Poland – Wrocław first looks | alison richards | graphic designer and artworker

It's funny looking at my Google Maps timeline. All of my February activity was flat as I was only going to work, and most of March, but then there is a huge spike at the end of March when I went to Poland and walked 20km a day. No wonder my legs always feel like they are going to fall off when I come back from a trip - no in-between!

This was my first trip to Poland and I was quite excited about it. I didn't really know a lot about the country, but my Polish friend had told me I simply had to visit, and she should know right?! So I booked a flight to Wrocław, then booked a 3-hour bus trip to Krakow, then I was flying back to London from there. As per usual, I booked a cheap, early flight from Stansted and consequently was standing at the bus stop in the freezing cold winter morning at 4:50am. I got to the airport, had some breakfast and waited for my flight at 8:20am.

I got to my hotel in Wrocław at 12:00, and my room was ready so I went up to get changed - it was SO sunny and warm! About 23 degrees, definitely t-shirt weather! I left the hotel in search of something to eat for lunch, as I wanted to go on a free walking tour with Walkative at 2pm. I ended up at a vegan burger place - surprisingly there was a huge vegan restaurant movement in Wrocław, I was really impressed. The food was tasty, and then I went to join the walk. I was taking the Old Town walk today.

One of the first buildings I saw in Wrocław and definitely one of my favourites. This top sections made me think of Wed Anderson’s creations

As part of the walking tour we spent a bit of time in the Hala Targowa or market hall. I spent the time looking around to make mental notes of the places I wanted to come back to when I had plenty of time to browse!

The walking tour went for about 2 hours. After I left the group, I went looking for somewhere I had seen on Instagram. Turns out that Wrocław has lots of pretty cool looking buildings and I found quite a few of them on the way!

This is a school! How cool is the building!

Love love love the letters on top of this building. However, it doesn’t have a very good past… this train station was used to transport Jews to extermination camps in WWII

Weirdly bright and colourful modern buildings in the area

This building had some pretty terrific doors!

I went back to my hotel to get ready for an early dinner - I'd been up since 3:30am! I chose a place that the walking tour guide had suggested called Gastropub Wrocławska and it was really really nice! So glad I went there! I had this little rounds of pork and bacon for dinner, with dumplings and a salad, and chocolate pierogi with pomegranate seeds and sour cream for dessert. YUM! I also had a glass of Polish wine (also yum!) and the whole thing cost me less than £20 (about $40 for two courses and wine!). I love Poland!