Thelonglimbedlady

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Dziękuję Polska (Thank you Poland)

Hey guys! At long last the mental marathon called Exam Season is over, I've hung up my revision books and finally, I can BREATHE again ahhh...

And so to celebrate, two days after crossing the finish line me and my housemates jumped on a plane to Krakow, Poland for a mini getaway. Now I was nervous for a bunch of reasons. First of all I have never been on a wintery holiday before, I am definitely a sun baby through and through and considering how cold it was getting in Brighton I could only imagine what was waiting for me. Secondly I knew that Poland had a bit of a rep for being racist and being the only black person in the group I was travelling with I knew whatever I was going to face, I would be facing it kind of alone, even though my housemates vowed to beat up anybody for me, if necessary haha. I've always been a bit afraid of travelling to eastern Europe because of that reason so Poland was definitely out of my comfort zone. But this is 2017, my year of not only stepping but dancing outside my comfort zone so I got my butt on that plane!

And I am so glad that I did, we had the best time!! Krakow is the cheapest most fantastical place which we learnt at our first cultural stop: MacDonald's. Polish MacDonald's beats English McD's hands down and costs like £3 for a whole meal. Our hostel was also really nice and located next to a strip club, just for the bants I guess. It was in the centre of old town so perfect for us to galavant around.

We did a lot of cool stuff including walking up a mound, visiting the Jewish Quarter, going on a horse and carriage ride around Old Town and enjoying some cheap alcohol. But hands down the highlight of the trip was the visit to Auschwitz. The saddest part by far but it was so necessary to see and really understand even some of what millions of people went through during the holocaust. May we never forget.

So that was my trip to Krakow in a nutshell, it was a quickie but a goodie. Thank you to the city of white lion chocolate bars, angry old shopkeeper women, pierogi (dumplings), very cheap gin and vodka and people that don't live up to racist stereotypes. Thank you for broadening my horizons by sharing your history with me and changing my mind.