wtorek, 15 lipca 2014

Transport in Krakow

What to know when you decide to visit Krakow?

The main railway station and the main bus station are located near each other. Ar regards trains, there are many various types of trains you can arrive and depart from Krakow to city you choose. These days, the railway station is modernizing to provide comfortable and high quality of services. On the other hand, the bus station is also well-equipped with modern air-conditioned buses. There are boxes where you can buy tickets and find out about other information you need about transport.

There are links you will problably need to travel with PKP Intercity, regional transport in Poland and in general the timetable. 

Public transport

Public transport is well-organized in Krakow due to numerous of trams and buses (including daily and night transport). Most of monuments are situated round the main market therefore it is better to visit them by feet. Nevertheless, many bikes are rented by people who want to travel in ecological way. If you plan travel in long distance, check a timetable or plan your travel with JakDojade. Almost every page describing attractions have information about their location so it is necessary if you choose to travel with JakDojade, because there is a field of your current location and a destination place (sign an address of an attraction). The app shows you how to get somewhere and how long it takes. There are some types of tickets like one-trip tickets, season tickets. The price list is available on a website. The machines are available almost in every bus and tram so you are obligated to valid your ticket immediately. If there is no machine, a driver must sell you a ticket so you can travel legally through the city. There are also machines on the stop buses (menu in a few languages). 


Krakowska Karta Miejsca empowers you to travel with the public transport. It's a season ticket. You can buy it in Krakow (e.g. Podwale Street) but remember you need your ID and picture of you. If you are a student, don't forget your student ID, because you are entitled to half price ticket. 

środa, 9 lipca 2014

How to get to Auschwitz - Birkenau

All of you heard about Auschwitz - the concentration camp near Oświęcim (Lesser Poland) at least once in whole life. Most of you think about tour to Auschwitz from Krakow.

Every year, milions of visitors from around the world walk through the gate bearing a fallacious inscription: "Arbeit mach frei" - in English - "Work sets on free".  The place has remained a living monument of death.


Trips with a private transport has a big advantage in compare with other type of transport - you might be picked up from hotel you're staying. After your guided tour of Auschwitz you will return to Hotel or City Centre - it depends on you.


Small group guided tours with a maximum of 19 people ensures personalised attention at all times. If you want to join the trip, you have some options to choose like free hotel pick up or arranged meeting at St Jan 2 Street. What is more, the lunchbox is included to the price so no worries you will not find a place to buy food. Even you are not able to undersand polish language, tours companies ensure supervision of english speaker tour leader.


In general, you can choose Auschwitz - Birkenau and Memorial Museum guided tour. This type of trip is cheaper, but food is not guaranteed. For students - surprise! Entrance fee is lower than usual for students aged up to 24 holding a valid student ID. The same case as in small group guided tours - if you do not understand polish language, you can rent a headphone (english, french, spanish, italian, german).



If you have any questions - do  not hesitate - write to me. :)


piątek, 4 lipca 2014

Groceries in Krakow

There are 3 places in Krakow where you can buy fresh vegetables and fruit.

Stary Kleparz registered to the history of the city. The market was located on main roads of trade in Europe. If you lived in that time, there was a specific market with many necessary products and goods. Only there you had a guarantee you would get what you wanted. Now, You can admire embroidered merchant's stall at Stary Kleparz with a picture of Divine Mother of Immaculate Conception with a child on her hand - a patron of merchants.

Nowadays, People who traded are fourth generation of merchants. They will always remember about poors and weakers.

Breaking news: it's started a strawberries season, please come to Stary Kleparz and buy it for a strawberry pie :)

Nowy Kleparz is situated on Długa Street. It's a similar place to Stary Kleparz but with different location.
Unfortunately, due to reorganization of public transport, it's difficult to reach a market. On sundays, you can exchange your book or something else for another goods without paying special fee like merchants usually do in such places. It's a great opportunity to have something interesting for your own. There is a hard time for merchants from Nowy Kleparz, because as you know, there are opened shops like Biedronka or Carrefour and so on. In connetion with this people prefer going to that shops which are nearer than e.g. stalls. Many people have moved from there to the central part of city too.

Plac Imbramowski is a market where people vitis rarely. It's probably because of the location. One of the advantage is that the market is larger than Stary Kleparz or Nowy Kleparz. There is much larger selection of products you might need.


In my opinion, it is better to buy fresh vegetables and fruit from a market than from supermarkets where a price is usually higher and probably food stuck on the shells for long time. Market's advantage is that you can agree on a price of what you want to, contrary to the supermarkets where level of prices is already agreed.