Sometimes things just work out for the best. Our trip to Poland was all set, flying out to Rzeszow for a long weekend staying with friends, but at the last minute they couldn’t come, so we had to make an alternative plan, and quick.

Lucky for us, Rzeszow is only an hour an half train ride from Krakow; a place that we knew nothing about, other than it was old. So train and hotels booked, we did a quick google search to ascertain what we might entertain ourselves with for a few days.

This was our first trip to Poland, and having assumed we would have our friends the translators with us, we took the easy option and didn’t bother to learn any of the lingo. Thankfully, our laziness didn’t cause us any problems, at each place we went signs were in many languages and people spoke English.

Krakow itself has a series of amazing medieval buildings, all of which are well preserved and within easy walking distance of each other. We headed to Wawel Castle to brush up on our Polish history; sitting on top of a hill and overlooking the city the castle draws in thousands of visitors every day. We happened to time it perfectly, as a small food market was selling traditional pierogi (the best ones were feta cheese and cranberry). Clearly it would have been rude to come all the way to Poland without experiencing at least some local delicacy!

Day two we headed out of the city to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, this is an easy 40 minute bus ride, once you actually work out which bus stop you need (we ended up getting directions from the tourist information office within the shopping centre). The mine itself was like nowhere I have ever been before; huge caverns deep underground, sculptures and murals carved out of salt and glittering chandeliers made of salt crystals. The guided walk provided interesting insights into the lives of those who worked there, although be prepared – it is a long walk!

No visit to Krakow is complete without an exploration of the Jewish Quarter. The close proximity to Auschwitz-Birkenau meant that we needed to decide if we were going to visit the memorial and museum within the former concentration camp. There are many different views about the ethics of visiting such a place (which I won’t go into here) but we decided on this occasion not to go. Instead we headed to the Schindler Museum on the former site of his factory, the highlight of which was a film they showed, retelling the stories of those who had worked there.

One of the highlights of the trip was the fantastic food – the best being Hamsa, a Jewish restaurant that markets itself as a ‘Hummus and Happiness Israeli Restobar’ (I hadn’t heard of them either!) Eating there brought a perfect balance of both hummus and happiness, with tasty falafel setting us up well for the afternoon.

The other highlight was simply hanging out in the Old Square, watching the sun go down as the horse and carriages trundled by. We came across a rather bizarre street theatre show involving people on stilts (no idea what it was about, but the costumes were fab).

On our last night we ate dinner outside, as a hot air balloon drifted across the sky; sometimes just sitting and watching the world go by is the most refreshing thing.