First Steps in Krakow
My first day in Krakow began before I’d really processed that I was in Poland at all. I’d arrived late the previous night, with my entire experience of the country consisting of an efficient airport shuffle and a straightforward taxi ride into town. “Straightforward” is relative, mind you. I was sending emails. The driver was sending WhatsApp messages. Earlier in the day I’d blocked an unknown non‑UK number that sent me a photo. That turned out to be him. Oops!
By the time I reached the hotel and scoffed a quick dinner it was bedtime. Well, almost. I walked around the block to grab a first lab cache and collect details for an earthcache on the side of the hotel. Priorities. Then I slept.
I arose at 7:20 on Saturday with an Uber booked for 8. It was my first time being let loose on Uber, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The driver arrived on time, and we drove pretty much without speaking to the first event of the day. Parkrun, obviously.
Zielony Jar
Krakow has three parkrun venues. One is close to the town centre, but my chosen one was Zielony_Jar, in the north‑eastern suburbs. It’s popular with British parkrun tourists because it’s accessible and begins with a Z. Lush. I managed to catch their 200th event day. Even so, there were only about 100 runners.
The course is four laps around an urban park. It was a bit uppy‑downy. Each lap was a quarter downhill, half uphill, then a quarter downhill again. I wasn’t quick. I didn’t expect to be. I was there mainly for the Z. And the new country. And a new furthest‑from‑home. Because it was their birthday, they had cakes and biscuits too. Cool. So venue #73 completed.
Others from running club had returned from here by tram, but I had an appointment with a load more Geocaching. So I summoned another Uber to save time. A quick shower at the hotel and then out again. I didn’t have breakfast at all.
Cache Me If You Can
I began by walking around Station Square and under the tracks for a couple of caches, before looping north and west of the old town. I wandered into the Technical University grounds to collect information for a multi‑cache. I apparently collected it incorrectly. I also walked down an alley to get out but failed and had to backtrack a fair distance.
The rest of the day followed a similar pattern. Walking around. Failing to find things that should be easy. Changing direction. Backtracking. All the usual joys of urban caching. My general focus was outside the Planty to the north and west. Up and down Karmelicka Street and around Wisława Szymborska Park, where there was a very complex set of adventure labs that I never finished. I got as far down as the Jagellonian University buildings halfway down the west side of the Planty.
The geocaching was a mixed bag, but that’s town caching for you. I made 59 finds over the course of the day, which is a decent first haul given I didn’t start until nearly midday.
Around 5pm I was running out of legs. I’d walked 15km on top of the 5km I’d run in the morning. So I decided to try a place I’d seen earlier.
Curry and Collapse
The Royal Curry on ulice Kurniki turned out to be absolutely fantastic. I had a couple of courses and a couple of restorative beverages. It hit the spot perfectly after a long day of running, walking and failing to find things.
After dinner I returned to the hotel and sat outside with my PC, hacking up geocaching logs as the sun went down. A good day. A long day. A very Krakow day.
