Flight from Trondheim - Oslo (Rygge) on 20.04.2011 by Norwegian Airlines (15:30 - 16:35)
Flight from Oslo (Rygge) - Krakow on 20.04.2011 by Ryanair (17:45 - 20:50)
One thing on the wrong side for me was that I did not make flight reservations well in advance...! On the other hand, I wanted to keep my expenditure to a bare minimum...hence I had to settle with the 'poor man's option' - Ryanair...! They do not provide the most comfortable journey you can experience, but then there had to be a compromise...and I went in to compromise some comfort...anyways it was only a 2hr long journey :))
I booked a hostel in Krakow barely two days in advance...it is advisable though to book well in advance, but then there are numerous accomodation options in Krakow...so I could probably afford to be a bit lazy... ;) though it was Easter time. Reason for booking a hostel was 2-fold. Firstly, hostel was very cheap...it cost me just about 55EUR for a 4-night long stay in Europe. But I have checked, if someone wants little more comfort, it is pretty cheap to book a room in hotel as well. Krakow, in general, is extremely cheap place to travel, especially since I am presently living in Scandinavia, all other places appear very cheap to travel across :) I stayed in a hostel
AES Mosquito Hostel...my recommendation for this hostel is very positive. The staff is very supportive. They have some or the other special event, every evening...a very nice way to interact with more people, which brings me to the second reason for staying in a hostel...meet more people, from different countries, cultures and understand them (or at least try to do so...!). I met people from USA, UK, France, Spain, Turkey, South Africa, Italy, Polish, Sweden, Norway to name a few...! So my stay was very interesting overall...! In addition, this hostel is just 5minutes walk from the old city center and some other major attractions in Krakow.
Now done with the bookings, I will now start with the actual travel. My first flight was with Norwegian Airline. The tricky thing here was that my flight was from Oslo (Rygge) and not from the main international airport at Oslo. But I was kind of lucky here to find this flight with Norwegian Airlines direct to Oslo, Rygge and also that the arrival timing was well suited to the timing of my next flight. So it somehow, worked out...! The flight was pretty comfortable, no hiccups as such...!
Then it was turn of Ryanair. Well, my intention initially was to book flights via Norwegian Airlines, even for Oslo - Krakow journey, but, when I compared the prices with Ryanair, it did not take much effort to change my decision :) Anyways, also that flight timings for the Ryanair flight was apt for me...! So I went ahead with it.
Somtimes, it is just quite interesting to travel with Ryanair. Since they do not allot seats as such, so announcements like "The flight is fully booked. Please occupy the first seat you come across to avoid any commotion...!" are common. Another good one: "We do not allow smoking on our flights. But for our esteemed passengers, we bring about non-smoking cigarettes...! Each pack costs 6EUR only and contains 10 no-smoke cigarettes!"...very "passenger friendly" :)
Anyways, the flight departed about half hour late. So I was initially thinking that I might end up reaching half hour late to Krakow...but I was only about 10 mins which was a good feeling. I had already arranged for airport pickup which was fairly cheap - only 70PLN, though if someone does not want to pay that much, then there are frequent public buses available till old city center and they cost only 2-3PLN. So a very good alternative. It takes about 20mins to reach the city center...so not that
far off as well. I reached my hostel by about 21:30. The check-in was very smooth and the support staff was very friendly. They provided me with some very essential information, along with the city maps when I checked in. After that I just went out to have a quick look to the city center...and ofcourse, have some dinner...I was crazy hungry !
So I started walking and decided to try some Polish traditional food -
Polish Pierogi (dumplings). The place where I tried it was
U Vincenta Pierogi Restaurant at the Jewish District, Kazimierz. Since, I was very tired with all the travel, so I kept the sneak-peak of the city to a bare minimum that day and just passed by the Old City Center, Wavers Castle and the Jewish District, Kazimierz.
The next day and onwards, there was a lot planned to be done there.
