This weekend I went with about 100 other students from Vienna to Krakow, Poland for a packed weekend full of sightseeing, laughter, and history.
We got on the bus at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and were off. Little did I know how long the bus ride really was...
We stopped about 5 times on the way to the brewery, just about every hour we made a stop and this created an unnecessarily long trip. We arrived at the Tyskie Brewery around 2 for a tour. I enjoyed the tour but, once you see once brewery I feel like you have seen them all.
 |
| Yumm |
 |
| Cute truck |
 |
| entrance to the brewery |
We arrived in Krakow about 6:30 and were ready for dinner, so we dropped out stuff at the hostel and headed to Chata for dinner. We had preordered dinner so the first night I had Bigos, then pork chops, and finally pierogies :)
Friday we had breakfast at Gospoda Koko (we ate here ever morning), then we had a sight seeing tour of the city. We walked around beautiful parks and checked out the Historic center, and cathedral.
 |
| Cool ceiling |
 |
| Friends chillin on the bench |
 |
| All the girls infront of the dragon |
 |
| Lauren and I |
 |
| Such a beautiful day |
 |
| Jumping picture |
After the walking tour we had a little bit of free time before heading to the Wieliczka salt mine. We drove just over an hour to get to the mine, when we got there we took a tour of 20 chamber, an extraordinary chaple, and saw lots of salt, but not before walking down 380 steps...
Afterwards we ate dinner in the restaurant, which was pretty cool to think we were around 300 meters below ground.
 |
| Salt Mine |
 |
| SALT |
 |
| Church 300 meters below ground |
 |
| Water tunnel |
 |
| Dinner time |
Friday night I decided to stay in so on Saturday I could wake up early and head to the market. Krakow is the 3rd cheapest city in Europe so of course I had to do some shopping :)
I got some breakfast at a coffee shop and went straight for the jeweler. Unfortunately the shoe stores weren't open yet and we had to be back at the hostel at 10 to leave for Auschwitz.
 |
| Castle |
 |
| Breakfast of champs |
 |
| Market |
 |
| Being artsy |
Saturday during the day we went on a tour of Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim. All I can say is, wow... I can't believe that this much terror is in the world. Such a scary, and shocking eye opener. We are lucky to live in the time that we do. Most of us kept our sunglasses on the entire tour to hid the tears and emotions shed underneath.
 |
| Camp |
 |
| People came from EVERYWHERE |
 |
| So Sad |
 |
| Glasses the people brought with them |
 |
| Memorial |
After arriving back in Krakow, we ate dinner and prepared for a night out! We played games in a hostel down the street from ours that had a pool table and a bar. We laughed and danced until we left for the club. It was really fun to be with everyone from vienna in another country. We just had a great time, ended up dancing until around 4 a.m. in the morning.
 |
| Kathleen and I ready for a night on the town |
 |
| Late night Pierogies in Poland |
Sunday we woke up had breakfast and headed back to vienna. Lauren and I didn't want the breakfast they provided so we struggled to find a grocery store that was open on a sunday morning, but finally succeeded and loaded up on snacks for the ride home, making it back to vienna in record time... 8 hours! haha easy for me to say I am sick of sitting.
What a great weekend it was, and I am truly looking forward to my next adventure to the UK on thursday.
