We had booked accommodation in a hotel close to Gare du Nord train station which was a very convenient location in terms of access to the Paris Metro system, and when you looked out of the window of our room you could see Sacre Coeur which was a beautiful sight.

On our first morning in Paris we got pastries and coffee and headed for the Metro station. Here we purchased a three day train pass which was a brilliant idea as it meant we didn’t need to worry about purchasing any train tickets for the rest of our stay. Our first train journey led us to Notre Dame cathedral where we took in the outstanding Gothic architecture from the outside and then joined the swiftly moving queue to take a look at the inside.

Notre Dame is an amazing structure, but I was disappointed by just how many tourists were in there talking loudly to one another or talking on mobile phones, taking photos with the flash on and treating this holy place like an amusement park. It really took away from the feeling of awe and holiness that a Gothic church was designed to inspire, there was no quiet place to sit and really take in your surroundings because the crowds were immense. This definitely was a tourist attraction and not like a proper church at all. It was surprising to note that mass still gets said here every day in spite of the crowds, how weird and challenging it must be for the priest to perform a full mass with people taking photos and talking around the isles of the church, and for the parishioners who attempt to partake in the mass, how do they feel about the crowds I wondered?

We left Notre Dame and crossed to the south side of the Siene river to get some lunch. We found a cafe where we managed to get a delicious filled baguette with a can of coke for only €4.80 each – our coffee that morning had cost €4.50 each so this was an amazing deal! Afterwards we stopped in at the famous Shakespeare and Co bookshop before heading on a lovely walk along the Siene riverside.

A while later we were still walking and found ourselves outside the Musee d’Orsay. The queues here were amazingly long so we took a look around all the interesting sculptures that were on display in the courtyard and then we crossed the river and entered le Jardin des Tuileries. Here we took the time to enjoy a beautifully manicured green space in central Paris. There was also a sculpture exhibition in the gardens so it was wonderful to walk around and discover random contemporary sculpture placed in obvious and not so obvious places around the gardens.

At one end of the Tuileries is La Louvre and at the other is La Place de la Concorde. We headed to La Place de la Concorde, stopping for a crepe along the way. There was a street performer on La Place de la Concorde who was blowing giant bubbles and teaching a young girl how to make these bubbles, we spent a while transfixed by these bubbles, trying to capture them on camera.

Walking away from La Place de la Concorde we began the walk up the most famous street in Paris – La Champs-Elysees – with our ultimate destination being the Arc de Triomphe which is at the top end of the street. Along the way up the street we got sidetracked by Avenue Matignon and a quick visit into the Paris office of Christie’s auction house. This was a beautiful French building and well worth the visit, there was a wine auction taking place while we were there so there was a lot of people around the building which made it all the more interesting to visit.

La Champs-Elysees is a crazy street not just for the big names stores which line the street, or the really large sidewalks, but for the sheer number of people that those sidewalks accommodate, and the insane amount of traffic in both directions on the road! This is most definitely the busiest street I think I have ever been on. By the time we got to the top of the street we were so exhausted that we decided just to take some photos of the Arc de Triomphe from across the road and leave it at that. We then decided to have dinner at the only place we could afford on La Champs-Elysees – McDonalds! (It was interesting to note that it was still more expensive here than at other McDonalds restaurants in Paris).

The following day we went to the Louvre. We had pre-booked our tickets at a ticket booth in Gare du Nord station the day before so we were able to jump the crazy long queue and go straight inside. I was surprised to find the the Louvre (home of such priceless art, like The Mona Lisa) did not have as strict a security policy as the Uffizi in Florence, we only had to walk through a metal detector and our bags through an x-ray machine but we were still able to hold on to our bags when we went through the galley (unlike at the Uffizi). We were also allowed our cameras which was a novelty for a museum, normally all form of digital recording device is forbidden.

There is so much to see in the Louvre and I know that the almost 6 hours we spent walking around it barely scratched the surface of the collection, but I was very happy with all I saw. Having completed a whole degree in the history of art with a focus on the Renaisance and also 17th-19th century French art (and with a few Classics papers completed), this museum was a treasure trove of art I had studied and written essays on. If I had to choose 5 pieces that blew me away they would have to have been The Winged Victory of Samothrace (an ancient Greek statue), Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa“, David’s “Intervention of the Sabine Women“, Rubens’ “Marie de Medici cycle“, and Canova’s “Cupid and Psyche“. Each of these pieces were highlights in their own way but the power exuded by these works by their size or the way they were sculpted or painted really impacted on me.

The most disappointing work I saw was the Mona Lisa. While I admit it is a beautiful work by da Vinci, the fact it was behind bullet-proof glass and security guards and a barrier set a few meters back meant that it was not as easy to appreciate as every other work in the museum is. I found watching the crazy crowd around this small painting to be a more interesting experience. People would fight their way to the front of the crowd, pull out their camera and take a couple of pictures, then move on. I am not sure that many people actually stop and really look at this painting which is sad, but then again, with all the camera lights reflecting off the glass in front of the painting it was quite difficult to really look at.

After our art overload we refueled and headed down to the Paris’s most famous icon – the Eiffel Tower. On my first trip to Paris I saw the Eiffel Tower at night, all lit up with twinkling lights, so it was strange to arrive here in daylight and see the iron structure in full light. For some reason I was really surprised that it was brown. I am not sure why I was surprised but for some reason in my head it was a black structure, not a brown one! We stayed in the area until it was dark enough for the lights to go on at which point we saw the Eiffel Tower transform itself into a beacon of twinkling lights.

Our last day in Paris had only one destination in mind, Sacre Coeur and the surrounding Monmartre area. Our first discovery was an entire street which led away from Sacre Coeur which was just fabric shop after fabric shop. This was a dream for my mother who loves to sew and for me who loves craft projects – a whole street of options for random bits and bobs to use in our sewing and crafting. Just wonderful!

We ate filled baguettes for lunch on a park bench in the garden just below Sacre Coeur, it was a beautiful day and this was the perfect spot for lazily watching the world go by and enjoying some very French food. After lunch we climbed the rest of the hill and entered Sacre Coeur. Unlike at Notre Dame, you were not allowed to take pictures in this church and people were generally less chatty so there was a completely different vibe inside. This church really felt like a church, it felt like an escape from the madness of the busy Parisian streets outside, it was a quiet sanctuary where you could sit and think. We took the opportunity for a moment of quiet contemplation in this beautiful place of worship.

The Eurostar journey back to London was comfortablele and straightforward. The two hour train ride was a great opportunity to just sit and reflect on the wonderful holiday I had just been on. Paris showed us a good time and I am glad to have been able to visit for a second time. It is a city so full of history, and so much of that history is visible in the design of the streets and buildings that despite the obvious modernisation and the millions of tourists, this city still leaves a lasting impression of delight.

It is very hard to describe just what an incredibly amazing place Hrvatska (Croatia) is. There is really nothing that compares to it!

It was so strange, but as I was travelling along the coast on the bus from Split towards Makarska I felt so at peace, it felt good to finally be here! We were coming around a bend in the road and I caught a glimpse of the next town we would be approaching and it was like a sixth sense or something but I just knew that the town I had just seen was Makarska and that I was here, I was finally home! It is strange because I have never actually visited before but sure enough, a few minutes later the Welcome to Makarska sign confirmed my suspicions!

Makarska

Every day I go for a walk in the morning around Makarska somewhere, either through the old town, along the marina, up Sveti Petar, or around Osejava. I am constantly blown away by just how beautiful everything seems to be. I have my camera permanently in my hands hoping to capture the essence of this place but ultimately I know that no photo will ever do justice to actually experiencing it.

Most days I have a big lunch cooked by Teta Meri – soup, freshly caught fish, stuffed paprika, pasta, and so on – and it is always delicious! Lunch is the main meal for the day and we usually eat together at about 12.30pm. After lunch I usually sit and talk with the family or watch Croatian TV with them under the refreshing air conditioning unit, it is too hot at this time of day to be outside. By about 4.30/5pm I venture outside again, this time to go swimming at the beach for a few hours and even at this time it is still at least 30˚C outside!

I have been swimming on the main tourist beach in Makarska a few times but it is always so full of people that I prefer to swim off the rocks on Osejava where there are less people and those that are there are the locals. My cousin Pero took me one afternoon to the absolute end of the beach in Makarska where there is a beach bar called Buba which plays host to a giant beach party every day till after 8pm. There is a DJ playing club music and everyone is dancing away in their swimwear. If you get hot you just jump into the sea and then come back out and dance till you are dry again! It was a lot of fun. I also learned a popular card game (they called it Italian Cards) and I sat with Pero and his friends one afternoon in a cafe-bar playing cards – for a beginner I wasn’t too bad, I won the game a few times actually!

I am really glad I decided to do this trip on my own but I must admit that I wish I had some company when I was at the beach because swimming in the sea is more fun when you have people to splash about and talk with.

The water here is amazing. I love how clear it is, I have never seen such clear water in my life! It is so refreshing, and compared to the cold waters of Wellington beaches I can’t get over how warm the water is as well, what a treat! I also love how you only have to take a few steps into the water for it to be waist-deep.

The Biokovo Mountain dominates the landscape if you look away from the water and towards the town, it is so imposing and yet oddly comforting.

Dubrovnik

My day trip to Dubrovnik was fantastic. I took over 270 photos on that day! The bus trip down there was interesting as I got to see the rest of the Dalmatian coastline and more! We also had to cross into Bosnia & Herzegovina who own a 20km stretch of the coast and cuts right across Croatia! As we were on a tourist bus we didn’t get our passports checked or stamped at the border control but we did do a refreshments pit stop in the country so I can now also say I have spent a grand total of 1 hour in Bosnia & Herzegovina!

We had a guide on the bus who gave us a history of Croatia and specifically the history of the towns we passed through.

Once in Dubrovnik we were met by yet another tour guide who spent an hour and a half taking us around the Old Town. We saw inside the Rectors Palace, which is now a museum, as well as the Franciscan Monastery. After that we had two and a half hours free time to have lunch and explore the Old Town further. I grabbed a pizza for lunch and then set to explore the many small lanes and passages of the town.

There are water fountains all over the Old Town which still use ancient Roman aqueducts and where the water is still clean enough to drink straight from the fountain so refilling your water bottle was an easy task as you could just stick it under the nearest fountain for fresh cold water!

I didn’t have enough time to walk the entire wall of the Old Town so I found out which half was more interesting and I walked that half of the ancient wall and looked out over the splendid orange-tiled rooftops and out to the crisp blue sea, beautiful!

After such a full day out in the hot sun it was a nice restful trip back to Makarska in the air-conditioned bus.

Cruising around the local islands

Croatia has over 1000 islands dotted along the coast in the Adriatic Sea. I would love to have visited as many as possible but I had to settle for 2 of the big ones instead…

A cousin, Milan, works for one of the tour boat companies and arranged for me to go out on the boat one day. So I was at the Marina at 8am with everyone else who was getting onto one of the many boats of various shape and size (there are a few options all going to different islands etc). My boat, the Germania, turned up and on I hopped. Our captain only spoke Croatian, and most of the passengers seemed to speak anything but Croatian or English so there were some interesting “lost in translation” moments when the captain tried to ask questions about food for lunch or to tell everyone what time to be back on the boat at one of our stops!

Our first stop was Vrboska on the island of Hvar. We stayed only 45 minutes which was more than enough time, as it was a very small town. It was very pretty with some cool buildings but not overly interesting for any great length of time. After seeing the sights, picking up some refreshments for later, and enjoying an ice cream, it was back onto the boat and off for the next stop. Along the way we were served up lunch, a large tuna steak, salad and bread, very nice!

I sat up the front of the boat and hung my feet over the edge, enjoying just staring into the beautiful blue water and looking out to the idyllic landscapes in the distance.

Eventually we got to our next stop; this was the town of Bol on the island of Brac where we had 3 hours of free time. I walked the 2km walk from the marina to Zlatni Rat the famous beach in the area which changes shape depending on the wind direction! I found a spot and went swimming then stretched out and relaxed in the sun. The water here was seriously cold compared to back in Makarska but it is much more exposed here so that is not surprising. The area is also very popular for wind surfing and kite surfing – when we were leaving the island I looked behind me and it looked like a flock of giant birds in the distance and then I realised that it was actually a massive group of kite surfers!

Coming back into Makarska I was again struck by just how awesome this place is!

Tucepi

Barba Leo and Teta Meri took me up to the old part of Tucepi one afternoon to see where my family actually comes from. The first stop was a lookout point up the Biokovo where we looked out on to the newer part of Tucepi where most people live today, right down on the beach. But looking across and up the hillside you could see all the small villages that people from my grandparent’s generation were born and raised.

The village of Sevelji is where my Dide Mate Sevelj was born. His house is still there and is still owned by the family. Dide Mate was the 2nd (and eldest son) of 7 children born and raised in the house in Sevelji. The house itself was built by my great great grandfather Mate Sevelj after whom my grandfather is named! In a nearby village was an even older house which was where my grandfather’s mother was born and raised, it still has the balcony built by her father! Amazing! It was then down a narrow winding road/path to the village of Podstup where my grandmother Baba Danica Viscovic and her sister and two brothers were born and raised. It felt so surreal to walk the same path my Baba would have walked as a young girl with her goat in tow! Baba and Dide now live in NZ and haven’t been back here for almost 20 years! I haven’t seen them in over 2 years and I missed them so much more as I spent time in their birthplace, I was sad that it wasn’t them showing me around but it was great to have Dide’s little brother give me the tour instead. I really loved the fact that Baba and Dide were from neighbouring villages and from Dide’s village you can see Baba’s village and from both you look out over spectacular views across the Adriatic!

While Dide’s siblings are now in Makarska, the next town over, Baba’s family moved down from the mountain village onto a beautiful spot right on the beach, Baba still has her own piece of land there! As I had spent most of my time with the Makarska family I moved over to Tucepi for a few days with that part of the family.

I stayed with Baba’s beautiful sister and spent time with her son and his family as well as with the family of one of Baba’s brothers. Some of my younger cousins on this side of the family were also visiting from Australia, where they live, so I spent a lot of time with them here on the beach, which was great fun!

Tucepi also has amazing beaches and a great atmosphere about it. The Marina is idyllic and full of fancy yachts in port protected by a stone jetty. Sunset in this area is also beautiful and I never got tired of watching it.

My mum once told me a story about when she was here at the age of 18 with her parents and her sisters and how she spent a whole day on the steps of the family home looking out to the beach crying because she just couldn’t understand why her parents had left this paradise and why they had to leave again now. I thought about that story as I spent my last day on the beach in Tucepi and knew exactly how mum felt. I really felt at home here, it is a part of me and always will be! By the time my three weeks came to an end my family did say that I was looking more like a local every day! And I definitely felt like a local!

Leaving was the worst part, it was so hard to say goodbye to the wonderful family I have here and to this beautiful place. My amazing family even made the effort to come to the bus station and wave me off! I was the only person at the station with a crowd of people waving me off. I think I cried for most of the bus journey back to Split!

Split

I had a few hours to spare between arriving in Split and going to the airport to head back to London so I checked my bags into the station baggage hold and went to explore the impressive Diocletian’s Palace, something I had studied in my Art History classes at University! This was another wonderful experience and a nice way to finish off an amazing holiday. I did a walking tour so I could find out more about the Palace area and then I got some lunch and sat in a sunny spot and relaxed in the beautiful surroundings.

This holiday would have to be the best trip I have done since leaving NZ and I cannot wait to go back again!

Hrvatska is AWESOME!

Our next step was to book ourselves onto an afternoon bus tour which we had read about in a flyer we picked up at the airport. The tour would take us out to Malahide Castle and the North Coast in a 3 hour round trip – great, my first afternoon in Dublin and I was going to be seeing historic buildings and also the Irish seaside! We had a few hours before that bus trip so it was time to get our bearings and explore the local area. One of the most striking features of the city was the river Liffey which was so clean looking considering it cuts through the centre of town – so different from the Thames in London!

We didn’t want to get too far away from where our bus pick up point was so we spent our time around O’Connell Street. This street is very wide with a huge pedestrianised strip running right down the centre of the street which is just as wide as the footpaths on either side of the street. Along the length of this centre strip were many statues to a whole bunch of people I have never heard of before and can only assume were at some point in time famous residents of Dublin. I really loved the statues I saw in Dublin (and there were a great many!) for their expressiveness. They all had funny poses or funny expressions on their faces – they never looked too sad, always happy which sends out such a positive vibe to the city I think. For example the statue of Jim Larkin with his arms flung overhead is so expressive it just makes me want to throw my arms up and shout out a big hello!

Also dominating the view down this centre strip is The Spire – a giant stainless steel knitting needle in the centre of the street. Standing 120m high, the official name of this sculpture is “Monument of Light” – the top section lights up at night to provide a sort of beacon in the night sky across the city. Built in 2003 as part of a regeneration of O’Connell street, the Spire of Dublin stands on the former site of Nelson’s Pillar which had been destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1966.

After some lunch it was time for our bus tour north of Dublin. We had a wonderful Irish driver who told us many tales about the area and even sang us a couple of traditional Irish songs (and then apologised for his bad singing – which wasn’t bad at all actually). He kept us well entertained until we arrived at our first stop, Malahide Castle. This castle is one of the oldest and most historic castles in Ireland with some parts of the castle dating back to 1185 when the Talbot Family took possession of the land. It remained in the possession of this family until 1975 when Rose Talbot sold it to the Irish State to fund inheritance taxes. The views from inside the castle out to the grounds of the castle were impressive, I imagine that in the summer time this must be a great place to spend a sunny afternoon.

On the way out to Malahide we passed a very old stone church which had a miniture replica church alongside it that our bus driver told us was for the leprechauns – yes we are in Ireland, “to be sure, to be sure”.

After Malahide Castle it was off along the coast back towards Dublin. We passed through the fishing town of Howth, and passed by the Royal Dublin Golf Club and North Bull Island Bird Sanctuary. The highlight of the journey back to Dublin was when we stopped up on the summit of Howth Head to take in the view across Dublin Bay which was beautiful.

We finished off a lovely Saturday in Dublin with a beer in the famous pub area of town known as Temple Bar.

The next day was Easter Sunday. I had done some research before we came and discovered that most attractions were closed on Good Friday but were open on Easter Sunday which was good news for us. I was hoping to get to a Catholic church for Easter Sunday mass but unfortunately by the time we found one the service was just coming to an end. So we continued to wander around, eventually heading to the Guinness Storehouse, the 7-floor visitor experience dedicated to the history and making of this famous Irish beer.

For those that know me well they will know I am not really a beer drinker, but during the Guinness experience I think I discovered a beer I actually like the taste of! They say Guinness is an acquired taste and I would say I prefer the flavour of Guinness to most other beers I have tried!

The Storehouse is really interesting as it takes you through the whole beer-making process from the selection of ingredients to the international distribution of the finished product. And being true beer geeks, the people who designed the experience created the whole inner storehouse in the shape of a giant pint glass which if filled would hold 14.3 million pints!

Upon arriving at the Storehouse Shanika and I bumped into two Spanish guys who had been on our bus tour the day before – it’s a small world after all. We said hello to one another when we arrived and then saw them again on the final level – the Gravity Bar – where we all enjoyed our complementary pint of Guinness and the panoramic views of Dublin.

After the Guinness Storehouse Shanika and I went to Dublin Castle for a tour of the State Rooms and the Undercroft and got to hear about the interesting history of Ireland and it’s connection to England.

From there we continued on our exploration of the city, relishing every new piece of public sculpture we came across – especially the particularly charismatic representation of Oscar Wilde  found in Merrion Square. Made of different coloured marble it shows a chilled out Oscar lounging on a rock with this kind of “How you doin’?” smirk on his face.

The statue of Molly Malone would have to have been one of the most popular tourist spots in the city. It was almost impossible to get a clean shot of this statue without some tourist posing in front of it, and there was always a queue of eager people waiting for their turn to pose with her and her wheelbarrow. All I knew about Molly Malone was that there is a pub in my hometown with the same name but as it turns out, Molly Malone is the name of a famous Irish song set in Dublin, a song that our friendly tour bus driver the day before had sung for us!

At the end of O’Connell Street is the O’Connell Monument which Shanika and I took a couple of silly photos in front of. The funniest part was when Shanika became the object of interest for some Eastern European travellers who wanted to have their photo taken with the ‘dark skinned’ girl. This was so surreal, neither of us Kiwi girls ever thought that stuff like that still happened but apparently Shainka’s Sri Lankan heritage made her ‘exotic’ in Dublin! Needless to say we made excuses to get out of there before the photo could be taken, CRAZY!

There were also many monuments to various hardships seen in the city over the centuries. The most powerful was one dedicated to those who suffered through the infamous Irish Potato Famine. The figures are so frail and desperate looking, even the dog looks terrible, it is so tragic. But it is a beautiful monument to behold, as you walk in between each of the figures you can really get a complete sense of each of them and it really moves you with their struggle to survive.

To finish our Easter Sunday Shanika and I found another pub in Temple Bar where we had dinner upstairs and then went downstairs to listen to these two Irish guys playing guitars and singing great songs to sing and dance to. We sang and danced until they finished their set a couple of hours later and then danced to the band that followed after them. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time and it was even better knowing that our hostel was literally around the corner so there wasn’t a long trip home afterwards!

Monday was our final day in Dublin and the weather was starting to turn bad on this day so we timed our trip really well. Our fist stop of the day was Christ Church Cathedral. This Church of Ireland cathedral has a history going back to c1030 and is very impressive both inside and out. It also has a really interesting crypt which contains a lot of information about the history of the cathedral.

Continuing on the church theme our next stop was St Patrick’s Cathedral, dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland. It is said that St Patrick baptised converts to Christianity at a well that once existed in the park on the grounds of the current cathedral. The first church of St Patrick was built here in the 5th century and the one we visited was built in the 13th century. This cathedral has an illustrious history including being the site for the first performance in Dublin of Handel’s Messiah in 1742 and having the writer Jonathan Swift as it’s Dean from 1713-45. There is a lot to see in the interior of this church and it is worth the visit.

Our final destination before leaving Dublin was Trinity College. We had the most charismatic young student of the college as our guide who took us on a tour of the area giving us an interesting history of the University and it’s buildings and famous former students. This young man has such passion and enthusiasm for his university they really should pay him more for the excellent job he did on the tour.

We finished the tour outside the Trinity College Old Library which is the home of the famous Book of Kells. The exhibition you walk through before finally seeing the Book of Kells (or 2 of the 4 chapters they have on display at any one time) prepares you to have a better understanding / appreciation for the book you see at the end of it all. On the next floor up is the Long Room which is the historic library, and as a person who loves a good library this one definitely impressed! The best part was the discovery that the books are not arranged in this library by author or title or any modern library filing system but are instead arranged by book size – the largest books being found on the bottom shelves and the smallest at the top!! That must be fun when a student wants to look at a particular book from the historic collection which is what is housed here!

To sum up my Easter weekend I thought I would finish with a list of  things I liked about Dublin:

• Friendly locals
• Irish Accents
• Manageable size – you can walk everywhere with ease
• Good live music in the pubs
• The river Liffey is incredibly clean looking (especially compared to the Thames in London)
• There is great public sculpture everywhere
• Lots of statues of people in interesting poses
• Guinness Beer
• Marshmallows served with hot chocolates!
• ‘Irish’ things that I have previously only ever heard of referred to as ‘English’ – for example: Full Irish Breakfast,’ ‘Irish Breakfast Tea,’ ‘The Church of Ireland’
• There are lots of interesting stories about the history of the City to hear about

I have definitely put Dublin on my list of places I would like to visit again some time.

Finally I was making a trip to the Polish city of Krakow, a town that I had wanted to visit since I was a small child learning about my family origins. I don’t specifically have family from the town of Krakow, but it was a town that always sounded so interesting that I wanted to see it before I saw other Polish towns. To make the experience even better I was travelling with three of my friends – Rosie, Shanika and Rachel – and was looking forward to the four of us taking Krakow by storm.

Travelling in March I was surprised when I looked out the window of the plane just before we landed to see Krakow completely white with snow. I had expected it to be cold but I was not at all prepared for just how cold it ended up being! I very quickly got used to wearing tights under my jeans, two pairs of socks at the same time and also at least 4 tops, all finished off with a scarf, a woollen hat, some leather gloves and my woollen coat – and I was still cold when I was outside!

After making our way into the old town we found our hostel – the Flamingo Hostel which was on a street just off the old town square, a perfect location. After we settled in and layered up a bit more the four of us ventured out in search of some lunch and some relaxed exploration of the local area. My first impressions were great, the buildings were so different to anywhere else I had been, so old and full of character. The Old Town Square was so pretty, on one corner stands St Mary’s Basilica which has a tower where a trumpet sounds on the hour every hour to commemmorate a medieval trumpeter shot while sounding an alarm. In the centre of the square is the Cloth Hall, built in the 14th century it is the first shopping centre built in Poland which these days contains a souvenir market .

The wonderful thing about the Old Town in Krakow is that it is completely closed to traffic, there are no cars driving around that you have to be aware of, the only transportation I could see was a horse and carriage, and in this snowy weather it had a magic effect of making the place seem even more surreal a place to be.

On this first afternoon in Krakow we also explored the outside of the Barbican, and Wawel Castle and then made our way to the base of the castle, by the Vistula River, where we encountered the fire-breathing Smok Wawelski standing in front of his lair. The excitement at finally seeing the site of a story I had grown up hearing about was unbelievable. The only thing that really disappointed me was discovering that the dragon’s lair itself was not open in March (but would be open in April!) so I was not able to actually go into the lair.

Travel Tip #2: Many tourist attractions in Krakow are closed in the Month of March. It is always a good idea to plan ahead and make sure the things you want to see in a place are open during the period of time you plan to visit that place.

Since we had not gone to bed the night before in order to make our early morning flight from London to Krakow we were all feeling rather exhausted by the early evening and as such we were all sound asleep in our hostel room by 10pm.

The following morning Shanika and Rachel were up very early to join a bus tour out to Auschwitz but Rosie and I were not going with them so we enjoyed a much desired sleep-in and finally got up for the day after 9am. I had purposefully chosen not to go to Auschwitz for the simple reason that I am fully aware of the horrors that took place during the war here and had no desire to be in such a grim place. Instead, Rosie and I took the opportunity to do something the other two were not interested in doing – visiting a couple of art galleries, in particular, the Princes Czartoryski Museum which houses one of only 3 Leonardo Da Vinci paintings outside of Italy, The Lady with the Ermine. The painting hangs in a room all on its own, dramatically lit and protected behind glass, it is a beautiful painting that I was so pleased to be able to see.

After the museums, and a hot chocolate break, Rosie and I made our way to the Basilica of St Francis to see the Art Nouveau stained glass windows designed by the artist Stanislaw Wyspianski. Lit by the wintry grey light outside these windows were stunning.

We then met up with Rachel and Shanika who had returned from Auschwitz and proceeded to the Jewish quarter of Krakow called Kazimeirz. This place used to be an independent town but is now a suburb of Krakow. This part of town has a completely different feel to the Old Town and there are reminders of the predominantly Jewish history of this area on many of the buildings. It would have been nice to have spent a bit more time exploring this part of town, I particularly wanted to visit the Ethnographic Museum, but we ran out of time.

On the way back to the Old Town we came across a hidden gem of a store which sells wooden carvings of all sorts of things – angels, dragons, elephants, and so on. The man running the shop was the perfect salesperson and all four of us walked out the door with at least one item each.

On the advice of the person behind the front desk back at our hostel we headed out that evening to a restaurant called U Babci Maliny where we had our first Pierogi of the trip (and definitely not the last!). I was so excited about this dish as I had not had pierogi for a very long time, and I wasn’t disappointed, they were delicious!!! For those that don’t know, pierogi are a kind of dumpling, usually filled with potato, cheese, cabbage, onion, or meat and are served either boiled or fried. The restaurant itself was very kitch, it was like an old fashioned dining room below ground and came complete with a man in a tuxedo playing music on a grand piano. All in all it was a great end to a lovely day.

On our third day in Krakow we went back to Wawel Castle, this time it was to actually go inside the castle grounds and building. Wawel Castle is unbelievably huge. A very impressive place with an equally impressive history. To enter the Royal Rooms and State Apartments we had to put on some bright blue plastic shoe covers which was rather amusing but since we all had to wear them it wasn’t so weird. The tour of the castle really opened my eyes to the difficult history of Poland. Due to it’s location it has been invaded over the centuries by many different people, and as a result, Wawel Castle contains basically no original furnishings inside due to looting with each invasion. I found this to be incredibly sad, to have such an impressive building so empty of it’s original treasures.

After the castle experience we went into Wawel Cathedral which houses the relics of St Stanislaw, the patron saint of Poland. This visit was followed by more pierogi for lunch – YUM!

After lunch we got on a tour bus and headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. Located just outside of Krakow the salt mines have been in operation for over 700 years and only ceased production in 1996! The mines go so deep that you could fit the Eiffel Tower inside and it would not surface! The tour available to the public goes to a depth of 135m (not even half as deep as it is possible to go) and covers about 2km of the 300km of mine! This place is incredible, everything, and I mean everything in there is made out of salt – from the chandeliers to the floor. The flooring looks like marble tiles but on closer inspection it is polished salt, if you shine a torch on the floor you can see the light shine through the floor which is a give-away that it is  made of salt.

There are chambers carved into chapels, chambers with statues and furniture carved out of salt, chambers with Salt Lakes, and the penultimate chamber is the St Kinga Chapel which measures 54m by 18m and 12m high. This was created by one man over the course of 30 years (beginning in 1895) and then completed by his brother. This chapel is still used for the occasional mass or concert and the occasional wedding – I definitely think it would make a great wedding venue, 135m below ground!

While down below ground I also got the opportunity to ‘work’ in the mine. Our tour guide was explaining the lift mechanism to us for moving rock salt between different levels of the mine and grabbed some of us to make the lift move. In return for turning the wheel and making the lift move I received my very own lump of rock salt from the mine, well worth it I say

Our final morning in Krakow was spent walking around the Old Town again soaking up the relaxed vibe of the town one final time. We also headed to the Collegium Maius, the oldest surviving university building in Poland (from the 15th-century), which has a replica 14th-century clock that chimes at 11am with a cast of characters rolling along as well.

One final reflection on Krakow was how proud it is that Pope John Paul II came from here. At Wawel Castle there is a statue of him outside the Cathedral, there are pictures of him everywhere in the town, and at the Franciscan Monastery there is a giant picture of the Pope waving from a window above the entrance way. It was from this window that he would often stand and wave to people when he was visiting Krakow.

So much of Krakow felt so familiar to me yet it was all new and exciting to discover. It also made me proud to be half Polish and be able to say that this beautiful town was part of my cultural heritage. I look forward to many more trips back here and to other parts of Poland.

Arriving on a Friday late afternoon, I was pleased to discover that the hostel I was staying in was walking distance from the main train station and was very centrally located. Before I left London I had booked a ticket to go to see the Royal Danish Ballet at the Royal Opera House on the Friday night so once I has settled into the hostel I went about working out how I would get from where I was on Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard to the island of Christianshavn and the Royal Opera House. Thankfully Copenhagen has a very easy city to get around and the bus system proved to be very straightforward – getting me to the Opera House nice and early so there was time for exploring the surrounding area and getting some dinner before the ballet started.

The Royal Opera house is an experience all on its own, it is a remarkable piece of modernist architecture, it was all curves and straight lines and glass – very impressive. The ballet I saw was Cinderella (or in Danish, Askepot), it was beautiful! Going to the ballet was a very good decision, so nice to absorb some local culture, I even struck up an interesting conversation with an American couple sitting next to me during the one of the intermissions, they were from Alaska and were in Copenhagen visiting their daughter who was living and studying there.

By the time I got back to the hostel it was after 11pm but Rachel wasn’t due to arrive from the airport until after midnight so I explored a bit more of the city by night, keeping to the main part of town it was very well lit up and there were a lot of people around so it felt very safe to be walking around on my own. Eventually I met Rachel at the train station and walked her back to the hostel so she could check in.

Saturday morning in November in Copenhagen was very crisp – coats, scarves, hats and gloves were a must. First order of business was breakfast which was danish pastries and coffee in a local cafe. Then it was on to a canal boat for a tour of Copenhagen by water. The city is fascinating in the way it incorporates incredibly old buildings with very modern buildings and still maintains harmony. It all fits together nicely and doesn’t look like the complete miss-match that it could look like! It must be that famous Danish Design that just works The canal boat tour is a great way to get a feel for the city and all the sights you will want to go back and take a closer look at. My favourite spot on the tour was Nyhavn which was a canal street lined with colourful houses (including the one Hans Christian Andersen lived in) and is today a popular place for restaurants, cafes and bars – apparently in the summer months the people spill out onto the street and it is a very lively part of town.

After getting off the canal boat the walking began. Copenhagen was a great size for walking everywhere, and in one day in the city we covered basically all the main tourist attractions.

We went to Amalienborg Slot which is home to the current royal family (Queen Margrethe II and her children) and I was struck by how close you can get to their residences – very different from Buckingham Palace for example. Amalienborg Slot comprised of 4 buildings around a square. You can just walk straight into the square and almost right up to the front door of the residences! From here we watched the changing of the guard and then continued on our way towards Kastellet and the infamous Little Mermaid Statue.

The Little Mermaid statue is just that, a little statue of a mermaid, not overly exciting really, but apparently very popular with the tourists. The more interesting sight was Kastellet, a star-shaped fortress that today has 18th century army barracks and a historic windmill. You can walk right around the top of the fortress and take in the sights of the city, it was very impressive.

Rundetarn was probably the highlight of the tourist attractions for me. A 35m high round tower built in 1642 for King Christian IV. When you enter the tower you expect to see stairs to climb to the top but what you are presented with instead is a cobbled spiral ramp! Tsar Peter the Great rode his horse all the way to the top once and according to legend someone drove a car up there in 1902! It is quite a steep incline and watching a lady push a double buggy was mildly amusing, as were the children who were having fun running down the ramp at great speeds! The view from the top was hard to beat, a 360 degree view of Copenhagen all the way as far as the eye could see, taking in the bridge that links Denmark to Sweden. There is also the oldest functioning observatory in Europe at the top, where the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe made many observations in his lifetime. Unfortunately it was not open while we were there so I wasn’t able to follow in Brahe’s footsteps…

The rest of Saturday was spent wandering in and out of local shops in the main shopping area of town Stroget (which is reputedly the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe. Here you can find all the good staples of Danish design – Georg Jensen, Bodum, Royal Copenhagen Porcelain, and Illums Bolighus to name a few.

Something worth trying while you are in Copenhagen are their sausages wrapped in bacon and sitting in a bread bun from a local street vendor – they have them all over the city and they make a delicious and quick lunch!

Sunday started with a leisurely breakfast at the same cafe as the day before and then once we were fully awake and full of coffee and danish pastry it was off the Rosenborg Slot, the Renaissance Palace that now houses the crown jewels of Denmark. The inside of this historic palace was richly decorated and very impressive, and the crown jewels in the basement were also very impressive.

Sunday’s happen to be a good day to visit the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek as entry is free. The Glyptotek is a stunning museum of sculpture which also houses a Winter Garden at the centre of the building. Unfortunately I didn’t get much time to explore this museum but what I saw would motivate me to go back if I had more time.

The only other sight that I would have liked to have visited was the famed Tivoli Gardens – basically a giant fun park. However it had closed for the winter season a few weeks before I arrived in Copenhagen so that will have to be experienced on another trip.

Overall Copenhagen was an easy-going and relaxed city. The people we encountered were friendly and the places to visit were amazing. I hope I get to go back there again sometime!