Our Haunted Hostel in Krakow
- trippedout
- Sep 30, 2016
- 3 min read
We are 6 months into our adventure and now I think is a good time to share some stories about the AirBnb's, guest houses and hostels we have experienced along the way. Lets start with our most recent Haunted Hostel in Krakow, Poland.
A quick search on Booking.com confirms how cheap hostels are in Poland, so we "splash out" and choose a hostel that is brand new and has 9/10 stars (which is super rare for hostels) and of course we go for a luxury 8 bed dorm instead of a peasant 12 bed dorm,obviously.
Its midday when we arrive in Krakow and our google maps tells us our hostel should be right in front of us but all we see is what looks like old ruins of a castle and a train track. But google maps is always right so we cross a gravel driveway to the ruins and find a sign with our hostel's name. Errr okay, so we enter the ruins and its empty, cold and looks like a cave. There's plastic sheets covering some scaffolding at the end of the cave with our hostel logo and an arrow. I pulled back the scaffold curtains, half expecting something to jump out but it opened up into this gorgeous, bright hostel foyer. It had a Scandinavian look, timber, exposed brick and industrial lights lined the entrance and i completely forgot we had just entered through an eerie cave. The best part comes when the receptionist tells us that we have a private room, the whole 8 bed room is ours and no one else will be checked into that room while we are there.
This is way to good to be true. The rooms look like they have never been stepped foot in and the dishes in the kitchen are still in their Ikea boxes. I'm so confused as to how this place has so many amazing reviews yet everything looks new and untouched and why there are only 2 other guests that i can see. Google. Google reveals everything! A quick search of the hostel name "Luneta Warszawska" tells me that this whole building once originated as used to be an old fortress in the 1800's. from 1919 up until 1950 it served as a Gustapo prison while the country was under German occupation and during that time, up to 500 prisoners were executed behind these walls that make up my bedroom for the next 7 nights. I read on to find out that there were even some writings left by the prisoners, found on the walls of the cells in 2007 that are now being recorded. Holy crap!! we are staying in this beautifully renovated PRISON and i'm silently hoping it is haunted by people/prisoners who lived during the war (is that weird?)
3 nights into our stay and disappointingly there hasn't been a ghost sighting yet. I'd planned to ask reception if i could maybe possibly see the prison wall writings but when she couldn't even understand my English while asking for a map of the city, i gave up all hope of seeing the writings.
I'd like to say that after a week there I saw or experienced some ghostly activity but i didn't and to be honest, why the hell would the ghosts of the people who were executed here come back and haunt the horrible place they were murdered? At least I can say i spent a week in a 1900's Gustapo prison in Krakow and loved it. We found out that the hostel was recently renovated hence the untouched furniture and that we came out of peak season hence the lack of guests wandering around. OR they could have just told us that, taken guests money and locked them all in the old prison cells??
Seriously though if you are ever in Krakow, this hostel was 100% the nicest, cheapest hostel I've stayed in and 100% not haunted (tried and tested)
*images from google*
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