Warsaw

After leaving Kiev, we headed to Warsaw before heading back to Krakow.  We spent two lovely days there and even managed to take the train there and back!  Warsaw is a nice town, but certainly not as fun as Krakow.  It is more of a working city while Krakow is a student city.  Just as an example, in Krakow, Old Town and the main square are ALWAYS going, whereas in Warsaw, it may see a light rush of people around dinnertime, but other than that, it is pretty much empty.

Nevertheless, we did have some good food and drink while in Warsaw.  Our first stop was right on the square in Old Town, Bazyliszek.  Cold beer and large portions at good prices are the draw here.

This is the small beer...the large beer was HUGE!

Lynn and I started with the crayfish with pancakes.  The crayfish were served in a tomato sauce with roasted red pepper strips on the side.  The pancakes in question were actually crepes.  It was a huge portion.  I mean huge!  Two people could have split this for a main course.  It was ok.  The crayfish were a bit overcooked and really had no flavor to them.  The pancakes did have a smokey taste from being grilled quickly after being made.  

For our main courses, Lynn opted for the salmon and I opted for the veal schnitzel.  The salmon was actually very good and the broccoli that went with it was cooked perfectly.  The rice was rice...nothing special there. The schnitzel was good.  It lacked seasoning, but was a huge portion.  The pictures don't do justice to how large the portions actually were.  Needless to say, we didn't finish a single thing.  We opted out of dessert there, but don't worry, we did get some.

After such a large meal, we walked around and did some shopping.  Nothing was bought save for some postcards.  After walking around for an hour and trying to get out of the food coma, we landed at the place that is supposed to have some of the best pierogies around.

Any place that is called Pierrogeria has to be good, right?  Well it was.  We opted for a mix of blueberry and strawberry pierogies.  They were served with a sweetened cream.  They were some of the best that we have had while we have been in Poland.  The berries were fresh, not frozen and that does make a huge difference.  They didn't go heavy on the dough either, so it was a good mix.  These things (dough to filling ratio) do matter.  

All in all, we had a nice time in Warsaw, but we were glad to get back "home."