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 3 in Key West

So this post will conclude my holiday in Florida and for our final week we were in Key West, relaxing and baking ourselves in the hot sun.

Here are some of the photos I took:

The Key West peel-n-eat shrimp is very famous! They literally just boil it and it doesn't have any seasoning because it is so tasty! This was a starter portion so I had it as a main meal and it was incredibly filling.

Mile 0, we went on a bus tour around the island and this is one of the most photographed sights.

This is the view from the top of 'Hemingway's Lighthouse'. It was only 88 steps up to the top but there was no handrail and nowhere to stop, so we were all terrified and had legs like jelly at the bottom.

We went on a sunset cruise on a glass-bottom boat for our final night, we saw turtles and jellyfish and all sorts swimming over the coral reef aaaand...

 

...My Mam's boyfriend proposed to her! My step-sister was being sea-sick over the side of the boat while it happened, poor thing.

As it was the start of lobster season, I finally got to try some! It was so delicious, I had a mixed grill of lobster, shrimp and scallops.

So that concludes my holiday to Florida! We had an amazing time!

Thanks for reading and if anyone is planning a trip to Florida and would like to ask any questions then do not hesitate 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!!

Florida! Week One- Orlando

Hi!!

I haven't blogged for such a long time... but this was because I had literally no way of posting due to being in Florida on a family holiday for 3 weeks!

I'm going to post briefly about each week because if I blogged about each day I would go on forever...

Without further ado, I will start with week one.

So our first week, we were in Orlando visiting the Disney parks. We stayed in Windsor Hills resort in a villa. As unfortunately I am not yet 21, I could only enjoy home-made mojitos by the pool in the villa :(

One evening, we went to Downtown Disney, it is soon going to be transformed into a more family-orientated place for a night. I loved Lady and the Tramp as a child so I was over the moon to see some bushes shaped like them!

Typhoon Lagoon is our favourite waterpark, I am not a huge fan of waterslides, but I love the lazy river and the wave pol! The waves can get up to 6 foot and knock everyone all over.

We went to the Rainforest Cafe in Animal Kingdom, this is my favourite Disney park as it is so chilled out and I love seeing all of the animals. I had a shrimp platter at the Rainforest Cafe, this incluede coconut shrimp, garlic and chilli shrimp and shrimp wrapped in mozzarella and bacon with a side of Caribbean rice.

Disney's Hollywood studios was so fun! I love the Hollywood Tower Hotel (the twilight zone) it is so creepy but so crazy, you are dropped in a lift down several stories... several times! So crazy.

We did a lot more than just visit these parks but unfortunately we did not have a good day at the Magic Kingdom.

The 'fast pass' system in Disney has been changed so that you must pre-book any fast passes, which we did not know.

I would urge anyone who is planning on visiting any Disney Resort to look into this as it really ruined our day, we couldn't get on any rides. However.. after this day, we managed to book our fast passes for other attractions at other parks in advance and had a much better time :)

Thank you for reading, if anyone has any questions do not hesitate to ask!