The outskirts of Krakow

Krakow's outskirts are not as nice as the beautiful and historical downtown. As soon as you leave the immediate downtown area (still in the inner city) more than half of all buildings are very rundown with unpainted grey facades and the further you go from the city center, the more you will see of ugly commie block highrises, rundown houses and torn down abandoned buildings. Many of them are planned to be replaced with modern office and residential buildings in the near future. That was something we experienced when we accidentally took the wrong tram. But let us first concentrate on the area just north of downtown, but still in central Kraków.

Just north of city center:

Deco Hostel, at Mazowiecka just a few minutes walk north of Kraków's city center. Don't let the grey facade fool you: The atmosphere was really nice with dark furniture and the staff was very friendly. The bathroom was really modern and clean for being in a very cheap hostel (it was much cheaper than the hostel in Warsaw that didn't have a toilet). There was also a kitchen and a common room. Since there was no elevator here neither, we were glad the room was located on the ground floor.

Note how the cars are legally (the "P" signs) parked on the pavement, making it hard for pedestrians.

Polski Fiat was a very common car during the communist regime. It really looked funny to see 3 of these mini cars parked crosswise!

Large signs on our first walk towards the city center.

Just south of River Wisla and city center:

Cracovia Business Center, the tallest building in Kraków and the only "skycraper" in the city, seen from a bridge over Wisla.
It has 20 floors and was built in 1998.

This area just south of the river, has some kind of nice bohemic "rock atmosphere", reminding a bit of to London's Camdentown.

A residential building painted in green.

The TV tower and the Planty Nowackiego Park seen from the bank of Vistula.

Bronislawa Hill:

Bronislawa Hill is a hill with the best view of Krakow. We didn't go there, since it is situated far to the west across the river, but it is considered an attraction with Chapel of St. Bronislawa

A former hotel with a huge Coca-Cola ad. The building will probably been torn down in the near future.

Far outskirts/suburbs:

Lagiewniki's Basilica of Divine Mercy at Sanktuarium Bożego Miłosierdzia. Łagiewniki is a modern church/sanctorium with a futuristic architecture.
Unfortunately I didn't have any opportunity to take a photo closer than this.

Commie blocks in the outskirts of Krakow, seen when arriving by the train from Warsaw.