Four days in Krakow with kids (AND friends!)
HELLO from 2021! Let’s try not to think about the fact that it is now November, and pretty much my first time blogging this year. What can I say, it has been an intense year, complete with more lockdowns, work, continued baby sleep issues, a lot of traveling, various long school cancellations because of power outages/flooding/heat issues, etc. You need an excuse, I’ve got them. I’ve got catching up to do, if only for my own sake when I want to remember these trips later. But for anyone else reading this: thanks!
We are back after four fun days in Krakow, Poland, a trip that was repeatedly postponed because of the freaking pandemic. (If you are reading from the magical future where this is no longer a thing: remember covid-19? It sucked!). On this trip, we were lucky to be joined by one of my best friends in the world, Megan, and her husband and two adorable kiddos. We made quite the crew!
Our trip was slightly marred by Lochie getting sick again (which then turned into croup, FUN), but overall we had a wonderful time. In particular, we loved the prettiness of Old Krakow, the affordability and the food. Especially the pierogi.
OH MY GOD, THE PIEROGI.
So, let’s start with some basic details of our 4 days in Krakow with kids (5 kids!!) in tow.
How we got there: We flew WizzAir, on an extremely affordable set of 30 euro tickets that I impulsively booked during a minor temper tantrum about us leaving Sicily soon (more on that later). At the time of writing this, WizzAir was offering flights from Catania to Krakow very late on Wednesday nights and returns on Sunday. Since we arrived at about midnight in Krakow, I booked an airport transfer to be waiting to take us to our AirBnb. The service, from Mr. Shuttle, cost us about $25 and I would highly recommend it.
Where we stayed: We booked a 3-bedroom apartment about a 15 minute walk from central Krakow, and quite near the Na Stawach food market. It worked out great for our needs, even if it wasn’t the most exciting place we’ve ever stayed.
Covid-19 testing: At time of writing, Italy requires unvaccinated people older than 6 years old to have a Covid-19 test before flying into the country. We booked the three kids older than 6 in our group for tests right at the Krakow airport, which was extremely convenient and highly recommended. It is a little on the expensive side at about $40 each, but you get rapid-test results within 20 minutes. Of course, then you get to be annoyed when no one actually checks them, but oh well.
Where we ate: We had pierogi and mulled wine everywhere we went, but the absolute best meal we had was at The Black Duck in Old Town. I highly, highly recommend you visit! It is relatively small, so I definitely recommend making a reservation online beforehand. Then eat the spicy duck pierogi for me, please.
So, on to the fun part:
Day by day: how we spend our days in Krakow with kids
Day 1:
Highlights: food tour, pinball museum
Since we did not make it to our Krakow apartment until well after midnight on Wednesday, we planned for a late start on Thursday. Food tours have become one of our “things” we usually do on trips these days, partially because we love to eat and partially because you usually learn a lot of helpful information from the tour guide as you go. We’ve now done them as a family in Barcelona, Puglia and Krakow, and Chris has done them in Paris and Venice with other people as well. This time around, we booked a tour with a WithLocals guide. I was very excited about this because we had an amazing experience with a WithLocals guide in Barcelona, but unfortunately this one wasn’t quite as good.
Our food tour experience may have been impacted by the fact that Thursday was a Polish holiday and, our guide noted, some of the places she normally goes to were closed. But we ended up with some obwarzanki (a bagel-shaped bread typically sold on the street and flavored with poppy seeds, salt or cheese), pickled herring, zapiekanka* (toppings melted on a baguette, usually a late-night food), smoked cheese and pierogi. The tour also took us through some of the main Old Town sites, including the Market Square and Cloth Hall.
*This came covered in MUSHROOMS, which I also hate, so I will also be accepting Personal Growth Accolades for eating that too, thanks.
Afterward, we hit the apartment for naps, followed by a visit to the Krakow Pinball Museum! If that sounds familiar, we visited a similar place in Budapest in 2019. This one was equally fun for the whole crew!
For dinner, we ordered Indian food using a delivery app our food guide told us about (pyszne.pln!) Megan and I have joked that it was almost worth doing the food tour just so we could learn about this app, since we both used it a few times for dinner when everyone was too tired to go out. Chris and I had an epic feast of Indian food from Royal Curry.
We did get one other bit of excitement: we happened to walk past the fire-breathing dragon statue, Smok Wawelski, outside Wawel Castle just at the moment it breathed fire! Very cool. However, both the big kids and I were very confused as to why so many little kids were sitting at the base of a statue known for breathing fire. Though in Krakow’s defense, we didn’t see any singed kids the whole time we were there, so I guess it was fine.
Day 2:
Highlights: Salt mine, dinner, mulled wine
During the many times I attempted to plan a trip to Krakow, I always planned to go to the Wielyka Salt Mine. Before mining ended in 2007, it was one of the oldest continuously running salt mines in the world, having been operational since the 13th century. Now it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Based on my research, I had planned to just buy independent tickets and find our way there on our own, thanks to the numerous blog posts that advised that doing it that way was much cheaper. Unfortunately, once I went to actually do that — the week OF the trip, whoops — I found that everything was sold out on the website. I *think* they keep some available for walk-up buyers, but with nine people that seemed like a big risk.
So, cue PANIC.
I won’t bore you more with the details, but for a while it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to find ANY tour with availability for nine people and we were basically about to book separately. We did end up sorting it out though, and all got on a tour from GetYourGuide. It was pricier than I would have liked, but the minibus that took our group and five others to the mine was very comfortable, at least.
So the tour itself was quite long, but overall it was a very cool place to visit. And fortunately there was a place to stop and rest mid-tour while underground, complete with snack bar. Those of you with kids will appreciate how clutch that was.
The coolest part was definitely the enormous underground cathedral, lit up with chandeliers and adorned with rock-salt renderings of the Stations of the Cross.
We had a bit of a delay with our bus driver after finishing up the 3-hour tour, which was slightly annoying but at least allowed the kids to frolic in some fall foliage. 
Delays in getting back to Krakow led to a somewhat frantic search for lunch (some of us, coughcoughMEcoughcough are NOT at our best while hangry), which included a failed attempt to go to The Black Duck. However, we ended up in a nice place eventually and had — you guessed it — MORE PIEROGI. Because there is never enough pierogi.
From there, we got ourselves a bit of hot wine but then had to head back to the ranch for …
House hunting.
Remember how I said we didn’t have long left in Sicily? We are moving back to the United States and have been in the market for a new house. Since the housing market is so crazy, there were a couple houses coming onto the market that Friday that we either had to see THAT day or probably never. So, we ended up doing a couple house tours from our apartment that evening.
On a fun note, since Owen didn’t like his lunch/dinner — a veal schnitzel that had been “contaminated” by mashed potatoes — we ended up getting him some hot dogs from the grocery store a couple hundred meters from our house. And thus began a three-day love affair with these hot dogs, which basically sustained him for the rest of the trip.
Day 3:
Highlights: Na Stawych, Krakow Zoo, Planty Park, Trying To Buy A House At McDonald’s, The One Where Lochie Barfs Outside a Candy Store
For a day whose “highlights” take up so much room, we actually woke up on Saturday with no clear action plan of our day. Fiona and Lochie and I took a quick walk down the street to Na Stawcych, an outdoor market, and the nearby bakery. Per usual, we bought way too much stuff because everything was so cheap and decisions are hard. Note: to do this, I took all the cash out of Chris’ wallet and put it in mind. This will be important later.
Going into this trip, going to the Krakow Zoo had not even been on my radar. But once Megan and Dave decided to go, we figured we might as well join as well. Public transit was available, but we thought we’d just squeeze into an Uber to make our lives easier.
Ha. Hahahaha. Hahahahaha.
I’m truly not sure what we did to offend this particular cab driver, but at some point when we entered a bit of a forest preserve-type area, he pulled over and told us to get out. We were here. Uh, ok? We couldn’t see the zoo but figured it must be close, so out we got.
Turns out, we were a solid kilometer away from the zoo. The walk itself was pleasant (though we were on high alert for wild boar after seeing some warning signs) but man, we were not expecting this at all.
The zoo turned out to be in basically the middle of a forest, which might lead you to believe one to believe the cabbie couldn’t take us any closer. Unfortunately, this guess would be wrong. Once we eventually found Megan and Dave — purely by chance, given there was no cell service in the FOREST — we learned they’d been dropped off about five steps from the entrance. Later, we took a BUS back to the city from that same spot, about five steps from the entrance.
The zoo was pretty nice, and the animals were surprisingly very active (probably because of the cold?). We got to hear a tiger roaring and see red pandas moving much faster than I ever imagined they could. The petting zoo area was a big hit, with the kids feeding various animals leaves for years.
Then, things sort of massively went downhill. We’d intended to just buy some lunch at the zoo, because obviously, right? Except once we got to the food area, we learned that the whole operation was cash only, because they don’t have the internet they need within the forest. They also don’t have ATMs on the property, because it is a forest.
At this point, you should be remembering that I swipe all the cash out of Chris’ wallet previously this morning to buy a random breakfast feast.
So, the kids who had previously been only “kinda” hungry when they thought we were getting food turned out to be just STARVING once they found out we didn’t have cash for food. Megan and Dave had already left, or we might have begged our bread from them. As it was, we just ended up leaving. That also was almost a problem because remember about the cell service issue (can’t summon Uber?) And the lack of cash issue (can we pay for a bus?). Mercifully, however, the bus back into Krakow allowed you to pay with a credit card. Which was a relief, because I didn’t want to have to hunt a wild boar while walking back through the forest preserve. 
Once we got home, we decided we were going to head to a playground at Planty Park, a huge park that basically encircles the Old Town part of Krakow. Along the way, we ended up talking to our realtor and deciding to PUT AN OFFER ON ONE OF THE HOUSES we had seen the day before.
We didn’t really understand how much paperwork would go into this whole offer thing, but we’d figured we’d just e-sign whatever document from the park. Unfortunately, it turned out the playground had closed once it got dark (which was before 4 p.m. because November in northern Europe).
So that’s how we ended up making a house offer at a McDonald’s in Krakow.
Unfortunately we did not end up getting that particular house, but we have subsequently bought a different one. At risk of sounding like a broken record, more on that another day. 
Obviously we intended to celebrate this possible house with some candy and mulled wine, so we headed down to a candy shop our friends had visited the day before. It was a big hit with all involved, right up to the moment where Lochlan had an epic coughing fit. I took him outside, and not a moment too soon because we ended up barfing on the street right outside the shop. Poor buddy.
It will come as no shock to hear that we fled the scene of the incident as soon as possible so we could get Lochie home. Our little guy acquired a cough almost as soon as we arrived in Krakow, but this was the time it abruptly got worse. Once we made it back to Sicily, our doctor diagnosed him with croup and he missed a week of school.
Day 4:
Highlights: Starbucks, Wawel Castle, The Black Duck
Sunday, our last day in Poland, came after a terrible night’s sleep because of Lochie’s coughing, plus the news that we’d been outbid for our house. Still, it ended up being a nice day after all. Mostly because of great company (Megan and Dave) and, you guessed it, PIEROGI.
I’m aware that I am a broken record about the damn pierogi.
Since our flight wasn’t until 6 p.m. that evening and we had to leave our AirBnB much earlier, we got everything packed up — we went with backpacks only for this trip — and dropped it off at a luggage storage place in Old Town. From there it was on to Starbucks, right near Krakow’s market square. The kids had a great time hanging out in this giant head.
Getting Starbucks meant we (briefly) got to sit in these glass boxes set up all over the market square to facilitate outdoor dining, even when it is cold.
From there, it was on to Wawel Castle, which had been high on my “must-see” list for Krakow but had managed to get pushed off for various kid/house/time-related reasons the previous three days.
Wawel Castle, the former seat of Polish rulers, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site that houses mostly museum exhibits. It was very cool from the outside, but we did not get to go in because, not having expected to wait until Sunday to go, I didn’t realize it wouldn’t open until 12:30 p.m. Since we had lunch reservations at 1, we just ended up walking around outside it.
We did also get another look at the Wawel Dragon statue, which is an emblem of a legend of the founding of Krakow. The story varies, but the basic idea is that a dragon was regularly feasting on the local people until a hero — possibly a prince? — cleverly defeats the dragon by tricking it into swallowing burning pitch. The hero becomes the ruler of the city.
Eventually, we headed back into the center to meet Megan and Dave and have our much-anticipated meal at The Black Duck. Fortunately, it lived up to my hopes and dreams after days of looking at the menu.
Post-meal game plan had included the park, but by the time we actually finished our feast, it was time to collect our bags and head to the airport for the kids’ covid tests.
All in all, it was a great trip that was made even better by Megan and Dave’s crew coming along too. Here’s to many more future visits together, no matter where each of us are living.
