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These photos are from my previous visit to Katowice, which was in November 2017. I spent several hours at the zoo and I remember that it wasn’t particularly busy, and the number of photos that I took was in the hundreds, so I clearly got a little enthusiastic…
The zoo is large and was clearly signed, with the enclosures all looking in reasonable condition. I don’t remember any agitated looking animals, so everything appeared to be well-looked after.
It’s my final full day in Poland of this trip and I’m not due to come back to the country for a good few months. Unfortunately…. So, today’s lunch was at an Indian restaurant as I haven’t had an Indian meal in Poland for quite some time now.
Masala House is part of a small local chain and is well reviewed, and they also had some very reasonably priced lunch options. The staff were friendly, although service was a bit slow at times, and there was an English menu available. The lunch menu had also been translated into English, which it usually isn’t in many restaurants.
I went for the chicken green curry and when it arrived it was certainly very green. Given that this was the lunch deal, the portion size seemed much more generous that I had expected. The sauce of the curry had a depth of taste to it, and there was plenty of spinach in it, which was rather evident not just by the taste, but also by the colour. The sauce had a taste of onions and ginger, with fresh cream decorating the top of the curry. The chicken itself was tender and served in large boneless cubes, and it had absorbed the taste (and colour) of the curry even though it was probably added late on during the process.
I also ordered a bottle of Pepsi and this was suitably chilled, and was served with a slice of lemon. Very lovely.
And one Gulab Jamun, my standard dessert of choice in Indian restaurants, although that’s primarily as there’s usually not much other choice. I admit that ordering one piece, which was the standard on the menu, probably was hardly overdoing it, but I was more interested in how it was served. It was served warm, which I personally think is correct, and the sauce was sugary and I liked the addition of sesame seeds to give the dessert extra texture. As these desserts go, this is one of the better examples that I’ve had.
The entire meal cost just under £6, which I thought was very reasonable for the curry, rice, dessert and drink. The prices for the usual curries are more expensive in the evening, but the atmosphere was relaxing and comfortable, and I imagine that it’s quite a popular location at weekends.
As an aside, as I’m good at those, the restaurant has managed to pick up very few negative reviews. But there are a few across review sites, although perhaps from the same party, about failure to accept Groupon vouchers. I personally would rather restaurants didn’t use Groupon, they always seem to end up with customers having problems with it, and it seems such a tacky way to do business. Anyway, just my view…
This seems a retrograde step to me, it’s the Polish Government’s plan to bring Sunday trading to an end in 2020, other than for a limited number of businesses. There’s a compromise arrangement in 2019 where Sunday trading is allowed on the last Sunday of each month, meaning that shopping centres and the like have to produce these reminders of when they’re allowed to open.
When I went to Krakow a couple of years ago I visited Płaszów concentration camp and meant to come to the neighbouring quarry where Schlinder’s List was filmed. However, the rain became torrential and made a visit down to the quarry rather less appealing. On my latest visit to Krakow, it seemed an appropriate time to go and explore the site.
Liban Quarry has three periods of use, the first was when it was used as a limestone quarry, the second when it was used as a labour camp by the Nazis and the third when it was used as a film set by Steven Spielberg when he directed Schindler’s List.
The above photo is of the mining equipment from that first period of the site’s use. The quarry was established by Bernard Liban, hence where it got its name from.
A view from the base of the quarry.
The site is bigger than it looks from above when exploring it from the ground, making it easy to get just a little lost. There isn’t much obvious evidence of when the site was used as a labour camp, although it’s hard to establish what is original and what has been created during the making of the film. It’s also difficult to ascertain what exactly took place in this part of the site during the Second World War, as it’s not part of the main concentration camp, but does appear to be a site where individuals were required to work.
This road of smashed up Jewish gravestones isn’t real and is from the film.
Two close-ups of the recreated road.
This is also from the film and is a recreated paid of barriers with electric fences.
A close-up of the film prop.
This is a fascinating site and although the film set sections are fake it’s still a sobering scene, especially as one of the largest concentration camps in the area borders this quarry. It was easier than I expected to get down to the quarry (I’ll put that on my list of things to write about in the future) and it was a larger scale site than I had been expecting.
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.
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.
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….
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.
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.
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.