Holiday weekend in Poland?

Majówka. It's the famous first week of May that sneaks up on you and all of a sudden you think "I have 5 days off, what am I gonna do?"  May 1 and 3 are holidays in Poland, so usually everyone takes an extra long weekend to enjoy some early spring weather outside of the city.  Two years ago, I didn't really know about it, so I didn't plan anything.  Last year, we had an adventurous trip to Lviv that had us hitchhiking over the Ukrainian border.  This year, we decided to reduce the risk and stay in Poland. I don't think I've taken a "holiday" within Poland, but Dominika had been talking about a trip to Wrocław and Karpacz for a while, and it was the perfect chance to check it out. 

As is usually the case amongst my friends, it only takes one person to come up with a travel idea, and a bunch of others will sign up.  And we have Dominika to thank for this great trip.  My brother was in town too, so he was able to see a bit of Poland outside of Warsaw. 

We took off on Wednesday morning, hoping to beat the traffic.  Everyone knows that the entire city leaves town and the roads are packed on holiday weekends, so we got an early 7 am start.  This was especially impressive considering Irina was the one picking us up (no offense Ira - I just want to see if you read this!! :)))).  It was a great car ride because the car was full of sandwiches the girls made.  Since it was a holiday and no shops would be open, everyone brought enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day).  Our car was Irina, Asia, Igors, Scooter and me.  Piotr, Domi, Mark and Ewa left in another car from Warsaw even earlier.

One good tip we received about going to Wrocław was to take the highway towards Poznań, even though it's not exactly the right direction.  Traveling by highway saves a lot of time in Poland because a lot of the other roads are in really bad condition, or go through towns which require slow driving.  This road was new and smooth, unlike the roads here that contribute to Poland being the most dangerous place to drive in Europe. 

We arrived at our apartment in Karpacz in the afternoon, 6 or 7 hours after we left.  To be honest, since it was a long weekend, nobody was really paying attention to the time.  We just knew we had enough sandwiches, so everything was going to be ok.  We stayed in a 2 story apartment with a few rooms and a lot of space for the 9 of us.  Close to our apartment was the Wang Chapel, an 800 year old church that was taken down, moved, and re-erected in the 1800s (that was their choice of words, not mine).  As you can imagine, visiting an "erected Wang" caused the childish Austin Powers quotes to come out (at least in my head). We did a short tour of the chapel and hung out in the nearby cemetery, while the fog started coming in (always a good idea).  It was scary because there were zombies everywhere.

 

Foggy Wang chapel

 

Zombies!

The next day we hiked Śnieżka, the highest peak on the Karkonosze mountain range.  The peak is 1,602 meters high, but it was cloudy so we didn't get to absorb the usual amazing views.  It was still really fun, as we crossed back and forth between Czech and Poland, slowing making our way up through the rocks, trees, and snow, stopping for food and beer along the way.  It was a challenging hike, but still manageable for everyone. I was rewarded with a big bowl of bigos at the top. 

 

Scoot at the Czech/Polish border sign

 

Hiking Śnieżka

 

At the peak

 

Rainbow ponchos

Then we were off to Wrocław, and along the way the GPS led us past an old abandoned castle in the middle of nowhere.  We wanted to take a closer look so we drove up to the gate.  As we got out of the car to look around, I started thinking about all the horror movies that start exactly like this.  A group of friends trespasses some creepy property out of curiosity, finds themselves somewhere they shouldn't be, and the entire audience knows that something bad is about to happen, but the friends have no idea and continue on (the scary music doesn't discourage them).  Everyone is yelling at them to turn around and leave, wondering how they could be so stupid to chase the frightening noises instead of running away.  Just as I was thinking about that, an older man came out of nowhere and started yelling and walking towards us.  Uh oh.  I looked at his hands to see if he was carrying any axes or chainsaws, but saw only keys. But what was he saying?  He didn't seem happy, maybe he was just telling us to leave?  I had already taken a couple pictures, so I was happy to get the heck out of there, before he chopped us into little pieces.  Then he offered to let us in the gate and show us around.  In the dark, abandoned castle, where nobody could hear us scream.  Really?  We all looked at each other, some more concerned than others.  In the end, we decided to accept his offer.  It made me feel better that another car drove up as well, and some bigger guys came out and joined us.  I was thinking they could help in case something bad happened (or maybe the monsters would attack them first...and I could definitely outrun them), but I didn't even consider that they might also be bad guys, or even zombies.  Turns out the old man wasn't trying to murder or eat us, he just wanted to make a few bucks while he was sitting around "watching" the place.  He took us around the grounds, up and down creaky ladders, into small caves and passage ways, and to the top for some nice views, in exchange for a small tip.  Apparently the castle is going to be turned into a hotel or something, and it was his job to keep an eye on it in the meantime.  After we left, we found some information about Zamek Niesytno online.  I'm just happy we came out alive. 

 

Approaching the abandoned castle (and certain doom)

 

From the inside view 

We continued on and decided to stop at another castle nearby, Bolków. It started raining heavily so half of us went into the castle to look around, while others went for shelter and food.  It was a pretty cool castle, with informative exhibitions and history about the castle and region (if you can read Polish).  There were no axe murderers or zombies, so that was a plus.  After a short visit (and finding a recycle bin to throw away our empty bottles from the first couple days), we headed to Wrocław. 

 

View of the town from the top of Bolków castle

The first thing for an English speaker/reader to know about Wrocław is that it's pronounced exactly NOT how it's written.  The first 100 times I heard someone say the name, I had no idea they were saying the same word that I had seen written "Wroclaw" so many times.  That's because of the way they pronounce the letters in Polish.  The W sounds like a V, and the ł sounds like a W.  Confusing, right?  So Wrocław is one of the most confusing words in the universe.  Instead of "Ro-clau," as it looks to me, it's pronounced "Vroh-tswahv" (using English sounds).  Since you're probably really confused right now, just call me sometime and I'll pronounce it for you. 

Wrocław is a beautiful city, definitely overlooked by a lot of visitors to Poland.  Everyone knows about Kraków, and they definitely should visit it, but there are many really nice cities around Poland that don't get much publicity.  Wrocław is one of them.  It has a beautiful Old Town, rivers that run through the city, and some really good food and bars.  It has only been a part of Poland since the end of WWII, previously it was part of Germany (called Breslau in German), among other kingdoms.  There are still signs in German, and German tourists everywhere, and it seems that German is the second most spoken language. 

We walked around the city, enjoying some nicer weather than we had in the mountains, and did a lot of what we'd been doing all weekend already: stuffing our faces with food.  Ewa said it best when she mentioned that she hadn't felt hunger in 3 days, because we had been eating non-stop.  Staying true to form, we had kebabs immediately upon arrival, just to tide us over a couple hours before we ate dinner at Spiz, in Old Town.  This was a brewery that served many flavors of beer, and really good food.  Dominika's friend met us for the evening, and we also met up with a couple co-workers who were also in town.  One was a friend of ours, and other was the IT guy.  I don't think I've ever talked to him outside of the IT desk, but he's a really nice guy and poured vodka with loose wrists, if you know what I mean.  We rented a couple apartments near the center, which were old, wooden, and creaky, but pretty nice.  The building was strange because the individual unit door locks used electronic key cards, but the front door of the building required a manual key (to lock and unlock from both sides).  So we always had to use the key to get out of the building, and to let people in when we came back at different times.  A door buzzer would have been nice, and would have prevented me from accidentally not waking up to let people in, or having to take a nap next to the door while waiting for people to come home at night. 

 

Wrocław Old Town

Highlights of the city included the top of a cathedral for a nice view of city (for 5zl), and the Racławice Panorama (you have to buy tickets hours ahead of time).  The Panorama is a 360 degree painting, with 3D effects (meaning bushes, wagons, and other items placed in front of the painting) to make it look like you are in the middle of a battlefield.  The painting depicts a Polish uprising battle against Russia at the end of the 18th century (seems like there have been a lot of uprisings in Poland's history).  It was definitely an interesting exhibit, a style that I had never seen before. 

 

Wrocław from the top of the cathedral

 

Kayaking upstream wasn't easy

 

Can you tell where the painting starts and ends?

 

Viewers gather around while the narrator tells the story of the battle

On our last night, we went to another restaurant I can recommend, Bernard's.  It had really good food, with a casual but fun atmosphere. The cuisine was Czech-inspired - marinated beef salad, duck salad, and goulash, for example, and everything was great, even the nachos. It was a nice last evening before heading back to the real world in Warsaw, and it made me think that I shouldn't forget about all there is to see within Poland. So let's go!

25% Iron at the Sieraków triathlon

My second outdoor triathlon came at the beginning of June 2013, not long after it finally started getting warm in Poland.  The winter was long and cold, which meant there wasn't much time for outdoor training (or maybe I should say there wasn't much desire for outdoor training, as some of my friends were better about it than I was). 

I managed to get a road bike a couple weeks before the race, so I counted on that to get me through the 45 km bike leg (which, in addition to the 950 m swim and 10.5 km run, makes up the 1/4 Ironman distance).  Last year in the 20 km bike in Susz, I felt like my mountain bike was barely faster than a turtle wearing ankle weights. 

The problem is that I'm not very good at riding a road bike. 

On my first training ride on the new bike, a week before the race, I forgot that the brakes are in a different place than on my mountain bike.  I'm used to the brakes on the perpendicular part of the handle bar, not on the curved drop handlebars of a road bike.  Everyone in front of me stopped for a car coming towards us on a one-lane road, but I couldn't stop.  I grabbed at all different parts of the handle bars, but couldn't find any brakes to grip.  I even yelled "STOP!" in my mind, but somehow that didn't work either.  To avoid crashing into all the bikes in front of me, or the nice BMW that was slowing coming towards us, I decided to bail out.  I leaned to the left, dropping to the ground, and skidded to a full and complete stop.  Part of my arm and hip stayed on the cement behind me, which was the unfortunate part.  I didn't realize it til someone yelled "Ew what is that?!" and pointed at my arm.  It wasn't serious (no bones were sticking out), but there was a strange white patch with a bit of blood and a lot of gooey stuff coming out, where many layers of skin used to be.  It was a very deep cut, because even a month later, it's still not fully healed. 

A group of us from the Warsaw International Triathlon Club headed out to Sieraków to participate in the 1/4 Ironman.  It was our first time doing this distance, so we were a little nervous, but very excited.  When you think about the distance of each part separately, it doesn't seem that difficult.  But when you put them together, it's a bit intimidating.


Alan arranged for us to stay in some cabins right on the race grounds, which was very convenient (and cheap - 20 zl per person/night).  There weren't enough cars and bike racks for everyone, so Igors, Mark, Ewa and I took the train and biked 20 km from Wronki (the closest station with a direct connection from Warsaw), while everyone else drove (cheaters).  We spent some time walking around Sieraków, cheering for our friends in the 1/2 Ironman race the day before, and stuffing our face with pasta and cakes at the free pasta dinner.  It's great to try to eat as much as possible, knowing that the next day you're going to need as much fuel as you can get.  I spent a lot of time stretching as well (which people somehow have noticed I do a lot of, and tease me about).  I was still recovering from a cross-training earlier in the week and all my old joints and muscles were stiff and sore.  But finally by race day, I was back to normal. 

My main goal was to finish in under 3 hours.  I had no idea what a "good" time is, but 3 hours is a nice round number to aim for.  It would be my longest race of any kind, as my previous longest was the Warsaw half-marathon (finished in 1:48). 

It's always a great thing to have previous experience and I think it helped all of us to have done the Susz sprint triathlon last year (Igors, Andy, Alan, Hans and I all did it).  We were comfortable in the transition zone and knew more or less how our bodies would react in each discipline.  The morning of the race, we woke up at 6 am (3 hours before the start) in order to eat a big breakfast (PB&J, bananas, bread, cakes, powerade, and whatever else I could find) and set up our stuff in the transition zone.  I laid out my starting number, energy gels, some trail mix (I wanted to have my own food for the bike ride, because I didn't want to have to try to grab food from the food people on the course and risk falling off), shoes, socks, running top, and sun glasses.  I made a super awesome playlist on my iPod that would definitely shave minutes off my time, but unfortunately iPods weren't allowed.

 

Ninjas loosening up the day before the race

In our practice, Igors beat me cuz he pushed me away from shore

We headed down to the starting point (which was 500+ meters downhill - which means the transition from the swim to the bike would be 500+ meters UPhill), and warmed up.  I ran into a friend from work who had done the 1/2 IM the day before, and he was doing the 1/4 IM just as a "recovery workout".  Show off.

My biggest concern was starting too fast on the swim, to where I'd lose my rhythm and struggle to finish.  This happened last year in Susz, where I started hyperventilating in the first 200 meters because of all the arms and legs attacking me.  I didn't want it to happen again, especially since the swim was a bit longer this time.  At the starting gun, I casually walked into the water, took a few deep breaths, stretched my arms a bit, and slowly started my swim.  It took about 150 m before I could actually do some consistent strokes because of the crowd, but soon after I was in a good rhythm, and luckily avoiding most of the crowd.  In the end of the swim, I was actually enjoying it, not at all stressed, and not really tired either.  I guess that's what you need to do in order to finish the longer swims.  Take your time and relax, don't worry about people hitting, grabbing or kicking you, and everything will be fine. 

I finished the swim first in our WITC group and saw some of our supporters on the hill as I made my way up.  Asia was cheering, taking pictures and running with me up the hill as well (but faster than me).  Then I heard "dzień dobry" behind me and noticed Igors also passing me.  In my head I thought "this hill isn't part of the race, so I don't need to go fast", but then realized that T1 is definitely part of the race, so I needed to move my butt. 

 

Stretching in the crowd

 

Here we go! 

 

Igors catching me in the T1 hill climb

The bike leg was much better than Susz last year, but still left a lot to be desired.  People on fancy bikes were passing me, which I didn't mind.  Then people on old bikes, and people with the same exact bike as mine were passing me, so I felt crappy again.  Igors, with his 30 year old bike, beat my bike time by several minutes, so I can't blame the bike.  Anyway, I still managed to finish 45 km in about 1:31, which is almost 30 km/h, so it wasn't too bad (and a much better pace than my 20 km in 44 minutes in Susz last year).  But I definitely have room to improve.

  

I think I look faster than I am

 
I got through the bike without falling, which was a primary goal, then started off on the run.  We heard from some guys the day before that the run was pretty tough.  There were a lot of hills, including some zig-zags at the end of each loop that laughed in your face, as you looked up to the top of the hill and cried.  There were signs in Polish on each of the zigs that tried to motivate you, but I didn't understand them completely, so spent most of the hill trying to translate it.  I guess it worked, because I was focusing so much on the translation that the hill didn't bother me too much.  The 10.5 km took much longer than a normal run of that distance, but I checked my new Garmin GPS watch and knew that I could make it under 3 hours if I kept a good pace.  I didn't see anyone from WITC during the run, except our fans were everywhere.  Asia, Ewa, Mark, Luca, and Agata popped up in the most unexpected spots to cheer us on.  I think they ran around more than we did just to find the best spots to cheer and take pictures.

As usual, WITC had great supporters

With 5 km to go, Agata told me I was 3 minutes behind Igors, but I knew that it would be tough to catch him in such a short distance.  I kept pushing, looking back once in a while to see if Andy or Alan, who are much better runners than I am, might be on my tail.  It turned out that I saved quite a bit of energy and was passing most of the guys who had earlier passed me on the bike.  This leads me to a question for another day: how hard do you push on the bike to get a good time, but to save enough energy to finish strong on the run?  What's the most efficient effort ratio between the two?  I guess that's why people keep racing; to find the best balance.  Turns out that somehow I had the best run time of our group as well, but since Igors beat me by so much in the bike, he finished first out of the 6 WITCers.  He had a really great time, but Alan and I weren't far behind.  I finished in 2:52:02, beating my 3 hour goal with time to spare.  Andy, Dominika and Hans finished as well, while we waited at the finish line to cheer them on (and to eat bananas, burgers and beers that they served at the finish line). Hans' daughter Helena running the last 50 meters with him was adorable and got several cheers from the crowd.  My only regret is that I forgot to high-five the fans as I approached the finish line.  I'll be sure to do it next time.

All smiles after the finish

At the end I decided that 1/4 IM is a good distance.  It was far enough that I was challenged (and my cramping legs that made me run like a penguin told me I was pushing hard enough), but it wasn't too far to the point I started hating it.  I don't think a 1/2 IM would be in my near future, but maybe next year.  I will just have to be able to bike 90 km in the 1/2 IM without crashing or my legs falling off.

I'm signed up for 3 more triathlons this summer (all equal or shorter distance), so we'll see how I feel after.  I actually can't wait to be lazy and not train after the summer is over.  But for now, I can proudly claim that I am 25% Iron. 

Check out the final results here.  I finished 100th in my age group out of 199 people, exactly at the mid point.  Considering it was my first time doing that distance, I'll take it. 

The best sandwich ever is in...Sofia, Bulgaria?

It was another case of "Hey, let's go to some random city, there are cheap flights". 

"How about Sofia?"

"What's there to do in Sofia?" 

"I don't know". 

"Ok, let's go!"

Several people were interested from the beginning, but as it got closer, we all started to wonder "why did we choose Sofia?"  Sofia isn't exactly a top tourist destination, so we had to do a bit of research on what we could do.  But that didn't stop a group of 11 from booking flights and heading to Bulgaria's capital for a long weekend.  And we're all glad we did. 

Two friends from Seattle, Kiyoshi and BJ, wanted to visit me around the same time, and although Sofia wasn't on their original list of potential stops, they met us there before a few days in Poland and Prague.  I think for all of us it was a nice reason to visit a place we wouldn't normally get to.  Besides the Asian Americans, the trip included Polish girls (Asia and Ewa), an Aussie (Mark), the Latvians (Irina, Igors, and Martins), and Romanians (Natalia and Lucian).  As usual, it was a great mix.

 

Before the pub crawl

One of the nice things about my job is that I meet people from all over Europe.  And luckily it means I have made a couple friends in Sofia (I mean, who doesn't have friends in Sofia?).  This was very helpful because we were able to ask for some tips on where to go, what to see, and Maria even took us out for a walk, dinner and drinks (even though she was sick and had to take time off work).  Lucy and Dimo, who used to live in Warsaw, also gave us tips of the city; bars, restaurants, and where to avoid so we'd wake up with our kidneys still in place (ok, so that might be an exaggeration).  We also learned in our preparation that in Bulgaria, head nods mean the opposite of ours - shaking from side-to-side means yes, while nodding means no.  That's not confusing at all. But at least now we all speak a bit of Bulgarian. 

Sofia is a pretty compact city.  We were able to see most of it just walking around and doing a little sightseeing jog.  Between Maria's tour, the free guided tour we took on Saturday, and the Sofia pub crawl during the evening, we got to see most of the city.  The city tour prided itself on happening every day. They even had it on a day when a famous Bulgarian Mafia guy was the target of an assassination attempt a couple hours before the tour start...at the exact spot where the tour meets.  He survived, but I am guessing he didn't join the tour that day.  The tour was very interesting, about 2.5 hours, and took us to most of the city highlights.  Of all the interesting historical places, ruins, churches and architecture, the most interesting place for me was the drinking fountains of spring water where locals line up with empty bottles to fill them up to take home.  Of course we filled our bottles, and drank the very warm (almost hot) water after it cooled down a bit.  I thought it would be more sulfury or metallic tasting, but it was actually pretty good.  I enjoyed putting it in the bottle so much that I poured a little out of the bottle just so I could fill it up again. 

 

Walking tour of the city

 

You know they're Roman ruins from the numbers on the base of the bridge 

 

Filling up water with a bunch of grandparents in trenchcoats

We had some very nice spring weather (you didn't need a sweater in the sun, but then when a cloud came, you needed it again), which was great for wandering in the parks and for our hike up Vitosha mountain (but also terrible for allergies).  Parts of the mountain were snowy and muddy, so we went on the side of Zlatni Mostove, which was warmer and drier.  To get there, we took a tram to the last stop at the base of the mountain, and hiked up a couple hours.  It was a nice hike, not too difficult (although my favorite Lucian quote was "They should put signs saying how far away it is til the end, like 5 minutes?  10 minutes?  How much longer do we have to walk?).  At the end we found a huge strip of giant rocks on which we played for a couple hours jumping from rock to rock and having a snowball fight (strange that the air was so warm, but there was still lots of snow in the shadows of the trees).  We found lunch at a tiny cottage-style restaurant with no English (all cyrillic writing), using lots of pointing and nodding.  Luckily the groups' combination of Russian, Polish, and various other languages helped translate many of the words - my translation contribution was the word "Pectopaht", which is how the Bulgarian word for "restaurant" looks in Cyrillic (similar to Russian). In Cyrillic, it's really "ресторант" (and pronounced almost like "restaurant"), but I like to pronounce it "Pectopaht" because I think it's funny. But nobody else does. So basically my contribution was useless. 

Models on the rocks

 

Them are some big rocks!

In the Spring, they have a tradition (similar to in Romania and Greece) where people wear red bracelets for prosperity, then tie them to trees when they are in bloom (or when they see a stork).  We saw these ribbons hanging all over the city, and during our tour one of the tourists hung her own on the tree. It's nice to see people partake in these playful traditions. A lot of people (including our guide), had a few bracelets on their wrists, waiting for the special tree at the special moment. 

 

A tourist hanging her bracelet

As for the food, we definitely ate very well (and often).  Our hostel, Canape Connection, provided a nice homemade breakfast every day.  It wasn't a big variety, but it was still very delicious.  My favorite was the burek (what they call bannica), a fluffy (and deliciously greasy) pastry with meat or cottage cheese inside.  Maria took us to dinner at Skarabar, where we had Kyopolou (some eggplant and pepper puree), a platter of meats, Ayran (yogurt drink like in Turkey) and Bulgarian beer (my stomach was really confused by the combo).  Of course this was followed by rakia (Bulgarian liquor) at a bar down the street to help digest.  We also enjoyed a nice lunch at Izbata, which had great soup, shopska salads, kebapche, kofte, and kavarma, which is a pork and vegetable stew in a clay pot. We followed that up with dinner at Lyubimoto, a very friendly place with tailored meals. They didn't have an English menu, so the waiter just asked us what we wanted, and they prepared it.  Generally the service was very friendly and very fast, something we weren't used to coming from Poland.  And they serve a LOT of cheese.  I didn't expect it, but I went through more lactaid medicine than I did in Italy!  Every meal had some cheese or dairy in it: fried cheese appetizers, cheese on salads (shopska salad is really good), cheese in pastries and cheese with meats. 

 

Meat!

 

 

They're very honest about the prices of wine

But of all the good food, the best was the midnight pocket sandwiches.  Of course everything tastes good after midnight, but this stuff was legit.  The bread had a few different pockets where they stuffed various fillings.  The veggies, sauces and meats were all great, especially with an egg.  You just tell the guy what you want, and he keeps piling it into the various pockets until you stop. I didn't figure out how they determine the price (there was no "per topping" price listed), but it didn't matter, because I'd pay whatever number the guy told me (it was different every time).  One of the workers called it a ninja sandwich (I didn't catch the joke), but it was easier for us to call them pocket sandwiches, which seemed more logical.  It's not like these sandwiches were sneaking around in the night, wearing all black, like a ninja, assassinating their enemies.  But they did have lots of pockets filled with good stuff.  So our name made more sense.  We got these on the way home from the bar the first night, then got them for dinner the next night (the pub crawl guide took us there so you know it's good), then we got them for lunch before heading to the airport on the day we left.  So in just 3 days, it evolved from late night emergency food, to our chosen last meal in Bulgaria.  I think that about tells the story. 

 

Look at all those pockets to store the goodness  - you want one, I know it

The hostel hosted the 11 of us quite comfortably, in 3 separate rooms.  We had a room with 2 big bunk beds, which the hostel claims are the widest beds ever.  It's true that the beds were wide, but the mattresses didn't quite align with the beds.  It was ok because at least the extra space was like having a shelf next to your face.  The weird part about the hostel is that the bathroom and showers were co-ed.  I mean, you didn't go into the same shower with a girl (unless you wanted to, I guess it wasn't illegal), but you could be showering (or using the toilet) in a stall next to someone from a different gender. 

 

Widest beds in Bulgaria

Another funny thing about the hostel was that there was another group of 11 people staying there, also from Poland.  We saw them on our flight, then saw them in the hostel (usually they were drunk), and I can imagine that the hostel was very confused when 2 groups of 11 people were coming from Poland for the same 3 days.  We didn't really talk to them, except sometimes showering or using the toilet next to them. I don't know why, but one of the girls refused to make eye contact with me when we were in the bathroom together. 

The guys working in the hostel were great.  They were very helpful in finding us things to do, showing us pictures of the different mountain hike options (we saw lots of snow and mud on the live cam for one place, so we chose a different route).  They printed maps for us, let us call them with questions even when they weren't working, and generally made us feel like friends, not just customers.  I love this kind of attitude, because it makes you feel like they're not in it just to take your money.

The Sofia pub crawl was also a fun night.  Every night they meet at the statue of a guy with a split-open face (he was killed by an axe to the head so they made the statue look like that too).  Doesn't that seem a little morbid?  Rather than remember him for what he did in this world, they remember him for the axe that was stuck in his face when he died.  The tour took us to some nice alternative bars in the city, one that was like an apartment building where Mark and Ewa had a circle drawing contest on the wall, and another with no lights, only candles inside (which is illegal).  And somehow we ended up at a karaoke bar singing Backstreet Boys.  I mean, BJ was here, so it had to happen.  And no, you can't see the video (you don't want to). 

Overall this was a great trip, a bit of spring, sightseeing, food, nature, and the city is very affordable.  Taxis were cheap, food and drinks were cheaper than Warsaw, and after we got back I noticed that USA Today called it the most affordable city to visit in Europe.  So you'll have to check it out sometime.  Even if just for the pocket sandwiches. 

 

Ki, BJ and me in Warsaw (I made them run with WITC).  Come back soon!

 

This is what the guys brought for me from the US - 50 lbs of mini eggs