Tag Archives: poland

Vienna, Austria

Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, , , , , ,

Our last post was 3 days, dinner at a Michelin-starred bistro, a visit to a salt mine and 2 countries ago.

Dinner at Zazie Bistro was wonderful! We got a table in the cellar part of the restaurant rather than in the smaller street-level section. Great menu, which you can see here. When my parents see the menu, they will know immediately what I had for an entree, but I’ll tell the rest of you anyway – the veal sweetbreads. And they were superb. Then I had French potatoes gratin with chicken etc, and Greg had the veal chop(s) on the bone etc. With 2 big beers, the total came to less than $35, and we were so impressed with the meal and so surprised that it was so cheap that we left a 20% tip!

Next day, Tuesday, we left the apartment in Krakow and drove to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We put on our walking boots and some warm clothes and spent a couple of hours doing the excellent English-language guided tour. We didn’t take any photos while we were in the mine, partly because it cost a few dollars extra and we hadn’t realised when we bought our tickets, but mostly because there are already loads of photos of the interesting things at the mine on the interwebz, and one of my commonly uttered phrases from this trip has been  … ‘for f@#ks sake, how many selfies and photos do these people need?’ So many people take photos of themselves at very uninteresting places, as well as at interesting ones, but do they ever look at any of them again?

So then we pooled our remaining Polish zloty and went to the supermarket where we thought we were loading up on everything we thought we needed, but only managed to spend half of the $40-odd we had left in local currency. So I went back and bought some wine and cider, but we STILL have zloty left! We’ll keep it for when we go back to Poland some day, or if someone we know goes there.

We camped at a municipal campground in the north of Czech Republic last night (Tuesday). We had to find an ATM to get some Czech koruna, but the campground reception was closed when we arrived there at 6.30pm, so we just pitched the tent and sorted out payment this morning. Nice camgpground, but it was almost next to a railway line, so it was a bit noisy.

And now we’re in Vienna! We’re staying in this Airbnb apartment until Sunday. It’s just across the street from the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, close to the metro and the Museum of Technology is nearby as well. The apartment is used for tutoring primary and high school students during term time, but it’s still the summer holidays in Austria until the middle of September, so our host is renting it out until her ‘real’ work begins.

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in the cellar of Zazie Bistro
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Dinner at Zazie Bistro
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The $35 bill at Zazie Bistro
A picture of the wieliczka salt mine we took from the internet because we were too cheap to pay the extra money to be allowed to take pictures in the mine.
A picture of the wieliczka salt mine we took from the internet because we were too cheap to pay the extra money to be allowed to take pictures in the mine.
The Salt mine in cross section
The Salt mine in cross section
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The internet doesn’t have enough cat pictures – so here we are camped at Hranice Czech republic
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camped at Hranice Czech Republic
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More cat pictures….

Sunday in Krakow, Poland

Poland, , , , , , ,

Yesterday was a day of minor irritations and more great food. From the old guy who rode his bike into the back of my foot, to the grumpy woman who charged me for 2 baguette pizza thingys but only supplied one, but it was a gorgeous sunny day and we have ticked a few more items off our Polish must-eat food list.

We decided to go to Old Town, to look at Rynek Glowny, the largest medieval town square in Europe, and maybe visit St Mary’s Basilica & Wawel Castle. As we crossed the first main road between Kazimierz and Old Town, it felt like something had changed … we were hitting tourist-ville. Lots more signs in English, lots more currency exchanges, and lots more people! Part of Old Town was blocked off because there was a corporate fun run happening, & we couldn’t get to the castle entrance, so we headed to the main square. A new Polish friend who lives in Sydney recommened that I try a papieska kremowka Papal cream cake – a vanilla slice-type pastry that Pope John Paul II liked to eat. He grew up in Wadowice, west of Krakow. We found a lovely cake shop that sold kremowka and bought one for me, and a sort of chocolate-filled iced berliner for Greg. Delicious! 

The main square was full of cafes with large umbrellas for shade, and loads of people. We went to have a look at the Basilica, but there was a mass in progress, so we might go back another day. Then walking up one of the main streets in Old Town, an old guy rammed his pushbike into the back of my foot and let forth with a string of abuse in Polish.  It must be hard for locals to have their space invaded by tourists, but really, riding down a busy street on a Sunday seems like a dumb idea to me. We got out of the touristy part fairly quickly and walked around the Planty, a green belt around the outside of the city walls. Much nicer.

We tried to get a table at Cafe Zazie, the Michelin-starred cafe just a couple of blocks down the street we’re staying on, but they were full so we made a booking for dinner there tonight. Then went to a traditional Polish restaurant a few blocks from here – we found it when we first got here and I’d liked the look of their menu, then our host recommended it. We got a table, then got menus, but after 30 minutes of being ignored by the busy waitstaff, we decided to try somewhere else. Found a little place that sells pierogi dumplings that were delicious – much better than any we’d eaten in Russia.

And then dinner – it just had to be zapiekanka ‘Polish pizza’ – half a baguette topped with melted cheese and other fillings – from one of the dozen or so sellers at Plac Nowy, with a side order of Belgian fries. Greg went to order the fries and I ordered and paid for 2 zapiekanka but only got one . The very grumpy woman serving refused to admit she’d made an error, so we had quite the bi-lingual argument, Greg came and we refused to budge from their ordering area ( so no more orders could be placed), Mrs Grumpy got someone to come and translate for us and then finally agreed to make us another one. Being mindful of what cooks can do to food when they are annoyed with customers, we decided to leave before we got the 2nd ‘pizza’, and in fact one pizza between the 2 of us was plenty. I wonder if Mrs Grumpy thinks nostalgically of the good old days when concepts like ‘customer service’ and ‘consumer rights’ only happened in other places.

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our car parking on Sunday morning. In most roads you park half on the footpath.
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Wawel Castle
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Heading to the main square Old Town Krakow
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Market Square old town Krakow
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Northern defensive wall/gate old town Krakow

Krakow, Poland

Poland, , , , , , , ,

In the early 1980s, I studied Polish History at uni for 3 years. I don’t remember much now, that space in my brain has been replaced with html, seo and other online selling stuff, but  as we walk around this beautiful old history-filled city, bits and pieces come back to me. Somehow, pronunciation of Polish words has stayed with me, so while I probably don’t know what it means, I do know how to pronouce it!

We’re staying in an Airbnb apartment in Kazimierz, the Old Jewish Quarter, for 4 nights – here. Gorgeous old building, huge 2nd floor apartment with parquetry floors and high ceilings. There are 2 bars on the ground floor. The bars each have a ‘beer garden’ in the courtyard below our apartment, but they close at 10pm, so it’s not noisy. A couple of streets away it’s much more lively with the bars and eating places staying open until 3am.

The food choices here are amazing – from street food and a couple of empty corner blocks with 6 or 8 food trucks permanently parked there (and a handy Bankomat ATM at each site too!) to traditional Polish restaurants to a Michelin-starred French cafe just a couple of blocks down the street from where we’re staying. Between us so far we’ve eaten Belgian fries, kielbasa (Polish sausage) with sauerkraut & rye bread, French crepes, pulled pork rolls, Krakow pretzel with salami, tomato & cheese and rhubarb & apple crumble. I was initially a bit disappointed that there is no oven in the apartment, although there is a washing machine, and after the mess I made of the pulled pork roll, I think our Airbnb host has the right priorities!

We spent yesterday afternoon at Podgorsz, across the Vistula River from Kazimierz, visiting the Schindler Factory, the Pharmacy Under the Eagle and a short remaining stretch of the Ghetto Wall.