December 29-30, 2016
Sitting at home during the 2017 holiday break, I was bored, thinking about how I passed the time during last year's week between Christmas and NYE. Ok, I wasn't bored, but I did think about it. Then I remembered that Zosia and I went to Poznan, and that I didn't write anything. So, exactly 1 year later, here it is.
Often when living abroad, in the middle of Europe, it's tempting to visit the surrounding countries, since it's so easy to get to a Latvia, Turkey, or Italy from Poland compared to from Seattle. This is what I did during my first few years in Poland. New countries every month. But sometimes we forget to explore what is essentially our back yard. I've lived in Poland for over 7 years, and there are still places in Poland that I haven't visited. Luckily, I've been to most of the main hard-to-pronounce places, such as Gdańsk, Wrocław, Kraków, Kazimierz Dolny, Toruń, Zakopane, and Białowieża (and now I'm realizing how weird those words look if you are not familiar with the Polish language). But until Christmas 2016, I hadn't explored Poznań. I had been there for a triathlon a couple years before, but I didn't see anything except the big lake and about 90 km of empty roads around the city.
So Zosia and I made a last minute decision to go to Poznań, located 3 hours away, half way to Berlin. Poznań was established sometime in the 10th century, and was for a time a German city. A lot of people there speak German as their second language. I found it amusing that the reception lady at the hotel spoke English with a German accent, even though she was Polish.
One of the interesting neighborhoods there is Ostrów Tumski, a small island in the city with museums and the oldest cathedral in Poland. Several Polish kings are buried there, including Mieszko I, who was the first Christian ruler of Poland in the 10th century. That's about the extent of the educational part of this post.
To help us with more sightseeing, we found a tourist scavenger hunt game on the internet, and spent a couple hours exploring the city looking for clues. I'm serious. Two grown people walking around the city, inspecting wall engravings, looking into strangers windows, circling the same blocks over and over...I'm sure we didn't look suspicious (or pathetic) at all! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend something like this. The website we used had many different themes, but ours was Codebreakers, as a tribute to the Polish code breakers from WWII who studied in Poznan. You've probably heard about Alan Turing, but apparently the Polish guys had a big influence on his core breaking success, even though they are not really mentioned in the movie "The Imitation Game". And since the weren't mentioned in a Hollywood movie, probably nobody knows that it happened. If you find yourself in Poznań, give it a shot (though some of the clues didn't make sense...we managed to figure it out...and since we successfully cracked it, they put our names on the website for a couple days...FAMOUS!).
It was really cold walking around, so we also needed some alcohol blanket. That led us to the Lech Brewery. The beer is nothing special, but it's always fun to visit breweries or wineries as a tourist, because somehow the tour becomes more fun as you sample the goods. Funny how that is.
Unfortunately a couple restaurants we wanted to try weren't open due to the holiday. Na Winklu for baked pierogi, and Yetz Tu for ramen both left us sad and hungry. It's frustrating when the restaurants don't ask for your permission before taking time off. Then it makes me wish I owned a restaurant that was so successful that I could just close it and not worry about losing revenue or customer loyalty due to breaking their hearts and causing them to die of starvation. Who am I kidding, they probably don't care that I wanted to give them my money. And of course, I'll still go the next time I'm in Poznan. They win.
Sitting at home during the 2017 holiday break, I was bored, thinking about how I passed the time during last year's week between Christmas and NYE. Ok, I wasn't bored, but I did think about it. Then I remembered that Zosia and I went to Poznan, and that I didn't write anything. So, exactly 1 year later, here it is.
Often when living abroad, in the middle of Europe, it's tempting to visit the surrounding countries, since it's so easy to get to a Latvia, Turkey, or Italy from Poland compared to from Seattle. This is what I did during my first few years in Poland. New countries every month. But sometimes we forget to explore what is essentially our back yard. I've lived in Poland for over 7 years, and there are still places in Poland that I haven't visited. Luckily, I've been to most of the main hard-to-pronounce places, such as Gdańsk, Wrocław, Kraków, Kazimierz Dolny, Toruń, Zakopane, and Białowieża (and now I'm realizing how weird those words look if you are not familiar with the Polish language). But until Christmas 2016, I hadn't explored Poznań. I had been there for a triathlon a couple years before, but I didn't see anything except the big lake and about 90 km of empty roads around the city.
So Zosia and I made a last minute decision to go to Poznań, located 3 hours away, half way to Berlin. Poznań was established sometime in the 10th century, and was for a time a German city. A lot of people there speak German as their second language. I found it amusing that the reception lady at the hotel spoke English with a German accent, even though she was Polish.
Poznań Old Town
Along the river
One of the interesting neighborhoods there is Ostrów Tumski, a small island in the city with museums and the oldest cathedral in Poland. Several Polish kings are buried there, including Mieszko I, who was the first Christian ruler of Poland in the 10th century. That's about the extent of the educational part of this post.
The old cathedral doesn't look old
A king is buried there! But it was blocked off so we couldn't get close
To help us with more sightseeing, we found a tourist scavenger hunt game on the internet, and spent a couple hours exploring the city looking for clues. I'm serious. Two grown people walking around the city, inspecting wall engravings, looking into strangers windows, circling the same blocks over and over...I'm sure we didn't look suspicious (or pathetic) at all! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I definitely recommend something like this. The website we used had many different themes, but ours was Codebreakers, as a tribute to the Polish code breakers from WWII who studied in Poznan. You've probably heard about Alan Turing, but apparently the Polish guys had a big influence on his core breaking success, even though they are not really mentioned in the movie "The Imitation Game". And since the weren't mentioned in a Hollywood movie, probably nobody knows that it happened. If you find yourself in Poznań, give it a shot (though some of the clues didn't make sense...we managed to figure it out...and since we successfully cracked it, they put our names on the website for a couple days...FAMOUS!).
Breaking codes and taking names
It was really cold walking around, so we also needed some alcohol blanket. That led us to the Lech Brewery. The beer is nothing special, but it's always fun to visit breweries or wineries as a tourist, because somehow the tour becomes more fun as you sample the goods. Funny how that is.
"Lech" is the sound you make when you clear your throat
Unfortunately a couple restaurants we wanted to try weren't open due to the holiday. Na Winklu for baked pierogi, and Yetz Tu for ramen both left us sad and hungry. It's frustrating when the restaurants don't ask for your permission before taking time off. Then it makes me wish I owned a restaurant that was so successful that I could just close it and not worry about losing revenue or customer loyalty due to breaking their hearts and causing them to die of starvation. Who am I kidding, they probably don't care that I wanted to give them my money. And of course, I'll still go the next time I'm in Poznan. They win.
We had to settle for this beauty
