Visiting Poznan

 

So, now I’m picking up the story line from the day before yesterday. When we got off the train, we had a nice almost half an hour walk to the apartment we booked. The place turned out to be pretty good, clean and confutable, unfortunately there were no surprise condoms anywhere. After we got rid of our heavy backpacks, we headed to the oldtown, walked around for an hour or so just to get the vibe of the city. I gotta tell you Poznan is a really nice city million times nicer than Warsaw however it is still not as beautiful as Gdansk is. After a little walk between the nice cozy buildings of the oldtown we headed back to our bed, because the most important part of our trip to Poznan was to come the upcoming day; Sári’s friends were arriving!

The next day we got up pretty early – actually only I got up early, Sári slept like a baby till 0830ish. After we got ready, we headed to a coffee to get Sári something to eat. The lady at the café didn’t speak any English, but that was no problem for someone who’s been living in Warsaw for almost 3 months! And it also wasn’t a huge problem for us! Although I think the lady felt really uncomfortable in the beginning, the first few sentences… I mean “sentences” were a bit square, but then she’s kinda started teaching us Polish words and I think we both enjoyed the experience from that point. After a rough start she turned out to be really nice.

After our little coffee break, we went back out into the cold. We explored the Christmas Market and looked for other places worth showing to our friends, who were arriving not much later! Oh, before they’ve arrived, we rushed to the city hall to check out the goats that come out from under the clock of the city hall and headbutt a few times every day of the week at noon. After this interesting show we united with Sári’s friends – from now on I’m referring to them as M and A – and around one o’clock we started a hardcore sightseeing afternoon. We basically went thru all the landmarks of the city before it got dark. By the time we finished our trip everyone was starving so we set our compass to the nearest and only Pyra Bar in town. This experience was almost as smooth as our previous one was in Gdansk except the waitress forgot about my beer and M’s Coke. Of course, after I told her she was more than happy to solve the issue and I had the opportunity to try out a new Polish beer – you will be able to read about in in my new series Piwo Piatek! I think you probably remember how excited I was last time we went to a Pyra Bar, I told you I forgot to learn my dish’s name. However, this time I had the opportunity and took advantage of the opportunity, and I took a picture of the menu. Last time I had Szare ale jare which was a dish with bacon, onion, potato dumplings aaand stewed cabbage. It was amazing, I got hungry just by thinking about it. Although it was great meal, I wanted to try something new. I had two dish I had to choose from. Option a) was Baba od rzeznika – it contains bacon, chuck steak, onion, parsley, chives, champignon, sour cream and comes with or maybe in potato cake – and option b) was Pyra u kresu – potatoes, dried forest mushrooms, dry sausage, smoked bacon, onion, garlic, cream, and mozzarella. It was a hard decision, made possible by ini-mini meny-Moe, and the winner was option b) Pyra u kresu. Deep down in my heart I wanted to choose this dish, but I wasn’t sure about it because I’m trying to reduce my meat consumption due to environmental issues. Anyway, the meal was amazing! Those mushrooms kicked ass bigtime! All the favors, spices were amazing, they were in such a great combination like Starsky and Hutch, or JD and Turk. If you ever go to Pyra Bar you know what you must have!

Us, on the goat-watch.

After our nice lunch/dinner we got back to exploring, we went to the Christmas Market, bought 4 hot wines for 25 Euro – what the fuck – and walked around for a few more hours. The market was really nice, unfortunately I couldn’t say the same of the wine. I’m not even sure if that so called “wine” thing was made of grapes… I was surprised how many people were drinking it even though it tasted like shit. Perhaps they drunk it for the same reason we did… 25 Euro and 3°C. I think that tells everything.

At the Crishtmas Market of Poznan

After we emptied our glasses, we were headed to the train station, but before getting on the train we had to do a quick pitstop at a local mall which was located at an old brewery. We bought some sandwiches at McDonalds’. While I was waiting, I asked them if I can refill my drink they said ‘no’ – great start I thought – but then a dude showed up, because they’ve messed up his order, and instead of just giving him the right burger they took the other sandwich and through it in the trash can… That was the last time I ate in McDonalds’. If that’s how they respect food I’m not supporting them – and you shouldn’t either.

After the quick pitstop we rushed to the station hopped on the train and basically finished our day there.

It was a great trip, and I’m happy to have Sári’s friends here this weekend will be great!

Thank you for reading,

Take care and see you tomorrow!

Almos