Travelling to Krakow!

So my friend Jen and I booked 2 trips for during the school holidays, before we go back to England.

The first was to Krakow, Poland, mainly because both of us had always had 'visit Auschwitz' on our bucket lists and it looked like an amazing place in general.

We stayed in a small apartment that we found via Airbnb, it was within walking distance to almost everything (unfortunately I didn't get any photos of it as the majority of the time it was a real mess, thanks to us).

We stayed for 6 nights and therefore it would be impossible to do a great post on everything that we did so I thought I could put together some advice for anyone who is thinking of going to Krakow :)

1. It is very very very cheap!!!!!

I don't mean the flights or accommodation, but food, drinks, visits, exhibitions, taxis etc. are insanely well priced. The Polish zloty exchange rate is around 5 zloty to 1 pound (at the time of this post anyway) so when we paid 200 zloty in total for our trip to Auschwitz and the salt mines together, this worked out to about just under £40. Its absolutely crazy.

2. Try the local cuisine!

Honestly, I had no clue what Polish food would be like and when I heard it was mainly dumplings, sausage, stew and things like that, I didn't think I would be interested. However, I gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised! 

The dumplings (pictured below) were nothing like the ones that I have at home in England, they were so light and filled with things like cheese, potato, onion and meat. Not only were they delicious, but they were filling too, perfect for a quick lunch stop!

3. Go to a tourist information office to book day trips!

This is something that I would highly highly HIGHLY recommend. We used 'Discover Krakow' and they were amazing.

We paid 200 zloty (just under £40) for our trip to the salt mines and Auschwitz combined, this included transport and the tour guides.

We found the tourist office in the main square and the pick-up point was in the main square too for our trips. This made our trips so much easier and more enjoyable!

4. If you're undecided on any trips- GO ANYWAY!

I wasn't entirely sure if the salt mines would be my thing and after hearing we'd have to walk down over 300 stairs to get there I was a little worried but it was very very informative. Especially with a tour guide who gave us all of the background information. The salt sculptures were incredible.

Underground St Kinga's Chapel built entirely out of salt!

5. Auschwitz is something everyone needs to see at some point in their lives.

As I said, I had always wanted to visit Auschwitz. I had heard a lot about it and studied World War II and the Nazi party in many History classes, but this trip really made it feel real.

It was so eery and emotional, the whole day was bizarre. I almost feel like I dreamt it because it was so haunting.

I would 100% recommend going with a tour group and getting a guide while you're there. They give you all of the information you need and take you to the Auschwitz camp as well as the Birkenau death camp which is all ruins.

The only thing that I would say is to be respectful, it was really disturbing to see people trying to snap photographs when we were told not to.

Also there is a restaurant/ cafe at the entrance of the Auschwitz camp if you get hungry- someone asked us before.

6. Nightlife...

Krakow has ridiculous amounts of bars in and around the city centre. We mainly stayed around the main square and some nights went into the Jewish Quarter.

We went to 'Shakers' one night and ended up staying until 4am. It was just off the main square and beside lots of others.

Be careful not to get overcharged, we ended up paying different prices for the same drinks when they knew that we were English tourists!

Kamikazi shots (they only let us buy in 6s...)

At the Hard Rock Cafe in the city centre. (Top- Zara)

7. Don't be afraid to explore!!

We ended up getting lost down different streets away from the centre and saw so many gorgeous buildings and churches along the way as well as pieces of art. Krakow really is a beautiful city.

You can also get taxi tours for very cheap, they can take you to all of the main points of interest!

Different parts of the main square

Inside of this building was a small market, there were lots of great stalls selling everything from clothes to jewellery. They sold beautiful pieces of amber jewellery for great prices!

A lovely church we stumbled across while we were lost.

That's it!

I hope this post was helpful, I would recommend Krakow to anyone!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask :)

Florida! Week two- Universal

I haven't posted for ages, once again, as I have been in Barcelona! I will be posting about that trip in the near future.

BUT for now I am going to talk more about Florida!

Week two:

We drove from our villa in Windsor Hills to stay at the Portofino Hotel in Universal Studios.

Its done out like a little Italian village! Its so beautiful!

Staying on the Universal resort meant that we had transport directly to the park every day and could go as much as we wanted, we also had passes which meant that we could jump straight to the head of every queue!

You can buy these 'express passes' in the park, but it is cheaper to book them in advance, I would recommend them because although you pay more money, the day is so much more enjoyable without the hassle of hour long queues.

The best part of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure for me is without a doubt the Harry Potter world! I love being able to go to all of the shops and see inside the castle!

Towards the end of the week we travelled to Port St Lucie, where my Auntie lives. We had a great weekend chilling by the pool and soaking up the sun after a busy couple of weeks!

I will be posting about our third and final week in Key West very soon!!

Thankyou for reading and thankyou for all of the comments people leave :)

If anyone has any questions do not hesitate to ask!!

Paris! (Day 1- travelling)

Bonjour !

I haven't blogged in soooo long because I have just got back from Paris! I went with my boyfriend and we stayed with his sister for 6 nights, it's been great and I am gutted to be back!

My next holiday will be Florida which is in about 3 weeks... but I am going to do a few posts about Paris over the next few days and also giving some advice for anyone who is looking to go.

Day One

So to get to Paris, we used the Eurostar. This was both of our first times on the Eurostar train, although I have been through the tunnel in the car before.

We got 2 return tickets from Durham to Paris (obviously stopping at London) for £99 each, which is very good.

I would definitely recommend going via Eurostar as I have flown before but can barely remember and my boyfriend has been to Paris a few times and says he much preferred going by train. The security is very quick and easy and with there being a stop at London along the way, it splits up the journey (around 5/6 hours) and seems to go a lot faster. Also, the Eurostar stops directly in in centre of Paris at Gare du Nord, so we just had to hop on a metro to Place d'Italie when we got there and didn't need to get transfers or anything like that.

All in all, using the Eurostar turned out to be quicker than flying because going to the airport you have to be there early anyway, go through security, hang around in the departure lounge, board the plane, wait for take-off and then finally after 1.5 hours flying, land, go through to get bags, then eventually transfer to Paris.

Anyway, as I said we had to go to Place d'Italie, which is where my boyfriend's sister lives. This was a great area as it was very handy for the metro and close to lots of popular places, but also not touristy whatsoever, which was great.

It did have a few bars which were small and nice too, but we didn't really spend much time around there.

We went to a bar and a Vietnamese restaurant close by called Song Huong and all of us had this:

(Beef with tomato rice, an egg and salad)

It was amazing!!

We basically just went to bed after this, we were so tired and were going to have a big day the next day (I will post about that later today or tomorrow..)

I hope that this post has been helpful, I will be posting more exciting Paris related things very soon!

If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask :)

Catching up...

I haven't been on my blog this weekend but thankyou for the comments and to anyone who came to view it :)

Although I haven't  really been anywhere lately (I'm having to sacrifice a social life for holiday money at the moment), I have FINALLY moved my stuff out of my flat in Newcastle and am officially at home!! BUT on top of that, Gizmo was spayed on Friday and has needed lots of attention. 

We have always had male dogs, and Casper was neutered earlier in the year, but Gizmo was already in season so we had to wait. Anyway... long story short she was eventually done on Friday and was in a lot of pain, although we were told by the vet she would be fine, and we had to go back and demanded pain killers for her.

She's a lot better now, as you can see from her gremlin-like face on this picture!

She is like a baby bat

In other news... my boyfriend brought me back some lovely gifts from New York a few weeks ago and despite the fact I have been to Harry Potter world in Florida a few years ago AND been to the Harry Potter studios in London.. I had never tried any of the Harry Potter sweets!! 

He bought me a little box of the Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, which were....interesting...

Unfortunately I mostly got the gross flavours like bogey, black pepper, vomit, rotten egg, ear wax...you get the idea.

But they were really fun and I'm glad that I can finally say that I have tried them!!

Also.. our Disneyland Paris tickets have finally arrived!! We are going to Paris in 9 days and will be going to 'EuroDisney', I have never been before so I am really really excited :)

If anyone has any suggestions of good places to go in Paris or any good rides/ attractions in Disneyland, please do let me know!!

Thanks for reading :)