I had a great time in Poland this Easter, visiting two cities in the south – Wroclaw and Krakow. Wroclaw is a city with around the size of Oslo, 300-500,000 people. Most of the tourist attractions were within walking distance, so no problem exploring the city by foot. The unfortunate part about Wroclaw is that musuems and shops were closed around Easter. I keep forgetting that Easter is a big holiday in Europe, especially Catholic countries.

Poland is Catholic country, which explains that you sometime see nuns and priest. The former leader of the Catholic church John Paul II is Polish is very revered in this country. Churches are visible in most areas, as do pubs.

The highlight of the trip was in Krakow where Michal hosted me. I had a taste of great Polish hospitality, starting with what Michal calls a “typical” vodka night. Krakow is a very vibrant student city, with young people everywhere, and the old town itself is a fortified castle which now houses shops and residentials.

Poland’s signature food would be the Pierogi (and their staple drink vodka), which looks exactly like Chinese dumplings. Expenses are certainly cheaper than Norway, a 0.5 litre beer cost about 7 zloty, which is a little over USD1, whereas in Oslo it costs more than USD10. So you can expect alot of drinking in Poland.

We went to the Zakopane to to climb the Tatra mountains and reached 2000 metres above sea level, all in one day. And in the process also setting foot into the Slovakian part of the mountains. All in all, it was great fun.