Thetownend.com

Going to Krakow in a couple of weeks.

Require recommendations for a few things:

1. Cheap places to stay
2. Things to do during the day, I believe the Auchwitz concentration camp is situated in the vicinity. Worth a visit?
3. Wisla Krakow are playing away on the Saturday, and football teams reasonably close to Krakow?
4. Currency? Is it still the Zloty
5. Food? Would like to taste traditional Polish cuisine, any tasty morsels I should look out for?
6. Drink? I am led to believe that it is cheap as chips, has the prices increased since Ryanair started to fly cheaply their? Any recommendations?
7. Entertainment? What is the nightlife like? Any decent booby bars?
8. Women? What are the Polish ladies like? If I offer the opportunity of a life of Luxury in the rich Grand Duchy am I likely to get a shag or a wife or both?

Any help greatly appreciated.

PM Bartek mate

our resident Pole

Alternativly Bartek could reply here not everything has to go to PM Freddy boy. :P

Sorry

 :oops:

1. Virtually everywhere is cheap compared to here.
2. Auchwitz is well worth a visit but here's a tip - hire a car and do it in your own time at your own pace. If you go on an organised tour you end up being herded around like sheep and you won't get the opportunity to 'reflect' and/or stop off at a village or two on route. Signposts are non-existent, buy a good map.
3. Don't know, I hail from the South East.
4. Yes it's still the Zloty
5. Try everything, be adventurous, it's all good, it's all cheap and it won't make you ill.
6. Wyborowa, by the bucket.
7. More tits than you can shake a stick at.
8. Take plenty of blurters.

Now is a great time to go before it becomes too commercialized. The Poles have recognised that cities like these are becoming more and more popular with tourists and stag parties. Go and enjoy it now before it turns into Blackpool.

Hope that helps

That's superb mate, thanks for the tips.

I went just a few months ago, Bartek knows shit.
1. I stayed in the goodbye lenin hostel, cheep and very cheerfull, A bar in the basment which is open as long at you want as long as you are buying drink its open
Free transfer from airport
Very nice staff all speak english well, (say hi to leonora the barmaid for me if you go)
2. Loads to do, very historical place, but yes auchwits is a must,
I have a lonley planet guide book, worth picking up, might be cheaper to pick one up over there, Also worth checking out the wieliczka which is a salt mine, very nice down tehre loads of sculptures made of salt etc etc.
3. Wisla Krakow is the main football team but theres also local rivals called Crakowia
4. Still Zloty around 5.6 to the pound
5. Theres been a thread about this, but go for stuff like pierogi, golabki, or if you want to be adventurous the go for flaki.
6. Cheap as chips, in a hostel or night club you wont pay more that a quid for a beer, and these are big bottles, in a pub or bar your looking at about 50p. Tyskie is a very nice beer and you gotta try out the vodka, wyborowa/wybrowka/wisniowka
7. Night life if great, loads of clubs, but keep an eye out for em, they are very secluded, so what may seem like a small entrance will end up being a massive underground night club.
You will find anything from rock/alternative pubs to jazz clubs to cheesey euro-pop clubs. Depends what your into. One mental nightclub is called prozac.
8.The women are sre something eles, you will not believe your eyes, but be carefull they fucking tease.


Enjoy mate,

Anymore info you need let me know.

Pop into whsmiths and pick up a guide (or waterstones) it works wondrs.

http://best.gliwice.pl/sc2004/img/wieliczka.jpg
wieliczka

what an informative thread im glad it wasnt taken to PM ,I feel I now know lots of information should I ever decide to go on my holibobs there :mrgreen:

Bartek's will be better.

Isn't it Auschwitz

chubbs and his one man crusade to out pole bartek makes me chuckle

http://www.rooster.pl/en/krakow/

If you don't like the traditional polish foods (prety hard not to), then go to Roosters where they sell stakes etc.  The waitress are bloody georgeous too

I went to Krakow last August:

1. I stayed near the main square (although the novelty of the trumpet bloke wears off after a while) – at least half price compared to here. Everywhere’s cheap even the tourist areas.

2. Loads to do in Krakow, especially if you like looking at churches there’s loads of them ;-), The main square is great if only because it’s huge (One of Europe’s biggest) and it will take you all day trying out the beer in all the café’s.
Auschwitz is a also a must, I went with an organised tour (be warned doesn’t matter how you get there the roads are shit – potholes everywhere) and I concur with above post about being herded about like sheep. The first camp especially is busy so you don’t get a lot of time to spend in quiet reflection  before moving onto the next exhibit and the second camp Auschwitz II Birkenau which is the infamous death camp doesn’t have a great deal left so my tour guide didn’t really allow us to walk about before we had to go.
If you can, make a trip to Nowa Huta – the old Soviet Communist bit – this really makes you appreciate living in Britain and the old Jewish Ghetto with Schindler’s factory.

3. Don’t know

4. Yes
 
5. All kinds of food available, even veggie

6. Drink is very cheap and, depending where you go, much stronger in ABV?

7 & 8 I went with my wife so can’t comment

The Beer is cheap the women are stunning...thats all you need to know!

My english mate went to krakow and i got a txt off him which summed it up very well

"alright mate, im in gdansk, the food is shit, the music is shit but the women and beer is fantastic"

i dont agree with the food part but i can see why some poeple wouldnt like it.

I'd rather have stunning beer and cheap women to be honest!  :D

The women are cheap mate.....

Not that I'd would've known.... :-))( Honest!!

Thanks, now I know where I stand........

Although with cheap beer, women are more stunning, apparently  :D

I feel sorry for polish people in this country,they get so much stick. To be fair they're very hard working.

I work at centerparcs, and we get free transport home.We have quite alot of polish people working there.Theres this really nasty bus driver and hes racist and sexist and generally horrible.And a polish girl walked up to him and said 'is this the frome bus?' and he said 'where are you from?' and she said 'frome?' and he said 'NO what country are you from?' and she said 'oh poland!' and he growled and said 'oh that bus over there, it leaves for the airport in 10 minutes'. Felt a bit sorry for her. He'll probably get sacked now.Well I hope he does.

We have polish caretakers, they should be told they have to work topless and fix my fucking window!!

Thanks for all of the helpful responses. I am going to book that goodbye Lennon (didn't realise he was so big in Poland) hostel tonight, can't go wrong with free transfers from the Airport and what seems like a 24 hour bar (well it will be as long as we are there!!).

1. I live in the other side of Poland...Sorry I can't help you...but I think it depends when you want to stay... Very Good place - it would be maybe 100 zloty per night (5 ,4 złoty = 1 pound)
2. Oświęcim it's quite far from Kraków...However old sqaure is splendid there...You should also visit Wawel to say cheers to our kings  :P
3. Cracovia - the main rival of Wisła (something like Oxford to Swindon)
4. Yes , it is...We don't want euro...
5. Polish cuisinie is great...Don't worry you won't be poisoned  :mrgreen:
6. The Polish vodka - 17 zloty a bottle (1,5 l) . Of course it's not "Finlandia"  :P but it's also good ("Żytnia")
7. In Kraków ? Hard to say...sure there is a lot of pubs and be sure Polish girls love foreign  :wink:
8.Eh..Don't you live in Britain ? :-) There in every city you can find a lot of Polish women  :mrgreen: