Poland is a country worth visiting for a history buff like me as it was where the biggest Jewish concentration camp, Auschwitz, was built. Aside from this unfortunate part of history, Poland is home to Wieliczka Salt Mine which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – another one off my bucket list! There are two types of tours you can participate in. First one is a typical tourist route: a walk down the salt mine, which includes large salt structures and a rendition of Da Vinci’s Last Supper etched on the cavern wall. The second one however, would be my kind of tour: it is called the “miner’s route” where you get to assume an identify of a miner and mine for salt like it’s your daily task (I can finally add that into my resume!). After an hour of crawling through salt caverns using only the lights on our helmets, we took a commemorative picture with our official miner certificate. Sadly, that joy of being a “certified” miner was ephemeral; I left my certificate in the hotel we stayed in.
Coincidentally when I was visiting Krakow with four of my friends, the city was filled with many people from all over the world due to World Youth Day. World Youth Day is a week pilgrimage event for young people organized by the Catholic Church every three years. 2016’s World Youth Day was held in Poland. The event consequently crowded the city (there was reportedly up to three million people!) and we had to suffer packed restaurants and trains. Pope Francis was also there to address the crowd but we sadly did not get to see him.
Three days and two nights in Poland was an ample amount of time to explore the place. We were able to try their local cuisine, pierogis, which are like large raviolis or dumplings. We also toured around the old city which consists of antique buildings that inspired one of Spielberg’s greatest movies, Schindler’s List. It was really like taking a stroll down history lane. Poland is one of the most affordable (I spent less than 200€ in total excluding the flight) and unique places to visit in Europe and I would definitely return for another visit.
