The perks of touristing in the down season: pictures like this are actually possible!

This Gothic beauty is Wawel Castle, built by Casimir III the Great in the 14th century. It sits on a hill, about half a mile from Kraków’s Main Market Square.

The castle itself is like a fairy tale, but the old streets that lead you there are equally dreamy.

Yeah. I’m that person who takes pictures of their shoes on any and all semi-interesting looking floors. But you already knew that.

Kraków gets an A+ in the “interesting floor” category, so lucky for me.

After 10 minutes of clip-clopping on the old cobblestones from the Main Market Square (pausing every 4 seconds to take pictures of everything) I finally came upon…

The castle itself.

W A W E L

Ugh, so exquisite. It gives me mad Westeros vibes.

The scope of this place is b r e a t h t a k i n g.

*gets photobombed by that one random person*

This is the entrance to the Wawel Cathedral. I couldn’t take photos inside, but believe me – it’s every bit as decadent as you might expect. There are church altars and crypts inside, as well as a plaque commemorating the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.

Gothic to the extreme.

Wawel overlooks the Vistula River, the longest river in Poland.

And an itty bitty snippet of advice to end the night…

Remember —

Make your own castle. Make your own kingdom. And fill it with all the happy things. I’ve been doing just that, and life is real good.

XO