Who knew Krakow was so close to our little home in rural Worcestershire? Only 2 hours away on a plane,  but a world away in cost, yet very close to home considering the amount of British accents you hear from corner to corner. Getting there early is a fine idea but as usual we peaked too early and by the early afternoon were dead on our feet, deciding to, walk from the Old town to the Kazimierz quarter where we were staying, unsure as to which restaurants were open and which were restaurants and which looked good. I think we’re in a deeply jewish area, theres synagogues and memorial gardens everywhere, it has the slight feeling of being a rundown neighbourhood on the up, cheap property and trendy bars and bric a brac shops coated in graffitti rub shoulders with newer industrial style apartment blocks, of which we are staying in one, high ceilings, possibly old turbine halls house very chic straight edges and frosted glassy partitions away from the beautifully stout and sturdy oaken doors fronting onto the streets presumably to protect the inhabitants, now coated with indecipherable multicoloured scrawlings, taggings and weathered flyers for last years techno nights.

We took in the main market square after leaving the main train station, with the huge cloth hall dominating the centre now offering countless amber trinkets in a series of nook like stalls, had a drink at the famous Vis a Vis, once a Mecca for artists and musicians, thinkers and intellectuals, now a tourist hotspot where Aperol spritz and pints of lager are the norm. Anyway, next stop Auschwitz…