Warsaw and the Big Brown Bear

Warsaw

By the time we got to Warsaw, Joshua had left us for greener and warmer pastures. So had our energy and vitality. Thankfully, Gemma and I had booked a semi-private room which gave us the rest we needed. Most of our daytime schedule consisted on cuddling with a giant stuffed bear (which we later found out got peed on and thrown our #SadTimes #RIP) or idling in the common room. We did do cool stuff though, despite the awful weather. We went out to a jazz bar, a free walking tour, and we ate out loads. Maybe it was the weather but Warsaw did not seem as pretty and nice as Krakow, so if you need to make a choice I would pick the latter. That being said, I really really liked Warsaw and want to go there again in the summertime. The city was almost completely destroyed after WWII so it was interesting to see how it managed to rebuild itself, including monuments and landmarks from pre-war times.

I recommend you...

• Eat some incredibly cheap and delicious food at "Bar Mleczny Familijny", a polish milk bar. The staff does not speak english but they keep an english menu near the cash register. All you need to do is write down what you want and hand it over. Don't be discouraged by this, it's definitely worth a try! More about this place here.
• Have a drink at Barometr klub & drink bar, click here for their website. 

Photos

Familijny 

Familijny

Snoooow

Old town

Old town, most of which has been rebuilt. Photo credit: GPD

Warsaw Uprising Monument

Metro

Our friend the big brown bear

Krakow and the 24hr Pierogies

Krakow- old town

After Brussels, Gemma, Josh and I arrived in Krakow. The capital of Poland from the 11th until the 16th century, this beautiful city remains an important cultural, academic, and economic centre in the country. Unlike Warsaw and many other Polish cities, Krakow was not destroyed at the end of WWII. It is therefore possible to explore well-preserved historic buildings including some dating back to the middle ages and remnants of the Krakow Jewish Ghetto. This is all according to our amazing tour guide, Ella. She was fantastic! We did the "Krakow" and the "Kazimierz/Jewish district" free walking tours with her. I highly recommend doing at least one of those to get an overview of the city's history and to check out the main sights. Visit their website here for more info.

While in Krakow, Gemma and I had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz (Josh had been before). It is a must for anyone interested in learning more about the holocaust and WWII. I wouldn't plan on doing anything too crazy afterwards because it is quite overwhelming, as it should be. We left this for our last day. It  is a solemn experience.

In addition to all the historic sights and cultural activities, Krakow is well known for its amazing nightlife. To make the most of it, I would recommend staying at a small party hostel -- especially if you're travelling alone. We stayed at the Pink Panther's party hostel and they offered free vodka tasting, soup, fondue and champagne on the nights we were there. I guess the downside of a party hostel is the noise but just bring some earplugs and suck it up, it's well worth it for a very good time.

Organized fun might not seem like a very intrepid thing to do but we decided to go on our hostel's pub crawl and had lots of fun! The two staff members leading the pub-crawl were young and fun and without them, we probably could not have found the bars they took us to. Touristy? Yes, but unless you speak polish or are staying with a local, a pub-crawl is not a bad idea! It only cost us around 50 zloty (about 12 EUR). Unfortunately, everyone in our group got super wasted so we only got to do 2 out of 5 of the bars and clubs we were supposed to party in. Oops. My happiest memory remains the delicious 24hr pierogi Josh and I got at the end of the night...YUM.

I recommend you...

• Take the Krakow Free Walking tour! Our tourguide Ella was awesome, check out their website here
• Go out in Kazimierz, the old jewish district
• Go to Plaza Nowy in Kazimierz where you can check out the market on weekend mornings or go for a drink at a nearby bar. Definitely don’t forget to eat a Zapiekanka!
• Try polish soup, our favourite was the mushroom soup served in a bread bowl
• Eat some 24hr Pierogis at Zapiecek (only 12 PLN)
• Hang out at Rynek Główny (Main Market Square)
• Go to the Wawel Castle
• Get drunk on Zubrowka Vodka with apple juice
• Visit St. Francis of Assisi's Church; it was Pope John Paul II’s favourite church

Fotos (all by me so please ask if you want to use them on your site)

Main Market Square

Mushroom soup!

Main Square - monument for the 19th century poet Adam Mickiewicz 

Inside the Sukiennice (Draper's Hall)

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul 

Old Town Krakow

Old town Krakow - note the fake stone, apparently stone was the shit and really hard to find

Wawel Cathedral at Wawel Castle

The Wawel Castle

Where Pope Jean Paul II used to live before being pope 

Outside of Pople Jean Paul II old dwelling

Zapiekanki rotunda

Zapiekanka

Some trendy bar in Kazimierz, old jewish district now hipster gem 

Memorial to Jews from the Krakow Ghetto on their deportation site. There are 12 chairs and each chair represents 1000 victims

Remnant of the Krakow Ghetto 

Memorial to the Jews of the Krakow Ghetto

The old Synagogue in Kazimierz

Auschwitz

Brussels and Losing One's Beer Virginity

Ah, the beautiful capital of Belgium and the seat of many European Union institutions. My friend Gemma and I chose it as the start of our March holidays and Joshua, a fellow english assistant and partner in crime and travels met us there. Like me, he was very excited about having some Belgian brews and it's hard to remember if we even drank water while we were there. Don't judge, in France, we've been subject to impossibly shitty beer since October. I'd like to think that our enthusiasm persuaded Gemma to try her very first beer! Granted, it was a fruity one but I see it as a milestone in the girl's life. The trip only lasted two nights and a day but we managed to walk around quite a bit and squeeze in a visit to the Magritte museum, the Grand Place, the European Parliament, and Delirium Cafe. We couch-surfed in a cozy student house and our host showed us her neighbourhood so we also managed to see a bit of Brussels through a local's eye.

Do you drink beer? What's your favourite? I love strong dark brews with coffee or chocolate-y undertones

I recommend you....

• Drink plenty of beer everywhere but do stop by Delirium Cafe
• Eat plenty of waffles. We recommend the street… try to find the best one!
• Eat fries "Chez Antoine" – look for a little kiosk in Place Jourdan
• Stop by the Poechenellekelder bar for a dark beer while visiting the old town

Photos: 

Grand Place

Grand Place (Photo credit: GPD)

European Parliament

Magritte museum - downstairs

Bistrot À la mort subite - good atmosphere and cute but overpriced

Dark beer time at Poechenellekelder

Delirium Cafe

Delirium Cafe

Delirium Cafe (photo credit: GPD)

Gemma's first fruity beer at a random cafeteria

Manneken Pis

March adventures in Belgium, Poland, and Hungary

At the beginning of March, I embarked on a fantastic two-week holiday with my good friend Gemma. The ongoing deterioration of our bodies that ensued was well worth the amount of fun, food, culture, history and alcohol we consumed. We survived but mostly enjoyed Brussels, Krakow, Warsaw with tightly packed suitcases and even tighter budgets. Check out our recommendations below and click on the links for more photos and a juicier account of our adventures!

Brussels - Click here for more!

• Drink plenty of beer everywhere but do stop by Delirium Cafe
• Eat plenty of waffles. We recommend the street… try to find the best one!
• Eat fries "Chez Antoine" – look for a little kiosk in Place Jourdan

Krakow - Click here for more 

• Take the Krakow Free Walking tour! Our tourguide Ella was awesome, check out their website here
• Go out in Kazimierz, the old jewish district
• Go to Plaza Nowy in Kazimierz where you can check out the market on weekend mornings or go for a drink at a nearby bar. Definitely don’t forget to eat a Zapiekanka!
•  Try polish soup, our favourite was the mushroom soup served in a bread bowl
• Eat some 24hr Pierogis at Zapiecek (only 12 PLN)
• Hang out at Rynek Główny (Main Market Square)
• Go to the Wawel Castle
• Get drunk on Zubrowka Vodka with apple juice
• Visit St. Francis of Assisi's Church; it was Pope John Paul II’s favourite church

Warsaw 

• Eat some incredibly cheap and delicious food at "Bar Mleczny Familijny", a polish milk bar. The staff does not speak english but they keep an english menu near the cash register. All you need to do is write down what you want and hand it over. Don't be discouraged by this, it's definitely worth a try! More about this place here.

Budapest 

• Indulge yourself and spend an afternoon (or a few) at one Budapest's Turkish baths; I went to and had a great time
• Try to catch a show at the opera, tickets are mad cheap and the building is gorgeous 
• Grab a bite of delicious hungarian food at Menza 

Milan and how (not) to choose the perfect accomodation on Airbnb

View of Milan from Il Duomo 

A few friends and I went to Milan on the first weekend of February and despite a few obstacles we encountered on site, it turned out to be if not a fun weekend, a memorable one.

Everyone on Facebook and IRL assured me that Milan was Italy's ugly ducking city. A thriving industrial, fashion, and economic centre? Yes, but not nearly as quaint or as beautiful as say Rome or Florence. My friends and I decided to be posh and rent an apartment via Airbnb rather than stay at a hostel, like commoners... I guess. Gemma and I had done it a week earlier in Paris and we still remember it as the most comfortable stay we've had outside a hotel. Unfortunately, our Milan experience was quite the opposite. The apartment was absolutely beautiful but our host Andrea turned out to be a bit of a scammer who tried to collect a 540 € security deposit after we left.  

I got a bad feeling when our host's mother - not him - received us. We got settled in though and proceeded to explore the city. When we returned, and after multiple tries, we couldn't open the door, our host couldn't open the door, and his mother couldn't open the door. The key just would not turn, the lock was completely stucked. After about a pointless hour of mother and son trying to open the obviously jammed door, we were advised to wait at a nearby McDonalds while the locksmith arrived and did his job. Classy as always, my friend and I got really drunk on gin and tonic while we waited (read more about it here). 

After about 1h30, we were able to enter the apartment and even had a reckless night out. The rest of the trip went smoothly, although we were not able to lock the door during our stay. Andrea was very nice throughout the ordeal and even offered us a reimbursement for the first night - which we never got! Imagine the surprise when the girl who had booked everything on her card got an email from Airbnb saying that Andrea was claiming 540 € for the dammages. 

I called Andrea with the hopes that it was some communication problem. It was not. He claimed that the locksmith had charged him 540 € and that the jamming of the door had been our fault because they had allegedly found a piece of the key in the lock. As far as I can recall, the key looked intact before we handed over to them. He sounded very determined to get "his money back". I bet I sounded just as determined to keep it. He said he understood we were poor students and suggested we go 50-50 on the alleged cost of the locksmith and "solve the problem between us" without the help of Airbnb... He then sent us his bank information and assured us that he would withdraw the deposit claim when he received his 270 € payment. In my opinion, he shot himself in the foot by asking us to do a direct deposit. Thankfully we knew better than to do that -- we had no guarantee that he would in fact withdraw the 540 € claim. 

We wrote back to Airbnb, contesting his claim. We explained everything that happened including his failure to provide us with a reimbursement and his outrageous request of a 270 € direct deposit. Luckily, Airbnb agreed with us and they dropped the case. He was obviously just trying to make an extra buck. 

I have gone back to using Airbnb without any mishap since this unfortunate experience but I have developed some rules so that this never happens again. I have outlined them below. 

Things to look for when choosing Airbnb accomodations: 

1. Location - google map it!
2. The description - the longer the better! It's a good sign if a host has gone through the trouble of writing an extensive description of the room and the services they offer. Do take the time to read everything, otherwise don't act surprised if you get there and there's a cat or you have to share a bathroom or there's no breakfast.
3. Photos - the more the better! This is another sign of how much effort the host has put into. If you're renting a room, it's nice to have a look at what the rest apartment looks like.  
4. References - read them thoroughly and read between the lines. If there's more than a negative one and they both point out the same things, better not take the risk. It's not like it's free.
5. Type of accommodation - I prefer renting a room or rooms than a whole apartment because if anything goes wrong, your host will be there. It's also more likely that breakfast is included
6. Fees - make sure you read if there are any cleaning fees or damages deposit added to the price.

Have you had any negative experiences on Airbnb or have anything to add? Post in the comment section below.