Friday 17 June Today we left Poznań for Wroclaw (pronounced Vratswuv) for 3 days which is about 2 hours further east in Poland.
This time, instead of a comfortable compartment to ourselves, it was more like a cattle train, sharing a compartment with 6 noisy boys, and more people and luggage filling the isles. It looks like this is a popular journey.
We are getting better at negotiating transit by now (sign language, trains, platforms, ticketing, trams, buses, etc.) but it’s still a challenge, arriving in a new city, getting a map, working out where the accommodation is and the best way to get there with 2 large suitcases and associated bags and food.
Fortunately Air BnB listings are pretty good with location details, but sometimes a little lacking on other information.
We arrived at our accommodation, a studio apartment in drizzling rain, right on the old town square which is huge. We knew it was upstairs, but it was almost at the top floor of a tall 4-storey building, with 2 flights of stairs to each floor. See Frances' post about the door lock.
Compounding the effort, some residents use the central stairwell for smoking, so as we got higher, the air became more acrid and unbreathable. The piece-de-resistance was an overflowing ashtray near the door to out apartment – the smell even leaked under the door.
Our accommodation is the yellow building overlooking the fountain and square. The three windows at the top are our studio. Five flights of stairs and a massive key ( think the story of Bluebeard) and keyhole below knee height. Wroclaw is famous for its dwarf (gnome) sculptures so the keyhole may just be perfect.
We needed a rest after that, so we didn’t venture out for the rest of the afternoon. The photos show views of the town square in the early morning and the last three are of building where we are staying- top floor, 145 steps up.
In the early evening we ventured out for dinner. The town square is surrounded by restaurants, catering mainly for tourists, and reasonably expensive. The second tier has a combination of fast food outlets and some other specialty restaurants like Indian and Japanese. We tend to go for the third tier, smaller localised restaurants that are reasonably priced and have interesting food. Smoking is pretty prevalent here, and the smell of the local cigarettes is pretty strong. This is also true in the restaurants, where the pleasant outdoor tables are usually occupied by smokers, and sometimes they smoke inside as well.
After walking for a while, we came across Kres, a Ukrainian restaurant, with a menu in Russian! We love a challenge so went in and fortunately a waitress spoke some English so we had a reasonable idea of what we were ordering.
Frances ordered borsht soup for entrée and then grilled meat with crepes with a mulled red wine. The borsht soup was excellent, with just the right combination of beetroot, beans, beef and sour cream – the best we’ve ever had.
The grilled meat was pork (surprise!) cooked with lots of herbs and the crepes were cut into long flat noodle shapes like pasta. The taste was very good though.
I had a Polov (Pilaf) rice dish with saffron, lots of herbs and a slight curry flavour, topped with fresh tomato. It was pretty good, and I really enjoyed having some rice after eating lots of potatoes and bread.
I had a nice dry red Ukranian wine which was unfortunately very overpriced and the quantity in the glass too small. Photos are from their website – the camera battery died.
This time, instead of a comfortable compartment to ourselves, it was more like a cattle train, sharing a compartment with 6 noisy boys, and more people and luggage filling the isles. It looks like this is a popular journey.
We are getting better at negotiating transit by now (sign language, trains, platforms, ticketing, trams, buses, etc.) but it’s still a challenge, arriving in a new city, getting a map, working out where the accommodation is and the best way to get there with 2 large suitcases and associated bags and food.Fortunately Air BnB listings are pretty good with location details, but sometimes a little lacking on other information.
We arrived at our accommodation, a studio apartment in drizzling rain, right on the old town square which is huge. We knew it was upstairs, but it was almost at the top floor of a tall 4-storey building, with 2 flights of stairs to each floor. See Frances' post about the door lock.
Our accommodation is the yellow building overlooking the fountain and square. The three windows at the top are our studio. Five flights of stairs and a massive key ( think the story of Bluebeard) and keyhole below knee height. Wroclaw is famous for its dwarf (gnome) sculptures so the keyhole may just be perfect.
We needed a rest after that, so we didn’t venture out for the rest of the afternoon. The photos show views of the town square in the early morning and the last three are of building where we are staying- top floor, 145 steps up.
In the early evening we ventured out for dinner. The town square is surrounded by restaurants, catering mainly for tourists, and reasonably expensive. The second tier has a combination of fast food outlets and some other specialty restaurants like Indian and Japanese. We tend to go for the third tier, smaller localised restaurants that are reasonably priced and have interesting food. Smoking is pretty prevalent here, and the smell of the local cigarettes is pretty strong. This is also true in the restaurants, where the pleasant outdoor tables are usually occupied by smokers, and sometimes they smoke inside as well.
After walking for a while, we came across Kres, a Ukrainian restaurant, with a menu in Russian! We love a challenge so went in and fortunately a waitress spoke some English so we had a reasonable idea of what we were ordering.
Frances ordered borsht soup for entrée and then grilled meat with crepes with a mulled red wine. The borsht soup was excellent, with just the right combination of beetroot, beans, beef and sour cream – the best we’ve ever had.
The grilled meat was pork (surprise!) cooked with lots of herbs and the crepes were cut into long flat noodle shapes like pasta. The taste was very good though.I had a Polov (Pilaf) rice dish with saffron, lots of herbs and a slight curry flavour, topped with fresh tomato. It was pretty good, and I really enjoyed having some rice after eating lots of potatoes and bread.
I had a nice dry red Ukranian wine which was unfortunately very overpriced and the quantity in the glass too small. Photos are from their website – the camera battery died.