Some of you may have noticed that All About Abbie posts have been a tad thin on the ground of late... and the reason is this: I've been off adventuring in Poland. I travelled to Krakow to teach Polish children in a summer school based in the Czech Republic. But before and after the summer camp we had a chance to explore Krakow and enjoy the city.
The city is absolutely beautiful. There is so much to do and see! If you are ever in Poland I highly recommend a visit to Krakow. St Mary's Basilica is one of the main historical buildings in the main square, along with the amazing Cloth Hall.
Every hour, on the hour, a trumpeter plays out of each window of the tower. The trumpeter stops abruptly mid-way through the trumpet signal to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat before he could sound the alarm during the Mongol attack on the city.
Our hostel was a 20 minute walk from the main square so, a few days, after a long day of walking and exploring, we hopped onto a tram to save our poor aching feet.
We visited the Salt Mines.... yeah sounds a bit dull, but, do not be fooled. They were amazing!! The cavern above was carved entirely out of solid salt and rock. The sculptures and caverns were amazing! Even the chandeliers we made from salt crystals.
Love this crochet covered bike!
The main square was always buzzing with activity and there were always entertainers around. This guy was brilliant!
Gorgeous chocolate cake!
Fudge tart and ice cream!
Posing inside the head statue on the main square
On our penultimate day in poland we had a magical horse and carriage ride around the city. It was only £5 each! We felt like royalty :)
The beautiful Cloth Hall from the view of the St Mary's Basilica tower! We climbed up the hundreds of steps to have a bird's eye view of the sqaure and the rest of Krakow and it was totally worth it!
A gorgeous church I spotted on our walk to Oscar Schindler's factory and museum across the river.
We had a lovely little rest by the river with a view of wawel, the oldest part of the city where the palace, castle, basilica and "dragon's den" is located. I would heartily recommend a trip to Poland. The weather was gorgeous, the architecture was lovely and we had such a brilliant time... Fantastyczny! :D
During our stay in Athens, there were scheduled protests against the proposed cuts in Greece. We were having our traditional Greek taverna meal to the background noise of petrol bombs being thrown at riot police and had the faint haze of tear gas in the air... how romantic!
We made our way through the masses of people who took to the streets we arrived back to our hotel and was able to then watch the protests unfold from our balcony. There was an impromptu rally right beneath us as a group broke away from the main march to chant their disdain for the proposed budget cuts.
There was a heavy police presence...
A small section of the protest march as it filed past our hotel. As the people were pushed back from Syntagma Square outside the parliament building and then subsequently from Omonia square and the smell of tear gas in the air and smoke from the burning buildings became stronger as more people came past. We had to cover our mouths to stop our throat and noses burning...
Some of the aftermath the next morning... almost every bank along the protest march routes had been vandalised, smashed and/or burned...
Some shops were also targeted by more extreme protestors...
Overall the clean-up was swift though, by midday most shops were cleaned out and were having new windows installed. We visited the parliament building and Syntagma square in the afternoon and, apart from the police milling about, you would never have known that it was the scene of violence only hours before.
Something that was incredibly striking was the sheer amount of graffiti in Athens. It was rare to see a building without a piece of graffiti on it somewhere. Some of the graffiti I would class as art, including the amazing hands painted on the side of a building directly outside our hotel in the Psirri area of the city.
Some of the graffiti had a political undercurrent, and was clearly a comment on the current troubles happening in the city...
Outside the Flea Market in Monistiraki
