Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Poland

  • 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.

     

  • Flights – Athens to Katowice (Wizz Air)

    A morning flight from Athens in Greece to Katowice in Poland, costing slightly more than my usual Wizzair flights and coming in at around £13. I was marginally disappointed that the flights were going from the airport’s satellite terminal, rather than the main terminal, as it precludes any access to the lounges.

    The seating area at the gate, which actually had enough seats for every customer. And the satellite terminal was clean, well maintained and very comfortable, some considerable money must have been spent here. There were also plenty of power points available, which saved me having to rely on my power bank.

    I had been automatically allocated an aisle seat, which is my preferred choice anyway, so that was a bonus. Although the flight was nearly full, the two seats next to me weren’t filled, so I had a row to myself.

    Flying over the Tatras mountains.

    And arriving into Katowice airport. Without making any political comment on the whole Schengen Project, it is an amazing benefit for passengers. My passport was only checked by Wizzair staff at the gate and not by border agents at either country, saving the tedious process of queueing for ages for a passport check.

    I still prefer Wizzair to Ryanair, although they’re similar operations, but the Wizzair service feels just a little more relaxed. The cabin crew, who were all Polish, were helpful and efficient, although I  noticed they were sitting in the galley reading books for a portion of the flight. This is perhaps better than the Ryanair solution of having the cabin crew walking up and down to perform almost endless sweeps of the cabin selling food, drink, duty free, lottery tickets and so on.

    Overall, given the relatively cheap cost of the flight, this was another comfortable flight with Wizzair. Katowice is a little bit of a hub airport for Wizzair, as they serve over forty different locations from here, with a fair number of Italian and Spanish airports.

  • Poznan – Fighting Goats

    The Poznan fighting goats are one of the big sights that visitors to the city should see, when they come out of the town hall at 12 to have a little fight. I’ll upload a video of that at some point (as well as an explanation of the legend), but for the moment, this photo is a sculpture of the goats, with some Christmas themed clothing added for them.

  • Poznan – Taj Mahal

    Indian restaurants in Poland can be of a variable quality, sometimes not being very authentic with their cuisine. Externally this restaurant didn’t look particularly exciting, but it was very well reviewed, so I felt that it deserved a visit.

    Menus with photos are often not a good sign of tasty food to come.

    Classic Pepsi styling, nice.

    The restaurant was much smaller than I had expected, with only around six tables in it, but it was also set up for takeaways. I still wasn’t particularly hopeful about the food at this stage.

    And then the food arrives, and it’s excellent. The butter chicken, with goodness knows how many calories, had tender pieces of meat which actually seemed to have picked up the flavour of the sauce. Some Indian restaurants seem to dump in the meat at the last moment, and it doesn’t work well at all, but that didn’t happen here.

    So, the curry itself was delicious, and the lemon rice also had a suitable amount of lemon flavour without being overpowering. The bread was moreish, and had a delicious and lingering taste. It was all a generously size portion and I struggled to finish everything, although I did manage to (as usual really). The cost was around £6, which I thought was very reasonable given the quality of the meal.

    The service was under-stated, but polite, and the only complaint that I could really make is that the restaurant wasn’t big enough and it didn’t have any toilets. Perhaps they’ll be able to find slightly larger premises in the future, or perhaps they’re quite happy here in their location near to the town’s main market square.

  • Gniezno – Statue of Adalbert of Prague

    This statue of Adalbert of Prague was erected to mark 1,000 years since the saint’s death. He was given the job of the Bishop of Gniezno, which I imagine was quite a privileged and comfortable role, but he was then sent out to go preaching to the people of Prussia. If he did this voluntarily, he was a very brave man, as missionaries didn’t always fare well at this time.

    Anyway, he went off to Prussia and he was killed by barbarians, or technically, pagans. The church was quite keen on relics back then and his bones were finally brought back, after some argument, to Gniezno Cathedral in around 1,000AD. All was well with this situation until Bohemian Duke Břetislav I stole the bones in 1039 and he excitedly moved them to Prague.

    Then the story gets more confusing, as it seems the Duke stole the wrong bones, he pinched the remains of Gaudentius of Brescia. Now, he was still a saint, but it wasn’t the saint that the Duke really wanted. In 1127, Gniezno Cathedral also got Adalbert’s head, although goodness knows where that went for over 125 years.

    So there’s now the situation that Prague thinks it has the bones of Adalbert, and so does Gniezno. They both managed to have the saint’s head, which is just a little confusing, but it was made more surreal when in 1923 someone pinched Adalbert’s head (assuming he is in Gniezno) and they’ve never recovered that.

    Anyway, it’s a nice statue.

  • Gniezno – Sculpture of Bolesław I the Brave

    It occurs to me that I wouldn’t mind a sculpture like this of Julian the Brave in a few decades, perhaps I might mention it to Dylan…. Anyway, it’s of Bolesław I the Brave who was the Duke of Poland from 992 until 1025 and also the first person to be titled as the King of Poland.

    Bolesław I the Brave, also known as Bolesław I the Great (which would also be satisfactory to me if Dylan wants to change it), is a little bit of a national hero and his coronation was also at Gniezno. He established the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno, and the city remains today as Poland’s ecclesiastical capital.

     

  • Gniezno – Cukiernia Sowa

    This was one of the better rated coffee shops in Gniezno and since Poland doesn’t have Greggs (yet), this was the lunch option for me. Located at ulica Rzeźnicka 1, this is part of a national chain which has around 150 shops in Poland.

    OK, so they’re not chicken bakes from Greggs, but the cakes do look rather lovely.

    Well how lovely, colourful and appetising.

    Incidentally, and entirely irrelevant to anything, I like when coffee shops and restaurants place the cutlery like that. It’s far more common in Poland than in the UK, but I think it looks tidier. Anyway, I went for an eclair and it was full of crème pâtissière and it occurred to me that Richard would have been impressed with it.

    I really wanted another eclair after finishing the first, but I didn’t want the staff to think that I was greedy, and anyway, if I’d had a second I’d have only wanted a third. Coffee was above average as well with a rich flavour. Total cost of the coffee and eclair was around £2.20, but this coffee shop did have a premium feel to it.

    And, as for the service, it was impeccable. The server prepared my order behind the counter and refused to let me carry it, she wanted to bring it over on a tray (she probably thought I was an idiot and would drop it on their clean floor). I didn’t want to cause any diplomatic incidents (although I suspect it wouldn’t have got that far) so I didn’t resist. Friendly and engaging service, with the environment being clean and comfortable. There seemed to be a  lot of ladies at lunch during my visit… All rather lovely.

  • Poznan – National Museum in Poznan (Leon Dołżycki)

    This artwork was painted in 1922 by Leon Dołżycki, a Polish painter who lived from 1888 until 1965. The English translation of the painting name is mourner, and as far as I can tell, it is a representation of the sadness after a funeral but with colour which suggests positivity and hope. Perhaps there’s also an element on now being alone in the aftermath which is indicated, but frankly, I have no idea what I’m writing about, so the artist probably intended something entirely different. But I still liked the painting, it seemed quite bold and intriguing.