Krakow and Warsaw, PL

[chrisbunnington]

i'm going to spend a few days in each city in june and i'll have a bunch of time to kill. i'm not really looking for touristy shit. i spent a bit of time reading around and found a bunch of recommended stores in an older thread, anything else worth checking out? i'm mostly looking for places that would have stuff i'm not going to find so easily in north america, if there is anything like that. i also want to check out some record stores, and can anyone recommend good places to buy booze? i want to bring back some polish vodka and plum wine as gifts for some people.

i did a bit of research on vegetarian restaurants as well since i'm largely vegetarian. this probably isn't really the best place to ask but can anybody recommend any of them over the others? any good bars and nightlife in either city as well? i'm not really interested in clubs, just a nice bar to have a few drinks in and maybe some venues to check out good local music.

[polishmike]

Right away I think you should forget about shopping. There is nothing there that you won't find in US or CA. I go there pretty often and the only things I get are dress shirts because they make them custom for a great price. I also get soccer boot there and that's all. Everything else is more expensive. There is a new Comme des Garçons guerrilla store in Krakow, here is the address Fabruka 'Erdal'/ Bud. 1, Ul. Hetmana ŻÃ³łkiewskiego, 31-539 Krakow. I haven't been there but that would be the only clothing place I would check out right now.

You can buy vodka everywhere and I mean that, every corner will have a store and a lot of them are opened all night. It's a drinking country so you're never far from a liquor store. Buy some Żubrówka vodka, it has a bison on the bottle and a blade of grass inside, it's light green. Great for gifts. Otherwise vodka is vodka, any one with the word premium on the bottle will taste a lot better than most of the stuff you can get here. Don't buy Absolut of Smirnoff, get some polish brands. On your way back pack 3-4 bottles in your check-in luggage and buy 2-3 more bottles at the duty free store. Customs in Poland don't care, I brought over 10 bottles of booze multiple times. About plum wine I would have to ask my Grandma cause only old people drink that shit.

If you don't know any polish people that live in Warsaw I would spend most of the trip in Krakow. Warsaw is big and it's not easy to walk from one bar to another, plus Krakow is so much more beautiful. In Krakow everything is around main sq. I can PM you some places to eat at and few bars that are ok. There is also a section called Kazimierz, old jewish town which has more laid back places with less tourists. If you need a cheap place to stay in Krakow I can also PM some hotels/hostels. Take a train to Auschwitz, its only about 45min away and worth the trip. I'll look through my blackbook and post some names of bars in Krakow, but I have to find it first. Don't even look for any record stores, they won't have anything you can't get here. How long you're going for? Maybe I can find out some other things to do for you. I'll email some of my vegetarian friends about places to eat in Warsaw but I don't know any in Krakow.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[chrisbunnington]

Right away I think you should forget about shopping. There is nothing there that you won't find in US or CA. I go there pretty often and the only things I get are dress shirts because they make them custom for a great price. I also get soccer boot there and that's all. Everything else is more expensive. There is a new Comme des Garçons guerrilla store in Krakow, here is the address Fabruka 'Erdal'/ Bud. 1, Ul. Hetmana ŻÃ³łkiewskiego, 31-539 Krakow. I haven't been there but that would be the only clothing place I would check out right now.

all right, cool. i'm from toronto so the selection i'm coming from isn't really that huge. i'll check out the CDG store, sounds good.

You can buy vodka everywhere and I mean that, every corner will have a store and a lot of them are opened all night. It's a drinking country so you're never far from a liquor store. Buy some Żubrówka vodka, it has a bison on the bottle and a blade of grass inside, it's light green. Great for gifts. Otherwise vodka is vodka, any one with the word premium on the bottle will taste a lot better than most of the stuff you can get here. Don't buy Absolut of Smirnoff, get some polish brands. On your way back pack 3-4 bottles in your check-in luggage and buy 2-3 more bottles at the duty free store. Customs in Poland don't care, I brought over 10 bottles of booze multiple times. About plum wine I would have to ask my Grandma cause only old people drink that shit.

awesome, i was planning on buying a lot of zubrowka. being polish and a total vodka connoisseur i was hoping to get my hands on some other stuff. i keep meaning to try pravda and chopin, are they generally easy to find? thanks for the info about customs, too, i was kind of worried about them taxing me on litres and litres of booze.

If you don't know any polish people that live in Warsaw I would spend most of the trip in Krakow. Warsaw is big and it's not easy to walk from one bar to another, plus Krakow is so much more beautiful. In Krakow everything is around main sq. I can PM you some places to eat at and few bars that are ok. There is also a section called Kazimierz, old jewish town which has more laid back places with less tourists. If you need a cheap place to stay in Krakow I can also PM some hotels/hostels. Take a train to Auschwitz, its only about 45min away and worth the trip. I'll look through my blackbook and post some names of bars in Krakow, but I have to find it first. Don't even look for any record stores, they won't have anything you can't get here. How long you're going for? Maybe I can find out some other things to do for you. I'll email some of my vegetarian friends about places to eat in Warsaw but I don't know any in Krakow.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

yeah, i'm staying with some family in krakow, and then on my own for a few days in warsaw. i think i'll be in krakow for 5 days, warsaw for 3. i've generally heard a lot about krakow being pretty much the number one city in poland as far as art, culture, etc. are concerned. i was more curious about places in krakow anyhow, as i don't see it talked about very often as a travel destination around here, whereas warsaw has a listing and actually comes up when i search.

thanks for the info! appreciate it.

[youreit]

roncees 4 life. went to poznan for a bit in jan. it was too fuckin cold to enjoy anything except zyviec and other polish beers

[Tisswat]

I can PM you some places to eat at and few bars that are ok. (...) If you need a cheap place to stay in Krakow I can also PM some hotels/hostels.

Why not just post the info in this thread?

[polishmike]

Why not just post the info in this thread?

Well, I have to get info on vegetarian places from my friends since I rarely eat there and I didn't have the info on hand about the hotels when I was typing up the reply.

Are you still interested?