In Search Of Dwarfs & Christmas Markets: A Day In Wroclaw, Poland

I’d like to introduce, possibly, my new favourite place in Poland: Wroclaw!

I say this with some trepidation because it’s really, really hard to beat Gdansk. I honestly can’t decide if it does, but I can wholeheartedly say that Wroclaw is fantastic.

I’m skipping ahead several trips (I’ve had a very busy few months in the second half of this year!!) because as usual, it makes more sense to write about a Christmas trip before Christmas rather than in February or March, which is when I would inevitably get around to publishing this in chronological order.

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Wroclaw, pronounced vrots-wahf (which took me far longer than it should have done to get my head around), is the third largest city in Poland. It’s also one of the most beautiful, in my opinion, vying once again for the top spot with Gdansk.

(If you want to know what day I’ve started writing this, “vying” was today’s word in Wordle.)

We had three main things on our list for Wroclaw:

• Search for dwarf statues
• Wander the Christmas markets
• Spot the lamplighter

We managed two out of three, which isn’t bad – and we found 28 dwarfs! We had also planned to go up to the Bridge of Penitents, a bridge between two towers of a church, but for some reason the queue was massive both times that we tried, so we decided to forgo it in favour of more markets and pierogi – a good choice, I think, despite the fact it meant we missed another dwarf at the top!

The only thing we didn’t get to do was see a lamplighter. Wroclaw is actually one of only two places in Europe* that you can still see a traditional lamplighter, lighting the street lights at dusk! We had to leave just too early to see him, sadly.

*The other is Brest in Belarus – but apparently they were actually brought back in 2009 as a bit of a tourist attraction, so you could argue that Wroclaw’s is the only OG left.

And yes, we visited Wroclaw on a day trip. From Edinburgh. The flight times aren’t ideal, but for a city of Wroclaw’s size, it was actually pretty perfect as far as days out go. We flew out at 6:15am, arriving at 9.30am, and our flight home was at 5.40pm. Obviously it would have been better being a little later, but we had to make do. I was even home just after 8pm!

I invited my friend from work along, and I’m obviously a bad influence because she said yes. Actually, I think her exact words were “f*ck it. Let’s do it.”

Here’s how our completely normal day out to Poland went!

Psst – “extreme day trips” to Europe have become all the rage! I’ve written about what to expect from them here:
A Guide To Extreme Day Trips: Are They All They’re Cracked Up To Be?

Arriving in Wroclaw

Wroclaw airport is pretty small, but the one issue we had was passport control. It took FOR-EV-ER. Despite only being our flight, it took almost AN HOUR, because there were only two people working the non-EU desks, and each person took ages to go through. I spoke to someone later who had been taken into a separate room for half an hour because they didn’t like her name.

Bearing in mind we were on a day trip, we were starting to be a bit concerned that we’d be left with no time in the city. But we got through eventually – to find all Bolt taxis were now busy.

Thankfully, we went outside and jumped straight on a bus. The machine outside is really easy to figure out – we just bought single tickets, and it was only about 80p each! You need to validate your tickets in the machine on the bus.

Anyway, that was the only thing to go “wrong”, so onto the rest of the day, which was super fun!

Breakfast at Czarna Magia

We got off the bus at pl. Orląt Lwowskich and entered the Old Town on the corner, near where I’d earmarked somewhere for breakfast. The city was in fact much smaller than I expected, and within two minutes we’d accidentally walked past the café.

Czarna Magia was fantastic – I had an avocado bagel and my friend had waffles with vegetables. She said she doesn’t know what they did with the veggies but it was absolutely delicious. I said everything I’ve eaten in Poland has been delicious so I’m not surprised! My bagel was amazing.

It was, however, slightly slow service, which wasn’t really what we needed, but never mind. Worth it for the food, and it’s quite a quirky place inside, too. Plus after a 4am start, I really needed a cup of tea!

Read more about Poland: A Getaway In Gorgeous Gdansk: Gates, Museums & Christmas Markets

Wandering the Christmas markets

Finally, it was time to explore the markets! Wroclaw’s Christmas markets have been voted the best in Europe, which is a bold claim, but you know what… I think I might agree! They are EXCELLENT.

We went on the little rollercoaster which is brilliant fun, bought some lovely decorations for ourselves and family, and got some mulled wine in a Wroclaw boot cup which you can keep (for a 20zl deposit).

How cute is that cup?!

I also need to share the ridiculous selfie with Santa from the rollercoaster – seconds before we were thrown around everywhere! We felt violated, which is how it looks in this photo.

Rynek square is actually deceptively huge, as it goes around the town hall with a few alleyways in the middle. It feels like several squares in one when you walk around it. The tree is also a highlight – it’s absolutely massive and so pretty!

Make sure to explore the alleys if you’re looking for dwarfs… I’ve found out we missed a few!

There are a lot of really lovely stalls, and we walked round the whole thing at least twice.

If I’d had space for a TV snow globe…!

Coupled with all the beautiful buildings lining the square, this is such a scenic Christmas market.

There’s even a “fairy forest” which is where the rollercoaster is. This had some more “traditional” fairytale displays, like a creepy AF Little Red Riding Hood one – very much Efteling vibes!! Which was funny as I was there almost exactly a year before with the same friend.

Before we left later on in the day, we grabbed some pierogi from one of the stalls – but I was quite surprised how little I saw of pierogi that day! I was on the verge of giving up and getting langosz instead (which is also amazing but when in Poland, I’d rather get pierogi!). In comparison, you couldn’t escape it at the Christmas markets in Gdansk.

Anyway, I was glad to get my fix, and my friend had never tried pierogi before – she is now officially a fan!

Want more Christmas markets? Check out How To Spend A Festive Winter Weekend In Riga, Latvia

Hunting for dwarf statues

The absolute highlight of Wroclaw, no matter what time of year you go, is hunting for the little dwarf statues all over the city.

Everything I’ve learned about these dwarfs makes it even better.

Firstly, they began as a resistance against communism back in the 1980’s. Dwarf symbols were used as an anti-government sign, and to organise against them, for the simple reason that the police couldn’t take them seriously. You want to arrest us for being dwarf enthusiasts? You can’t prove what we’re really doing!

Since 2005, dwarf statues have started popping up all over the city to commemorate these events. What started off as a fun little attraction has become a phenomenon as businesses have commissioned their own dwarfs. I’ve read varying accounts of how many there really are, from at least 300 to over a thousand! Who knows how many there really are?

It’s possible to buy a map from the tourist info office, but new ones pop up so often (and, indeed, old ones disappear when businesses close down or move) that it quickly becomes out of date. I even used the free website with a map of them to find one or two in particular, and we couldn’t find them.

Instead, it’s much more fun just to wander and see how many you can find!

In about four hours, we found 28!

We never did find the croissant one that we were looking for. We missed one where a dwarf is riding a pigeon, and another one riding a lion. We did, however, find one that looks like Jeff Goldblum.

And one riding a motorbike.

And three robbing an ATM. (I couldn’t get a photo with all 3 in, as one of them’s inside!)

And one supporting Ukraine.

And, of course, one in a Santa hat!

Plus we found that we’d walk past somewhere twice, and only notice a dwarf the second time. Turns out they are GREAT at hiding behind people’s legs! Well, you know what we did after that. That’s right, we peered around people’s legs near every doorway. Like absolute creeps!

I also think it would have been easier to find some of them without the markets. We missed a couple of really obvious ones, but looking at photos of them, they were right where market stalls were. We also totally forgot to look for Papa Dwarf, the original and much larger dwarf statue, and I’m raging about it because it turns out we were right next to him!! Again, with Christmas markets everywhere, we weren’t thinking about him. Sorry Papa.

I could honestly do an entire photo post of the dwarfs, which this will now become:

Which is your favourite?

(Also, did you know that “dwarves” was actually popularised by Tolkien? Before The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings, it was always spelled “dwarfs”. When I was researching this trip, I felt like “dwarfs” looked wrong – but it turns out I’m the one who’s wrong! It’s even Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs.)

I don’t want to overstate it, but this is one of the most fun things I’ve seen in a city! So whimsical, such fun. We had a great time searching for them!

In fact, if the Christmas markets hadn’t been on, I would have happily spent all day just doing this, to be honest! As well as being a fun little treasure hunt, it’s a good way to explore the city, too.

Another city with fun statues that you might not expect: Bratislava! Check out my post here:
Bratislava: The Unexpectedly Pretty Capital Of Slovakia

But alas, dwarfing over, we headed back to the airport around 3.45pm for our 5.40pm flight. Instead of working out the buses and inevitably missing one without knowing how long it would be between them, we splashed out on a Bolt taxi, which cost a whopping £9.72. Just over 50 zloty.

This is where we experienced one of our unexpected highlights – my friend suddenly goes “oh look! There goes Santa on a motorbike”. I looked out of the window and there he was, overtaking us!!! We couldn’t stop laughing! I scrambled to get my phone out and got an awful video.

All in all, this was a brilliant day out.

Once again, Poland has smashed it out of the park. Gdansk and Krakow have been two of my favourite city breaks over the past couple of years (and believe me, there have been MANY), and Wroclaw was just as excellent.

We had fantastic food, the transport links were great, and for a day out in another country, it was so cheap. Our flights were around £50 return, and even once you add in what we spent on food and local transport either end, we could have quite easily spent more on a day out in Glasgow.

I seem to have an annual tradition now where I visit a Christmas market in Poland, and I can think of far worse annual traditions to have.

So – Poznan next year?! 😉

Hope I’ve got you into the festive spirit! Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

Want to read more about Poland and central Europe? I’ve got lots of posts!
⭐ A Getaway In Gorgeous Gdansk: Gates, Museums & Christmas Markets
⭐ Krakow: A Contrasting Trip Of Christmas Cheer & Harrowing History
⭐ 10 Things That Surprised Me About Warsaw
⭐ Facing The Worst Of Humanity At Auschwitz
⭐ Three Days In Fairytale Budapest, One Of My Favourite Cities
⭐ Bratislava: The Unexpectedly Pretty Capital Of Slovakia