We hadn’t booked breakfast in the hotel on Sunday 30th August so I did a bit of work and Captain Caveman decided to take himself off to the Salt Mine. This was meant to have been an activity that he and Louisa were going to do together, as I am not a fan of being in underground situations like that and suffer quite badly from cleithrophobia. However, Louisa wasn’t departing Manchester until 11.20am today and was meeting us in Katowice tonight. The Salt Mine was nearer to Krakow than Katowice so it made sense to Captain Caveman to do it straight away and on his own. He left by 8am and got the SKA1 train from Krakow to Wieliczka for less than £1.60. The Salt Mine entry was £32.55 and he was in there just over 2 hours.
Meanwhile, I had decided to have a sightseeing morning in the delightful Krakow. I went to a shop and bought snacks to constitute breakfast; a bread which resembled a cheese rock cake and a pork rope. Both had dairy in but I took my tablets and all was fine. It was a bargain £1.83 for both, neither of which I would recommend or buy again, though.
I wandered around the town and took photos, it was a lovely sunny day and everyone I encountered seemed friendly. It was cheap, beautiful and seemed like a place we should’ve been staying in for longer. I was just about to find a cafe for some tea when I got the call that Captain Caveman was on his way back and would be at the hotel in 20 minutes, where we had both left our bags. I walked back to meet him, hoping he’d be willing to eat the leftover pork rope.
Captain Caveman enjoyed the Salt Mine but agreed there was no way I would have coped with it, given my previous underground meltdowns that he’s had experience of. He got the train back and met me in the cafe attached to our hotel for a hot beverage and to show me his photos (I’ve included some here). We paid £2.77 for a tea and a coffee and then had to leave as they were closing for the day. At the train station Captain Caveman bought a sandwich to eat on the train for £3.16 but I still had half a rock scone and the pork rope so had some of that. We filled up water bottles from taps on the platform which were very handy. The tap water in Krakow tastes good too.
We left Krakow a little disappointed that we weren’t there for long enough. Captain Caveman and I got the train to Katowice for £8.70 in total and it took less than 1 hour from door to door. We were staying in Hotel M23 for the next 4 nights, in Katowice centre. We put our bags in and I was impressed with the hotel, then we went to meet Louisa.
The venue had already been chosen ahead of time so that we all could find it easily and Louisa’s choice of Lorneta Z Meduza would turn out to be a regular bar to stop at for a drink. We ordered our drinks as we were 10 minutes early and waited for Louisa to join us. A beer was only £1.93 and a substantial size red wine just £2.70 so it was very reasonable to drink alcohol in Katowice. Louisa arrived and had a rum and coke which was £5 and then we all decided to go for food.
We had booked a table at Pierogi Swiata Robert Kukulski as we were all keen to try the local Pierogi dishes. Louisa doesn’t eat cheese so she chose ones without but both Captain Caveman and I chose ones with cheese in. When they came they were quite big portions at £7.40 per dish but tasted great. The alcoholic drinks here were slightly more expensive at £3 for a beer and £3.60 for wine but a coke was just less than £2. This meant our whole meal with drinks came to £30 so not bad for £10 each.
Our next drink of the evening was in a bar called Amnezja where wine and spirits were cheap but beer a little pricier. It was £4.60 for a rum and coke, £1.70 for a wine and £3.30 for a beer.
While we were in there we saw a bit of fighting outside so we decided to leave and go back to the hotel via Lorneta for a nightcap. I updated my budget tracker in The Handy Travel Planner before bed to find, we had spent £88 for both of us today so had gone over budget by £28 – but that included all the travel and sightseeing so it was not the end of the world.
Gratitude List
1. Captain Caveman and I each doing our own choice of sightseeing activity and enjoying it
2. Meeting up with Louisa in Katowice
3. Great Food and drinks in Katowice.
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