And we're off! We've been looking forward to our Polish road trip and are excited the time has come. Why Poland, you may be asking? Well, several months ago we were trying to figure out where to go and had a short list of about 25 places, none of which were Poland. The list ran the gamut: Turkey (probably good we didn't pick that given the events of late), Vietnam, Thailand, Greece, New England, original England, and many more. Then, I (Jami) saw an article about interesting places to visit in 2016 and thought I'd peruse. Poland was on the list and the photo looked cool. I looked up more Poland photos online and became more and more intrigued. I passed my laptop to Dave and he got sucked in, too. In addition to it being pretty (at least in the online photos), it was somewhere neither of us had been and we like that the country is geographically diverse - everything from Baltic Sea towns, vibrant cities, quaint country towns, and scenic mountains. And, we read that the people were quite nice. So, it was decided, Poland would be our big vacation destination of 2016.
In true Dave and Jami fashion, we planned very little ahead of time and procrastinated many things until the last minute. We shopped for clothing and footwear the day / night before and started packing about 3 hours before our flight departed. It all worked out, as it always does. Maybe next time we'll be better. Probably not. I did find time to get my hair done the day before we left and decided to shave the side of my head. Not quite sure why, not quite sure what I think about it, but glad I tried it. It does make me feel a bit more European, so there's that.
We left Seattle Tuesday afternoon, had a brief stop in Paris to change planes, and landed in Warsaw Wednesday morning. Thankfully we slept a good amount on the flights, but still felt pretty weary eyed. Stepping out of the Warsaw airport we were welcomed by a reminder that Poland is quite proud of being Chopin's birthplace (the airport is named after him) and looking across the street, that we're never that far away from America.
After a short Uber ride into the city (yay, Uber!) we settled into our Airbnb (yay, Airbnb!) and then headed out for lunch outside in the sun, our first beers in Poland, and a walk around Old Town.
We also dined al fresco for dinner. I was tempted by the 'Bowls full of vitamins' and 'Dishes with fish in the leading part', but decided on pierogi and beer, as did Dave (dinner twinsies).
Highlight of the day: Ice cream after dinner. Poles love their ice cream (lody) and can find it just about on every block. It reminds me of all the gelato shops in Italy. We went to a place that uses liquid nitrogen to make their ice cream. They add it to cream in a mixer and it hardens in front of your eyes - basically magic. There was a sign that said the liquid nitrogen makes a smoother texture, and it did. So creamy and yummy!
