🎻♫♪ – The Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

List Item: Listen to half of the 1001 Classical Works You Must Hear Before You Die
Progress: 37/501Title: The Sleeping Beauty
Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Nationality: Russian
Year: 1889

It has been two years since I saw Swan Lake live at the Royal Albert Hall… so it really is about time for me to see another ballet (it’s also high time that I saw another opera, but these things cost money). These tickets were a present for the hub as, apart from a brief version of The Tin Soldier in Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, he had never seen a ballet before. Thankfully he really enjoyed it and I think we’ll be seeing some more of these when good (cheaper) tickets are available.

With this that’s the third of the three Tchaikovsky ballets done. I’ll probably end up seeing The Nutcracker at some point in the future – even if it is just to complete the trilogy. Of the three ballets, this one was probably the weirdest of the three to listen to (and watch) properly. Why? Well, as with a lot of the classical pieces so far, I know most of this music via Disney.

Having grown up with Disney’s Sleeping Beauty on VHS, I am really well acquainted with a lot of Tchaikovsky’s score. The weirdness came not from the difference in the narrative (although that was a bit discombobulating), but the context for the music. For example, in the film there is music that is linked to the princess being hypnotised and, eventually, pricking her finger on the spindle. In the ballet, however, this is a dance done in the final act by two dancers dressed as white cats… who happen to be guests at the wedding.

With the two stories being fundamentally different it makes sense that music was being used for different plot beats – although some, like the entrance of the evil faerie, can still be found in remarkably similar contexts.

Anyway, the music for The Sleeping Beauty is excellent and, as you would expect for a ballet, so much is gained by having the dancing as a narrative context for the music. I know that with ‘The Dance of the Garlands’ I would have still thought of the iconic ‘Once Upon A Dream’ sequence – which would have still be fun, but also a pity as I would have missed out on the proper storyline.

I would honestly like to write more, but it’s getting to 2 am after a long week at work. So I’ll end by saying that I am so glad that I was able to see this live and get the most out of the music. I also loved the idea that the ballet wrote in a dance between Red Riding Hood and the Wolf – such a weird idea to shoehorn this into this ballet, but I’m glad they did.

Graphic Content – Captain America

List Item:  Read half of the 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die
Progress: 48/501Title: Captain America
Creators: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Years: 1940-50 (first run)
Country: USA

It’s a question that comes up with any long running series – without consuming the whole thing, how do I get a good overview. Well, in the case of Captain America I opted to read a portion of the original run (whose first issue famously depicted Captain America punching Hitler) as well as some of Captain America’s run in the 1960s (where he becomes the lost in time superhero that we all know).

Given the volume of Marvel superhero movies that have been out in the last ten years, Captain America is a good place to start. I mean, this was one of (if not the) first major Marvel superhero comic to come out. With Superman and Batman making their debuts some 2 years earlier, I can see how (in 1940) the idea of an All-American superhero doing battles against Germans would have been appealing.

It’s interesting to read Captain America from two different decades, where the enemies shift from Nazis to Communists. Nazis still appear in later issues thanks to the evil Red Skull and Captain America’s own flashbacks – but, on the whole, the enemies do move with the times.

Having read this series from two different eras, I have to say that I am more of a fan of the silver/bronze age Captain America. In the original run it became a bit samey to have him as the army man in a clear good versus evil battle. Instead, in the later runs, there is more interesting psychology as he reacts to being a man out of his time period (due to being cryogenically frozen), his survivor’s guilt and how he deals with everyone he knew no longer being around.

I also liked this period better because, at least for a while, Captain America stories were paired with Iron Man stories – although the two didn’t always meet. It’s also in this later period that we see him interact with other Avengers like Hawkeye, Wasp and Scarlet Witch. Reading these make me think that I’ll enjoy reading the Avengers comics, but that may need to wait a while.

 

(✿◠‿◠) Anime!!! – Natsume Yuujinchou San

List Item:  Watch the 100 best anime TV series
Progress: 42/100Title: Natsume Yuujinchou San
Episodes Aired: 13
Year(s): 2011

It’s been over 18 months since I watched the second season of Natsume Yuujinchou and, I have to say, it was like putting on a comfortable pair of pyjamas as I dove back into it. It also reignited my desire to watch more episodes of Mushishi (which I am currently going through at a glacial pace).

This might be because of my growing familiarity with the characters, but I do think that this was the best whole season of Natsume Yuujinchou that I have seen so far. It relies less on the original premise of restoring the name to the ‘monster-of-the-week’ and instead has become far more serialised, which suits the show tremendously.

Also, as each season progresses, it is great to see the level of personal growth that Natsume himself is going through. In the beginning he was very much put upon and hated his ability to see members of the spirit world. Like the character of Chise in The Ancient Magus’ Wife, he is someone who was unable to deal with his ability and so was shuffled from home to home until he found someone willing and able to look after someone with his needs.

I thought back to this when watching the final episode of the third season where, not only has he made a substantial number of friends from the spirit realm, but he also had a growing number of human friends. With this being halfway through the show’s run, I am really interested to see just how much more he is going to develop as a character and how his relationship with his weird cat-demon bodyguard continues to grow.

For my next series I am going to be watching the adaptation of Great Teacher Onizuka. Given the content of the manga, I await with great interest to see how this is going to be brought to the small screen.

World Cooking – El Salvador

List Item: Cook something from every countryCountry: El Salvador
Progress: 9/193

After going to Poland it was oh so tempting to make that my next country to make a dish from. But no, I am going to be scientific about this and make sure that I cover the different continents when the percentages in my spreadsheet says that I need to. In any event, it didn’t matter because I have been looking forward to making today’s recipe.

Being the smallest nation in Central America there was a part of me that originally wondered how difficult it would be to find something that was distinctly Salvadorian – then I find that not only do they have a delicious looking national dish, but it is actually a dish that originated in El Salvador (I feel it’s worth noting how this is not always a given… like with the national dishes of the US).

Like other Central and South American countries, the food of El Salvador is a fusion of native cuisine and that brought over by the Europeans (usually Spain, but that isn’t a given in this neck of the woods). A lot is done with meat, corn and spices in varying combinations and amounts; which has resulted in a huge number of different dishes. For now, let’s get on with the pupusas.

Main: Pupusa Revuelta and Curdito

I would be lying if I said that the challenge of making my own chicharrón (think finely ground pulled pork) wasn’t a major attraction to making this. I’ve made my own pulled pork just once before, and this recipe really did make things easier whilst not compromising on flavour.

Of course, this made too much for the papusas so I kept some for a later meal where I used them to make quesadillas. I would also like to add just how much it broke my heard to blitz this beautiful pork into a paste – sure it still tasted cook, but I missed the mouthfeel.

I am going to hold my hands up and say that I don’t think I wetted the dough enough for the papusas (which the recipe did warn me about), but I still really enjoyed having these thick corn tortillas filled with pork and beans (I didn’t bother with the cheese for all of the papusas as I kept overfilling them with pork paste). Also it’s probable that, despite the Spanish words on the packet, this may have not been the 100% correct type of corn flour to make this dish.

Still, these were incredibly filling and were even more delicious with some salsa and grated cheese on top – which turned these into mini pork hot pocket tortilla pizzas. With practice I’ll probably be able to get these better looking in the future.

Also a revelation (especially to someone who cannot stand raw red onion) was the curdito. It’s essentially a vinegar-based cabbage slaw where extra time in the vinegar really makes all the difference. I mean, I let this marinade for a few hours and the onion was already starting to go pink and had lost a lot of the harsh acidity that I hate.

It was so simple to make as well, so I think the BBC Good Food version of curdito is going to appear as a side dish for a few more Central American nations.

So, the numbers tell me that it is back to Africa for the next country. As I sit here typing (whilst the hub plays Breath of the Wild in the background) I do not know where in Africa this is likely to be, but I am probably going to try and find something for one of the larger nations… even if it’s to make sure the pins on the map don’t get to clustered.

Good Eatin’ – Rydze Mushrooms from Kraków Airport

List Item: Try three quarters of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die
Progress: 742/751Food item: Saffron Milk Cap

Talk about a last minute purchase. If our plane home from Kraków hadn’t been delayed then I would have likely not had the time or the agency to find a jar of these mushrooms within one of the Polish food shops at the airport. I guess it also helps that I’ve scoured the 1001 foods book for years now, and I recognised the mushrooms on the label despite all the text being in Polish.

I know that, like with most mushrooms, these saffron milk caps are probably best enjoyed fresh and fried in butter or in some sort of cream sauce. Still, beggars can’t be choosers and the book does mention how these mushrooms can be enjoyed when pickled. Also I have been wanting to cook the schnitzel in my freezer for an awfully long time – so this felt like the perfect opportunity.

One thing that you don’t see with the pickled mushrooms is how the fresh mushrooms seem to exude a red coloured milk (ergo the name). Also, the colour of the pickled mushrooms are somewhat muted. However, these were still delicious and had a texture not unlike oyster mushrooms. Some of the flavour will have been down to the sweet vinegar it was pickled in but, in all honesty, these are the first pickled mushrooms that I’ve really enjoyed eating – and that’s down to their flat caps.

With these crossed off, I am now left with two mushrooms on the list: oronge mushrooms (also known as Caesar’s mushrooms) and iwatake (which has many other names). I’m not sure where to find either of these at the moment – so please leave a comment if you have any leads.

XL Popcorn – Wild Strawberries

List Item: Watch all of the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”
Progress: 686/1007Title: Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Year: 1957
Country: Sweden

It has been too long since I last saw my last Bergman film (Persona). Now that I’ve seen  Wild Strawberries I think it is fair to say that I have watched the last of the top tier Bergman films, although there are still some big ones left (such as Through A Glass Darkly). I have yet to watch an Ingmar Bergman film that I didn’t enjoy watching or left me thinking afterwards – and that run still continues.

Due to my own issues, I usually do not respond well to films like Wild Strawberries. At the centre is an older man called Isak who is being honoured for a lifetime of service as a doctor, however he is also someone who is seen as cold and aloof by those closest to him. The course of the film we get to know Isak through flashbacks and dreams, with him becoming warmer and on the road to reformed by the end.

Leave it to Bergman to find a way to make this story that appeals to someone as jaded as I am. I mean this was one part A Christmas Carol and another part Seventh Seal. The weirdly symbolic dreams and the well-executed flashbacks (which were done warts and all, rather than turned into something overly saccharin) give us two very different sides of Isak’s psychology. In fact, psychology is a very good watch word for this film as a whole.

It’s also worth commending Bergman’s script, which is able to deliver comedic moments, surreal moments and sequences that offer an extreme amount of pathos. A lot of praise also needs to be heaped on the three stars who help to accurately portray the changing relationships between Isak and the others. Bibi Andersson pulls off an excellent double duty as Sara (as modern day hitchhiker and as Isak’s former fiance from the past).

There is a lot of interesting things to unpack after watching Wild Strawberries. How much of the memories are true versus those filtered through his own experience? For how long will these relationships between Isak and those closest to him improve? What will happen to his son and daughter-in-law after the camera stops rolling? Does the ending signify something other than him reflecting on a beautiful memory and accepting his past?

The more I reflect on Wild Strawberries the more I realise just how good this film was. It’s a common thing with Bergman films – so it’s good to know that this isn’t an exception. This might be my favourite of his films, or that might still be Autumn Sonata. I guess I’ll need some time to think on that.

 

The Great EU Quest: Poland – Salt Mines and Ermine

It’s already come to the final day – it’s sad to be leaving such a lovely city, but I think I’ve fit in a lot of things over this extended weekend.

After a breakfast cobbled together from random delicious things we found at Carrefour, we headed off to the main focus of the day: the salt mines at the nearby town of Wieliczka. Honestly, this is probably not a place I would have booked prior to the holiday if it wasn’t for its placement on the Lonely Planet list, but when in Kraków.

List item: Visit 100 of the Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist
Progress: 79/100Sight: Wieliczka Salt Mine
Location: Wieliczka, Poland
Position: #213

It was another scorcher of a day, so spending a few hours underground in 16 degrees felt like a nice sojourn. I didn’t quite expect how much I would enjoy listening to the guide talk about the history of the mines or the fact that I would be given the chance to lick the walls (since the walls in most places are made of rock salt, and are therefore anti-microbial).

I also didn’t quite expect just how beautiful a lot of the chambers would be. Some contained artificial brine lakes (which were very well lit), many contained sculptures carved out of the grey rock salt and most had marble-like floor tiles that (again) were made from the rock salt.

The biggest shocker of them all was St Kinga’s chapel. This monumentally large chapel was carved of rock salt with statues, friezes, floor tiles and chandeliers all made from the rock salt found in this very mine (some of the pink salt sculptures were made form salt from a neighbouring mine). Some of the most impressive elements of this chapel included a carving of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper and a weirdly lifelike statue of Pope John Paul II.

Honestly the 2-3 hours underground just flew by about as swiftly as the lift that took us back to the surface and I am thankful for the Lonely Planet list for giving me the proper push to something a bit different. It’s been too long (probably 17 years) since I last saw such impressive underground structures although, being completely man made, this was a different experience.

Lunch was brief and was decided the moment we got to the salt mines and I saw a man cooking kielbasa for 10zl a pop. I cannot believe that it has taken me until Day 4 before I had a proper Polish kielbasa, but boy did it not disappoint with some mustard and a kaiser roll (side note: I wish you could get kaiser rolls in the UK outside of speciality stores, it really is the perfect all purpose roll).

After finishing lunch and enjoying some of the midday sun, we made our way back to Kraków to visit the National Museum. Why? Well, as the Uber driver correctly deduced, we were here to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Lady with an Ermine. This is a painting I’ve always loved and it’s a privilege to see it up close.

I can really see how this is considered one of Poland’s National Treasures (above: a picture of the poster outside as, for obvious reasons, photographs of the real painting are forbidden). If there had been a bench in the room, I would have been able to stare at it for at least 15-20 minutes. As it is, it was just my husband and I (and two guards) alone with the painting in a darkened room. It just felt like one of those special moments where I could have as long as I wanted to appreciate an art object and there was no one around to hurry me along.

Since we’d already paid for the museum it only made to spend a lot of time in,their permanent collections. Doing a museum like this on the final day really works as it helps to contextualise a lot of things that you pick up about the local history via osmosis. It also helps that I have been devouring the ‘In Our Time’ and ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ podcasts as I was able to play some fun games of historical detective with certain exhibits.

This was typified by a long time that I spent just analysing this chess set that was on display. Not only unpacking the history behind its depiction of a battle between Poles and Ottomans on the board, but also knowing the cultural reasons why the queen piece was replaced by a vizier/advisor. I felt like a proper clever clogs and it felt great.

There were also galleries featuring modern art by Polish artists and one containing a wealth of armour and weapons. At this point, pretty much anything we saw was a bonus seeing how the main reason for us to come here was for a single painting. There was also an exhibition on Polish comics, but we had to miss it as we forgot to include there in our ticket.

By the time we left the museum it was early evening and, seeing that Kraków old town looks it’s prettiest under the bubblegum sky of sunset, we went on an extended to explore the streets we’d yet to visit. Did we get a lot of guys coming up to us and telling us about the beautiful girls we could see at their employers strip club? Sure, but that didn’t detract from the beauty of the town, just from the respect that I have for my own gender.

We saw so many new churches and other places of interest on this route. There are surely countless buildings that we missed, but it was time for dinner and boy were we ravenous.

It was a long walk to tonight’s restaurant (one that was stupidly close to the hotel) and it was exactly the place we wanted. Proper Polish food and am interior that was decorated like some sort of ski chalet. The sour soup that I had to start was exactly what I was looking for, even if it wasn’t served in a bread bowl.

The star of the show was the main – a huge platter of Polish things that, between the three of us, we struggled to finish. On it there was two types of sauerkraut, pierogi, grilled kielbasa, potatoes, a cabbage roll, pork knuckle, pork steaks in a tomato sauce and bigos (a sauerkraut stew with meat). This is exactly the sort of food I was looking to find and I made sure to make the most of it.

Stuffed like thanksgiving turkeys we did a final tour of Rynek Główny to say goodbye, ice creams in hand (mine was rose flavoured and I feel inspired to make my own once I get home). I couldn’t help but linger as long as I could – this is definitely one of the loveliest squares that I have ever seen.

We are technically leaving tomorrow afternoon but, since it really is just a case of getting up and leaving for the airport, I guess that it is goodbye to Poland – for the moment at least. I have so enjoyed my time here and felt so at home in the culture that there will be a return visit in the next few years. Maybe it’ll be Warsaw or Gdansk or some place I haven’t event thought of yet; I just know that this is not my last time in Poland.

The Great EU Quest: Poland – Auschwitz-Birkenau

There are cities around the world that bear scars of their troubled past. I’m thinking along the lines of Hiroshima’s Peace Park, The 9/11 Memorial in New York City and the former site of the Berlin Wall. For Kraków, and the surrounding area of Southern Poland, there is no scar deeper or more visible than the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. No one goes here as part of a holiday to find enjoyment, but to learn and pay tribute to what happened to over 1.1 million people some 70-odd years ago.

List item: Visit 100 of the Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist
Progress: 78/100Sight: Auschwitz-Birkenau
Location: Oświęcim, Poland
Position: #104

The trip out from Kraków doesn’t take too long, especially if you book a tour that picks you up from your hotel. The advantage: you don’t have to think about getting there and back as everything is sorted for you; the disadvantage: the driver put on a short documentary about the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau which meant half of the journey there was spent watching footage of the camp – including what looked like the autopsies of a newborn baby and a young child. I get why the ride there might be spent learning some history of the camp, but that was a lot to see at 8:30 in the morning.

It’s hard to talk about visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau as so much of it is about the feelings. By now we all know what happened from TV, books, films and school – but it’s a profoundly odd place to visit, especially on a beautiful sunny day in May. For a lot of the tour the closest analog I can find from my own experience is when I went to Herculaneum as a student. In what is now actually quite lovely surroundings, something devastating and unthinkable happened. It’s trite to say this, but it really does feel haunted.

This is all surface stuff when walking around Auschwitz’s immaculate brick barracks. Once you go inside and see the conditions of the cells, the piles of belongings that were recovered (including a whole room of shaven hair… which I cannot find an adequate word to describe) and, eventually, the gas chambers – everything suddenly becomes incredibly real.

Honestly, I didn’t feel right with the idea of taking pictures inside the buildings – especially the gas chambers/furnaces and rooms containing the possessions. I know that lots of people around me were snapping away, but in certain places The feeling of it being disrespectful outweighed my own morbid curiosity.

So that was Auschwitz. Birkenau, due to it being mostly destroyed, feels incredibly different. I have seen those famous train tracks in so many films (like Shoah and Schindler’s List) and even listened to a classical album about makes reference to the train journeys (Different Trains), which makes it incredibly weird to see in real life. It’s a similar sort of haunting feeling that I got from the Peace Pagoda in Hiroshima.

The big thing for me at Birkenau, rather than the remains of the demolished gas chambers and the memorial, was all the chimneys. A massive field containing a sparse forest of brick chimneys that are the remaining parts of the wooden barracks that were burnt down in the vain attempt to conceal the war crimes that were occurring.

Like I said before, it’s difficult to put into words just how this visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau made me feel. It was only a few hours after leaving that I made the contesting that this was where Anne Frank died, which means I have now seen her home, read her diary and seen the place she was killed. That human connection there is probably what ended up affecting me the most.

On the way back I slept on the minibus. After that morning it was probably my brain feeling the need to refresh itself so I could compartmentalise a bit and enjoy the afternoon.

For the afternoon we took the opportunity to visit St Mary’s Basilica in Rynek Główny. After all, I’ve already spent part of an evening watching the swallows hunting for insects in the dusk, so I might as well see the inside.

Well, the inside is beyond beautiful – especially the main alter piece by Viet Stoss. The level of detail in the wood carvings depicting the many sufferings of Mary (especially the work put into them beards) are beyond a lot of what I’ve seen before. Considering this is the minor church of Kraków compared to Wawel Cathedral, it surprises me how St Mary’s is the more impressively decorated. Some of the portraiture feel like something I have seen in Orthodox churches, but maybe that’s more the Baroque style coming through.

Sadly the tower was closed when we went, so we exited and headed to the Cloth Hall to do some souvenir shopping. Honestly there is so much that I wanted to buy, but regrettably we only brought hand luggage – meaning that I’ve had to stick to a few items that are not breakable (which ruled out a lot of Christmas decorations and ceramics). Still, I found a bunch of nice things before I we headed back to the hotel to have a bit of a chill before dinner.

List Item: Try three quarters of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die
Progress: 741/751Food item: Roe Deer

When I want to try roe deer in the UK, it’s likely that I, going to pay £75 for the meal, in Kraków my share of the meal came to about £20. Just stunning. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like 70 zloty is too much for a main meal… which shows just how much I have started to adapt to the pricing.

The roe deer medallions themselves were seasoned with herbs and a generous amount of pepper. The accompanying sauce was flavoured with sour cherry and the meat was accompanied by whole sour cherry and there are a generous number of wild mushrooms. All flavours worked in perfect harmony in this zloty dish. The meat itself was tender with a slight gaminess to it, which puts it on par with hare. The way it was cooked makes me want to refer to this delight as a ‘wild steak’.

For dessert we all had the apple pancakes where the star of the show was the vanilla-caramel sauce. It’s one of the few times where I’ve had someone turn to me and ask what I was having. So yes, a good time was had by all at Miód Malina.

Tomorrow we will be off to the salt mines at Wieliczka for what is our final full day. After the last few days in the heat, I am looking forward to some time in a cold cave.

The Great EU Quest: Poland – The Many Faces of Kraków

It’s one of those travelling truths that whenever you want to properly get to know a city, you need to find and experience a number of its different personalities. This is even more important when you are in a city that is at least 500 years old. I think that, with today’s packed itinerary, I have gotten to know a few of the many sides of Kraków.

After a small breakfast at the hotel, composed of a bunch of things we found in the local Carrefour Express, we made a beeline straight for the second of the four Lonely Planet sites that I plan to see whilst in Kraków.

List item: Visit 100 of the Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist
Progress: 77/100Sight: Wawel Castle
Location: Kraków, Poland
Position: #487

It’s located at the southern tip of the old town and is at the top of Wawel Hill, overlooking the city and the river. The whole complex is huge and also contains Wawel Cathedral (more on that later).

Now if there is one piece of advice that I want to pass on, because no one told me, it’s this: do not buy your tickets from the ticket office on the slope – instead head inside and buy it at the ticket office near the tower. Why? More open windows, it’s inside away from the blazing sunshine and the visitors come in ones and twos rather than large groups buying conflicting tickets. We wasted nearly an hour because we did not know this, so you are welcome.

I can see how people can spend pretty much an entire day here. There are plenty of things to see, do and eat – all at the typically inexpensive Kraków prices (I mean 3zl for a scoop of ice cream in a castle café is loving the Kraków dream). Since we had no desire to be led around by the nose, we went for most of the things that did not require a guided tour (except the Oriental art exhibition, because timing and money).

For good views of the surrounding city, you’ll want to pay a visit to the Sandomierska Tower (and for 4zl it’s a bargain) – but that’s hardly one of the big ticket items here. For that you’ll want to head to the State Rooms, houses a large number of tapestries, paintings and come of the most interesting ceiling work that I have seen in a European stately home. It’s a real shame that, throughout the castle complex, they are militantly anti-camera – otherwise I’d have posted a picture of one the weirdest ceilings I ever saw (imagine a bunch of heads peering down at you and you’ll get an idea).

This trip around the State Rooms really made me wish I knew more about Polish history before coming to Kraków (aside from the story of St Hedwig and her many water glasses). At least today I’ve managed to pick up a few stories about King Stephen Bathory and some of the other monarchs that came before him.

After the State Room was a visit to the ‘Lost Wawel’ exhibition that contains archeological remnants from excavations. This is fine enough, but the real point of interest is near the end where you descend down a ramp and see parts of the first church built on Wawel Hill, which dates to around 1000 AD. Utterly astonishing and so well preserved considering how much restoration work is having to be done on other areas of the castle.

Before leaving the hill, you have to pay a visit to Wawel Cathedral. The ticket includes a trip around the cathedral itself, a bell tower (where you get to see the heaviest bell in Poland) and the royal tombs (which lacked the grandeur of Vienna’s Habsburg coffins, but were still good to see). The interior of the cathedral itself is a real mix of different styles with a large number of chapels to different saints – the largest being to St Hedwig herself. Again, wish I could have taken pictures.

We left the castle via the Dragon’s Den, which is a small limestone cave that is the best way to exit. It’s one of the most famous caves in Poland because it is attached to the myth of the Wawel dragon… which explains all the dragon paraphernalia in the Kraków souvenir shops.

It was already getting to the mid-to-late afternoon so it was time to march on to Kazimierz (aka the Jewish Quarter) and pick up some lunch along the way. We ended up in a pub-restaurant en route and, between us, had a pile of three types of pierogi (meat, cabbage and Russian) and a plate of bread, lard and pickles. Honestly I am falling more and more in love with the food in this city/country plus any restaurant that allows three guys to order a carafe each filled with different fruit juices (mine was blackcurrant) is alright by me. Also, these pierogi and that lard was delicious. Hopefully I can find more of this before I leave for London.

We roamed the Jewish Quarter for a bit before reaching the Galicia Jewish Museum. It’s not that big, but it houses some really interesting photographic exhibition is about Jewish life in the Galicia region (which included Kraków) pre and post Holocaust. The photographs and the initial exhibition about the importance of blood in Jewish lore really helped open my eyes and my heart in preparation for tomorrow’s devastating visit to Auschwitz. I’d really recommend the Galicia Jewish Museum if you need a bit more context of you need a bit of a history lesson about how Jews were seen in Europe before the Holocaust happened.

From here the idea was to pay a visit to the Oskar Schindler factory, but they had sold out of tickets by the time we got there – so we stared at the outside before slowly making our way back to the Old Town. After all, I booked us tickets to a concert.

List Item: Listen to half of the 1001 Classical Works You Must Hear Before You Die
Progress: 36/501Title: Ballades
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Nationality: Polish
Year: 1835-1841

Despite having nothing to do with the city of Kraków, there is an hour long Chopin concert every day at 7pm for the low price of 60zl (which comes with a free glass of sparkling wine). It starts with a short talk about the life of Chopin before moving into an hour long recital of a number of Chopin pieces – including some mazurkas, a nocturne, a waltz (which was mesmerising) and enough of his ballades for me to consider is crossed off.

Aside from loud Italians in front of us, the experience of seeing a piano virtuoso playing these pieces live completely beats listening to them via headphones. It’s utterly breathtaking to see someone with so much talent and has worked so hard to learn this skill. He was also easy on the eyes, which helped to make the waltz he played just that extra bit dreamy.

After this was dinner at a steakhouse across the road called Ed Red. It’s one of the higher rated restaurants in Kraków and sometimes you just want to have steak. It also helps that it had two food items on the menu.

List Item: Try three quarters of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die
Progress: 739/751Food item: Bull’s Testicle

I’m really getting through the offal at the moment aren’t I. Since I didn’t want two starters to myself, I managed to convince my husband to order the plate of assorted veal offal whilst I order the ‘mountain oyster’ for myself.

Just to start off, this ‘oyster’ was served with a smoked white chocolate sauce – which may be one of the more unusual and delicious sauces that I have ever had. It really went well with the ‘oyster’ which was surprisingly delicious. I has expected something more chewy and gelatinous, when it was actually very delicate and tender with a vaguely beefy taste. It’s a bit like if leberkase contained puréed steak alongside the pork. At least that’s what I think. It’s weird to say this, but I would happily have bull testicle again in the future.

List Item: Try three quarters of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die
Progress: 740/751Food item: Veal Sweetbread

On my husbands plate was veal sweetbreads (which is thymus gland or pancreas), brain, tongue, cheek and liver. First and foremost, the veal brain was so much nicer than the lamb brain that we had because it had been seasoned really well. But that’s by the by – the best veal offal on the plate was the sweetbread. It was like eating a very subtly flavoured white sausage that took on the flavour of the mustard underneath it. It’s one of those pieces of offal that I have been very curious to try it with different sauces.

As a main we all had some excellent Polish sirloin steak with a a number of different side dishes in the middle. For the price of the whole dinner (£24 each) we had some really good food and tried some really interesting things. If I am ever in Warsaw, I might have to hit up the other Ed Red location.

So tomorrow is going to be a trip to Auschwitz. It’s a long return journey and it’s looking to be a harrowing day. Will podcasts for the bus journey and a good meal take the sting out of it? Who knows, I guess I’ll just find out tomorrow.

The Great EU Quest: Poland – First Night in Kraków

Despite only being two months ago, it feels like forever since I last went away. So the anticipation in the build up to this trip to Kraków has been very high. However, before we get to that…

List Item: Visit all EU countries
Progress: 19/28

Despite having some genealogical roots in Poland (more specifically the Silesia region in the South West) this is my first time visiting. This really has been a long time coming seeing how I enjoy eating Polish food, watching Polish movies and, more importantly, it’s a pretty cheap holiday. Then again, after my last new EU country (Sweden) anywhere is going to feel pretty cheap.

Country: Poland
Year first visited: 2018

The journey to Kraków itself was pretty uneventful, although we did have a fantastic breakfast where we polished off the extra Belgian waffles that I had in the freezer.

I know I have said it already, but it is worth repeating, as a Londoner I cannot get over how inexpensive everything is over here. We had some problems with getting an Uber to our hotel (turns out that it was because of our hotel’s proximity to the Old Town and Uber drivers are not allowed to operate there) and we just missed the train (the next was in 90 minutes) so were getting a bit annoyed because we ended up splashing 89 zloty in a cab. Please note – this is about £20 between three people, it’s just that 89 feels like such a high number.

Our hotel is in the perfect place. It’s like having our own little apartment 5 minutes walk away from the old town and we’re close enough to some small supermarkets that I am going to be able to make breakfasts with some local ingredients as I actually have a kitchen to play with!

At about 6 in the evening, we set out of the hotel to get a first impression of the nearby areas of Kraków. The first thing that really struck me was just how much greenery there is, in fact the entire central part of the old town is surrounded by a park that also happens to contain statues and a number of water features. It would have been rude if we hadn’t taken a slight detour to get to know this area a bit better before heading to the main attraction.

List item: Visit 100 of the Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travelist
Progress: 76/100Sight: Rynek Główny
Location: Kraków, Poland
Position: #197

This main market square of Kraków is huge. It’s one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, to the point where the middle contains the large (and old) Cloth Hall, which now houses a small museum and a lot of small shops. Being so large and existing in 360 degrees, it is really hard to take pictures of the square at ground level that do it proper justice.

Size and impressive architecture aside, the energy you get from this square feels pretty unique. Its like a larger and less crowded version of Covent Garden that also has a lot of historical significance. It was the moment that I first stepped onto the square where I realised that Kraków feels like a special place. Also, this square is going to be one of those places that we keep finding our way back to during our stay.

Being out first night, it only made sense that we did the really touristy thing and had dinner on the square itself. So, we went to Restauracja Sukiennice which is actually attached to the Cloth Hall in the centre. Honestly, it was the pictures of the schnitzel on their menu that won me over.

In any other city, the mark up would be so horrendous that we’d have to get one of the cheaper things on the menu to prevent us from losing all our currency. However, this is Kraków where we ate like kings and it only cost £10-12 each. I mean we all had huge (and really well done) schnitzels, a few drinks and we shared this huge and amazing meat and sauerkraut thing that came in a huge bread bowl… and it was still so cheap. Part of me wished that we had room for dessert, but I don’t think we stood a chance after the sauerkraut bread bowl.

As the sun began to set, we started to walk off dinner with a bit of an explore of the southern parts of the old town. It really does feel like a less imposing version of Vienna, or at least a Vienna that never became an important imperial capital. There really is something about the architectural style and the ever present theme of classical music that makes Kraków feel grand and cultured, yet it feels remarkably young at times as well.

Already I can also see that we’re going to be having surprises around every corner. For example, on this walk, we randomly came across a small market (with many many food stalls selling everything from smoked cheese carvings to alligators made from nougat) that has been temporarily set up to celebrate a big football match (that Poland has no stakes in).

We headed back as the stag nights began to start. On the walk back to the hotel we began to get a lot of people coming up to us with the promise of cheap beer and attractive women. Seeing how I am gay and teetotal, they could not have picked a worse mark. We also began to see some of the stag and hen nights begin to drag themselves into town… to do whatever it is they do. It kinda sucks that, because we’re three guys and none of us look native, the assumption is that we’re here to get drunk and objectify women. Whatever, it’s Sunday tomorrow and that means we can be fresh for our first full day.

So that’s the end of the first day where, already, I have been able to tick off one of the four (yes, four) Lonely Planet suggested sites that I plan to visit whilst I am in Kraków. What are the other three? See you next time where I’ll be visiting the second of four.