Not getting back from Krakow until 01:30AM we took the opportunity to have a lazy morning. After a spot of breakfast we stepped out into the cold air, catching a bus then tram into Wroclaw city centre. The transport system in and around Wroclaw is, from my experiences, widely reliable, with simple connections made easy with electronic signage throughout the city informing you of the next tram/bus times. The transport system alone gives Wroclaw a very tourist friendly environment with many stops being translated into English. Last year Wroclaw was the European City of Culture, something which shines through clearly in the signage and tourists maps that can been seen all over the city, guiding you easily the quickest and most informative direction of a site of interest.
Once within the City Centre we stopped by ‘Etno Café’ to get our usual midday coffee, in a small round-house (polish: okraglak) building perched in the middle of the pathway the bright signage and cosy warmth draws you in to experience personally one of the best coffees I have tasted while in Poland. With this being the smallest of their three outlets I hope to squeeze in one more visit to their much larger store to indulge myself with a cup of pure bliss. Furthermore me and Filip are tempted to buy a bag of locally roasted coffee beans offered in Etno stores.
Satisfied with the caffeine now flowing through our bodies we walked around the colourful streets and alleys taking in along the way various pieces of street art that are tucked away waiting to be discovered. Our walk ended when we arrived at ‘Stacja Dizajn‘, a unique shop/restro bar that combines the young design, art and the best Polish projects. It was here that I wanted to buy a pillow with a Wroclaw design by @passengerspot , with Stacja Dizajn offering only original designs with limited productions, it was hard to not get drawn into the other beautifully crafted homeware items that I could have easily purchased within seconds.
Now with pillow underarm we headed back home to dine with Filip’s sister and nan before again going out in the city to have drinks with some of Filip’s friends. ‘Sielanka’ was our venue of choice, a cosy candle lit bar situated underneath the railway line of Wroclaw’s main train station. Sielanka offered 70p (3.50 PLN) shots of various flavours, of which we tried ‘Apple Pie’ (Nut Vodka, apple juice and milk foam to top with cinnamon) & ‘Chessecake’ (Nut vodka, raisins and vanilla syrup), both of which tasted exactly like their cake counterparts. Listening to the polish conversations around me always fascinates me, whenever I hear another language I always try my hardest to pick out what certain words mean and now even more so since I am learning Polish. It’s always so satisfying when I pick out words that I already know of and can make out what they are actually talking about. Thankfully the whole night wasn’t surrounded in Polish speaking as Filip and his friends kindly spoke in English conversation for the majority of the night as we all spoke of past experiences in life and looked ahead to our futures with many of us either now in University or going into it this coming September.
Of course with good drinking comes the even better food afterwards, sharing two pizzas between a now much smaller group we watched the city night continue on around us, the tracks of trams screeching in most directions echoed by the laughter and chatter of others around us enjoying the start of the weekend. With the rain then starting to fall, we chose this time to board our tram home to retire our restful day wandering this beautifully bright city.