Euro Trip Day 16: Turning Water Into Wodka!

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Day 016, Sunday July 3


Still in Krakow, heavy rain, as the forecast was predicting the day before , thank god for the new rain coats! We indulged in the free breakfast, we had purchased disgusting, but very healthy, crackers a few days ago and the breakfast at this hostel served little slivers of wrapped cream cheese, perfect! We took our time strolling through the old town making our way to a castle at the base of the old town. It was very cool, and very old, but the best was a statue of Smok, a dragon who is fabled to come to life and aid the castle, and by extension the city, when attacked. He was cool and fire came shooting from his mouth twice while we stood there taking photos. Continuing our chilled out day we found the same great place to eat, had the same traditional polish pirogues, though I had an incredibly tasty Goulash in a bread bowl, which I ate as well!

From there we went through old town again, hearing the 3pm trumpet playing which purposely stops in the middle of the tune to symbolise a soldier who played the tune to warn of incoming invaders but was shot with an arrow, cutting off his tune. We found a place called “Wodka” where we did vodka tasting, 4 different shots each, lemon, raspberry, hazelnut, and honey vodkas, the trick is that they are not flavoured afterwards, but actually made from the individual natural flavours themselves. Literally the greatest vodkas I have ever had, I can't go back to Smirnoff or Absolut vodka when I get back home, it just won't do anymore.

We then staggered back to the hostel, which graciously held on to our bags in a safe place (the guy at the counter, obviously not knowing the phrase “You’re welcome” constantly answered a thank you with “Thank you too.”. We proceeded to pass the time chilling out with 3 girls from Calgary who were travelling together and had purchased a large amount of alcohol for very low price and were in the pre drinking phase of their night (too bad we aren’t staying tonight as well).

We now have to make it to the train station for around 10pm to take a sleeper train to Prague which should be nice as the beds in the hostel we've been staying at are horribly stiff.

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