New adventure today - the tube shuts down for a period overnight, so we have only one PT option during those hours - the Night Bus. Note the N and not a K - if I could catch the Knight Bus then believe me I’d be in Diagon Alley before you could say wracklespurt, but I’m a Muggle so Night Bus it is!
This particular one was taking me to Liverpool St, just down from Liverpool St Station where we would board the Stansted Express travelling to - you guessed it - Stansted Airport. As the fellow who checked our visas at the airport asked - what brings Australians to Stansted? This is the airport where Ryanair flights go out from London - they are the only carrier with a direct flight to Krakow from London. As for why Krakow? Once again I find myself on the Holocaust trail, broadening my child’s knowledge of an event that will make him pledge “Never again” at the end of the visit.
Ryanair is a budget airline and you may have heard of it from one of those reality docos like “Come Fly With Me” - generally they are the ones where the customer comes to the gate 2 minutes after the gate closes and then screams abuse because they won’t call the plane back to pick them up. Or they are bang on time but have forty kilos of carry on luggage when their allowance is 10kg. Then the customer service rep advises it will be £150 to check the luggage in and then the customer begins to scream abuse etc etc
No such dramas today as we arrived with a butt load of time and had a helpful and friendly check-in agent who assisted with an issue. Security was a mess with machines not working but finally we were through the gates and it was wheels up to Krakow.
Checked into Hotel Alexander and discovered we are only metres from the town square so we plan a bite of food for lunch then an afternoon rest before exploring Krakow by night.
A quick walk around the corner and we are enticed into a little (literally) hole in the world cafe that promises us traditional Polish meals and deliver it they did. We had the lunch special - a bowl of tomato or chicken soup, chicken fillet with a garlic sauce, potatoes (Polish style), salad and compote. At 24 zloty ($8) who could say no! PS it was delicious and the food coma assisted in the decision to nap.
Out the door at 7pm and it was a delight to hear Hayden exclaim over the Christmas lights as we rounded the corner into the town square. There was a Christmas Carol concert performing and about 50 market stalls selling food, wooden toys and ornaments, clothes, candy - lots of beautiful trinkets and treasures. After our late lunch we waited before deciding to do dinner later, so just ambled around the stalls first, before walking down to Wawel Castle to see the fire-breathing dragon protecting the river entrance to the castle and then along the river to the Krakow sign that is reminiscent of our Brisbane sign at QPAC.
This lead to the fun of walking on an icy path. Ok I may have forgotten a tiny detail - on our arrival Krakow was blanketed in snow, so we were dealing with iced paths and slippery roads. I also may have forgotten that it actually began to snow when we were walking around the markets - a pretty special moment!
Hayden took a well earned break after this and after a quick Starbucks stop, went back to the room.
Starbucks was something of a laugh as we ordered our coffees and as par for the course, they asked for our names. Hayden for a medium mocha and Sue for the X large Salted caramel chocolate brownie.
When the names were read, I swear she said Karen. I looked around and when Karen wasn’t forthcoming the barista once again called out Karen Mocha. Hayden swears he heard Hoien and to be fair, who knows - but from now on he will be Karen to me.
We sat inside these gorgeous heated rooms in the square while we drank our drinks and Hayden took off back to the hotel while I continued to browse the markets for another hour. Watched a graduating theatre class sing the Lion King setlist in the Square, which was pretty special and then back here to write and sleep.
It will be a sombre day tomorrow but we’ll worth it once again.
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