Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Flixbus – Krakow to Katowice

    I keep saying that I won’t use Flixbus again, but I’ve decided that I think I might. They’re so bad that their incompetence is proving to be quite amusing and I rather like the challenge of guessing where their bus might leave from. The element of jeopardy makes for a much more exciting wait for the bus.

    Actually, to be fair, the initial instructions in the bus station say to go to stops G14 or G15. This isn’t really difficult at Krakow, as the Flixbus stops are all together. However, obviously they’re not actually going from the stop they say they will, it was instead going from G16. This isn’t a problem, it’s the next stop along and is clearly signed.

    Anyway, who needs that level of certainty? Of course the driver decides he’ll leave from another random platform where there are precisely no other passengers waiting. Fortunately he drives by the correct stop so that everyone can see they’re waiting in the wrong place, I consider that quite thoughtful to be honest. In Katowice the bus driver didn’t do that, he just parked in the wrong place and was quite subtle about it.

    One thing I quite like about Flixbus is that most of their buses seem to be empty, which is primarily probably because most of their passengers are still likely standing at the platform or are actively trying to find the bloody bus. I think I’ll use Flixbus again, it’ll give me more to blog about.

     

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Egyptian Funerary Stela)

    Located in the National Archaeological Museum, this is the funerary stela (or tablet) of Amenemhet.

    And this one, which is more colourful than the photo suggests, is a funerary stela with a representation of Khenit and her son, Kai.

    Neither of these are dated, but both are likely from the Middle Kingdom, so at some point between 1975 BC and 1640 BC.

  • Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Egyptian Funerary Model)

    Located in the National Archaeological Museum, this is a wooden funerary model of a ship and its crew. It dates to somewhere between 2040BC and 1640BC and was a grave good to help ensure that the soul was able to travel on a pilgrimage to the city of Abydos.

  • Athens – Airport Museum

    This museum within Athens airport was a useful distraction whilst trying to kill time and it’s open for nearly all of the day, is unstaffed and is free of charge to enter.

    It’s a well-laid out museum and it contains items found when the airport was being constructed. There’s also some background provided about the local area and how it has developed over the centuries.

    A bread stamp, used to imprint designs into bread, from the mid-Byzantine period.

    A sphinx from Spata.

    Dating from the early Byzantine period, this is part of a beehive. However, it was later repurposed to be used as a cover for a child’s grave.

    This marble decorative piece would have been used at a grave and it dates from around the end of the fifth century BC.

    A small marble gravestone marker, dating to the Roman period.

    Intriguing, this is a landmark from a mortgaged field which gives the name of its owner and also its value. It dates to the fourth century BC.

    I know that a few airports in the United States have small museums such as this, and a few others around the world, but it’s a shame that more don’t have something similar. British Airways have a wonderful museum at Waterside, which is only semi-open to the general public, but I’m not sure that there’s anything at nearby Heathrow Airport.

  • Katowice to Krakow – Flixbus

    My experiences of Flixbus last year weren’t great to say the least, but I decided to give them one more chance. This is using the logic that an intra-Poland trip might be run along the lines of Polskibus (now subsumed by Flixbus), which used to be fantastic.

    The booking process with Flixbus is actually very good, it’s easy to book and my fare was under £3, so that’s entirely reasonable for the journey from Katowice and Krakow. There’s also excellent tracking, so some significant money has been spent on the infra-structure.

    There are more positives, the driver on the bus was polite and welcoming, the bus was clean and comfortable, and it’s clear that money has been invested in this too.

    However, I find the service entirely unusable. Above is a photo of the bus stop that my ticket says it departs from, bus stop 9. It didn’t, it went from another part of the bus station. The tracking system saved this situation for me as I could see on the app where the bus was, but it didn’t save the trip for others. The bus sailed off leaving some passengers behind (I only realised this when it was too late to stop the driver) at the location it should have done.

    It’s fair to say, solely judging on my experiences, they’ve definitely ruined Polskibus. Such a shame.

  • Katowice – Bezcukru

    There are two branches of this coffee shop in Katowice, this is the location at ulica Wawelska 1. Service was excellent and it was a really friendly place, clean and comfortable, although it was nearly empty when I visited. The array of cakes in the display were very tempting, all well presented and it looked like they’d just been put out.

    It was too early for cake, but I accidentally ordered the Banoffee pie anyway, and it was excellent. Chocolate on the top, toffee at the base and the latte was at the appropriate temperature and had a depth of taste to it. And they managed some pretty latte art on the top of it as well, something that I’m sure I could never master.

    The prices were reasonable, around £3 for the coffee and cake, which is entirely acceptable given the quality of the cake. Poland really can do coffee shops as well as anyone else….

  • Katowice – Kawiarnia Fotograficzna

    This cafe was opened in mid-2017 by a photographer who wanted to open up the joy of photography for others. I liked that instead of using the cafe to sell their own art, they opened it to others to display their works. They also hold courses and events at the cafe to bring people together, so it’s a really uplifting idea.

    The environment was a little dark, but the photography theme ran through the interior and there the decor was all well balanced. Most importantly, it felt a comfortable place to be, it was relaxed with a mix of clientele. The service was also hospitable and personable, with the ordering process being easy to understand.

    Interesting decorative item…..

    That’s not a very good photo unfortunately and of all places this is unforgivable…. But it’s indicative of the cup they were using, adding a little charm to the occasion. The latte had a depth of taste to it though, and was at what I consider to be the appropriate temperature, which isn’t boiling hot.

    And a red berry cake with chocolate wedged into it, a combination which seems to work well. Nicely presented, tasted fresh and the entire cake and coffee combination came to around £3.

  • Katowice – Pizza z Pieca

    Given the number of pizza restaurants in Poland I still think it’s fast becoming their national dish. Fortunately, it’s usually done to a high standard and at affordable prices. Since it’s my first full day back in Poland in 2019, pizza seemed an appropriate meal.

    The restaurant name means ‘pizza from the oven’ and there’s the large wood fired oven near to the entrance of the restaurant. The service was polite and helpful, with the surroundings clean and comfortable. It was a well presented interior and felt more like a restaurant than a pizza takeaway sort of place. There was an English menu, although much of it seemed to be in Polish, but I’m OK with knowing Polish words when it comes to pizza toppings…

    Beer from the Bernard Brewery in the Czech Republic, apparently notable for being an unpasteurised beer for brewing reasons I don’t understand. It’s not an exceptional beer to be honest, it lacked any distinct after flavour and verged on being quite bland for a dark beer. However, it was refreshing and it didn’t have an unpleasant flavour.

    The pizza was better with an element of leopard spots to the top and it was crispy at the base. It was cooked quickly, in just a few minutes, and was suitably thin with a rich tomato flavour and not too much cheese. All rather lovely, especially since the bill for the beer and pizza came in at around £5.

    The menu was more Italian in its choice of toppings than is normally the case in many Polish pizza restaurants, so it felt a more authentic experience in that regard. It’s a relatively new restaurant, having opened in late 2017, but the pizza tasted freshly made with some decent ingredients, so it was all very agreeable.

     

  • Athens – McDonald’s – Greek Mac

    I thought I’d pop in McDonald’s once during my time in Athens, since it’s the first time that I’ve been to Greece. It wasn’t very well presented, but this is the Greek Mac, one of the items on the permanent national menu. This is one of the McDonald’s which doesn’t yet have panels from which to order and the queue was quite long, but the crew member was efficient in trying to keep everything together.

    The Greek Mac comprises of two burgers in pita bread, with a yoghurt sauce, onions, lettuce and tomato. It tasted of lamb, which I try to avoid eating (I like seeing fluffy lambs in fields and feel guilty otherwise, a rather inconsistent thought process given what else I eat, but there we go) but was beef. I’ve had similar before in other countries, and it tasted fine and as I expected. Nothing exceptional, but perfectly acceptable.

  • Athens – Zampano

    Zampano is a  bistro and wine bar which opened in the centre of Athens in 2017. There were several people sitting outside but it was empty inside when I entered, but fortunately it got busier with people coming in for lunch.

    Freshly squeezed orange juice, which is usually an expensive drink to order. But not in Athens, where there is no shortage of oranges, so this was an affordable and tasty start to the meal.

    The interior was simple, but yet stylish, and it felt comfortable.

    The menu advertised this as a Greek salad with barley rusks, capers, sea fennel. The feta cheese was creamy and beautiful, it’s my preferred cheese and this one was no disappointment. The other ingredients all tasted fresh and the barley rusks and cucumber added texture to the meal, with a substantial number of tomatoes which were full of flavour. And the capers added texture, taste and elegance, they’re one of my favourite ingredients. This cost the equivalent of under £5, very reasonable. Indeed, writing this, I could quite fancy eating this now.

    It seemed rude to leave without having a dessert, or at least, I felt greedy so I had a dessert anyway. The waiter recommended the pumpkin cheesecake and this sounded a perfectly good suggestion, which was borne out. The base had some texture to it and the top was creamy and the caramel sauce added positively to the dish.

    The service was exceptional throughout, attentive, polite, jovial and always professional. The environment felt welcoming and this proved to be my favourite restaurant of the week. The food was simple but had clean flavours and the prices were very reasonable given that quality.