Well I was one excited bear… it was my first time on a plane and my first trip abroad and we were on our way to Mum’s home city, Wroclaw in Poland. If you’re like my Dad and can’t get your head around how you pronounce that, you say it as Vrots-waff and not Rock-claw like my Dad would probably say!
Wroclaw is the largest city in western Poland and the capital of the Lower Silesian province. Known for the impressive and unique Panorama of the Battle of Racławice and the beautiful, historic Ostrów Tumski quarter, the city is full of historical sites and vibrant cultural venues. It’s Poland’s fourth largest city and has a turbulent past, over the past few hundred years, it’s been fought over time and again, having been part of Bohemia, Austria, Prussia and – until the end of World War II, when its name was Breslau – Germany.
As pretty and colourful as any of its Polish counterparts like Krakow and Warsaw, Wroclaw is still undiscovered by mass tourism so free of stag parties! The city had investment a few year’s previously as one of the host cities for Euro 2012 and it was about to come into the spotlight in 2016 as European Capital of Culture. Mum had so much she wanted to show us, but first she wanted to get her hair cut! Yes, you heard it! We travelled over 1,000 miles for a hair cut. Mum does not trust anyone in the UK to cut her curly hair, so she only ever gets it done when she is back home. Crazy I know!
So whilst they waited for Mum, Dad and her friend went to Czeski Film and had a few beers. When Mum and I came to meet them, we had the best Pierogi (Polish Dumplings) with fried onion on top… my first dumplings in Poland but it would not be my last. Yummy! Mum also taught Dad the proper way to drink Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka, which was with Cucumber and Cinnamon apparently. Dad wasn’t convinced, but drank with a smile on his face, happy to be learning about Polish culture. Cheers!
Before going to the hotel, we checked out the Neon Side Gallery or Galeria Neonów. This is a cool place located where the signs used to be made at the old Reklama enterprise. There are almost 30 neon signs of various institutions, companies, workshops, shops, cinemas and bars. Most of these places don’t exist nowadays. It all started back in 2005, when the owner, Tomasz Kosmalski, bought his first sign – the old signboard of the confectionery shop on Nowowiejska Street. Tomasz was anxious about the disappearance of signs throughout the city, so sparked an extraordinary initiative to protect them from being destroyed by careless renovation companies. Tomasz we applaud you 👏
We stayed at the B&B Hotel Wroclaw Centrum, which was pleasant enough and Dad could not believe just how cheap it was… well how cheap everything was in Poland to be honest! Right outside the hotel was one of Wroclaw’s famous dwarves. Cheeky, bronze and oozing with personality, these pint-sized statues were everywhere in the city. Wroclaw’s dwarfs are small figurines (20-30 cm) that first appeared in the streets of the city in 2005. Since then, their numbers have been continually growing, today they are considered a tourist attraction, so you can combine sight-seeing with “hunting for dwarfs” and at the time, there were over 350 dwarfs spread all over the city for us to find.
The following day we visited Ostrów Tumski (the name means ‘Cathedral Island’ in Polish) with it’s beautiful streets. Surrounded by the river Oder, it has some fantastic architecture including the Gothic St. John Baptist cathedral, completely rebuilt after World War II. To get there we crossed Tumski Bridge, a steel bridge over the north branch of the river. It’s also called Lovers Bridge, a place of enamoured tradition for lovers, full of love locks which lovers leave to cherish their feelings. An important part of the ceremony is to throw the key into the river.
That night we visited Lot Kury and has some very nice and very strong craft beers. Mum then took us to Niebo Cafe which was famous in the city and the place everyone went once everywhere else closed. It was very dark inside and the only light was from candles using empty Jagermeister bottles as makeshift holders. Mum had often found herself there still drinking after the Sun had come up, but no walk of shame on this visit, we had an early start to catch the flight home, so off we went back to the hotel, a tiny tiny bit typsy. We could see why Mum loved her city so much, we enjoyed our little visit and couldn’t wait to be back again.