130 – From majestic cliffs to basement pinball

Poland is great, I really had no expectations but it is such a wonderful country and I’d highly recommend people visit. Krakow has now jumped in front to being my favourite of it’s cities as it’s a lovely size and filled with history, architecture, great food and fun.

But I’m jumping ahead. On our drive down from Warsaw we first stopped at Ojcowski National Park. It’s hugely popular and very busy, with lots of trek routes and eateries. There are striking cliffs a little church and various caves. For a less busy trail we walked uphill on the black trail to see a cave, but it was still busy when we got there lol.

On the way down, I fancied a snack from a cute little stall that I thought sold pasty type things. Seeing a few had names that looked like bacon, I tried in Polish, German and English to explain I was vegan or vegetarian but she looked so puzzled and just kept pointing saying cheese. We even spoke to her friend on the phone with no luck. In the end, I said no meat…she said cheese and pointed to some…so we bought it thinking if it’s got bits of meat the dogs can have it. Turns out the pasty was a roll of solid cheese known as Golka…it was a cheese stall 😂🙈 Mark is happy though as it’s delicious smoked cheese. She must have thought we were right Muppets, but it is odd looking cheese lol

Arriving in Krakow we were rediculously lucky with parking find a spot near the old square and with a free concert being set up for the evening. We had a lovely mooch around. Most places are max 30min walk away so you can see lots of sights in a short time. The Castle and fire breathing dragon sculpture were nice as set by the river. The main square is buzzing with atmosphere, people, bars, cafes, horse carriages and great architecture.

One of the daftest things we did was visit Klockoland – a Lego robot wonderland filled with 5/6 years having great fun playing with various creations. We could have done with borrowing some children so we didn’t look so put of place 😂 Still we had fun solving puzzles, competing against each other and driving Lego crabs. If you like Lego or robots it’s a fun half hour or so.

We had dinner back at the van but then I had a couple of surprises for Mark. Our evening entertainment was a Pinball Machine Museum. This blew my mind, it was awesome! For the entry price of 40sz (less than £10) you can stay and play on all the machines for as long as you like. There are some really old ones, lots of American imports, kooky funny ones…we had been playing for around 90mins when Mark suggested we leave…but then found another two rooms so stayed longer 😂 Basically either your legs or finger tips will give out in the end.

Flying high from pinball fun, we tried to find a Speak Easy bar called Z Ust du Ust. Having never heard of this concept before leaving Norwich we now hunt them out in cities as it’s part of the fun and the cocktail are generally great. For this one you have to answer riddles on their website to get clues to their address. I had also read reviews and other blogs looking for tips as it’s really hard to find. If you go hunting for it and get really stuck, I can help but best not to give the game away.

Your cocktail menu is a series of paintings made by local artists that depict the emotions they felt when drinking that cocktail. So you pick the painting that resonates with you and a few minutes later a delicious cocktail appears (you can check ingredients in the back if you prefer to). My head was swimming after just one, but Mark braved a second 😂 Another fun thing we noticed, whereas in the UK the drunken snack is kebab…here they reach for an open toasted sandwich! We found a chip stall as it just didn’t feel right doing anything else.