From Krakow to Budapest to Warsaw

We decided to spend a week over Easter exploring Krakow, Budapest, and Warsaw; places neither of us had been before. After an overnight flight to Warsaw, and after about an hour queue at immigration, we made our way to the train station via the metro to catch a 3 hour train to Krakow. One joke we heard in Krakow was "what is the best thing to do in Warsaw? Take the train to Krakow", so it would seem we covered that off without even realizing it! We grabbed some takeaway salads at the train station so we wouldn't be super hungry when we arrived. We had reserved seating and found our seats in a 6 seater compartment which wasn't quite what the seating map looked like when we booked... what can you do? The trip took us through the countryside with not too much interesting to look at. We arrive in Krakow around 6:30pm local time. The train station was a short walk to our hotel and which took us through a nice park area. We stayed at the Garmond, a boutique hotel situated on a quiet street away from all the hustle and bustle of the main tourist areas. This hotel has a unique history, dating back to 1938 that once housed the editorial offices of one of Poland's most popular daily newspapers. The decor around the hotel is inspired by its history, like typewriters hanging on the wall by the entrance and an old style telephone by reception. Our room was a lovely, decently sized room for Europe. We had a corner room with lots of windows that opened with views of the surrounding nearby park. It was nicely decorated in an art-deco style with a "king" sized bed that was actually two doubles pushed together (typical for Europe). At checkin we were told the restaurant had live jazz music that evening so after we settled in, we decided to check it out as we were somewhat tired and thought a relaxing light dinner with some live music was in order. The musicians were amazing; a pianist and a singer. It was a wonderful way to start our adventure in Krakow, on Good Friday of the Easter weekend. Being a fairly religious country we were intrigued to learn how big Easter is in Poland and had heard that Krakow was the place to be... thus our decision to head here first. 

We spent the next four days exploring the sights and food of Krakow. Over the Easter weekend we made sure to visit the Easter market located at the historic Main Market Square, which, similar to an European Christmas market, had countless festive stalls selling trinkets, souvenirs, art, ceramics, and wooden made crafts including hand-painted ornately decorated Easter eggs, call pisanki. There were plenty of local delicacies to try as well. We learned that on the Saturday, locals bring a small wicker basket lined with lace clothes and filled with foods - such as decorated eggs, bread, sausage, and salt - to their local church to be blessed by a priest. Krakow is home to over 120 Roman Catholic churches; fun fact you'll find a church every 200-300 metres and government taxes help to fund the ongoing operations. On Easter Sunday we decided to check out mass at St. Mary's Basilicia - a Gothic style cathedral located prominently in the Main Square. We didn't understand a single word, but enjoyed the experience nonetheless. 

We took two different walking tours while in Krakow which gave us a very good overview of the history of the city, the country's forced involvement in WWII, and the atrocities that came with its occupation. Additionally, we learned that Poland's history is full of various invasions and occupations including a period of time when Poland effectively ceased to exist for 120 years. Despite a history of invasions and upheaval Poland has established itself as a strong, sovereign democratic republic since the end of the Cold War. During Poland's history as a monarchy, which lasted up until the end of the 18th century, kings were elected by the country's nobles. Walking through the city, you see the different influences left behind by the many occupations in the architecture and even the organization of the buildings in the main square. 

Given our time there was over the Easter weekend, we discovered that many of the museums were closed. We did find out though that the Schindler's Factory museum was open on Easter Monday and that admission was free that day, opening at 10am. We got there at just before 9am and joined the already very long queue of people who had the same idea as us. It took us a good 2 hours waiting in line before we were able to get in. The museum was nicely organized with artifacts and exhibits and personal stories of the people, bringing that part of history alive. It was very informative and sombering at the same time, and gave us a good sense of what happened during that period of history and how Oskar Schindler used his factory to save the Jewish labourers whom he employed. 

On the morning of our last day before flying to Budapest, we toured the grounds of Wawal Castle, a historic and culturally important site in Poland, along with the 1st floor interior of the castle which is adorned with furniture and tapestries from all over the world along magnificent artwork. This castle is where Poland's kings resided for centuries. 

The food scene is heavily influenced by different ethnicities' occupation... with a prominent German influence present. We really enjoyed the food, but did find it a bit "heavy" and usually felt like needing a nap about an hour after eating. We had the best pierogies at a small, cozy cafe off the beaten track, called Pieromir pierogi & tosty. We both tried a variety of the different fillings and thoroughly enjoyed our meals and found the overall cost fairly inexpensive. The desserts and pastries were all very tempting and delicious as were the Obwarzanek Krakowski - a common street food Polish pretzel bagel. We also found enjoyed a couple other ethnic dinners dining at a Lebanese restaurant one evening and an Indian on another. Turns out, Polish wines are also quite good and we really enjoyed tasting several different varieties during our time there. 

Manila

From our resort in Sabang we took an hour and a half transfer to Puerto Princesa airport so we could catch our late evening flight to Manila for our final stop on this amazing adventure. Our flight landed in Manila at just before midnight and by the time be deplane and got our lunch it was well on our way to 1am. Our hotel thankfully is right by the airport and we found we could walk there by taking Runway Manila over the busy roadway beside the airport and then walking about 5 minutes to the hotel. While the sidewalks weren’t in the best of conditions and have limited accessibly ramps at the curbs we managed our way to the hotel fairly easily. 

We stayed at the Sheraton Manila Hotel at Newport World Resorts. We were upgrades to a large and extremely nice king suite with a view of the airport. The suite had a living room and eating area along with a powder room. The bedroom lead into a large walk through wardrobe into the large bathroom with double vanity, soaker tub and rain shower and the toilets were Toto toilets with heated seats!! We could watch plans taking off and landing from our bed. We finally got to sleep around 2am after settling in for a bit  and we both had somewhat of a broken sleep with the noise from the airport and roadway. 

After breakfast we ordered a Grab to take us to the Venice Mall Grand Canal - a Venice, Italy themed mall. As we approached the mall, I spotted a giant Tim Hortons cup and lo and behold we found a Timmies in Manila!! While we didn’t buy anything we did go in to see what it was like. They had a much smaller donut selection but had a couple unique flavours not found back home like a Venetian and another with coconut. We found this mall to have many of the western and American brands and restaurant chains including Dairy Queen which had a couple different unique flavours that we couldn’t resist but to try; mango for me and avocado Oreo for Z. 

From here we walked to the Manila American Military cemetery. I know a strange place to think about visiting however at noon their main memorial tower they play a chime and have a military helicopter fly over. The whole memorial is quite nicely built and a nice resting place for 77,000 souls lost in the battle of the Pacific during WWII. The visitor centre plays a very informative documentary on how the Filipinos and Americans banded together to reclaim Philippines from the Japanese. 

From here we continued our walk to the BCG (Bonifacio Global City) district where we started off with lunch at Manam. We shared a few different dishes here and once again really found each dish full of exploding flavour. The BCG district is a modern newish area of Manila. You can find countless modern high rises here along with retail shops, restaurants, other commercial and malls. All over the Philippines, places and streets still had their Christmas decorations and this area was no different with very elaborately decorated Christmas trees and other decor including gingerbread men. There is a pedestrian shopping street called Bonifacio High Street where we found many interesting shops including a French patisserie which I could resist going in to browse their pastries and ended up getting a pistachio macaroon. Gentle Monster is a high end Korean eyewear store that is also known for its artwork throughout their stores. This location has a gigantic human like sitting man statue in its entrance. The likeness to real was uncanny. A couple other stops along the street included afternoon coffee at Harlan + Holden Coffee, a minimalist coffee store front serving high quality drinks; some standard coffee drinks but also a lot of different varieties and flavours like a peanut butter flat white which I had to try! And lastly we stopped in at Fully Booked, a multi-floor bookstore geared towards any sort of bookworm. In the middle of the main floor they have a magnificent art piece mural made entirely of books. 

All in all, while we only had a day in Manila, we filled our day with a good amount of sightseeing and activities to give us a descent feel for the city. Overall we had such an amazing time in the Philippines. We got to create some really great memories, enjoyed some really unique experiences and saw such beautiful landscape and beaches. The people were incredibly friendly and genuine. We enjoyed way too much good food and indulged in a lot of fresh mango shakes, yellow watermelon, and calamansi drinks. We met several interesting and friendly fellow travellers along the way… the German couple in El Nido, the Swiss couple on Flower Island, and an English couple (originally from Portugal and Brazil) in Sabang. The Philippines is definitely on the return one day list!! 

To travel is to live… until next time. Life is good!