POLAND SURPRISED US! 3 Reasons Krakow was NOT what we expected

Good morning, guys. Welcome back to our worst weather day here yet. Well, not welcome back to that. Welcome back to the vlog and welcome to our worst weather day yet. It's like white up there. H our worst weather day and sadly our last day, our final day in Poland. So, maybe our worst day because we're leaving. Maybe it is our worst day. What a positive start to the vlog. Um it's a bit wet now, but we woke up this morning and there was snow all outside the window um from our hotel. So, it's obviously snowed overnight, rained this morning, so the snow's now gone. But yeah, the blue skies are very much left and it feels kind of like a everyone's like walking around quite slowly and everyone's a bit, you know what I mean? It feels like a wet day. It feels it's not like touristy and like lively. It's just sort of like it's giving England. It is a bit getting us ready to go back home. It is. So, we're currently walking through the main square. There's a couple of areas that we haven't been to yet from my very well planned itinerary. I saw a thing on Instagram last night that was like me happy or whatever like a photo knowing I've done like 200 hours of research so I'm not eating at the tourist places. I'm meeting where the locals eat and I feel like I've done that this trip. I feel like I've done very well. Um so we are basically heading to the last two places. There's like um a gate and some sort of like a city wall type thing I think it is. Clearly done loads of research. I'll double check what what it's all about in a second. another sort of thing to see, another coffee shop we want to see. Um, and another area we've not quite ventured to. So, that's the plan this morning. We've only got a couple of hours because our flight is soon. Um, we've got an evening flight. Risky, to be honest. It's not that risky, is it? No. You don't have to leave for like 3 hours. It's all right. We basically packed. I'm on edge. You're on edge? I don't know. It feels weird. I I kind of want to just be home earlier than we're going to be home because we're not getting back to England till like 8:00 p.m., which may sound fine. And if we weren't parents, it would be, but I'm normally tucked up in bed about half 8 9. We're only going to be at Gatwick airport. Then we've got to go through luggage, curious, passport, security, and everything. So, it's going to be quite a late one by the time we're back home. I wish the flight was like an hour or two earlier, but it's fine. I think it is nicer still than having to get up at like 6:00 a.m. or something and go straight to the airport and be in that like rush time. So, I'm quite pleased that we've got like the day here today. I just wish it was somewhere in the middle because how we're all going to be feeling by what's now our 9:00 p.m. because Poland it's 9:00 p.m. we land in the UK if that makes sense. And I mean to drive home and stuff, but we'll make it work. And I just hope our son is okay with the late night. But maybe he'll sleep. I don't know. We shall see. But yes, looking back on this trip, looking back at our first ever time in Poland, our first ever time in this city. Kov, Kowal. I've heard so many people say it in so many different ways. Still at the end of the trip. We're not entirely sure how we should be saying it. Luc, I thought earlier it might be like Paris and Perry because people in France obviously say Pari obviously people in England say Paris. So obvious YouTube video we saw which was a Polish pronunciation. Yeah. So Polish was Kov Kov and English was either Krakow or Kov. So would people here rather we said it in the English way or in the local way? Yes. Don't know. But anyway, yeah, looking back on the trip, it's been an amazing trip. We've we've seen some sights. We've immersed ourselves in the cuisine. The food has been exceptionally good. Unbelievable. Amazing. The perogi so so nice. The all the meat dishes, the pork knuckle I had right at the start of the trip. It does feel like ages ago. It's been unbelievable. It's not It's been completely different to what I expected. I don't know about Lucy. She'll probably give her thoughts as well. It feels it feels like um smaller in a way. And I know that there's areas outside that we haven't been to, but like the main city, we've just walked it every day. We've got a couple of taxes here and there, but everything's so close and it's so like so we were in Bookucharest recently in Romania and that felt like you're walking for hours to get anywhere. But this feels like everywhere is walkable, which I really like. I love a city that you can get to on foot. This feels way easier and nicer. Something else that surprised me personally is is how quiet it's been. Our first day was a Sunday and we were kind of like, okay, it's a bit quiet. Maybe people are, I don't know, chilling out on the weekends. Although often in city centers and old towns and stuff and tourist places and touristy places are busier on weekends. But we thought, okay, let's see what it's like. And then in the week, it's just been quiet. Yeah. Everywhere we've been the busiest place we went to was the castle, but even that there was no queue anywhere. Like we've not queued once or anything. Think about the um the open sandwich we had. Yeah. There was no like that's like one of the main things to do like the main snacks to try. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Think about like I don't know what's the equivalent the most famous place you can think of in another main city. You'd be queuing out the door for it if it was like one of the top 10 things to do in the country or whatever. Absolutely. We haven't we haven't had to book any tables at restaurants. We've just walked in and shown up and been seated and they've always been quite quiet. Like why is it a time of year? Maybe because February, it could be a time of year, like February, March time. It's not the Christmas market time. It's not the summer. So maybe it is the time of year. And maybe that's a little hack for coming here. Come in February. And it's nice and quiet. You kind of do more because you're not waiting for anything. safe lady. Yeah. It also makes it incredibly easy for tourists like us travelers to to come here because you don't have to worry about missing out on a restaurant you want to visit or booking way in advance it being too busy to get around or we haven't done any public transport, but the trams even don't look completely packed when they when they've been going past. So yeah, overall loving it. We definitely want to come back to Poland. Yeah, maybe there's another place you can recommend that we visit next I was going to say if either if you're Polish or maybe you've been to some different places in Poland, wherever you're watching from in the world, let us know. Please do let us know because this year we have said we want to do more Europe. I know. But also, I am having a baby very soon. So Oh, that's true. That's true. Do you remember what you said at the beginning of this year in the vlog? You were like, "This is a year for travel." And I was like, "George, what are you talking about? I'm literally giving birth in like a month." What I meant by that was January, February, March, done one trip going really well. New evolution is like. So, yeah, maybe somewhere in Poland that we can travel to with a newborn baby. And a three-year-old later on in the year and maybe let's bring your mom. Yes, please. All right, let's do that. [Music] [Music] a quick behind the scenes of how we make these travel vlogs possible. Now, yes, of course, we need cameras and microphones and things like that, but what we also rely on as a family who travels a lot are high quality suitcases. Now, we have been using the same luggage brand for many, many years now. That brand is called Level 8, and they have just sent us some of their new cases. Oh, look at that. two-tone. Beautiful. Even the packaging feels luxurious. Oh, yes. Matching cases. Have a look at that. Before I go any further, the best thing ever about Level 8 cases is this right here. The handle on the front. Whoever came up with this in their team, shout out to you specifically. The amount of times you're waiting for your luggage, it's coming along the conveyor belt and you have to scramble to pick it up. I've now mastered what I call the Level 8 luggage flip. And if you decide to pick up some of these cases, I challenge you too to the level eight luggage flip challenge. I just came up with that, but I basically grab this handle, pull a swing, and gently down. They look great. They stand out when you're collecting your luggage. The durability has been excellent. And the storage itself inside just seems optimized. You get these separators and dividers and a completely zipped section, which I love because it means whichever way you open your suitcase when you get to your destination, you're at zero risk of everything falling out. They're made from premium materials and the zips are very high quality. One last thing, the super wide handle. And listen, the very quiet 360 wheels just make this effortless to take through the airport. So, thanks again to Level 8 for sponsoring this vlog. These cases have the Juicy Vlog stamp of approval for sure. As I said, link in the description. And let's get on with the rest of the vlog. So, behind me here is Barbin, which is like well that and St. Florian's Gate the other side. Um they're like late 1400s built and they're basically like the entrance one of the last remaining relics I think they said of like old crackov kind of the the start to the old town. So like here and then behind onwards through the gate is the old town. Then I guess that's just like what would you call the new town the rest of it. Um but it's really cool. It's like a whole castle type looking thing down here. We've got like a is that a moat? snow around the edge. A a hill going downwards into these little tunnels down here and a little gate going along. Guess when it was built. Um, don't make a I know you're going to say 2003 or something ridiculous. Oh, no, no, no. More 1989, something like that. Does look old. I don't know. 1800s, lower. 1700s, lower. 1100s, higher. 1400s. Late 14s. late 1400s. Yeah. And this is this where they did like the archers would go or have I made that up like the little holes there? Is this where the archers would go or have you made that up with the little holes there? Don't be so annoying. Oh, maybe the little holes there. Was that where they do like archery? Not archery. I love how it goes down. Would that have been like a moat? Um not archery at the sport. I mean like actually defense or maybe guns or like um cannons poke through. It's quite small for a cannon. Bow and arrow. Yeah. Well, I just said burn. It's got the line at the top as well. Look up there. It's not just It's not just It's not just a hole. It's a line at the top. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um I said it's probably not a moat because it doesn't go around the edge. All right. And there's no water here or crocodiles. But there could have been water, but I don't think so cuz there's like a thing here. And also, doesn't a moat go all the way around? Cuz the whole point in a moat is like to stop you getting in, but you could just walk in. Yeah, you can. Wow. It's so It's so cool though cuz you can kind of tell like I'm guessing that was all part of a similar time. Yes, it's the gate. This is the gate into the old town. Imagine just being like this existed that many years. This that many years ago and now we're here. And look how tiny that door is. No, it's just really far away. Yeah, it's amazing. I do love seeing something this old and then there's like a Costa over there. You love that. Well, I just find it quite interesting picturing that someone was stood right here that many years ago and this would have been there, but everything around would have been different. Yeah. If you could show that person now. Yeah. Like, oh, this is what it looks like now. Exactly. We're all wearing this sort of clothing. Not like nights tabards or like nights clothing. Yeah. Nightw wear. What's it called? Like the the night the chain mail. It's actually that chain mail. Is it? Is it? Yeah. The metal stuff. Chain mail. Yeah, chain mail. Really? Yeah, I got some at home. No, but what is it actually called? Chain mail. Male. Not like male female, but m a i l. That's just what it's called. Wow. It's actually really cool. I thought for a second you could walk up to the gate, but there is a little sign here. Isn't it amazing how humans are so um so obliging to signs to the tiny little sign there and no one's on it. Well, we're always going to go on it. No, I know. I'm just saying it's funny, isn't it? Like or cones. Humans are also terrified of cones. There was like one cone there. No one would go on it. True. We're terrified of cones and signs. But yeah, very cool. I love that. Also like that building over there with the columns. I swear we miss out on that a little bit in England. Other countries we've been to, Austria for example, uh Prague, I don't know, some of these other countries in Europe, they just have such beautiful buildings. I don't know, maybe there maybe there are some in England. We've got all the old mana houses and stuff like that. This is exactly what I was saying a minute ago. Here's the gate. And then just through here, can you spot that yellow M? The mix of old and new. So annoying. Should they not have put it somewhere else? Like every picture is going to have McDonald's. That's definitely on purpose, isn't it? I know. I hope they paid the city a lot of money for that. And they've gone into preserving this because to be fair, I could do a Big Mac right now. We're on our way to get a coffee and we're walking past the crackoff wax museum. And there's Mr. Bean here. Got red eyes. Wow, look at that. [Music] It's going to be hot. It is going to be hot, isn't it? Yeah. I kind of want a little sip. Oh, can you smell that? That smells amazing. It's like fruity. actually smells like Oh my goodness. That's lovely, isn't it? I can just smell something different, but I'm not going to tell you until you've tried it. Oh, great. No, no, no. This is interesting. So, I stopped into a coffee shop called Special, which it's lovely little place. And um we got a nice pour over here, which is Costa Rican, which is from Costa. Not Costa. Definitely not Costa. Costa beans. Coffee beans from Costa Rica. I don't know that I've had much um coffee from Costa Rica. We never really buy Costa Rica beans, do we? But as soon as it cools down, I'll try it. I'm just going to keep the click going into Yeah. Not even edit the gap out. Just let it roll. Heading back to base now. Very nice to get some steps in on a travel day because normally you don't get to. I think this is the first time we've ever done this like late flight thing. So, I'll let you know how I found it once we've done it. Oh, noisy tram. One sec. [Music] And also, are trams meant to let you go or not? Because I feel like our experience has been like 80% of the time they've let us go if we've like been waiting to cross the road. We've never just walked out in front of them. They'll like stop to let us go. But then like 20% they don't. So, I don't know if it is a thing or not. I can't quite figure it out. Hi. Hello, mate. Say it again. When you wake, what did you say? He said when they're crossing the road, trams always let you go, I think he said. Oh yeah. Well done, K. They do let us go, don't they? Yeah. Great first time in Poland. Absolutely loved it here. Sorry, noisy tram again. There's a lot of trams. Maybe I'll just shout. Um, people have been really friendly as well. That I don't want to say it surprised us. I wasn't coming here with expectations of everyone being nasty, but it's a big city. If I compare it to London where everyone's kind of just getting on with it and they're quite serious and not like unfriendly, but and there are obviously nice people in London. That's not what I mean. But it's very like heads down, busy, no time to talk kind of feel. In like a lot of places in London and our experience here, it's been more like I don't know everywhere we've eaten, for example, like everyone that's like served us in restaurants or in shops and stuff like the interactions we've had. Hang on. Noisy tram. It just feels like everyone's been like really nice and especially with Kod as well, our son. People have been accommodating when I've had all these hundreds of questions if their cheese is pasteurized and if the meat's cooked through. I've got all these pregnancy questions I need to check. Everyone's been like really understanding of that and just I don't know like just nice and friendly and happy. It feels like a happy place. See, I wasn't expecting to not be nice. Other parents in the parks and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've met loads of other parents. Yeah. We've had quite a few interactions with other parents. We went we went to parks every day. They've all just been like really friendly and even though we're like the English tourists, we felt like they want to chat to us and it's not I don't know. Do you know what I mean? Like it's not welcome. We felt very welcome. Some places you travel to you don't feel as welcome. It's a bit like oh we're the tourists that stick out. Yeah. Here it's like really just nice and happy. Yeah. So very very good experience overall. And on that note guys, we are back. Let's not get hit by they going to let us go. I think they're I think they are they go very fast to the line, don't they? They do. On that note, lovely Porsche cars here as well. I said it on the first first vlog. So many nice cars here. So many nice cars. Number plate colors. That's green. I still a black one. And are you allowed to pick your number plate colors? Yes. Where was I? On that note, we are back at our hotel. All that's left for us to do today is close the suitcase. We're pretty much packed. Book a bolt to the airport and say goodbye to Poland. Sadly, we've had such a good time here. Thanks so much for watching these vlogs. If you've missed any of them, go back and check them out. Maybe get some food at the airport. I'm not too sure. Fly back to England, pick up our car, drive home, go to bed. So, thanks so much for watching. And we will see you in another vlog, very, very soon. Also coming up very soon, is baby number two for Lucy and I. So, if you want to keep up with us, do subscribe. Vlogging back in the UK as well. Thanks so much for watching and we'll hopefully see you soon. Bye.