Travel

Chasing Dwarfs in Wroclaw, Poland

Wroclaw is a city to fall in love with. It has a charming Western atmosphere and we needed constant reminder that we were actually in Eastern Europe. It's a trend among the Polish cities to be gracefully combine the old and the new in a cute way. We've witnessed this in Poznan and in Gdansk as well.

In the last couple of days we repeatedly heard people making comparisons between Wroclaw and Krakow. For what it's worth, we think Krokaw wins when it comes down to the general feeling, though Wroclaw will always have for us the most beautiful city center between the two. That's because once we left the few magical streets around Wroclaw's Town Hall, the architecture lost it's magic, which wasn't really the case in Krakow.

From the very moment we arrived in Wroclaw's newly restored train station, we met one very special traveler. Another traveler greeted us in front of our hotel - Art Hotel Wroclaw.

Arcik the Traveler, the dwarf in front of our hotel

Later we found out that there were over 200 such little inhabitants spread all over Wroclaw, all with their own rightful name. So I made it my mission to find and photograph as many of them as possible. My husband followed in my footsteps, knowing however that today wasn't a good day to talk serious stuff with me.

Prisoner dwarf

While it is true that we weren't always successful and sometimes the dwarfs seemed to play hide and seek with us, at the end of the day we found exactly 43 little dwarfs. Not bad, huh? I even counted them, just to see how far my craziness goes. Must have inherited my mother. She's the crazy dwarf lady in the family!

Snorer

As I walked dwarf map in hand, my enthusiasm surpassed any limits. I think this is a fun and interesting way of interacting with a new place and I totally applaud this idea. If it weren't for the little friends, we wouldn't have seen so much of Wroclaw.

Basically this dwarf chase got us out the beaten path and into the unexpected. I don't say all streets we've been on were breathtaking, but as the little creatures could be anywhere (on the ground, on light poles, or on buildings), we really were more aware of our surroundings, processed all the new information on a deeper level and emerged ourselves more in the present moment.

Besides the little dwarfs of Wroclaw we also found some pretty unusual bronze statues of animals. They are to be found in a courtyard that used to be a meat market, now a souvenir gallery, and they are a monument to all slaughter animals.

Wroclaw has another peculiarity. Its cathedral is not in the city center, but rather on an island. Though the cathedral interior is beautiful but nothing out of this world, walking all the way till there is well worth the trip for two reasons. First, because the reflection of the two extremely tall towers of the cathedral in the river is a glorious sight.

Second, because close to the cathedral there is an absolutely stunning park.

And a love lock bridge!

We arrived in Wroclaw on the 4th day of our 1 month long Interrail trip through Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. It was raining and we were worried we wouldn't get to see the city properly. But the next day, in spite of the weather forecast, the rain stopped and what was left behind were these puffy clouds that in combination with the north European architecture, reminded me of Vermeer's paintings.

Wroclaw also surprised us with some incredibly decorated restaurants...

... and pubs (including Art Nouveau ones!).

And we discovered with pleasure that many locals speak English here. Though they really need to get someone to announce the trains in English too. As we were about to leave the city, the train got delayed a few minutes and the platform changed. The only sign we understood were the hordes of people rushing from one platform to another. We followed. But it was madness.

I really don't believe that people who travel to countries that speak a different language should learn the language before traveling. If that was the case, nobody would travel anywhere anymore because it's really counter productive to prepare yourself for years and to learn a language you would use only once during a couple of days holiday to the country where it is used.

And it's not because I speak English everybody should speak English, it's because English is THE international language right now. Before it was French. And next might be Chinese, who knows! Despite the cultural diversity that we, travelers, love and seek, for the sake of humankind I believe one common language would sort out so many differences. Of course, this is just my opinion at 2AM as I'm writing this post on the night train to Warsaw. You can agree to disagree.

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You can also see our month long Interrail itinerary and read our tips for traveling Europe with an Interrail pass. Have you used an Interrail pass before or are you planning an Interrail trip in the near future? Please leave us your feedback. It means the world to us.

Though we used the Interrail Global Pass for our journey, it's worth noting that single country passes are also available.

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