15 | A Day in Wrocław
This Saturday, I visited Wrocław with a friend. That's right. I have a friend that wants to do things with me. You could call that a success in itself.
A few weeks ago, I was researching easy trips from Warsaw and came across Wrocław. At the time the only thing I knew about it was that there were 300+ dwarf statues around the city. I was sold. My friend has a class in the same room I do, but the lecture period before my class. So, essentially I see him every Wednesday when he leaves class. That week he asked me what my next travel plans were, and I mentioned that I was thinking about Wrocław, and he asked if he could join. And, thus the trip was born. We ended up deciding to only spend a day there and leave Warsaw around 6am for the 4 hour bus ride and leave Wrocław at 11pm for a 5 hour bus ride (the bus stopped in Łódź, which for some reason added a whole extra hour). Essentially, we went into the trip knowing it would be an incredibly long day, but we were both excited to get to explore a new place with a low commitment of $14 bus tickets.
So what did we do?
We mostly just wandered around the city, because we went through all of our planned activities in a few hours. Ya, surprise, Wrocław is really small.
The most important aspect of this trip was dwarf sitings. The dwarves were used as a symbol of the Orange Alternative during the Communist period. Amazingly, the first drawing appeared in August 1982 during the period of martial law in Poland. If you're interested in the history of the little guys with a big meaning, here is a place to begin your research.
Aleks encouraged me to go to the top of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and was then disappointed that after a few flights of spiral stairs that there was a lift. I was pretty ok with not having to climb a billion stairs.
A few weeks ago, I was researching easy trips from Warsaw and came across Wrocław. At the time the only thing I knew about it was that there were 300+ dwarf statues around the city. I was sold. My friend has a class in the same room I do, but the lecture period before my class. So, essentially I see him every Wednesday when he leaves class. That week he asked me what my next travel plans were, and I mentioned that I was thinking about Wrocław, and he asked if he could join. And, thus the trip was born. We ended up deciding to only spend a day there and leave Warsaw around 6am for the 4 hour bus ride and leave Wrocław at 11pm for a 5 hour bus ride (the bus stopped in Łódź, which for some reason added a whole extra hour). Essentially, we went into the trip knowing it would be an incredibly long day, but we were both excited to get to explore a new place with a low commitment of $14 bus tickets.
So what did we do?
We mostly just wandered around the city, because we went through all of our planned activities in a few hours. Ya, surprise, Wrocław is really small.
The most important aspect of this trip was dwarf sitings. The dwarves were used as a symbol of the Orange Alternative during the Communist period. Amazingly, the first drawing appeared in August 1982 during the period of martial law in Poland. If you're interested in the history of the little guys with a big meaning, here is a place to begin your research.
Papa Krasnal aka the first dwarf in Wrocław
We also enjoyed the old town of one of the most colorful towns in Europe!
Yes, there is a Hard Rock, McDonald's, and Burger King in the main Old Town square
Aleks encouraged me to go to the top of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and was then disappointed that after a few flights of spiral stairs that there was a lift. I was pretty ok with not having to climb a billion stairs.
*bleg part two*
Crossed a bunch of bridges to enjoy the islands created by the Oder. But in the words of Aleks: it's no St. Petersburg.
Had to parkour onto a large concrete slab to find a nice place to rest (or Aleks just likes parkour, who knows)
Let's just say we had some interesting meals. The first photo is of where we ate lunch, which is the former city jail. I got the veggie burger, which had some odd ingredients in the description, but I just chalked it up to bad English translations. NOPE. It was literally a patty of fried mozzarella topped with two types of mayonnaise based sauces, lettuce, tomatoes, and bananas. I was not amused. Worth it for the jailbird dwarf, though. Second photo is from one of the many craft breweries in Wrocław. I got a cider that came in a very boring cup, but Aleks' beer was slightly more exciting. Don't worry - there was also some ice cream and a few glasses of wine consumed during the trip.
Home to the worst veggie burger...
All in all a good trip! 10/10 would recommend Wrocław for a day trip.
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