Day 3 Poznan / Day 1 Wroclaw
I only had 2 nights in Poznan but I think I had a pretty good look at the place. The timing for the Independence Day party was great.
I'm planning to get on a train around 1pm today so I've got a bit of time up my sleeve. I decide to go replace my boots since my shoes are letting a bit of water in. They are typical sneakers which means they are nowhere near waterproof and with rain and a bit of snow on the horizon it's getting annoying.
So I do some Google Fu and find a store with some pretty good reviews online AND that's open early so I head that way. I went down the main shopping strip in Poznan on the way there and come across this absolutely fantastic shopping mall.
It's a big red brick building and it used to be a brewery or something. It's since been converted into a great shopping hub and won a bunch of design awards apparently. There are some great open spaces in there, some excellent / interesting artworks and it's just a fantastic space. If only I liked shopping.
Made it to the outdoor store and bought a pair of boots which were not too badly priced (about half what I paid for my previous ones) and seem to be decent quality but what do I know? In any case the dude assures me they are waterproof and I can strap crampons to them for Norway and Iceland if I need to. Here's hoping I don't blister too badly! I tend to have the feet of a 9 year old girl though so blisters will be coming.
I also had a chat to him about Cold weather gear for the trip but I've not really felt the cold much yet so I'm going to put it off until it becomes blatantly clear that I'm unprepared ... and it will become blatantly clear at some point!
Boots on, other shoes in the bin (because ain't nobody got room for 2 pairs of shoes!) and I head off to the train station. The old lady at the ticket office sold me a ticket that told me to run to catch the train which was leaving in about 4 minutes. I don't like to run. But I did it, caught the train and the running started the blisters! Woo!
An uneventful train ride and I made it to Wroclaw (vrots-wav). They've got a beautiful old station building here.
As soon as I exited the station I saw one of the things Wroclaw is famous for ... Gnomes. Apparently there are hundreds all over the city in all sorts of places (in gutters, on light poles, in the middle of the footpath) and they began as a satirical art movement protesting the communist occupation of Poland. It's a bit of a game to walk around and go gnome hunting. You can buy a map from tourist shops and then see if you can spot them all. Might be fun to do if you had a few days in the city but I couldn't be arsed.
Went for a walk around after dropping my stuff off at the hostel. The market square here is beautiful by night. They are setting up Christmas markets all around the square but they won't open until the 1st of December.
I got propositioned by either a prostitute or a spruiker for a strip club a few times (same person each time) during my walk as I ended up crossing the square a few times.
I went to a craft beer bar on the way back to the hostel and had a few local brews then headed off to a local polish restaurant the lady at the hostel recommended. No food pictures but I had zurek, stuffed cabbage (which was nice but I only ate half of it - huge serving and not exciting enough to make me finish it) then ordered some potato dumplings to finish. Polish food seems to be closer to what I imagined Russian food was going to be. Big, brown and stodgy. Hearty, tasty food but it doesn't hold a candle to the freshness of nice Thai or Vietnamese in my opinion.
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