As a teacher, I’ve always been more spoiled than most when it comes to time off during the year – though I tend to argue that summer breaks and the occasional week off during the school year are compensation for working nearly every single evening and every single weekend during the school year. It’s like cashing in your overtime all at once – which, coincidentally, is how overtime is usually paid here in France. It’s always been relatively rare that Dani and I get to benefit from having the same vacation time, but now that she’s a student at the university where I teach, we’re off school and work at the same time, which means…travel!
There’s no Thanksgiving in France, but most students get time off around la Toussaint, a holiday that falls on the first of November. For non-university students and staff the break is usually two weeks long, but for us, just a week. We decided to make the most of our time and check out a new-to-us country. Dani and I debated a bit over where we wanted to go – Barcelona was a momentary frontrunner – but we settled finally on Krakow, as I’ve always wanted to go and it was insanely inexpensive for the dates available to us.
While actually getting to Krakow was a huge headache – think delayed plane, missed connection, overnight in Munich, failed landing in Poland followed by a return to Munich – we finally arrived in Krakow about a day later than scheduled. The first night we were there was cold, foggy and rainy (which made for some pretty cool photos) but for the remaining days we got incredibly lucky with some seriously nice weather. Blue, sunny skies and changing fall leaves made Krakow all the more charming – not that it needs any help in that department.
We tend not to be overly finicky travelers – we mostly like to explore on foot and eat and drink well. Krakow offered us plenty of opportunities for all of that – and it was so cheap. I almost don’t like telling people that, because I want it to remain that way. There are so many free walking tours, craft breweries and distilleries, fantastic coffee shops and delicious restaurants that it would be impossible, I think, to go to Krakow and not have a fantastic time. And the people were so kind and welcoming, despite our total lack of any Polish language skills whatsoever. It’s really made us want to explore other parts of Poland.
A complete gem.
caffeine & a carry on 