25th June: Salt mine visit

Today, after we woke up, we were still addicted to the gnome hunting game. So after breakfast at the Old Market Square, we went gnome hunting again. We managed to find about 30 plus of them Not a bad record given the time we have. And after that, it was another long drive to another town called Wieliczka.

Place where we had breakfast

3 little gnomes

I love you gnome

Emo gnome

Monkey gnome

We were just in time to catch the last English tour at the salt mine. So off we went, climbing down the stairs. When I said stairs, I mean stairs, a lot of them. I think we went about 40 floors under! The salt mine wasn't cheap at all. We paid about 20 pounds and still get an unfriendly reply from the person at the counter saying "It's now or never"...Oh well, we were late in the first place.

Anyway, we went underground where the salt mine started, and our tour guide brought us in, and deeper to the salt mine, explaining the history of the salt mine in Poland and how the salt crystals can be used to build monuments or even the whole building. I am not kidding! They have this freaking hall sitting right in the salt mine which can be used for various ceremony. We were lucky that on that particular day, the hall was going to be used as a wedding reception. So we could see the staff decorating the hall. And oh, they have a pretty chandelier hanging from the ceiling (which is formed from salt crystals) that are made from, yeap salt crystals!

The princess who gave salt to Poland

Sculpture of the Last Supper from salt crystal

The hall-the floors are actually salt crystals as well

After about 1 hour plus in the salt mine, we went to a near by cafe for dinner. Not too bad.

Dinner

And after that, is a half an hour drive to our destination Krakow (pronounced as Kra-kov). After settling into our hostel, we went around the Old Market Square, just in time to see fireworks. It was another mid-summer celebration. *Sigh I just love fireworks!

Fireworks

As we were walking back to our hostel, Dagmara decided that we should try Chinese take away from Poland. We were not hungry, but her boyfriend got one anyway. We even argued what chinese mushrooms are. LOL! That was a really fun night! But the noodles weren't that great:P.

Note to Dagmara: If you ever come to Singapore, we shall bring you to eat real Chinese mushrooms and real Chinese friend noodles ;)

24th June: Wrocław, try to read it?

If you are going to pronounce it as vroclaw, let me stop you from being embarrassed like what we did in front of our Polish friend. It is pronounced as vrotz-vaf. Yeap!

After another scrumptious breakfast this morning, Dagmara took her car and drove us 4 hours away from her hometown to this busy town. We were going to spend a night in this town. Along the way, when we stopped for our toilet break, we found this little playground overlooking a hugeeeeeee man-made lake. Oh well, as grown up as we are, we couldn't resist to sit on the swing and imagine we were flying *giggles*

When we finally arrived in Wrocław, we checked into our hostel and Dagmara brought us for a late lunch (dinner for the Polish) in the interesting cafe that she used to go when she was a student. The food is just normal, but the interior was decorated with large wooden spoon and fork!

Wooden cutlery in the cafe

And next, we were told about this interesting activity that the Wrocław city council planned for their tourists. Gnome hunting! Yes, gnome hunting. Around the town, especially the Old Market Square, there were many bronze, cute looking gnomes for tourists to hunt. They even have maps and books that show you where exactly the gnomes are. But, to discover as many gnomes as possible by yourself is the fun part. So don't go spoil this fun thing by purchasing the map and search according to the map.

Poor gnome

Rar! I'm going to protect my city from the humans! Rar!

After the lunch and a few gnome hunting, Dagmara brought us to cathedral island. Like the name, it is a small area filled with cathedrals. Frankly, I don't really know how to appreciate cathedrals but I have to admit that the skills/workmanship that applied to building the cathedral is really amazing and sometimes unbelievable. And further into the town, they have a "love bridge". Yeap, locks with couples' name engraved on it and locked onto the bridge to symbolized their never-ending love. It is supposed to be Dagmara's favorite bridge.

In the night, we went to see musical fountain. Just like the one they have in Barcelona. But I thought the one here was much prettier and eye-catching that the one in Barcelona. The musical fountain lasted for 20 min before we catch a bus back to the old market square again for a late dinner.

Musical fountain with light shows and projection too!

In the market, there were stalls set up in lieu of the summer solstice celebration. So we had crepes, meat skewers. The boys got some discount as they managed to order in Polish for the meat skewer. Such friendly Polish! And after that, we went to this microbrewery for a drink.

Late dinner

Huge meat skewer

Beer in microbrewery with bread and lard spread