Easter is a festive occasion well celebrated in Poland, a country that remains religious to its Catholic roots. It commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and many would return home to spend some quality family time. As part of a long weekend, being a foreigner here, I took this opportunity to visit Brussels and Bruges in Belgium, where I had an absolute blast - basking in chocolates, beer, waffles and mussels - a weekend of fantasy really!

I experienced a slightly rocky start, first with a transit flight scare and subsequently, a train station fire scare. My flight route to Belgium was Krakow-Warsaw-Brussels and I only had a 30 minute transit time. My first flight leg was slightly delayed, but thankfully now I know that airlines typically wait for transit passengers. So phew, I made it albeit experiencing a slight heart attack. Immediately after arriving in Brussels, I headed straight to the airport trains leading to the city centre. Whilst waiting, I was told that the train would be delayed due to a fire that broke out at the central station earlier that morning. For how long, no one had any idea. I feared especially since reading terrorist attack articles that took place in Brussels just about a year ago. My instant reaction was to Google search "Brussels news today", but thankfully nothing relevant came up. I eventually made it onto the train, but instead of the promised 18 minute ride to the city, it took about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Bummer. 

By the time I arrived in the city center, the rain stopped and the skies started to clear up. I had to make some modifications to my itinerary and headed straight towards my first pitstop - Manneken Pis. This iconic statue of a boy peeing is popular with tourists and locals, and is often spotted sporting different outfits. Things started to look better from this point on as I was invited to share a free beer by a crowd infront of Manneken Pis. I later found out after speaking to the photographer that they were celebrating the new outfit change!

First tourist stop at the famous Manneken Pis
I am glad and honoured to participate in his new outfit change!

After a couple of photos, I was feeling slightly peckish. En route to the Grand Place, I picked up a liege waffle topped with bananas, strawberries and drizzled in chocolate sauce. YUM!

My favourite toppings all included -
Bananas, Strawberries and a generous topping of Chocolate sauce atop the freshly made liege waffle!

Waffle in hand, I walked into Grand Place and was immediately in awe of the beauty of the magnificent-looking Gothic structures. The 2D photos that I captured probably do not do this place sufficient justice given that once standing in the middle of the square, one is surrounded by these magnificent structures all around.

This photo was pretty challenging to snap given the busy tourist crowds!

I next headed to Fritland for some freshly made fries - frites as the locals would call it. I still cannot believe why one would ever order buns stuffed with fries, but they are apparently pretty popular here. I ordered fries served with a spicy mayo sauce and it was delicious! Piping hot fries on a cold day - I liked that the fries were chunky, made fresh and more importantly, soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.

Check out the long lines behind for the freshly cooked fries.
Thankfully their service was pretty efficient!

I then made a quick stop to check out Galeries Royales St Hubert, a 19th century shopping arcade with beautiful interiors.

I loved the perfect symmetry of this architecture.

After checking in to my accommodation, I headed to Chez Leon to grab a late lunch. It was about 2-ish pm and this popular restaurant was still packed full of people! Perks of a solo traveller is that you get "priority" in long waiting lines if you are open to the idea of sitting by the bar. I ordered the famous Moules-Frites (Mussels and Fries) which came with a beer. And yes, by lunchtime, I already had 2 beers!

The lunch set consisted of freshly cooked Mussels, fries and a small pint of beer.

It was late afternoon by the time I was done with lunch. My next stop was Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula, and thankfully I arrived just minutes before they closed. I was lucky to a catch glimpse of the Cathedral's interior and also learnt to input opening and closing times in my itinerary in future. A couple of tourists that came soon after me did not manage to enter as they were pretty strict with the closing time. The Cathedrals and Churches in Europe still have a strong WOW effect on me in terms of their grandeur and magnificence.

Check out the grand and magnificent looking interiors.

Crowds leaving the Cathedral as it was closing for the day.

An earlier than expected end for my Cathedral visit then led me to Palais Royal. This is the Royal Palace of Brussels and it overlooks a large and beautiful garden right.

The Triumphant Arc in Parc du Cinquantenaire was another beautiful architecture that I would highly recommend a visit. Situated in a park, this was quite a walk from the city centre, but well worth the effort!

A jumpshot captured in front of the Triumphant Arc!

A fellow instagrammer recommended that I try Maison Dandoy.
It is a must-try here in Brussels for their crisp and light waffles.
Made fresh, they have an open concept kitchen where one can view the whole preparation and baking process!

I was still pretty early for sunset (the sun was due to set around 8.30pm that day) and hence decided to take the local train out to the Atomium. This visit was more spontaneous than anything, especially given the late start in Brussels and that visiting the Atomium required taking the train out of the city centre. I am glad to have done so, and would have paid to enter if I had more time to spare.

A trick eye shot taken with the Atomium.

Last pitstop of the day was at Mont des Arts for sunset. One could walk through the huge garden and up the stairs for a viewpoint of the city. I absolutely loved how the colours blended as the last bits of sun rays signaled the end of the day.

Taken earlier in the day at the park before Mont des Arts.

I was feeling peckish and wanted a nice meal to end my day. Sadly however, having no prior reservations in the densest European city by square foot meant that I had to settle! I spotted a crowded bar by the main street and headed in. Following a 40 minute wait, my day of adventure in Brussels was closed off with a steak.

Stay tuned for the next update on Bruges!

xx,
L

Poznan is located in the western part of Poland, and is the fifth largest Polish city by population. Even though Poland is better known for its Big Three Cities – Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk, a trip to Poznan is still worthy for its rich historical sites.

Poznan is located about 480km from Krakow and takes approximately 5 hours by the intercity train. Even though I previously drew up an itinerary for this trip, recommendations from colleagues in my team slowly trickled in on accommodation, dining spots and sights, so much so that my initially relatively relaxed trip wound up as a pretty fun filled adventure!

Day 1:

Breakfast at Minister Cafe

I took the first train out from Krakow to Poznan and managed to arrive in Poznan by 10am. Food is really important to me, hence whenever I travel, I will be sure to do up a foodie list. This list would often include, what is best locally, healthy food joints, cafes / bakeries and one or two slightly more "fine" restaurants. That said, Minister Cafe is highly rated in Poznan for its freshly made toasties. I ordered the avocado, fried egg and arugula sandwich, served with a homemade aoili sauce. A great, healthy combination for breakfast, with all my favourite ingredients! I recall D and I chatting once about our favourite foods - D loves chicken rice whilst I can eat eggs and toast pretty much all day err day.

Minister Cafe - Fried Egg, Arugula and Avocado Sandwich served with Homemade Aioli

Poznan Old Town Walking Tour

After brunch and a quick check-in at the hotel, I headed straight for the Old Town Walking Tour. The tour started with a big crowd of us gathered at the Market Square. At 12 noon, it is a tradition for two billy goats to make their entrance above the clock tower and perform a "headbutt" to each other. There is a folktale from back in the day that the town was celebrating a fight victory when the chef realised that too many people had turned up for the celebratory meal. He was flustered due to the potential lack of food and went in search for a billy goat. Instead of finding one, he found two! And both started to fight for its own survival. How true is this story? Well, I heard it from the local guide on our tour.

At 12 noon, the two billy goats will greet the market square crowd with a head-butt routine.

Poznan's beautiful market square from a distance.

St Martin's Croissant Museum (Rogalowe Muzeum) Baking Class

I my next pitstop in held high anticipation, as there was going to be a hands-on experience of baking croissants. They are by no means like French Croissants, instead these are St Martin's Croissants and there is a story behind them. In 1891, Martin was a priest who wanted to help the poor with food. After the loss of one of his horseshoes, he had the inspiration to create these croissants. It is filled with different ingredients and is a pretty dense croissant compared to the French Croissants. St Martin's croissants are only allowed to be baked in Poznan and must weigh between 150g to 250g. On 11 November every year, the city celebrates St Martin's Day by eating these croissants by the lake to commemorate him.

St Martin's Croissant must weigh between 150g to 250g.

Try my hand at making the St Martin's Croissant.

It is important to have fun in the kitchen!

Castles

After the St Martin's croissant museum tour, I decided to make a detour to the Imperial Castle and another castle for a view of the market square from atop. A pretty good decision given the pleasant weather that weekend, where I had a bird's eye view of the entire town from a distance away. I enjoyed this serene view, away from the hustle and bustle of the city's crowds.

Mid day sweet treat.

St Stanislaus Church

Even though we covered this sightseeing spot during the walking tour, it was brief and difficult to capture nice photos worthy of this beautiful church with a crowd of people. Hence, I made a second visit in the afternoon, where it was quieter, to take some photos of this beautiful structure and its magnificent looking organ.

Grand looking organ in Basilica of St Stanislaus.

Before heading for dinner at this restaurant recommended by a colleague, I went back to the hotel for a quick recharge of my phone. Yes, I still refuse to buy a replacement portable phone charger. D & I had a short chat before I headed out. What he does not know was that I only left the hotel 10 minutes after we both hung up because I was writing him a postcard, which he received just two days ago!

Dinner at Papierowka

Dinner was romantic in ambience as the restaurant was set in the midst of greenery and a playground. There were fairy lights in the outdoor section which made this place feel incredibly dreamy. What I liked about this place beyond the setting, was that their menu only had ONE bestseller / recommended item. This helps brilliantly with decision making! I ordered that ONE recommended dish - a duck fillet, which was done beautifully. Post dinner, I felt a need for a sweet treat and went along with the waitress' recommendation of a coconut cheesecake. Rich and creamy but not overpowering, it was a good recommendation! Overall, I had an amazing dining experience here, both in terms of food and service. Highly recommend a visit here for those of you who live or are planning a visit to Poznan.

An amazing duck fillet from Papierowka.

Ending dinner on a sweet note - coconut cheesecake.

The Old Brewery 50-50

Set in an Old Brewery, no, this is no longer a brewery. Instead, it experienced a makeover and is now a popular shopping mall. I reckon it is still relatively new / young, given quite a few shopfronts are either still under renovations or un-tenanted.

Brovaria

Last stop of the day was one of initial hesitation. I had a super filling dinner, but was keen to try out this beer house, recommended by a colleague once again. Decided to kick the doubts away, and just headed in to try out the beers offered in the house. I found out later that the beers were made behind the restaurant and you cannot get a "fresher" beer elsewhere. I went for the tasting platter which came in a mix of three different beer types - Pilsner, Honey Beer and IPA. I enjoyed the Pilsner the best, which often is the safest beer choice in my opinion! 

Beer tasting platter from Brovaria.

Day 2:

Started this day with one hour lost in my sleep! Daylight savings kicked in on this last Sunday of March. Instead of lamenting about having to wake up an hour earlier, I was glad to have more daylight. More importantly, D is probably glad that he will get to sleep slightly earlier! :P 

Citadel Park & Fort

About 10 minutes walk from my hotel is this beautiful park with a war memorial. D had accompanied me on this excursion and I am glad to have my travel partner. I showed him in excitement of the beautiful sights. Somehow we wished the world is much smaller than what it is.

Technology is amazing! Facetiming D and having him accompany me for parts of my travels.

Amazing weather for the park!

Brunch at Lars, Lars and Lars

In Poland, cafes open later on the weekends, hence after visiting Citadel Park, it was a perfect time to squeeze in some brunch. Lars, Lars and Lars is a cafe by day and bar at night, and occupies a pretty spacious ground. I ordered the Shashuka, which was pretty popular here. The portions were generous and I particularly enjoyed the creative and freshly baked bread. YUM.

A great way to kickstart a full day of activities with this Shashuka!

Cathedral Island

This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to Poznan. Little did I expect Cathedral Island to be so beautiful. The following photos would probably do more justice to the beauty of this place, more so than my words can convey :)

Definitely did not expect to be greeted with this beautiful sight on Cathedral Island. 

Can't miss a tourist moment. Somehow this bridge structure reminded me of Universal Studios?!

Lake Malta

My last sightseeing spot was at this famous lake. Thankful for the really pleasant weather, with the water reflecting the blue skies. It was a perfect day to be out without the humidity. A pity that there are no restaurants surrounding the lake as it would have been great to lay on the grass with a beer in hand.

Lake Malta.

Weranda Caffe & Ristorante

I mis-calculated the amount of time I would take for lunch and by the time my food was served in this cafe, I had to gobble it down quickly, before dashing back to my hotel to pick up my luggage. I ran to the train station at pretty much at top speed. Thankfully I have been sticking to a relatively healthy regime here, so much so that I managed to buy a sandwich for dinner onboard the train and boarded my train 5 minutes before its departure! This cafe had a beautiful interior and pity that I did not have the opportunity to enjoy a slow meal, instead having to rush so that I did not miss my train back to Krakow. Lesson learnt.

Till the next adventure xx,
L

Last weekend, I made a spontaneous trip to Wroclaw. The trip was decided only two days before and I went ahead with booking train tickets after checking that the weather would be pleasant. I have learnt from my weekend trip to Warsaw that if the weather is miserably cold, it might be wiser to simply stay in Krakow and shelve the trip for a later date! That said, I have plans to make another weekend trip to Warsaw, perhaps in the later part of this month or in May.

Wroclaw was a city in my Polish cities-to-visit bucket list, prior to my arrival in Poland. I was charmed by the colourful block of houses that stood on its market square grounds. Given that it is a small city relative to Krakow and Warsaw, a day trip was sufficient to cover its key sights.

Once again, I decided to hop onto the first train that departed Krakow for Wroclaw. Being slightly closer by distance, I arrived in Wroclaw by 9am. Without having to check into a hotel, I was in Central Café for brunch by 9.30am. Despite being relatively early on a Saturday morning, Central Café was already bustling with a hungry morning crowd! Signs of a café that serves good food. The thing about cafes is that they typically have a few bestsellers (normally two or three of them), which makes for a tough decision in the context of solo travelers. This time around, it was a toss-up between having bagels or pancakes. Seeing how the staff were preparing freshly baked bagels from the counter, I couldn’t resist not trying them. I ordered the Bagel with Haloumi cheese and Spinach, and it was delicious!

Interiors of Wroclaw's Central Cafe

Pan Fried Haloumi and Spinach Bagel and Orange  Grapefruit Juice.

Playing around with the bagels - a selfie for D.

Strolling along the streets of Wroclaw's Market Square, it is noticeably smaller than the market squares of larger towns. I went in search of the colourful block of houses, known as Hansel & Gratel House, and located it without much difficulty. It was as beautiful and picturesque as the Google images that I had seen, which set the postcard theme for my mail to D this time around!

Wroclaw's Hansel & Gratel colourful housing block.

Wroclaw's Market Square from the front.

Wroclaw's Market Square from the back.

About 20 minutes walk from Market Square housed the Panorama of Raclawice Battle Painting. It was a sightseeing spot highly recommended by Lonely Planet and I was excited to see this painting, as I had not seen something similar to this before. The exhibition was accompanied by an audio guide, which presented the magnificent painting with an overview of its historical background before zooming into various scenes painted, where interpretations of the scenes captured shed more light around what happened during the Raclawice Battle.

Panorama of Raclawice Battle -
Can you tell which is part of the painting and which are actual live items?
Pity this photo appears flat. In reality, it is a 3D painting.
Unfortunately, this photo does not do it sufficient justice.

Wroclaw is also known as the city of Gnomes. There are a total of over 200 gnomes located across the city, with most of them situated in the Old Town area. I decided to find one of them and subsequently, I found this "hunting" game to be pretty addictive and found myself on a Gnome Hunting spree.

Having walked around quite a fair bit, I decided to take a short break and made a pitstop at Vinyl Café. It was pretty unique by concept due to its theme as an old records store. I had researched this place prior to visiting Wroclaw and found that they do a pretty decent cuppa! Unfortunately, I have recently stopped drinking coffee and switched to tea, juices and water. Hence, I went for their homemade chocolate cake and homemade lemonade - a perfect combination which I particularly enjoy. A visit to this cafe is highly recommend if you are in Wroclaw - it is very local and just a short walk from Market Square.

Vinyl Cafe has a retro / vintage records store theme and
does a pretty amazing job in home baked creations.

Perhaps it was because I had just recovered that I was feeling tired by the time it was around 4pm. Having clocked in all the sightseeing spots, I just wanted somewhere to rest my feet and people watch. Craving for croissants, I headed straight for Vincent Bakery, which is pretty known for their croissants and pastries. I loved how the place had intricate tabletop decorations! D was also home then, post dinner, and we decided to FaceTime each other there!

Because of the recent research on Paris, I was craving for croissants!

And there you go! It was a good day trip out of Krakow - Wroclaw definitely did not disappoint. I am glad that this day trip was a 50-50 balance of food, fun and adventure!

Till the next adventure, xx,

L