It’s giving Wednesday Addams (goes to Poland)
Have you ever heard of a place called Poznan in Poland? No, neither had I. But thankfully I have a very blasé and openminded approach to travel, because without it I wouldn't have discovered this gem of a city. The way I book holidays is simple. Pick when you want to go away (sometimes just narrow down a month, other times a specific date range). Type in the airport you want to travel from in skyscanner. Search 'Explore everywhere'. Look through every single search result until you find flights that are both cheap, and at reasonable times. If you're like me, repeat this process for all 5 English airports you're willing to fly from. No one said my approach to travel was quick! But it's because of searching like this that me and Sophie were able to find £40 return flights to Poznan for a girly city break in October. It wasn't until we got there that we discovered what a perfectly autumnal autumn destination it was!
We arrived bright and early on Thursday morning after a very very bright and early flight from Luton. Under the advice of our apartment, our first stop was randomly at a coworking office where they said we could store our bags for free. No one at the coworking office seemed to be aware of this arrangement so that was a very random experience to kick the holiday off with! But then we were backpack-free and off to explore. The first two things you'll notice about Poznan; it's very colourful, and it's very filled with goats. The colourful thing you'll see in a second, the goat thing is related to an old urban legend so you'll see loads of goat statues as we go.
The main attraction of Poznan is definitely the main square. It's just so pretty and colourful! I love that all the buildings are slightly different, some painted with artwork, some patterned, some with added gold bits. Almost all of them are restaurants and bars and the square is actually massive. While my advice in any city of the world is normally to not eat in the main square, we tried out a few of these places and they were actually all fabulous. The first one we tried was a spot selling the local speciality, the St Martins croissant. It's a gorgeous pastry filled with white poppy seed paste and topped with icing and walnuts. They're absolutely massive so we just shared one between us (and with the pigeons actually, since they completely descended the second we got up from the table).
The weather wasn't great the day that we arrived so we didn't feel like wandering too far. Especially since we still needed to check in to our apartment. So after having a look around the main square, we decided to toast to our holiday in one of the pubs, the Columbus pub. It had a really nice old timey decor and I love the beer in Eastern Europe. Another thing I love about Eastern Europe is how all-out they go with decorating places up seasonally. Vilnius in Lithuania is one of the cutest places I've ever been to for Christmas! Similarly, Poznan had gone all out with the Autumnal decor. There were pumpkins, autumn leaves and cool archways outside almost every shop, cafe and restaurant!
It was still raining so we decided to make the most of the day by continuing with the sampling of the local culture (ie the local beers). We had a pierogi pit stop on the way (elite snack), and then tried another couple of bars including a cool Cuban themed one, and then a snazzy black and white frame obsessed one. It was there that the local culture got a bit too local for Sophie's taste; here she is back at the bar immediately after trying her first sip of this local dark beer.
It was time to check into our apartment, and wow we'd picked so well! We were staying at the Hedo & Art Loft (found on booking.com for £240 for 3 nights) and not only was it in a perfectly central location, but it was bloody gorgeous too. Loved the mezzanine style and the girly decor, and we just had so much space! It was perfect for having a few pre drinks before we went out...
Which is exactly what we did! After getting ready and having a couple of drinks at the apartment, we headed out for some dinner. We really weren't being very adventurous that first day because where did we go? Back to the main square. It's like we were on a leash or something. But in fairness, the restaurant we went to (Podkoziołek Jadło i Napitki) was lovely. We tried beef tartare, which seemed to be a local speciality (there were lots of French influences actually), and then shared 2 pork dishes for the mains. One was a pork schnitzel and the other was a pork fillet with potato dumplings and both were fabulous. I love that me and Sophie both always want to go half and half on everything - it's the best way to eat! Despite the early start to the day, we still decided to head out for a drink after dinner. While the main square was a great spot in the day, Wrocławska street was undoubtedly where it was at by night time. Although, we referred to it as hashtag street, since randomly like 3 of the bars had the word hashtag in the name. Including 'Hashtagland' which is where we went, and it was VERY much a play on Disneyland. There were themed cocktails, characters on the wall, and even a Disney movie showing on TV!
Surprise surprise, the next morning we were back in the main square! With good reason though, as we were off to the croissant museum to see how the famous St Martins croissant is made. That wasn't booked until the afternoon so we decided to have some brunch first but we couldn't resist stopping to watch the goat show that happens every day at 12pm and 3pm. Basically the goat obsession in Poznan is due to a legend that says the royal chef lost the goats he was planning to cook for dinner and then eventually found them on the roof of the town hall locking horns. So now, 2 little goats pop out of the town hall each day and lock horns, while a man also pops out to play a beautiful little trumpet solo. It was cute!
It was tough to decide where to go for brunch because there were so many great options. It really reminded me of Budapest foodwise, with loads of amazing coffees, homemade lemonades and lovely lunchy dishes. We went to Weranda caffe, and me and Sophie decided to split again (quelle surprise) and got a brioche french toast stack, and a pumpkin, pear and blue cheese salad. The perfect combo of rich and indulgent, and fresh and light. Just like me and Sophie hehe (you be the judge with who gets to be which).
We still had a tiny bit of time until our croissant museum booking; just enough time have a nosey in the cathedral. It was really beautiful and I loved all the burgundy tones!
From the pictures of the croissant musuem, we thought it'd basically be a little cooking class. Which it was to an extent, but instead of everyone making it and then eating what they make, they basically used a cooking class format to create a really interactive history lesson and then we got to sample some of the famous croissant at the end. Importantly not the ones made by the group, because the interactivity included throwing the dough around and having small children with unwashed hands get involved. Basically they asked for a number of volunteers then each person did a different element of the 'cooking'. The person running it was really entertaining and the history of it all was really interesting. It was a fun way to learn a bit more about Poznan, and get a sweet treat at the end.
It was raining again by the time we came out, so we decided it was time to take cover with a drink. We'd seen this place, Pijana Wiśnia, looking super busy the day before so we wanted to see what they were offering. It's basically a whole bar dedicated to a brand of Ukrainian cherry liqueur by the same name, which you can get hot or cold. We got a couple of hot ones (it was very similar to mulled wine) and admired the quirky cherry-themed decor in the bar.
We'd seen the road that led up to the castle the day before, and thought we'd have a look around it. Expecting it to be a castle. It's literally called the Royal Castle. But alas, it looks like it used to be a royal castle, but it got mostly destroyed during World War II, so you can see a little bit of the original wall but that's mostly it. In its place, they've rebuilt it into a little museum, with a tower you can go up for amazing views of the city. Luck wasn't so much on our side because the lift was broke, but we fancied the challenge and so trekked up the 185 stars to the top. The views really were fab, so it was worth the walk! We also had a little mooch around the museum and the various artefacts on display, before heading for a very late lunch (I got pierogi again and they were fabulous but could've done with a sauce).
We had got speaking to the waitress in the wine bar about Poznan night life and she said Pacha was the place to be (and also got us on the guest list which was nice). It was still fairly early so we decided to check out another of the Hashtag street bars first for a couple of ridiculously strong vodkas. Anyone who knows me knows I make my vodkas fairly ridiculously strong and they were even ridiculous by my standards. Then we ended the night with a little boogie in Pacha!
After a couple of days of on-and-off rain, we were finally greeted by bright blue skies! So it was time to venture a bit further afield and discover some of the places we'd read about. But obviously we couldn't go exploring on an empty stomach so we started with brunch at Charlotte. It was a beautiful French place and so naturally I had to get a few macarons (my favourite). We were definitely in the fancier part of town at this point, with really beautiful architecture.
Stary Browar was a really cool hotspot in Poznan! An ex brewery, it's now been transformed into a shopping centre slash food hall slash art gallery. We had a lovely wander around and the circular area at the end was particularly cool. We loved the little art installation on the ground floor!
We took the scenic route to the imperial castle, passing through beautiful parks as we went. I was absolutely obsessed with all the autumnal colours - just look how vibrant some of the trees were! I was less obsessed with the imperial castle once we actually got there. Poznan seems to have a pattern where their castles aren't very castley. Fair dos it was only a couple of pound to get in, but as we walked round the vast building exploring the 'mahogany room' and the 'oak room', we discovered that all the rooms were empty and the names literally just came from the materials used to decorate them. There wasn't really much to see or to learn! And also, there were countless rooms you couldn't actually go in, which were seemingly meeting rooms and offices associated with the Philharmonic institution. Not to mention, the place was a complete maze!
While the imperial castle may have been underwhelming from the inside, it was certainly impressive from the outside! Me and Sophie had already come up with our tagline for the holiday; 'it's giving Wednesday Addams' (make sure you say it in the 'it's... Rebekah Vardy's account' style, or else you're doing it wrong). We'd been saying it at every opportunity, largely due to the gothic architecture, the spooky weather, and the fact we were both wearing long black leather jackets all the time. But there was no stronger Wednesday feeling than when we were at the imperial castle and the surrounding university area. All the buildings were very convincing as a Netflix boarding school, they were all covered in red ivy, and our outfits just sealed the deal. Well, technically I was half Wednesday and half Enid on this day!
Are you kind of noticing a pattern by this point? Having decided we'd explored all the landmarks we wanted to for the day, we thought we'd stop and have a few drinks. And then a few more! The Fort Colomb was a really cool historical spot, as it's an ancient fort converted into a microbrewery. I feel like Poznan scores very highly on the cool-and-unique spot chart, especially when it comes to converting things into other things.
Because we'd had more of a drinking session in the day, we kept it fairly lowkey in the evening. We had a few drinks at the apartment (we actually really made the most of having an extra large apartment) and then went out for a nice dinner. This was probably the weakest meal we had; it definitely wasn't bad but we'd had some proper standout food and this was a bit more so-so.
Another gorgeous day for our last day! We were having more of a slow wandering day, so we started by checking out some local street art and then stopped off for coffee and a pastry (my favourite way to start the day).
What better way is there to spend a Sunday than with a Sunday stroll around the park? And if I thought I'd been impressed by the autumnal colours so far, I hadn't seen nothing before the citadel park. It was such a massive expansive space, absolutely filled with all different shades of yellow, orange and red. The park was well laid out, with little coffee carts, cafes, deckchair spots, and a big lake as you went through. The rose garden that surrounded one of the lakes was particularly pretty.
I mean, just LOOK at those colours! I actually don't think we could've timed our trip more perfectly if we tried. Obviously we had a couple of drearier days, but we were rewarded with 2 perfect days in exchange.
Because a key criteria for me when searching for holidays is a late flight on the way home, it meant we had time to grab one last dinner in Poznan before we had to think about heading home. The food at Vis a Vis (it had to be one last meal in the main square) was especially good and my pulled goose burger was delicious. Me and Sophie had such an amazing trip and I'm so glad she has a similar love as me for exploring the weird and the wonderful (Sarajevo last year, Poznan this year). We're actually going somewhere a lot more mainstream next year, as we're off to Sicily. And I've been so lacksy daisy with actually getting this blog post done that we've already booked it! So we'll be going from Wednesday Addams to White Lotus. I can't wait!
Comments
Post a Comment