Chapter 01
The weight stays with you
Read chapter
Destination · Poland
Kraków, Poland
The city that refused to forget
A royal capital that survived the twentieth century largely intact, and carries every layer of that survival in plain sight.
12 chapters ahead
Climate
Continental with real seasons — summers are warm and occasionally thundery, winters are cold and grey with periodic snow that makes the old town look like it was designed for it.
Best season
May and September: warm enough to walk the Planty without a coat, thin enough on tourists that the Rynek feels like a city square rather than a stadium concourse.
Atmosphere
- urban-midsize
- old-world
- cosmopolitan
- literary
- artsy
- culinary
- walkable
- nocturnal
- spiritual
- post-industrial
The chapters
12 ways to get lost here
Tap any chapter to read
Chapter 02
Milk bars never left
Read chapter
Chapter 03
Małopolska is the context
Read chapter
Chapter 04
The Rynek has a crowd problem
Read chapter
Chapter 05
Wawel sits above everything else
Read chapter
Chapter 06
Sleep where the trams still run
Read chapter
Chapter 07
Obwarzanek first, everything else after
Read chapter
Chapter 08
The avant-garde moved into the bunker
Read chapter
Chapter 09
Miłosz came back to be buried here
Read chapter
Chapter 10
The nativity scene competition is serious
Read chapter
Chapter 11
The student city runs on coffee and late hours
Read chapter
Chapter 12
Bologna knows this particular bargain
Read chapter
Keep wandering
You’ve finished Kraków. Where next?
Pull a thread at random, fall into the world map, or step back to the front door for the latest dispatches.