My trip to Krakow and its ups and downs.

Hi Kevend- we also went to Kracow-but only to visit the Jewish memorials,museums and Nazi death camp-we did also go into a few polish churches-

We found the Poles have not really learnt from the horrible events of WW2-there is still plenty of anti-semitism and racist graffitti-many of them still

have a peasant mentality when it comes to foreigners and yet they want to be taken seriously as an EU country with all that implies. Old Kracow is

picturesque but in the outer areas there is definately a weird underlying current of menace. In fact a British student doing an internship in Kracow was

murdered after an argument with a bus driver just this summer. We would go back to Poland but only to remember the millions who died in Poland in WW2.

I am assuming you also include Poles in your act of "remembrance"


Shall we discuss all the Polish nationals, murdered in the " Isles" in recent years.


Obviously you are Jewish, there are seminars during the summer near Krakow, especially for people like yourself who lack understanding of other faiths and cultures. I can send you a link if you provide an email, as you are not a full member of Polishforum.

Way too touristy, that's the point! A bit of a free-for-all in some places.

I found Poles quite hospitable in Krakow and every other place.The key is to look decent,white and slavophile.Russians are different way more aggressive but they are so with everyone not just foreigners.

Hi Did any one see the program that Ross Kemp did on Sky 1 about football holligans around the world. When he went to Poland, he saw some of the hardest guys ever(would you not be after years of russian control). Its showed what they did and what the police were trying to do to control them.

But I have to say as a Irish man, I don't think too many tourist's that visit Ireland would go to Ballymun,Ballyfermont( both in Dublin which are major drug area's) or Moyross in Limerick which even the police do not like to go into.

The point Iam making is that there are tourist area's and then other area's which the even the locals try to avoid. Even the driver that I use in Krakow give's out that the centre of krakow is too tourist based in the summer.

I drove into a estate outside of Katowice once, thinking it may not be so good, but it was okay.

Ive only felt remotly meneced once in the Krakow area and that was when our group was the subject of a pathetic attempt at intimidation on the part of a large party of Star of David flag drapped youths who seemed to take exception to the 3 Asians in our group.......nice classy way to behave in Auschwitz I , tbh......

It was 5-6 years ago,but now its a nightmare trying to get through security.The queue is almost out the door these days.

Just reading this thread and I have had some incidents in Krakow (excluding the attempted mugging) as follows;

Now bear in mind that these were 5 - 6 years ago, before the English stag parties arrived en mass.

1) 5 Polish guys saw me talking to a Polish girl on Ul Floriankska (around 22:00) and wrongly accused me of being gay due to clothes I was wearing) and wanted to fight me. After 10 mins or so I managed to get away from them with them 3 metres behind me shouting abuse at me. Luckily my brother was where I left him and I shouted to my brother to get ready to fight. Now, with the odds changed from 5:1 to 5:2 they decided to keep on walking. Very brave!!!!!!

2) Again on Ul Florianska, I was with a Polish DJ friend and we were talking in English as my Polski is very limited. He turned to the counter to order food in Polski and a Polish guy behind looked horrified. He looked at my friend and then me and then said something in polski and kissed my friend on the cheek and stormed off. I asked my friend what was that all about and he wouldn't tell me at first. I guessed what it was an my friend reluctantly admitted what had happened, the other Polish guy was upset that a Pole was friends with an English guy.

3) Again with my Polish DJ friend we went to a Deli to buy food at the end of the night. Again we were talking English and a group of Polish guys and girls were looking at and obviously talking about us. As we left they started throwing objects at us, not sure what as it was dark, but as thrown from a distance, they were hard, which you could here when they hit the ground.

As mentioned above, all that above was before a lot of English have, sadly, tarnished the English reputation.

Hopefully things have now improved in Krakow. I haven't had the pleasure of visiting the area as of yet. My relatives who have visited there, have had mainly positive experiences.

travelling and its ups and downs:)