

We were led to the last stop of the tour: St. Kinga’s Chapel. The Chapel was stunning. There was a giant chandelier that hung from the massive ceiling.  There were two stories to the chapel, so you could get a nice view of the entire chapel from the top of the stairs. It definitely added to the charm that we were in a chapel in a salt mine and not just some random chapel in Poland. We exited the chapel on the lower level and were led to an elevator that took us back to the outside world. I couldn’t have been more grateful for the elevator. I couldn’t have imagined walking back up 400 steps. I would have just collapsed. I do admit, as the tour continued my hangover subsided, and I was starting to feel better, but 400 steps would have done me in. We head back to the hostel to freshen up before going to another free time add-on: a pierogi dinner.

We walked over to the pierogi dinner at Kogel Mogel restaurant, and we all sat at a bunch of different table, so we were split into smaller groups. This made it easier to talk to everyone. We were given a lesson on how the pierogis were made and then we were given a chance to make one of our own. It was a lot of fun! After our lesson, it was time to actually eat pierogis. For anyone who doesn’t know: a pierogi is a traditional Polish food that is essentially a little half moon dumpling. In the US, I feel like I usually see potato filled pierogis, but they can really be stuffed with anything your heart desires!

Three types of pierogis were places in front of us: one stuffed with potato and onion, one stuffed with sauerkraut and mushroom, and one stuffed with meat. All three were just thrown together on a plate and it was impossible to tell which was which without just diving in and trying it. Everyone at the table was nervous to dive in, but I was starving, so I just decided to go for it. Want to know the most memorable one in my opinion? The one stuffed with sauerkraut and mushroom, which were two of my least favorite foods. It was insanely delicious, and from that point forward I knew I could not longer say I didn’t like sauerkraut or mushrooms. So make sure you try everything you are offered when abroad because it will surprise you how much it expands you pallet!

After dinner, Doug and I decided to just roam around the town. We were with the 3 girls from New Jersey, Amanda, Kaitlyn, and Gracyn, and just had a fun night taking photos and taking it relatively easy since we all had quite the night, the night before. We walked up to see Wawel Castle, which we were told had a fire breathing dragon (fake obviously) outside. Spoiler alert: the dragon is VERY underwhelming.

While walking around the castle, Doug said “Wow, look at that door it’s pretty cool”, and the four of us girls just laughed and made fun of him for saying how cool a door was. It was just a door. We hadn’t even seen it, but it was funny in the moment. A little bit later, we noticed the door and started talking about how cool it was, and Doug was like WTF!! I JUST SAID THAT! From that moment on, it became a running joke throughout the rest of the trip to point to a unique door and say, “wow look how cool that door is!” It was a guaranteed laugh every single time.

After our photo shoot of the town, we made our way back to the hostel to get some rest and prepare us for the bus drive in the morning. Off to Slovakia!