We booked a Standard 10 Bed Mixed Dorm at Dizzy Daisy Downtown, a hostel that is within walking distance from the main square of the Old Town in Kraków.

Room

The Standard 10 Bed Mixed Dorm was one without frills — it came with everything you see in the photo above: a reading light, a plug, a pillow and a blanket. The wifi was a little wonky and disconnected at certain parts of the room. If you're travelling in summer, you should note that there's no air conditioner in this room. I found it stuffy and almost unbearable even at 23°C in early May.

(photo from Hostelworld)

The room was huge for a hostel's standard and Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel even had a sitting area for guests to mingle in their room. It's probably a great place for you to meet people from all over the world but you'd have to be mindful of your voice later at night as some guests need their rest.


Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel provided lockers in the room for usage but the lockers are only sufficient for a backpack or small luggage.

Toilet

Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel's toilet was detached from its Standard 10 Bed Mixed Dorm. It wasn't troublesome getting there though, and they had ample cubicles. The toilets were also clean.

Common Area

Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel provided free coffee and tidbits but you have to pay if you want a proper breakfast.



We could left our luggage in Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel's storage area while we explored Krakow. Their storage area had a CCTV to put our hearts at ease.

Safety

I felt that Krakow as a whole was a safe city even at night, and Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel didn't give me a reason to believe otherwise.

Service

The staff at Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel were amazing! They were still at the counter when we checked in late at night and they helped us print our bus tickets for free.

Will I return to Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel?

Yes, but I hope to not travel to Krakow nearing summer again.

Dizzy Daisy Downtown Hostel

Address
Pędzichów 9, 31-148 Kraków, Poland

Contact

krakow@hostel.pl  |  +48 12 2920171  |  +48 506221646 

Price
34.20 złoty (S$12.50) for a weekday night

Booking
I made my booking for Dizzy Daisy Downtown on Hostelworld (this post is NOT sponsored).

The irony that the sign was made by the prisoners and placed outside concentration camps, as if to taunt them. This phrase seems to have some sort of strange truth wrapped around it. Over-exhaustion is fatal yet, unfortunately and tragically, death is really their only chance at freedom.


When you look closely though, you might notice that the B in Arbeit is upside down — a gesture of silent resilience, an oxymoronic sign of oppressed assertion, a defiant “fuck you” to to the Nazis.


I couldn't stop thinking about it for days to come. How many teenagers of our generation can honestly say that they know about WW2? Sure, we know the basic facts, but do we understand the cruelty that happened in the concentration camps? The pain and humiliation suffered by the generations before us, their will to survive and how they fought for freedom.

Holocaust deniers worry me to no end. Aren't the pictures and videos enough to prove that these atrocious truly happened? None of those trialled after the war ever denied that the holocaust happened — their defence were that they weren't aware, they were following orders etc.

Please. Remember these lessons. If we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.





Wrote the above about Auschwitz in 2015, and finally visited the historical site in 2018.

Unfortunately, after three years, my German remains abysmal at best due to the lack of practice, highly contributed by my everlasting need to procrastinate. Nun ja.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

Address

Więźniów Oświęcimia 20, 32-603 Oświęcim, Poland

Opening Hours

8am to 3pm
(Best to book the earliest timing as there will be less people and tour groups)

Tickets

Free for all. Tickets to be booked online.

It's funny. I had imagined a gloomy day in a sombre place like Auschwitz but what greeted me couldn't be a starker contrast — the sun was too bright, the flowers too radiant, the grass too green, the sky too blue.

Yet we all shared the same gloom as we trudged down the same railway millions did before us.