One of the city centre’s more charming residential lanes, Taczaka Street was created on the site of gardens at the back of Św. Marcin Street and lined with impressive tenement buildings in the years 1874-83. The relative uniformity of the four-storey townhouses, whose design was inspired by French Renaissance architecture, lends a pleasant cohesion and intimacy to the street, which also benefited from revitalisation efforts not long ago: parking was reduced, and trees, flowerbeds, benches and bike racks took their place. Taczaka’s close proximity to academic buildings once made it a popular site for pub crawls, but the student dive bars that once characterised the street have been largely replaced with casual eateries, brunch spots and beauty salons. Try Taczaka 20 for coffee, Bajzel (Taczaka 23) for breakfast/brunch, and Delikatnie (Taczaka 14) for tapas and wine.

While you’re nearby, also check out Pasaż Różowy (The Pink Passageway) at number 47 - an easy-to-miss covered corridor that connects to Św. Marcin. Essentially a hidden mall lined with shops and services, in the 1990s this was one of the most popular shopping destinations in town, full of garish advertising and all manner of shoddy goods sold by dozens of different businesses. Today it has been cleaned up considerably, but also lost some of its energy. Still, it’s worth exploring this strange shopping tunnel for its sheer quirkiness and singularity. Inside you’ll find both the exotic and banal, from copy shops to antique books, vintage clothes and video games.