hey there fellow travelers mark here
with walters world and today we're in
krakow poland my favorite town in poland
it goes between gdansk and krakow and
honestly
10 million tours a year come here and
they're not wrong for a reason
and today what we have for you are kind
of like the 10 don'ts that you have
when you come to krakow i have a couple
more than ten but we'll get the basic
idea out there
and the first donut i have for you is
don't think just because you're coming
to poland
and it's krakow's there that you're
gonna have this big communist
ugly kind of city that is the farthest
thing from a truth remember 10 million
tours come here
for a reason the architecture the
churches the buildings here
in krakow are amazing the town square
the main square the market square it's
the largest in europe okay the cloth
hall that's in the middle there is
gorgeous the churches you go see
on the square at st mary's i remember
the first time i went there was in 1997.
i walked in there when i was a kid i
walked in there went oh
my god wow i mean new jaw dropping
beautiful when i walked in
and i saw the blue altar that was there
in the blue ceiling i'm just like oh my
god this is amazing
and it wasn't destroyed during the war
and you go through the city and you see
the historic buildings
how poland used to look not everywhere
but a lot of places
because this place wasn't destroyed
anymore it was basically saved
before for various reasons but there
wasn't a lot of destruction here and so
you get to see
the traditional architecture the
churches that are under the squares
all kinds of things around here that's
why people fall in love with it because
it is so beautiful everywhere out there
so
don't expect communism when you are here
okay now
my second don't for you is don't think
you have to pay to go up to the castle
on vauvel hill
now valvo hill is at the end of kind of
there's the square there's the main
streets and stuff like that
and there's this hill that has the
castle and the cathedral on top of it
and it is beautiful up there with
amazing views but i've bumped into a
couple tourists down here in the main
square saying well i don't want to go
there you gotta pay to go there
like no no it's free to go up to the
hill okay now
you do have to pay if you want to go
into the cathedral or if you want to go
to the museums that are up there
you do pay for that but you do not have
to pay to actually go up it so do make
sure you walk
up there for the views and take it all
in from the churches and all those kind
of things
and stuff like that it is really a
really beautiful thing so don't worry
about paying it just go up there but if
you're going to go the only thing really
we're seeing up there is going to the
cathedral
they have some of the the bishop stuff
and they have some other museums up
there but
the cathedral is well worth it okay and
the sad part is
because my third don't for you when you
come to krakow is don't take pictures
inside the churches there are tons and
tons of beautiful churches
like to the cathedral up on volvo hill
and the saint mary's in town and you go
around the city and there's tons of
great churches
like behind me and other places and
you're not supposed to take pictures
there and a lot of places will have the
sign saying no pictures no videos
and there's a lot of pieces that say
that but you know you can kind of get
away from it
man these people like here the security
guys were on top of hey there's a lady
she like literally got her phone out you
could see what she was doing look i'm
gonna stick my phone out and get a
picture
she like got it up to about here and the
guy's like hey put that away so
sadly you can't take pictures of that
that's why you're not seeing too many
pictures
of the inside of the churches in this
part of the video because you can't take
them so that kind of sucks
my fourth don't for you is don't walk in
the tourist haze or the tourist days if
you prefer
look you're going to see so much
architecture so much beauty around here
that you do this water
oh wow oh wow oh wow and you do that
but the thing is the drivers in krakow
and in poland in general
they like to go fast they don't you know
the rules the road maybe aren't quite as
ingrained in them
as in other places so you do not want to
like just wander off in the street
because it can be dangerous make sure
you use the crosswalks to cross
make sure you see oh it says i can go
but also still look because this isn't
like
nice and orderly where people do those
things you got to be careful i've
actually seen more people jumping back
out of the way of cars here today
than i did on my last trip to london
when people didn't know those cars came
from the other direction so
don't walk around in that haze make sure
you do pay attention with the cars here
okay
now my fifth don't for you is on the
weekends you get a lot of people from
other countries coming to krakow
because it's beautiful obviously but
also because it's cheap it's cheap to
eat and drink and you get a lot of guys
coming here
for their stag parties their bachelor
parties and you're gonna see maybe five
or ten drunk guys together let's go have
some more beers
making a ruckus and stuff like that
don't deal with them don't talk to them
don't hang out with them
they're there for a nice time and
usually when you get in those groups it
might be fights or vomit or fights and
vomit
stay away from them okay just kind of
stay away from that now my sixth don't
for you is if you're in that group
it's okay but you do you are though but
if not just if you're in those groups
but other ones the sixth don't you have
is
you don't drink in public here you go to
germany oh it takes some beers to the
park and we'll drink there and do stuff
like that
here you can't do that and pretty much
most everywhere in poland you cannot
drink in public
so don't think i'll just grab some some
of the beer here that's actually pretty
good
i'll go to the square and are the park
around here the ring park that used to
be the moat around the city
i'll just go and have a beer there with
my buddies no the cops will uh not be
cool with that
and pretending like you don't speak
polish don't worry it's not pretending
because you don't it's okay
we'll it won't get you out of getting a
ticket so do be careful with that okay
now my seventh don't for you deals with
the jewish quarter now the jewish
quarters kind of go farther south past
favel hill and you're going down out
that way
and what's cool is there's yes there's
the synagogues there the cemetery
there's lots of museums
not just jewish museums but other
museums that are there and some people
think oh it's just the jewish quarter so
just jewish
history stuff there no that's actually a
good place to go for restaurants cafes
drinking party and stuff like that you
can go and have a really nice time
in that part of town so if you're
looking for a place to go that's not in
the very tourist center
check out the jewish district because
there are a lot of cool bars there
now having told you to go to the jewish
quarter and enjoy yourself there
i guess the eighth don't i need to throw
in there is don't expect over-the-top
service when you are here in krakow
in general poland isn't the most you
know best service kind of country out
there
and since krakow gets 10 million
tourists coming all the time it kind of
adds up lots of tourists
not a lot of service so don't expect too
much in terms of that now my night don't
for you is
don't just stay on the tourist walk and
i would say the tourist walk is if
you're coming from
the gate and the north of the city
you're coming from the train station you
get to the gate at the top
and you walk down the main street and
you get to the square and you walk down
the other street down to vava hill and
you kind of stay on that way
and it seems like a lot of the times the
10 million tourists are only on that
stretch
yes it is gorgeous with beautiful
buildings and churches in the square
and the cathedral and the castle on the
hill and stuff like that but go explore
more of the city there's more to see
here there's a da vinci here you can go
see
there's museums out here if you saw
schindler's list when you're a kid that
factory is here
and you can go take a tour of that it's
on the other side of the river go see
the dragon statue all kinds of stuff
but don't just stay on that tourist
strip go out and explore more
and that kind of leads us to the next
stone is don't just stay in krakow
yes it is the city you really have to
see when you are here in poland and it
is gorgeous
but get out because there's two really
really i got i want to say wonderful
amazing cool
place to check out but there's two
places you really should check out when
you go here
if you've got kids i recommend if you
don't have kids go to the salt mines
outside of town
that's why poland was so rich they had
salt okay go to the salt mines there's a
salt mine outside of town they've
actually kind of like built a city out
of
it's kind of a cool thing to do with
kids um but the other thing
the one thing you really have to do when
you do come here to krakow is going to
auschwitz birkenau
that is auschwitz the most horrible
terrible uh concentration camps the
nazis had was right by here in krakow
and you go there and you see the mass
slaughter that happened there
i mean don't be surprised if you're in
tears don't be surprised if it moves you
when you go there i mean i'm getting
goosebumps remembering going there and i
when you go to berkin now because
there's auschwitz which is more like a
built up building kind of stuff looks
like a community
then you go to birkenau where it has the
log at the the where basically
warehouses for the people
and you see those train tracks going in
and you hear the stories about what
happened there where people have walked
down
to where they're going to die or you get
to work till you die i mean it just
it's it's it's heartbreaking when you go
there but it's something you really
should do when you're here
if you have kids i mean we want to say i
mean i'm sad that the kids aren't with
me this time
because i want to take them there so
they can learn about the history and
they can learn about these things
because it is
one of the most horrible things to
happen in human history and we can't
just forget about it so that's one of
the things you want to go and see the
worst of the worst
that's where it happened but it's
something you really should do okay
my next don't for you is if you do go to
auschwitz a lot of people feel like they
have to do a tour
don't feel obligated to take a tour when
you are there if you go from like 8 to
10 in the morning or after four in the
afternoon you can go on your own
and explore on your own the signage
there is really good so you can read on
your own and kind of go through
so you take the tour you won't go at
your own pace you might get stuck in
these other things and sometimes the
groups get so big
you're like well i could just listen to
part of theirs because they're always
going to notice that i didn't pay for
that part okay
and then my last one for here on krakow
is don't forget to look on your ticket
and make sure it says
k-r-k that is the airplane code for
krakow a lot of times when you're flying
sometimes they say oh
we'll send you to krakow they might tip
you to katowice which is like an hour
away from here
and if you're a tourist that wants to
come here and you're like i can't find a
good deal to krakow
you actually might want to look for a
flight to katowice instead
because you can get a good deal there
too as well to give you more options but
just make sure don't forget to look
because uh oh am i going to krk which is
krakow
or somewhere else so anyway i hope this
helps you enjoy more of krakow it is a
fantastic city
i highly recommend it it's one of the
best smaller towns in europe
actually one of the better towns to
visit all over europe anyway um if you
want to learn more things that might
shock you when you come to poland what
you should eat when you're here
yes there's more than pierogi here and
cabbage though there's a lot of
perogating cabbage
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time here in poland it is a really cool
place
and krakow's well worth checking out bye
from krakow