A whole new world

Last week I was in Krakow. Poland. The first time I’ve ever been to a country that for much of my life has been inaccessible because it was behind the ‘iron curtain’. The fact that you can get there so easily now, on a cheap flight, still rather blows my mind.

One of the first things is that we’re spending zloty, not euros. It’s also different to be in a country where you can’t even attempt the pronunciation of most words. Thankfully, most Poles speak good English. We’re already visiting too late to avoid the country being infiltrated by the big corporates. As we travel into the city on the mini bus from the airport, we pass two drive-through ‘golden arches’, and pass an Ikea (our third of the day). Thankfully, Starbucks doesn’t seem to have arrived as yet, but Tesco’s has.

Unlike many Polish cities, Krakow wasn’t destroyed in the war, and it’s retained its medieval centre, which is beautiful, with buildings like something out of Grimm’s fairytales.

I knew very little about Krakow, or indeed Poland, before we went. It turns out to be an amazing city, with an incredible history, but also one that brings home to you the horrors and excesses of the 20th Century. We may only have had a few days, but I feel we got the ‘flavour’ of the city. It was all rather fabulous. And yes, there is much more to Polish cuisine than beetroot* and cabbage! There was also quite a lot of vodka!

*Though beetroot soup turns out to be a bit of a revelation