Krakow, Poland {Our Incredible, Amazing, Overseas Adventure}

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. Pardon, please. Life has been busy between traveling, work, birthdays and the massive task of figuring out what in the world I want to do with my life.

As some of you know, my family took an overseas trip in September/October. It was incredible!!! We got the amazing chance to visit eight different countries. I’ll be doing (brief) posts on all of them.

Let’s get started!

We left on September 15th and drove to Las Vegas for the night (just LOVE the city…NOT!!!!). The next morning we headed six hours to Las Angeles where our flight was leaving.

It was a long flight. Ten+ hours. Yoveil was quite pleased to find that “this plane has MOVIES, Hada, and they bring you food and oooh the seats are so big and comfortable!”. Yes, it was a much nicer plane than any that I’ve flown on before. XD Our second flight was 2 hours and in a very very small plane. But hey, they also served sandwiches. Those sandwiches were sooooo gross, though. I normally try to eat food that is given to me out of respect, but *gags* the smell was more than enough…

We arrived in Krakow late the 17th. We were all exhausted and worn out from the flight. I hoped that we’d go straight to the airbnb and sleep, but alas, that was not to be. We had to spend forever waiting for our stroller and by the time we got it, the rental van man had left and we couldn’t get in contact with him for hours.

It was NOT fun. Poor Jehosheba sat down on the floor and went to sleep. My brothers (bless their little exhausted hearts) found solace in throwing balls around the airport and annoying passersby. I, along with my trusty pedometer, paced back and forth while listening to Bob Goff’s audiobooks and got a total of two miles. 😆

At last, we (plus our sixteen bags, stroller, and car seat) found ourselves in a slightly underwhelming airbnb. It was fine – except for the three windows in the bathroom door and the fact that there was only a bathtub and no working shower. We were all too tired to care. We collapsed into bed and slept quite well.

Sunday, September 18th

After accidentally missing church, we dragged ourselves out of bed and went in search of food. We found a parking lot and stepped out into drizzling rain.

I hadn’t expected it to be as cold as it was. I’d grabbed my coat on the way out of Utah with the thought, “Fine, I’ll bring this to appease the parents, but I’m sure I won’t use it at all.” Boy, I was glad that I had it. I was FREEZING for 90% of the trip.

We found a lovely little pierogi shop and we sat down to enjoy a feast. We were all very hungry because we hardly ate on Saturday (plane food does strange things to stomachs) so the smell of those lovely dumplings made us quite happy. We got quite a few types and split them up (forty pierogi to be exact – but split between eight people….!) Among the lovely selections, we got some deer-filled ones. The flavor itself wasn’t bad, it was just the texture that was disgusting. Very finely minced meat gives you the feeling of swallowing pre-chewed food. 🤢 Dovid loved them, though, and made them disappear very rapidly.

We walked around Old Town for a while, just taking in the sights and sounds and slowly turning into human icicles.

We had a tour at one talking about Jewish history in Krakow and life under Nazism. It was a really interesting tour. Our guide was amazing. He was very engaging, funny, and serious all at the same time.

When the tour finished, we spent a long time walking around and looking for food. We’d walked somewhere around 10 miles total and the boys were wailing about how their stomachs couldn’t take any more deprivation.

We stopped in at the Museum of Illusions. It was fun…and probably drove Nahum’s brain crazy. XD

We stopped for zapiekanki. They are basically massive pieces of bread covered in mushrooms (yuck), cheese and then whatever toppings you wanted. We all got one. XD Mine was mountain cheese and cranberry sauce. AMAZING!! Especially if you just ignored the mushrooms and pretended that they didn’t exist.

Monday, September 19th

We got up late (as usual) and jumped in the van, parked in Old Town and practically ran through the streets in hopes that we could catch our tour guide before he and the rest of the group moved on. The tour was on Krakow under Nazism and Communism. It was fascinating. Of course it was raining, so we were all shivering and wet, but hey, we kept walking and eventually dried off. XD

We stopped at a milk bar for lunch. I got pancakes and they were delicious. We headed back to the airbnb for a break (and to use the bathroom, haha) and I promptly fell asleep.

When we finally dragged our cold selves out of the airbnb (did I mention that there was no heat that we could control? Hence it was freeeezing inside), we headed to the sight of the former concentration camp Plaszow. It was especially interesting/heartbreaking because I’d watched the movie/read the book Schindler’s List right before we left Utah.

The camp is basically a park now with some signs that talk about the various places and things that happened there. It was really…sad all the same. It was getting really dark by the time we got there, so we weren’t able to spend much time. But it was a really unique, moving experience. It is just crazy to think about the horrible things that happened in what is now such a peaceful place.

Tuesday, September 20th

Our last day in Krakow (for the time – we came back at the very end of the trip). We headed back to Old Town for our last tour. It was the largest group that we’d had so far. It was all about stories of Krakow and general history. It was, again, raining terribly hard. My coat was soaked. XD

We got these little pretzel/bagel thingies for lunch. They were delicious! We spent a while walking around Old Town, just enjoying the people and the whole incredible atmosphere. Everyone was so kind to us.

We got some coffee and then went in search of dinner (yes, all of that walking burned a lot of calories…I’m sure…) We found this lovely little restaurant serving Polish food (of course….). I got crepes filled with bananas, chocolate and whipped cream. AMAZING!!!!

We headed back to our airbnb to pack up our stuff and get ready for a new country. Czech Republic awaited!

~Hattush

Have you been to Poland? Have you taken an overseas vacation? If so, where? What were your favorite parts? If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?