We’re lounging in purple deckchairs in the courtyard of a former tobacco factory, drinking beers with Krakow’s cool crowd. It’s Friday night and the millennials are out in force, chattering and fetching drinks from a series of industrial-chic bars in Tytano, a tucked-away neighbourhood just to the west of Krakow’s old town that’s one of the city’s hottest new nightspots.
There’s a buzz in the air and the weather is balmy. My friend Danny and I finish our five-zloty (£1) craft ales and wander through the crowds, taking in the artsy bars and restaurants. At Lastriko, a sign promises “prestige drinks, sexy staff and general high life”. Yet there’s nothing seedy about the scene. There isn’t a stag group in sight, just Krakovians letting their hair down.
What a great place. We drop into Meat & Go, a fast-food joint selling pork belly ribs, jars of pickles and jerk pork sandwiches. The smells are intoxicating and the jerk pork is superb, served at a table made out of old machine parts. The food and two cups of decent red plonk come to a very reasonable £14.
That’s the thing about Krakow. The prices are low, but the quality of nightlife at restaurants, bars and clubs is high (if you avoid the sleazy stag haunts, that is). This is the city that Poles visit to party.
And, boy, do they party. Most clubs get going at about 11pm, when the cobbled streets by Rynek Glowny, the vast central square, are jammed full of revellers. Some clubs don’t even open until shortly before midnight. Danny and I find ourselves drawn into the hedonism and end up at a club named Frantic, recommended by our hotel barman.
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Frantic costs £6 to enter, which includes a shot of vodka (of course). It’s soon living up to its name, with purple lights pulsing on the whitewashed walls as the DJ spins tracks and wild Krakovians dance with their arms in the air, enjoying the Krakow craic.
Afterwards, at 2am, on the advice of locals, we head out to a stall selling hot dogs on Grzegorzeckastreet. It’s called Kiełbaski z Niebieskiej Nyski, which translates as “sausages from the blue Nyska” (Nyska is a Soviet-era van). The stall seems to be open all night and is a regular final stop-off for hardcore partying Poles. We order hot dogs dripping with mustard and devour them in a flash.
It is not, perhaps, wise to partake in more than one big night out on a weekend in Krakow. There’s too much to see and do — and a sore head doesn’t help. After exploring Rynek Glowny, with its central covered market and many cafés (Lenin was a regular at the elegant, pleasingly old-fashioned Noworolski café), we climb Wawel Hill to see the fine castle and cathedral, as well as the marvellous views across the city, with the River Vistula meandering gently east to west.
From here it’s a short walk to Kazimierz, a suburb that for centuries has been home to the city’s Jewish population. We pass synagogues on little lanes — many of which featured
in Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List — before following the banks of the Vistula and making our way to Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory, now a tourist attraction with a series of displays shedding light on the horrors of the Second World War.
The German industrialist employed more than 1,000 Jews so they would not be placed on Nazi deportation lists. The museum in the old factory is harrowing. Images depict men being hanged after capture by SS guards. Corridors lead to collections of possessions stolen by the Nazis. Photographs show homeless children huddling on street corners. A testimony from Stella Müller, aged eight, is gut-wrenching: “The horrible screams of the children come from the street, their cry for help to the disgusting guffaw of the amused Germans; they are throwing children out of windows on to lorries, sometimes they miss.”
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This describes a “displacement” from Krakow in October 1942 during which 4,500 Jews were deported to the Belzec death camp and 600 were murdered in the ghetto. The Auschwitz camp is about a 90-minute bus ride to the west of the city (we had both visited the awful place before, so did not go on this occasion).
Back in town we catch a taxi to a part of the city that few tourists see. This is Nowa Huta, where the Soviet authority built a massive industrial and residential complex on the site of a former village to the northeast of the city. It is a desolate neighbourhood with grimy, nondescript apartment blocks lining long, wide avenues with dirty concrete paving slabs. Yet it provides an intriguing insight into Poland’s recent past. Even the name of the main square tells a story. Originally it was named after Josef Stalin, in the 1990s it was dedicated to Ronald Reagan and now it’s just plain Plac Centralny (the Reagan-worshipping days being a thing of the past).
We go for a beer at a bar on a corner, overlooking the grimy apartments, before catching a cab back to Tytano and the Cargo grill and bar, a bustling place with juicy burgers served in the summer at a lovely outdoor terrace. The old tobacco factory — transformed for the 21st century — feels like the beating new heart of this intriguing city. It’s also the perfect spot to begin what turns out to be The Big Night Out: Part 2. Oops.
The budget hotel
Hotel Indigo
With its eclectic modern art, 56 super-smart rooms and bijou bar, Hotel Indigo is the hippest new hotel in Krakow. In a former private home dating from 1836, it comes with a top-class restaurant serving modern Polish dishes. It’s just to the north of Rynek Glowny. B&B doubles cost from about £85 (hotelindigo.com)
The luxury hotel
The Bonerowski Palace
On the edge of Rynek Glowny in the heart of the city centre, Bonerowski is a flamboyant hotel with rooms that have flowing curtains, high ceilings and chandeliers. There’s a jazz club, a spa, and an intimate seafood and steak restaurant. B&B doubles cost from about £165 (palacbonerowski.com)
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Need to know
Tom Chesshyre was a guest of Easyjet and Hotel Indigo. Easyjet flies from Belfast, Bristol, Liverpool, Gatwick and Manchester to Krakow, from £38 return