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 Poland 2002 - Krakow - KryjowkaThe absolute top place to hang out in Krakow, in my opinion, is Kryjowka Music Club and Restaurant. The atmosphere is warm, the employees and patrons are friendly, and on Friday and Saturday nights attractive, drunk Poles surround you. During our many visits the music ran the gamut from ABBA to Zucchero. Kids invited us to their tables and were happy to talk to us. Two girls sat on the foot of the stairs leading up to the balcony level and demanded kisses in exchange for passage.  The dancefloor was packed, but the dancing wasn't relegated to it. Holy Christ, no. For on our first full night out in Krakow we witnessed a heavenly sight. Reader, I defy you to describe to me a happier scene than a roomful of Polish kids dancing on tabletops. Unless it's a roomful of Polish kids dancing on tabletops while singing, shrieking, and shouting along to The Blues Brothers' "Everybody Needs Somebody." Which we also witnessed.
Kryjowka was much mellower on Monday and Tuesday; a good, quiet place to grab a half-liter of Zywiec beer while Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" played in the background. There's even a karaoke night.  But on that first crazy Friday night, Kryjowka had us in such fine spirits, we wandered back to our hotel like wind-up toys, our legs pumping automatically as the streets wobbled before us. Upon getting back to our hotel, DJ Cyberian Tyger took an hour or two to clear his stomach of some of the poison he had been consuming. Afterward, while assisting him up the stairs, we both fell backwards and tumbled to the bottom, waking the hotel porter in the process. The porter couldn't yell at us because he didn't know enough English to do so, and our grasp of Polish was rudimentary at best. We apologized later, because we're nice guys. But we knew we'd be doing it all over again anyway, night after night, for the next week and a half, and that made us happy pandas.
Listen to 3.5 minutes of assorted highlights from a Friday night in Kryjowka.
The official Kryjowka website. Introduction to our Poland trip Krakow (1) Kryjowka, Krakow Auschwitz Lublin (1) Lublin (2) Warsaw The Park, Warsaw Some interesting information Some useful information
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