Kołobrzeg Arrival
August 6 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Today we headed once again up to the Polish coast to Kołobrzeg to eat all the delicious foods! I had schedule to pick up the car early to leave early and maybe hang out a bit at the beach until check in, but when I got there the car hadn’t been returned yet so I had to wait for it to get there (I left there an hour after I had scheduled) so we didn’t end up leaving early…which ended up working out as it would have been raining here if we were here earlier! We got here just after the rain stopped.
We left early-ish as Raymond had afternoon meetings and luckily the drive was way less traffic than last time (there is construction at the border so it took forever last time). We got here and there was a code to get into the building and we needed a parking pass and clicker to get into the parking so Raymond went to try and get that…only the code wasn’t working so I parked on the street and went to try and help. When I got there there was a lady who lives in the building who was trying to help Raymond and she was super nice and friendly and I was like I do not expect this in Poland. Not that the people are mean, but they are not overly happy like she was. So there was also a card to scan at the front door to get in in the apartment instead of a code so I went in with the lady to go up the elevator to the apartment and get that to try. Well there was another lady on the elevator and so the first lady was explaining that we were having issues getting in and so when they got off (different floors) they were both like good luck!! Hope you get it figured out!! And they were really nice and made it not as frustrating that we couldn’t get in. We did figure out the code (and I was chatting with the person who owns the apartment about why we had issues so he can send better info for the next person) and got all settled.
I went out to go to the store while Raymond was in his meeting and everyone in the elevator here has been really friendly, even with me wearing my mask! I am not used to that! So so far this has been a great trip! Friendly people living in the building we are staying at :)
The building were are staying at is basically halfway between the other two we stayed at before. We are on the little “island” next to downtown and the first time we came we stayed on the north side just below the main road. Last time we stayed in the southern end just above the main road. This time we are right by the smaller road that goes over to downtown in the middle of the island and you can see the water on both sides! The view from last time over the Marina was better, but it was in the kitchen with nowhere to sit and enjoy the view…but this isn’t bad! The weather cleared up and was perfect for wandering and having dinner outside!
After Raymond was done with work we headed out to have dinner at a Thai restaurant. We had lemonades for drinks (mine was called butterfly flower), tempura betel leaves with a tamarind sauce - these were different and I liked them! and tempura sweet potato with a caramel sauce which was odd. I didn’t read that that was the sauce or I probably wouldn’t have gotten it as it was more of a desert. Then pad Thai and Penang curry - both pretty good, but not as good as I had remembered.
Then I wandered down to the marina along the water for an after dinner walk and saw so many people filling up their water at the salt spring. I thought maybe I would try it, but I walked up and you could smell the water and I thought you know what I’m not gonna try the water I know will taste horrible. Not today.
Then wandered back along the water and saw some new to my plants in the water - Butomus umbellatus (the flowering grass!) and branched bur-reed which was odd looking. So that was fun. Then back to our place to relax. A pretty nice first day!Read more
Kołobrzeg Day 1
August 7 in Poland ⋅ 🌬 18 °C
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
Kołobrzeg Day 2
August 8 in Poland ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Today we woke up to sunny and gorgeous weather! Really it was almost too warm on the balcony in the sun eating breakfast whereas yesterday I was freezing as it was overcast (but the same temp)! We decided to have a beach day since the weather was so nice and headed off to spy on the farmers market this morning expecting it to be like yesterday morning…only it was like yesterday afternoon! Only there were three small stalls instead of 2. So sad. I had been thinking of what I could get to make dinners this week at home, but alas it was not to be. I’m so glad I went yesterday morning!
We hung out until it was almost lunchtime then headed to a place by the beach we were going to that is run by the Thai place we went to the first night - they had given us an ad for it and it looked good so we wanted to try it. We got some gyoza to start, yakisoba and yaki udon with tofu - both were really good but super different flavor profiles! The yakisoba was a lighter flavor and the yaki udon was a very strong savory flavor. Both were really good and we both had a hard time deciding which was our favorite! Then we got this sticky rice cooked in Thai red tea with coconut milk to try as it was something I’ve never seen before and that was really good too! Not too coconuty so it worked for me. I was like we might have to replace the Thai place with this place next time we are up here as they had all the same Thai things as well! More choices for us!
Then it was a quick walk to the beach. We went to the western side of the inlet as there is a large military area right there so you have to go west a ways from the inlet to get to the beach and I figured if it was busy we could probably walk along the beach along the military area (the fenced off area is just in the woods) to find space since most people congregate near the entrances to the beach and I am glad we did! It was soooo busy!! By far the busiest we have ever see the beach to here! But a couple minutes walk down the beach and we were able to find plenty of space with no one else around. It was sunny, but windy so never got too hot. I thought about getting in, but I tried up to my knees and it was freezing! Plus once I got out I was even colder so thought it was best not to. I would have been an ice cube walking home! We hung out there until it was time to walk back and get dinner.
On the walk back I spied this fruit tree with small yellow fruit and was like what is that?!? Well my app said it is a cherry plum! I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them before, but they were too high to reach so could not try it (people had already taken the low hanging ones).
We had ordered pierogis yesterday from the place we normally get them from to be delivered today, but just before they were supposed to be delivered they said they canceled the order :( by that time it was too late to try and walk down and get them to go as they wold be closed by the time we got there. I looked for what else we could get and found a different pierogi place with vegan pierogis and decided to try that out. They only had 2 options, but they were both super tasty! One was potato the other mushroom and sauerkraut and I think next time we will have to try and get pierogis from both places as they are all so different, but so delicious!! I think the place we ended up ordering from tonight is new, or new to having vegan options, as I know I looked last time to see if there were any other pierogis we could get. There was also a third place, but all of the vegan ones had mushrooms and as long as the mushrooms are cut small then I can eat them. b
If they are not and I have to chew them then I can’t eat them as I cannot do the texture, so we didn’t try that one in case they were bigger pieces and then I wouldn’t have anything to eat (though after trying these two places it is probably safer to assume it will be fine as they both had very finely diced mushrooms - couldn’t really tell they were in there by looking at them - so it seems like that is the way they make them). Maybe next time we will try all three! All the pierogis!!
After dinner we walked down towards the water for sunset, thought there are no clouds and the sun set behind the trees before we got there (it was too far to walk to the beach again for real sunset). It was much warmer than last night since the wind went away this evening.
All in all a great day! I thought it would be a more relaxing, less walking day, but we still did all the walking! The beach was about a half hour walk away, then walking down the beach, so that adds up! Tomorrow we shall see what we get up to before heading home.Read more
Kołobrzeg Final Day
August 9 in Poland ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Today we got up, packed up and headed back to the beach! We drove down and got a great parking spot in the shade which was nice. A quick walk through the forest (with some old bunkers!) and we were there! It was so much quieter than yesterday! The wind had disappeared so no white capped waves!
When we got there it was not that busy, but still plenty of people on the beach so we headed down towards where we sat yesterday. We didn’t go quite as far, but it was not as busy so we figured it would be fine since we would have to leave to come home, hopefully before people encroached on our space!
It was much warmer today, just a light breeze now and again, so by the time we got to where we put our stuff I was like I think I could get in! The water was freezing and it is not very deep unless you go very far out - there was a “deeper” dip just after you got in (to your knees), then a sand bar makes it shallow so you had to get to the other side of that, which we didn’t go that far out. So really it was only waist deep or so if we dipped down into the water which was fine. I didn’t last that long before my legs were freezing, maybe 10 min, but it was fun! First time getting in the water at the coast!
We relaxed on the beach and I got in when I got warm and it was perfect. After we ate lunch it was time to head for home and it was good timing as people were just starting up come into our area. We walked back in the shallow waters and man the beach was packed by the entrances! More so than yesterday! So many people enjoying the warmer day! I wish we could have just hung out all day as that would have been perfect, but oh well.
On the way home we tried the raspberry bun from the other day and I got a photo of the inside - so much raspberry filling! I think I liked this one better than the blueberry one, but they were both good.
This was such a nice weekend! Before we got there I was kind of like what were I we going to do? We were just here in April and we’ve seen everything…but we still found more new to us things and finally had some real beach days! Oh it was so nice! I wish we could go up to the beach more often when it is warm and nice weather! Such a great weekend!Read more
TravelerAre you renting an apartment? The Butomus umbellatus is lovely!
TravelerYes! We usually stay in apartments/houses because I want a kitchen to cook in and a room separate from the bedroom (so Raymond doesn’t wake me up when he gets up early).
TravelerGood idea!
Neat grass! [Na]