Poland is a country I love and you might be surprised to learn that I’ve even met the President…all by accident of course but never the less it happened! Now you also know I love castle hunting…well I’m going to add Dwarf Hunting to my cv…it will be a talking point in interviews. The Dwarfs in Wroclaw have become a tourist attraction but there is a rather interesting tale about them.
Dwarfs or Gnomes, these cute little buggers are dotted all around the city and are adored by everyone who encounters them…young and old.
There is something lovely when you see locals giving the random old dwarf a stroke as they go about their daily lives.
^^Giving my cute little criminal a rub on the shoe in the old Wroclaw jail…the building is older than New Zealand.
Now if you are going to go Dwarf Hunting then you can pick up a Dwarf map that lists a large number of these cute little buggers for a few zloty from the Wroclaw Tourist Office…or just go walking and you will find them dotted all around the city going about their business…
…some sleeping outside of a hotel…
…the happy traveller called Arcik…
…chowing down on an ice cream or two in front of an ice cream parlour…
…Mr Money Bags…
…the rock star…
…the water bearer…
…a working from home dwarf…
…the book worms…
…making grub…
…delivering grub…
…stopping for a cup of tea…
…making some music…
… or just hanging from lamp posts…
…they are everywhere so make sure you look down and up!
The dwarves are matched up to local businesses or historic buildings in the old town so this shoefie was taken with my wasted little dwarf in front of Pizza Hut…I’m the person that undoes my trousers to let it all hang out after a huge dinner like this little fella…
…to these smooching dwarfs which you can find in front of the registry office…we may have used our ninja like skills to avoid getting in some wedding photos while taking a photo or ten of these smoochers! See the rice!
Now if you thought I had Dwarf spammed you already…just you wait…here we go…Dwarf Porn…
…you know you love it! I have a huge amount of dwarf photos that I haven’t shared in this post…I’ll save you from RSI.
This guy is the original Wroclaw dwarf and as you can see…they’ve changed! He is sporting the face of an IBS sufferer with trapped wind.
If you’re looking for a city break destination for families then Wroclaw will certainly tick a number of boxes…the dwarfs, the numerous amount of parks and playgrounds to just the right amount of culture vulture activity that you don’t feel like you’ve missed out.
A dwarf was the symbol of the Orange Alternative Movement; during the communist years the military would paint over any anti-establishment graffiti or public art and soon after a pesky little dwarf would appear over the military paint job. The Dwarfs and the Orange Alternative Movement gained popularity due to their peaceful protests over the government’s censorship of free speech in Poland and soon became an icon of Wroclaw in the 1980’s.
After the fall of communism in Poland the dwarfs became the symbol of Wroclaw.
Apparently there are officially 165 dwarves and counting in Wroclaw however unofficially these dwarfs are randy little buggers and there could be up to 400 of them dotted around the city.
Now we take Dwarf Hunting seriously in our family…armed with a map we captured as many as we could on our cameras…Lisa could sniff out a dwarf or ten…
…and we didn’t let the rain stop us one bit…
…Mum and I may have elbowed each other out of the way a few times for a photo or two.
We’re firm believers that travel should be fun and we aren’t afraid to get down low for a photo…
…even when a large tour group walks by…if we can make a stranger or two smile then it’s all worth it and I think Mum and I make awesome dwarfs!
Wroclaw was my favourite spot on our Polish Road trip and if you’re looking for a cheap city break weekend then I would highly recommend Wroclaw as a destination…fly in on a Friday night and fly out again on Sunday which will give you plenty of time to explore Wroclaw.
Travel Tips for Hunting out those Dwarfs in Wroclaw, Poland
- You can print off a map listing all the dwarfs from the official Krasnale website or you can buy one from the Official Wroclaw Tourist Office (no more than £3)
- Wizz Air currently flies to Wroclaw – I purchased their Wizz Air Discount Club as we were flying with them a few times this year and it does make airfares cheaper and they have regular 20% discount days as well for members only! Wizz Air have also just improved their hand bag policy which was much needed.
- We stayed in this lovely apartment in Wroclaw (it was gorgeous and had a great location…there were a number of gluten free and vegan restaurants along the street as well!) – make sure you use TopCashBack.co.uk to get a discount on your accommodation bill when booking your next holiday.
- Feel free to check out my other posts on Poland including my Guide to Krakow, my review of the Sheraton Krakow and Warsaw vs Krakow.
xx
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