Europe’s undiscovered party hub

Architect Shradha Mutha and husband Sainath Jain made a trip to Krakow in Poland — and loved it! They tell us what makes the city so special.

It was our honeymoon trip... so we did the usual European cities like Prague and Switzerland, and then thought we should try something unconventional in Eastern Europe. That is when we zeroed in on Krakow in Poland — and it was definitely worth it!

Krakow is an extremely young city, with all universities and students, and we were in time to catch the Youth Festival that brought youngsters from across the world together. One of the many spots to see here is the 13th century Main Square, the biggest in the continent! We also visited the Wawel castle which was magnificent.

The Wieliczka salt mines cannot be missed at any cost. The 327-metre deep mine, although not used for mining anymore, houses a beautiful chapel with salt chandeliers. People come here to get married simply for the stunning view. We picked up a few salt souvenirs for ourselves.

If you have watched the film, The Schindler’s List or know of Schindler, you can see his factory in Krakow. Although we weren’t able to visit, we would recommend that everyone pays a visit just to witness a piece of history that it stores.

What stood out was the Jewish District in Krakow. It was lined with pubs and restaurants that are huge patrons of the jazz culture in the city. We were able to watch a brilliant performance by a Peru musician, and a couple of local artistes as well. One of the oldest bars in the district, Alchemia, was absolutely wonderful. The underground nightlife was lively and thriving and although it may not be similar to the ones in Lisbon, Berlin or London, it was steeped in culture. The Polish vodka we had on our adventures traversing nightclubs, was something that the Polish take a lot of pride in, and is a must-try!

The local Polish food is mainly meat, but the amount of vegan restaurants dotting the city is amazing. The vegan burger at Krowarzywa was phenomenal... as were the ice-creams.

Although the entire trip was memorable, one of the most fun things we did there was the Macabre Krakow trip organised by Free Walking Tours. We visited several haunted places listening to spooky stories and legends connected to them. It made for an extremely eerie but thrilling night!

With extremely kind and friendly people, language was hardly a barrier for us! People in general have misconceptions about Eastern Europeans being cold and rude, but that is definitely not true. The only advice we’d give people is to go to Krakow without preconceived notions, and you are bound to get the most out of the trip. Despite visiting tourist hot spots like Prague and Switzerland, Krakow was definitely our favourite destination.

(As told to Kaavya Pillai)