Its about time I wrote something about Krakow. We're starting to get away from your standard Western European style of city here. More so than Czech. The people are different and so is the city itself. This is a good thing.

In terms of its architecture, Krakow isn't immediately stunning. In fact there are a lot of buildings which show signs of great neglect. Its a shame though. It is actually a beautiful city. The huge market square especially. This seems to be the central hub of the city. Its ringed all around the inside with places to eat and drink and its always crowded with people. Even more so since you pretty much have to walk through there to get anywhere else. Or walk around.

The cafes and restaurants are pretty awesome though. You can sit there for hours getting cheap drinks and just watch people walk by. And then you can get some very nice food (also at good prices). We ate in a medieval-themed place twice. The waiters were all wearing medieval-style clothes and even the toilets were done up to look old. Possibly the coolest toilets I've been to. Their dumplings stuffed with venison were incredible.

The only other part of the city we actually saw in great detail was the old jewish district. The Nazis moved the jews out of there back before the war, so while it has lots of old synagogues and Jewish stylings there hasn't been Jews there for a long time. In fact, as we learned, there are barely any Jews left in the city at all! This is where I kind of got the impression that a lot of buildings are being left to crumble. But that's an unfair view I think. It was one of the few cities left undamaged during the war. The Nazis spent a lot of money doing up the central areas (which are pretty) and I guess its hard to repair all the other parts when you have more cities throughout Poland that were in desperate need. Warsaw for one.

Either way, it was always a pleasure to just spend all day strolling through the old Jewish District. It has a great vibe to it. There are heaps of cafes, big and small. Much nicer than in the centre, as well as all of the shops. We heard the place described as being a very bohemian part of the city and I guess that's partly true. It certainly seems to attract the younger generations and the students. But, also it appeared to be very down-to-earth. No pretensions, just people taking it easy. We both really liked the place.

Since Berlin, we'd never bothered to take another city tour. This is a pity, because its the best way to learn about the place. So we went for a bike tour. We've been put off by walking tours I guess. they seem a bit rubbish. And horse-carriages are a bit expensive and perhaps also a little cruel. Whatever. It was great to be out on bikes. The tour guide was a local. His English, while a little rushed and mixed up, was excellent and his knowledge of the history of Krakow and Poland and even outside of his own country was outstanding. We learned a huge amount! But I won't go through it all here.

It was interesting to learn about how the city was built and what it went through (especially during the war), and it was also interesting to hear how influential the last pope had been to the Polish people. And not just the entirely religious ones. He survived through the harsh times, having to be educated in secret with the rest of the Polish people. The Nazis banned any Polish education. They weren't just b******s to the Jews here.

Another interesting thing is that the green belt around the inner part of the city used to be the moat. It got so clogged up with human waste and wasted humans that the Austrians decided to tear the wall down and use it to fill the moat. That's also why there's no wall to the inner city any more. Just one small section was bought over and preserved.

That concludes the lesson.

A quick note about the weather. Its getting incredibly hot now. The cycling was tough after a while, but at least it was slow. Sleeping is getting a little uncomfortable.

We saw the botanical gardens which were nice; and one of the man-made mounds outside of the city which was also nice. Then it was time for a night out.

I've mentioned Krzysztof before in the Braunlage update. He's the guy that first told us to come to Krakow as this is where he's from. He left a message telling us he's back here so we asked if he wanted to meet up. He did. He took us to several places and even gave us a little tour of his own. I've never had a vodka shot with chili before. That was a belter of a drink. We finished the night in a Shisha bar smoking cherry tobacco. It was an awesome night, and the drinks were so cheap. cheaper than anywhere else we'd been. Although I did kind of lose track. After Krzysztof left for home, Katie was desperate to stay out but there wasn't anywhere really left to go and I was struggling to keep going myself. I guess we were bound to have a bit of a drunken barny at some point. Kind of inevitable, though it did put a downer on the night.

The morning brought about the worst hangover I've ever had. Its so difficult to sleep with such a horrific headache and sickness in your gut and the heat was unbearable. In a six-person room too. A cramped one! Although I think Katie may have been slightly worse by the end of the day. So, if you're reading this Krzysztof - Thanks for an awesome night and no thanks for a crappy morning.

We finished Krakow with a visit to Schindler's factory. That was fascinating. It went very in-depth into the history of the people of Krakow and then into the war. It was really good to learn how the Polish people lived and not just the Jewish people which you always hear so much about.

I loved going to Poland and learning more about Polish people than what I know from living amongst them back in aberdeen. They're properly cool people. From all the places that we've seen so far I think we both agree that Krakow as well as Berlin are the two places we may like to live in.

Budapest is also starting to look promising...