Kołobrzeg Day 1

Today was a great day, but phew! I walked all over! Raymond had a German test prep class this morning so I went out to spy on the farmers market here. I didn’t see it when we came up last summer and I saw it on the map when we were here at Easter but it wasn’t open while we were here, but it is open every day except Sunday right now so I wanted to see what there was to see. Well it was the nicest farmers market I have been to in forever! I spent 45 min wandering and comparing and buying things! It was great. So much nice produce! All the berries and summer fruits, tomatoes, the biggest summer squashes I have ever seen! Tons of picking cucumbers (and people were buying a ton of them!) as well as homemade pickles and honey and all the root vegetables and so much stuff! I did see some things I had never seen before (the second photo) and I was like what in the world is that?? The first place didn’t have a sign, but then I saw them again and translated the sign - hazelnuts! So I got a couple to try and I forgot nuts have a hard shell, but we got into one and it was so soft and tasted like plant, not like hazelnut which was odd! I also got some cherries for snacks - the light color ones are super super tart! I think they might be too tart for Raymond, but I like them!

After the market I wandered through town and spied on the bakeries to see if there was anything fun for me to eat after we found so much at Easter. Today I got a pistachio raspberry tart and a rhubarb “cake” from one place (didn’t try the tart yet, but the cake is more like bread with rhubarb on top so still tasty!). Then at a second place I got some bread with jelly filling (just okay), a little pastry that had coffee filling (don’t like coffee - and it didn’t say it was that, but the last said I could eat it so I got one! But Raymond said it was fine), and a fried donut thing that was so light and airy! That one was pretty good.

On the way back to our place for lunch a Hawthorn Shield Bug decided to hitch a ride on my hat :) After Raymond’s class we headed back out and we went to spy on the farmers market again as Raymond wanted to see, and it said it was open until 5 online, but when we got there all but 2 stands were closed so that will be an adventure for the morning.

We then wandered through town towards the beach and the cathedral was open so we spied inside, then inside another church, and then took a break in the park near a different treat place and I was like maybe we should go to the treat place and sit outside with a treat and a drink and relax a bit. We decided to do that…only every single restaurant in the area was packed with a huge line of people waiting!! It was WAY busier than last year when we were up here which was still the first weekend in august, but was a week earlier (we got here July 31 last year as the first was a Friday). So we got some treats and had one on the beach - a blueberry bun, a raspberry bun, and a cinnamon roll. We tried the blueberry bun and it was a very thin bread with a ton of blueberry filling which wasn’t very sweet. It was like just blueberries and no added sugar and was delicious! I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but maybe I will when we eat the raspberry one.

There was also a stand up paddle board contest going on at the beach so we watched a bit of that while we were there, but it was windy and Raymond did not like the sand blowing on him! I didn’t even notice it until he was like there is too much sand everywhere!! Because it wasn’t blowing in my face so I was fine, but we didn’t stay that long.

Down by the beach they were setting up for an Indian festival that started this evening and we were like oh! They should have food for us! Maybe we could come back for dinner! But then I was looking up info it was just one small tent of food so I was like maybe we order dinner and then go spy and if it looks good we can go back tomorrow for dinner. So I had wanted to order from my favorite pizza place, but they didn’t have anything for me to eat! Only a mushroom pizza and since I don’t like mushrooms that want going to work. So then I thought okay we can do pierogis instead…but they were not taking orders as they were too busy! So I looked and there was another pizza place with a vegan Hawaiian pizza so we tried that and “bruschetta” and pizza bread. The pizza was a cracker which I don’t love, but the toppings were fine, the bruschetta was better, but the pizza bread was amazing! I don’t know why they don’t make the pizza like that! It was fine, but I wouldn’t order it again.

Then we wandered down to the Indian festival and…the food options were very disappointing. They didn’t have much and I was glad we didn’t just say let’s get dinner there as I think they only had rice I could eat. But they had stuff happening on stage constantly - when we got there some young girls doing acrobatics with a giant elevated ring and they were just okay, but fun to watch. Then some people doing an Indian dance, and then we went to have a sit when this older guy came out to talk and his speech was…not great (he was speaking English and had a Polish translator). I asked Raymond what he thought of the Indian festival and he said it was a lot of white people…which was true. All the people manning the tents were white, but I’m glad we went to check it out.

On the way back to our place we stopped and sat in the sun by the water by our place as I was waiting for sunset (which was in another 20min) and we were sitting by this small carnival ride area and man those rides last forever! There was a small roller coaster that went around in a loop for at least 5 min! The pirate ship swing had the same people on it for at least 15! And the tall ride with the chairs in either end that all rotates around? You have to plan like 20 min for that ride! 5 min to get everyone on and situated, then you go around for 5 min, then stuck at the top for 5 min while they load/unload the other side, then go around again for another 5 min! They were the longest rides like this I have ever seen! I looked it up and the Disney rides like the teacups of dumbo are in 1.5 min! So you get your moneys worth I guess!

While we were sitting there a Mystacides Azureus decided to visit Raymond with its super long antenna! It’s a type of caddisflies which is a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. So interesting to learn about!

And then finally back to our place to relax until bed. Such a good day, but so much walking! Tomorrow it shouldn’t be windy so the plan is to go to the market in the morning then walk down to the beach and spend the day there. We shall see! Hopefully it is a little warmer as it was a tad chilly today!

Oh! The guy in the bridge in the photo after the pizza? His jacket was so strange looking! It didn’t look real? Or like a drawing? Or I was like is that one of those paparazzi jackets so they can’t take photos of you as it was just really really odd!Read more