Poland

For our five year anniversary we took a trip through three cities in Poland. We got a lot of reactions to our trip like “Why Poland?” I’m not sure why because we thought it was lovely. The food was great, it was very affordable, and the cities were beautiful.

Day 1

We arrived about midday on our first day to our first city of Gdansk. It’s a town near the Baltic sea in the north of Poland. It was so charming and beautiful. It was the place that WW2 really began so most of it has been rebuilt as it was badly destroyed in the war. The architecture style looks quite similar to Dutch architecture but was more colorful. We stayed in the Hilton Gdansk which was on the river, it was a really great location and we loved walking along the waterfront.

We started with a drink on the roof of our hotel overlooking the city before walking to Pierogarnia Mandu for dinner, which I was so excited for. I love pierogies and was so excited to try them in Poland! We got one traditional potato + cheese boiled perogi and then a fried pork one (this place had a menu of tons of different kinds). Both were great but we both preferred the more traditional one and stuck with that for the rest of the trip.

After dinner we explored the city and saw the Dlugi Targ (the main thoroughfare in Gdansk), Mariacka Street which is famous for selling amber, and the waterfront. We immediately fell in love with the city.

Day 2

The next day was quite a warm one and we wanted to check out Sopot, a beach town on the Baltic sea. We took a quick train and found a spot on the beach where we could rent chairs and an umbrella. We enjoyed swimming in the sea and then walked down the pier, which is the longest wooden pier in Europe. We found polish sausages for lunch before heading back on the train to Gdansk.

After some time to people watch with a drink on the waterfront, we went in search of dinner and landed at Restauracja Bazar. We had hoped their schnitzel would be similar to what we ate in Prague based on pictures online, but it turned out to be a pretty regular schnitzel. It was a nice place but I spent the whole time wishing we could have a spot outside on the terrace, as it was really hot in the restaurant! Of course we also had to have more pierogi here.

Day 3

On day 3 we went to the World War II museum which is pretty new and we heard was really well done. We were quite impressed with it and really learned a lot about the history and especially the way that Poland was affected (they had a particularly bad experience of WWII and lost more lives than any other country by far). It was very sad but very educational.

After the museum we were starving and ended up at z Innej Parafii near our hotel. We got a bagel with goat cheese and beets and more pierogies. At this point I asked “should we cool it on the pierogi? I don’t want to get sick of them.” to which Austin replied “impossible. That can’t happen.” (Spoiler alert: it did happen).

After our light lunch we stopped by Dobra Pączkarnia which has locations all over the city for Packzi, which is like a filled donut. I got a chocolate filled one which was quite tasty.

After our donut feast we headed to the main Town Hall, which has a tower you can climb with a beautiful view.

For dinner we wanted to take a break from traditional Polish food and took the recommendation of some of my Polish coworkers to try Ostro, a pizza place on the water. There was a bit of a wait as its very popular but it was excellent pizza. Unfortunately I completely failed to take a photo of the pizza but I did get these garlic knots and a picture of me on their lovely terrace.

After dinner we had a nice walk to admire the beautiful lights of the city.

Day 4

On our last day in Gdansk we decided to take a pirate ship we had seen sailing up and down the river. It sails to Westerplatte which is where the first shots of WWII were fired. We took one boat there, took a look around and then took a boat back. It was not especially scenic as it was mostly industrial but the boat was pretty cool and they played shanty music on the way back to Gdansk.

For dinner we had - surprise - more pierogies. I was pretty bummed at first about not getting a spot on the terrace until about halfway through our meal when it started POURING and everyone ran in from outside holding menus over their heads and tried to find tables indoors.

We got 2 more kinds of pierogies plus some potato pancakes. We also ended with dessert pierogies, which were filled with fruit and chocolate. For us the potato and cheese were still the best we had though!

Day 5

After a lovely 4 days in Gdansk we headed to our next stop, Warsaw. We took a couple hours train ride on a very nice train and arrived in Warsaw. From there we took a metro and then a walk to our hotel, the Sheraton Grand Warsaw.

We were very hungry when we arrived and quickly decided to head to Przegryź. Restauracja for lunch. We wanted something a bit lighter after days of pierogies! I got a dish of beans with cream and chili oil and Austin had a really tasty portion of roast chicken.

From there we took a long walk to explore the Old Town area. Similar to Gdansk it was rebuilt after the war but was really cute! It felt a little more touristy and crowded than Gdansk did but was still nice.

For dinner we found a nearby spot called Smashny burger that turned out to be surprisingly awesome. On the way back we passed by an ice cream spot called Nice cream where I had a vegan Reese’s ice cream cone!

Day 6

We only had one full day in Warsaw and decided to start at Eter vegan bakery. I got a tasty foccacia which we ate in the beautiful cafe.

After that we headed to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. We really learned a lot and enjoyed our experience there.

For lunch after the museum we headed to Hala Koszyki, a cool food hall. I normally wouldn’t try mexican food in Europe but decided to try the Mexican stand and got an awesome quesadilla!

After some more walking and exploring and checking out some shops (Warsaw felt less photogenic than the other cities so I have no photos of this sadly), we decided to try Oh My Pho for dinner as we noticed there were a lot of Vietnamese restaurants around. I got bun cha which is a dish I have a hard time finding and it was so good!

Day 7

The next day was an early train to Krakow. It was once again a really nice and smooth train ride of only a couple of hours.

We arrived in Krakow hungry and headed to Żarówka Cafe where we got a bagel with beets and goat cheese (we noticed this was a common offering and we really liked the combo) and an iced coffee.

After our cafe stop we explored the old town a bit. It was so cute! Krakow actually survived WWII (the Nazis used it as a base) so it’s a beautiful medieval city.

We ended the day with a food tour by Delicious Poland, which we love to do in new places. We ended up being the only two people on the tour but we really enjoyed it still. We had some cheese and meats with a vodka tasting, some more pierogies, a zapikanka (like a baguette pizza of mushrooms and cheese and ketchup which is a common fast food), sour rye soup, a potato pancake with goulash, beet salad, and Racuchy which was an amazing fried apple fritter cake thing. It was a great tour and the food was all so good!

When we got back to our hotel we caught this beautiful sunset view from our hotel room!

Day 8

For our full day in Krakow (which was also our anniversary!) we started off with a pretty mediocre breakfast that I didn’t bother to take photos of and then headed to see the castle with the dragon that guards it. We didn’t go inside the castle but it was a pretty area to walk around. There’s a dragon statue that breathes fire to represent the dragon that allegedly terrorized Krakow back in the day.

After checking out the castle we went to check out the Kazimierz district which is the old Jewish quarter. It’s a really cool area with lots of nice restaurants and shops. After exploring a while we stopped for a snack at Hamsa for some hummus and dips.

After some more exploring we went to Weźże Krafta which is a cool craft brewery in the area that we had gone to as part of our food tour and wanted to spend more time at. They had a nice outdoor area where we relaxed for a while together.

Finally for our anniversary dinner we went to Morskie Oko to eat some traditional Polish food. We had more pierogies of course and some potato pancakes with goulash. It was not as good as what we ate on our food tour but was still really yummy. We finished with a nice pistachio sundae.

Day 9

For our last day we got up early because we had a tour of Auschwitz but needed some food first. We went to Szklarnia which turned out to be a fully vegan bakery where we got the most incredible pistachio croissant. It was possibly the greatest baked good I’ve ever eaten. I only wish we had bought 12 more.

After this we were picked up by our tour guide for a tour of Auschwitz Birkenau. It’s about an hour from Krakow so we drove there in a van where we took a guided tour of Auschwitz, then drove over to Birkenau to finish the tour (the camps are right next to each other). It was an absolutely heart breaking place to visit. The scale of the horrors committed there are just unbelievable and hard to fathom. I think visiting and remembering the history is extremely important so I am glad we saw it. Taking photos felt disrespectful so I only took 2, one of the sheer size of Birkenau (it was huge) and one of the monuments they put up afterwards in many languages to remind us to never let this happen again.

After our tour we took some time to relax and to process and then went to our final dinner at Kluska na Placu. They served a different kind of potato dumpling (like a big gnocchi sort of) which was really nice. Austin got one with goulash and mine was a summer special with pesto, goat cheese and beets. We also got a really nice dessert to share as well.

As a final wrap up to our day and our trip we decided to end the same way we started - on the rooftop of our hotel having an Aperol Spritz.

Overall Poland was a beautiful and wonderful country with a lot of great food and kind people. I would love to go back someday and would definitely recommend it.