Most romantic places in Poland

Many people say about Poland that it is a "heart-shaped country" and if you take a good look on a map you'll see it's true. Although in Poland we don't show our feelings in public very often, at least not like in Italy, where you can see kissing couples everywhere, we can be very romantic :) On Valentine's Day there is no other subject than LOVE so it is a perfect occasion to show you the most romantic places in Poland.

The Little Market in Kazimierz Dolny
This pearl of Polish rennesaince and very old little town is one of the most beautiful places in Poland known from exceptional atmosphere, picturesque views and great monuments. It's located in the centre of Poland and is one of the favourite 'places to runaway' for people from Warsaw. The Little Market and the panorama from the Mountain of Three Crosses will take your breath away!

Mariacka Street in Gdańsk
Mariacka Gate through which you can enter Mariacka street is one of the things that Gdansk is very pride of. The street itself is believed to be one of the most enchanting streets in Europe. It seems to be taken out from some fairy taile, with all the sculptures and decorated tenement houses. In the past, all rich habitants of Gdansk lived there. Also it's a place where you can buy high quality amber stones.

The monument of lovers in Grudziądz
The Polish soldier and his lady are hugging in front of the Grudziądz City Hall. Grudziądz itself is a city in the northern part of Poland with many places to sightsee: old city wall, St Mary's Church, St Nicholas Church and many parks where you can hide from the city crowd.

Chełmno - the city St Valentine
Chełmno is the city of love. It's a place where the relicts of St Valentine are kept in the old medieval Fara Church. You will find many old churches there and a beautiful town hall.

Fat Thursday in Poland

Polish Fat Thursday can be compared to Pancake Day celebrated in many English speaking countries or Mardi Gras because it is all about being gluttonous and losing yourselves in partying before the time of Lent comes - everything is allowed, except moderation, diet, listening to music on low volume, modesty!

Fat Thursday is celebrated on the last Thursday before Lent by eating pączki (pon-chqi) - fist-sized large doghnuts filled with rose jelly (classic version), plum preserve or eggnog (in Poland known as advocaat). The outside of these hefty treats is usually coated in a sweet glaze just to ensure you get plenty of sugary goodness in every bite. There will be no more chance to celebrate before Easter, so you have to eat as many pączki as possible!

Traditional Polish pączek

Some bakers fill a few pączki with almond paste instead of marmalade and encountering this filling is said to bring good luck. An old Polish superstition states that if you don't eat at least one doughnut on Shrove Thursday, you will no longer be successful in life.

Another traditional treat consumed on Fat Thursday is faworki - ribbon-shaped, thin strips of crispy pastry dough sprinkled with powdered sugar.

For confectioners and bakers it is one of the busiest time of the year. Statistics SHOW that for the past few years around 100 million doughnuts and many hundreds of kilogrammes of the faworki are eaten on Fat Thursday in Poland. The money spent on Fat Thursday delicacies today would buy 200 apartments of 50 square metres in Warsaw and as many as around 430 in Bydgoszcz, northern Poland.

Queue to the confectionery in Warsaw

Waiting for pączki on Chmielna street in Warsaw

Here you will find an easy recipe for traditional Polish pączki with step-by-step photos: http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishdesserts/ss/paczki.htm
and for faworki: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4kLT1ZfVes.

Children, Hearts & Rock n' Roll

If you have been in Warsaw last Sunday you have been probably wondering why everybody is wearing a red, heart shaped sticker? What the hell? ...

Every second Sunday of Janunary is a day on which the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity plays all over Poland. In every city, town, village, every corner of Poland they are collecting money for purchasing medical equipment for Polish hospitals. They have been doing it for 21 years and Poles got very into it. You can meet Orchestra's volunteers everywhere. Their characteristic feature is a big, colorful paper can in their hands. And, what's suprising, whole Poland is donating money by putting it inside the can. Every year it gets really crazy - big companies spend thousands of zlotys to buy an official golden heart of the Orchestra, there are concerts and events taking place in every city, all TV channels are broadcasting only materials about the Orchestra, people are spending as much money as they can to take part in the Grande Finale money collection. It's crazy & beautiful. And the person who makes it happen is Jurek Owsiak . It was his idea to found the Orchestra and collect money for specialistic equipment for children hospitals. He also organises Woodstock Festival in Poland. See the website of the Great Orchestra: http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/

This is what you could see on every TV channel on Sunday 13th January. Jurek Owsiak is in the studio of the public television, coordinating the Grande Finale money collection.

Cooking for Christmas

Polish Christmas tradition is very old and rich. In the afternoon, after the first star shines on the sky, families gather together around Christmas table to celebrate the time baby Jesus was born. During this festive dinner we give each other presents, we sing Christmas carols (in Poland you can find hundreds of them!), we put some hay under the tablecloth, we leave one empty plate for a stranger and of course we eat twelve traditional dishes prepared especially for Christmas time. The meals represent twelve Apostles. The main offerings are fish and mushrooms as due to the nativity fast, no meat is allowed on Christmas Eve.

The traditional dishes are: mushroom soup, beet soup with small dumplings called 'uszka', carp: fried and in jelly, cabbage with pea, cabbage with mushrooms (something like Polish 'bigos'), boiled or fried 'pierogi' (dumplings) with cabbage and mushrooms; pasta with poppy, sugar and honey; dry fruit compote. There are also served traditional cakes such as gingerbread and poppy-seed cake. Below you'll find some recipies:

Dumplings with cabbage and mushrooms:
Ingredients for cake:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup warm water
pinch of salt-to taste


Ingredients for filling:
0.5 kg sauerkraut, 17.63 oz
0.2 kg of dried mushrooms, 7.05 oz
1 onion,
salt, pepperExecution: Pour water over dried mushrooms and let stand for about 1 hour.After an hour, cook mushrooms until soft in water in which they were soaked. Sauerkraut pour water and cook for about 15 minutes.When cooked, drain off and cut the cabbage.After cooked, drain off mushrooms and cut into very fine or run through a meat grinder.Dice the onion and fry in oil. Add the chopped cabbage and sliced mushrooms to the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes. Mix flour with salt and add hot water.Knead the dough.Roll out the dough.Trim the appropriate glass shapes.Then we put the stuffing in the center of the cake.We combine the two sides, and glue. Boil water, add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of oil. At the boiling water throw dumplings.Cook over low heat about 5 minutes. Serve with fried onions.

Presents from St Nick!

Probably you have already noticed that in Poland we celebrate much during autumn and winter. That's because during those seasons we don't get much sunlight here and we have to focus on something joyful. You have heard about Andrzejki recently. Nearly week after it we enjoy Mikołajki - Saint Nicolas Day. It's not only Polish tradition, you can meet it in many other countries, but the way it is celebrated is slightly different everywhere. Even in Poland there is a variety of ways to celebrate Mikołajki, depending on a region you are currently in...

Most popular gifts for Mikołajki are gingerbread cookies or Santa Claus made of chocolate. (piernikarnia.blogspot.hu)

In some parts of Poland, probably in the south, people have believed that St Nicolas is a patron of shepherds and that he saves the ewes and cattle from wolves. On 6th December, people used to offer St Nicolas wreaths made of flax and some herbs. They also put eggs, which are a symbol of life and fertility, on them.

In the north of Poland, in Kaszuby, St Nicolas was called 'Gwiazdor'. He acted like St Nick but he looked different - he was wearing fur and all his face was smutty.

In Poznań people believe that at night on 5th December, Santa Claus looks through a window and if he sees that all shoes of in the household are clean, he leaves a gift for each member of the family. But if the shoes are dirty - he leaves a rotten potato.

In the centre of Poland (Mazowsze), over hundred years ago on 6th December somebody from a village dreesed up like a St Nicolas and in a company of an angel and a devil he visited all the children who lived in a town. He asked them if they know all the prayers well and he asked their parents if their behaviour was good. If the child was polite, was given a small present (gingerbread, apple, nuts) if not - he received a rod!

Polish story about St Nicolas tells that he was a bishop of Mira (some area in today's Turkey). One day, a man living in Mira has gone out of business and he lost all his possessions. The worst was that he wanted to send away his daughters to become prostitutes. To save them from this fate, bishop Nicolas is believed to pop three sacks packed with coins through a chimney of the man's house. The coins fell on the floor and you could find them strewn around, even in shoes, slippers and socks. That's why on 5th December night people (I mean Santa Claus :) give each other small gifts (sweets are most popular) by hiding them inside big colorful socks or under the pillow.

Gwiazdor - St Nick from Kaszuby

Fortune-telling in Poland

If you want to know the name of your future husband or what is waiting for you in future you should know more about Andrzejki, the old Polish tradition celebrated during the night on 29th November, which is believed to be magical. 29th of November is the St Andrew's Day, which is well known also in Scotland, Greece and Russia. In Poland St Andrew's Day is the last day to party before adwent begins. Adwent is the time before Christmas which is meant to be spent in peace and a holy reflexion. Andrzejki is the last chance to have some fun :)

In Poland this night is all about predicting the future. Originally, it was only for unmarried women to gain knowledge about their future husband or the time they will get married. Currently, nobody believes in this all 'fortune telling' and does it only for entertainment. There are several traditional ways to tell the future...

Wax future telling: You take a candle and pour a wax to a jug or a bowl filled with water. There is one condition: you have to pour the wax through a key-hole. When you finish, take the wax out and see what shadow does it give on the wall. Whatever shape you will see, this thing is your destiny.

What is it???
taken from: garnek.pl

Shoe race: Girls gather together in a room (the bigger the better). Every girl taking part in a shoe race takes off her shoe. They put shoes in a line towards the door. Then they take the last shoe from the line and put it at the front. They do the same with the rest of shoes until they reach the door. The shoe which will be the first by the door wins the race and the owner of the shoe is the first one to get married.

Drawing lots: You have to find a box and put different things inside: a leaf, a ring, a beadroll, a coin. Close your eyes and pick the first thing coming to your hand. A leaf means that you'll become a spinster, a ring - that you'll get married very soon, a beadroll - that you'll become a nun and a coin - that you'll be very rich someday.

Predicting future from cards: Take out four aces from a deck of cards. Then close your eyes and pick one of them. Ace hearts means peaceful and calm home you will build in future; ace spade means that your husband will be commanding and strict but very loyal to you; ace club means that you should expect a big suprise in your love life. Ace diamonds is good news coming soon.

Poland celebrates the International Day of Chocolate!

Sunny summer is coming to an end so it is good to make your life sweeter. That's why the International Day of Chocolate was invented. On this particular day, on De Gaulle Rondabout (this one with a famous palm) cups of delicious milk chocolate are served to the pedestrians.

To celebrate the Day of Chocolate you should visit one of the E.Wedel shops. E.Wedel is the oldest Polish confectionery. Founded by Karol Ernest Wedel in 1851 it produces variety of high-quality chocolate. It's the most popular chocolate in Poland. But not only chocolate is the Wedel's speciality. You must try also "Ptasie Mleczko" - chocolate covered marshmallow; "Mieszanka Wedlowska" - assorted chocolate covered candy; "Torcik Wedlowski" - a large, circular, chocolate covered wafer with hand-made decorations and "Pawełek" - chocolate bar with a flavored filling that contains a small amount of alcohol.

On De Gaulle roundabout in Warsaw there is a palm made of chocolate!

The chocolate is served to the pedestrians by E.Wedel

Enjoy :)

You can make a trip to see the chocolate factory in Warsaw in Kamionek district. It is located on Prague on Zamoyskiego Street no. 7. Here you can check E.Wedel shops around Poland: http://www.wedelpijalnie.pl/pl/lokale