Having stayed at the incredibly small easyHotel, we proceeded to Fulham Broadway station for our pre-booked easyBus to Gatwick Airport where we will take the easyJet to Krakow, Poland.  You can say we are taking the easy way out literally and also one of the cheapest way.

easyBus

The shuttle service cost us only £4.24 each – a bargain indeed provided you book early (we booked about 3 months in advance).  There are buses every 30 minutes and it also serves the line from Stansted and Luton airports.  Reservations can be made online at the easyBus website.

easyJet

The bus stops at Gatwick North Terminal.  You have to take the internal 3-minute shuttle train to reach Gatwick South Terminal where easyJet flights are.

Our 2-Hour easyJet flight to Krakow cost us £78.49 and its free seating so there is usually a mad rush to get into the plane.  Some tips to get your preferred seat quickly – Check-in earlier (passengers are dispatched by check-in ticket number) or if you have a child, you also get priority.  We were lucky to get an emergency seat which had more leg allowance but the air stewardesses were very strict on the policy of “nothing below/beside/on your seat” for emergency seat passengers so be sure to store your things in the cabin or risk being scolded.  The plane is a 3-3 configuration and there is no one beside me – so I can stretch out my leg even further 🙂

No in-flight entertainment and no reclining of your seat.  If you want food and drinks, you have to pay for it.  Don’t worry, toilet usage onboard easyJet is free.  Thankfully, it was only a 2-Hour flight.  We stopped in the middle of the tarmac where a bus came to pick us up (i looked a bit weird in this picture; as if I am doing a helicopter spin because I was caught unaware by the picture :-p).  The plane had barely stopped and refuelling and restocking had started on the other side of the plane – this could explain the average 25-minute turnaround time that most budget airlines achieved i.e. 25 minutes before they fly off to the next destination.

While I was changing money, TY took a picture of the small Krakow Airport.  Note the guy who was supposed to be waiting for someone, posing for the picture (circled in red).

We took over from Singapore only Euros and British Pounds and will be changing to local currencies at local money exchangers.  A tip on moneychanging – just change a sum of money sufficient to bring you to town and change the rest at the moneychanger near Carrefour in the Galeria Krakowska – a big shopping centre beside the train station.  The rates are much better than the airport ones.  Polish currency is called złoty and the approximate exchange rate for SGD : zł is about 1 : 2.

There are many ways to reach Krakow city from the airport.  The cheaper ways are by bus (about 3 zł) or train (about 8 zł).  We took a cab (68 zł working out to 17 zł per pax) to our accommodation: Greg and Tom hostel.