Reflections of Poland

We liked Poland the least but we're very glad we visited. It has so much to offer and we had some great experiences. However it has big boots to fill after Bulgaria and Romania, especially after Romania.

For starters Poland had names that were unpronounceable. Even after hearing it said and practising it many times with accommodation hosts, walking tour guides, and even google, we somehow could not get our brains and tongue around the names.

Generally the least friendly of the three countries we visited. However we did meet some very nice, helpful and warm people.
This could be because we did not have the car as much in this part of the holiday so we tended to then visit the larger towns. Also, Polish history is checkered with enormous hardship for the people so I guess they would have had to struggle, be suspicious, and were less approachable.

We found Polish cuisine rather lacklustre. Again, our tastebuds could have been spoilt by what we got used to in Romania. Ohh... Romanian food... However, we did rather take to the Polish Pierogi dumplings which we preferred boiled not fried. We did discover that Poland has a large number of Michelin bib and starred restaurants that had really good food without the huge price tag. Our bill for a meal for both of us at a Michelin Bib restaurant was usually between $80 to $100aud.
We tried Thai, Japanese, Slavic, Italian, Steak house and Polish cuisine. Our favourite was the Italian restaurant Marino Bistrot in Poznan, and most favourite was the Polish cuisine at Restaurant Pernicova in Wroclaw. They were awarded the top 5 restaurant in all of Poland, and they certainly deserved it. We were fortunate to dine there twice.

We found sirens for emergency vehicles in Warsaw very deafening and frequent. Even through the double glazing windows, the sirens were loud.

Hayfever was the worst in Poland, maybe because we weren't used to the pollen there and there was alot of it. It could also just be a matter of timing, that we caught the worst of the season in the 3 weeks we were there.

Poland was rather flat and lacked the dramatic scenery of mountains in Bulgaria and Romania.Læs mere