Features
TRAVEL: Our Editor takes a trip to Krakow, Poland

I’m lying in the middle of the street. In pain. I had just crossed the road and forgotten that Krakow has tram lines in the middle of the road. It was the middle of the day and I had just gone flying across the road having gone arse over tit and was now lying in agony in the middle of the street. If I was in Britain I would have had at least one wag shouting ‘Ha! Did you enjoy your trip?’ but here in Krakow (or Cracow according to locals) no-one batted an eyelid. Maybe it happens so often that the people of Poland are used to seeing Englishmen flailing around in the street. But apart from a sore leg and wounded pride I was fine. And I was in Krakow. And there’s not a lovelier place to be. This was my second trip to the city having gone a few years before. On the first trip we travelled to Aushwitz - the scene of some of humankind’s most horrible attrocities. It was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. And in my opinion it is somewhere everybody should go at least once in their life. This time I visited the Schindler Museum on the site of Oskar Schindler’s factory. An eye-opening experience in itself - giving you a huge insight into the lives of the Jews in the ghetto during the war as well as the impact on ordinary Polish lives. Krakow is a beautiful city and wears its cultural heart on its sleeve. Architecture abounds and a visit to the castle is definitely recommended. It’s also a haven for food and drink with some fabulous restaurants on every corner serving delicious local dishes like pierogi and various stews. They love their meat in Poland and it is definitely a labour of love to go through the menus in the city’s foodie haunts to find the delicacies on offer. The nightlife is also pretty damn good. It’s quite a vibrant and young feeling city with bars that seem to go on and on underground throughout the night. If it’s shopping you’re after then you should head to the main market square where you can pick up a whole array of tat. One of the things that has to be shouted about Poland is how cheap it is. A Zloty seems to go a long way and this city really benefits from not being in the Eurozone. I had three nights there including flights for just £200 which is a bargain. And when you’re there everything costs hardly anything. Things I wouldn’t recommend would be the city’s wax museum unless you like looking at really shoddy wax models of famous people for, you know, a laugh and the local salt mine, unless you really like salt and want to see how it is mined but for other, more normal, people it is as boring as it sounds.