When exploring a new city there are two things that can be counted on…I will find odd things to do and great food!
I’ve been saving up my calories knowing today was going to be a foodie heaven day, and it didn’t disappoint 😋
Our morning dog walk was to a second hand book/record shop…nope I don’t speak polish but I just love mooching about dusty old bookshops and have a bad habit of buying books and albums solely on their cover design. If you are like me I highly recommend Antykwariat Grochowski. Most people either don’t do this or use Spotify to find new music. I’m way behind the times and as risky activities goes this is pretty tame 😂 So now we have 4 polish CDs that not even the shop owner had heard of…Mark is thrilled. Especially as I made him listen to an opera on the way to Warsaw (now that was on Spotify!) 😂
To console him a little we went to a gorgeous tiny cafe off the beaten track called U Krawiec (not on Happy Cow but do a vegan cinnamon bun and milk alternatives). The coffees were huge, the cake selection was devine, and we opted for pastries as I’d read the polish bakeries make really nice dough…they really do!
It was then back to the van for a rest before catching the tram into the Old Town. We somehow walked in completely the wrong direction but found a great hidden bar area (Pawilony Nowy Åšwiat – best to go ), at night) with a cute vintage shop where I spent far too long but found great treasure – the best of which were £30 leather boots! My style challenge is certainly helping me pick things. Mark preferred the simpler days where getting dressed took me two minutes and didn’t involve him hanging around shops like a lost puppy. It was time to reward him with more food. A breakfast bagel at the funky converted train station ticket office Warszawa PowiÅ›le did the trick.
Refuelled, it was time to head to the library…Mark was confused until I mentioned it had a rooftop garden worth seeing. It’s such a striking building and surely not difficult to create these extra pockets of green space within cities. From here onwards to the Museum of Caricature, which had a brilliant array of works. You don’t need to speak polish or know the politics. Most cover issues that affect everyone. I’ve included photos of some of my favourites.
We finally made our way back to the Old Town, found the Market Square, castle, beautiful architecture and the Uprising Monument which has a very strong dynamic feel to it. There is still much more to explore but we get easily distracted down side streets.
This evening we were initially planning on heading back into town to find a pub for Mark to watch the football in but instead we had delicious pizza at Viadomo – a sort of 70s throw back with relaxed vibe. And Mark’s pudding was a Paczki – polish donut filled with an incredible unusual jam. The bakery is 2mins from home, I may need to get him another.
We are going to bed with very happy full bellies and looking forward to marching it off on the Climate Strike marches tomorrow.
SofaWolves 