Happy 3rd of May Constitution Day! :-D Sadly, this meant a lot of places were closed, but not too many. And, it did mean wonderful celebration and decoration with many people and Polish flags around.
Today was the FUN trip to the salt mine. Because of no traffic, the bus ride was really fast and our group had a private English tour (lots of licking, lots of salt...). The mines were amazing. There is so much to see: statues made of salt or wood, several chapels, chandeliers, and all sorts of passages. We spent maybe three hours there and, as visitors, we see only 2%! It was a neat trip and I will show pictures soon. Word of the Day: Krasnoludki (gnomes in Polish; they can be found in the mine ;) )
After that trip, I headed into town and bought my first zapiekanka. I wanted quality (since many sold from gas stations, supermarkets, etc. are not so great). I had to even WAIT since it was that fresh from the oven at a real restaurant that had a to-go window with a shortened menu [http://www.restauracja-horoscope.pl]. It had a proper baguette, cheese, mushrooms, spinach, chives, and garlic sauce (was surprised about the mushrooms, but was hoping for tomato sauce - thought the waiter mentioned ketchup, but maybe he thought I selected only garlic sauce when I heard him ask about that and then ketchup, but I kept just saying yes to it all in Polish... maybe it was forgotten, but I would have wanted tomato sauce over ketchup anyway.) I am glad I did not settle for a junky zapiekanka. When it comes to Polish foods, street ones or not, there still are a few more I have yet to try (of course some I would not try or eat if I had had before ;) :-P ) - kebabs (may sample here since I want a vegetarian one and a place with good kebabs is nearby my hotel and offers them), obwarzanek (sort of a pretzel-bagel hybrid on the streets of Krakow served either plain, with sesame seeds, with salt, or with poppy seeds), nalesniki (other than the vegetable tart I had with nalesniki in it and the one time I had it at someone's home over Easter/Spring Break), potato pancakes, oscypek (smoked cheese that I am uncertain I will try...) meats, non-Polish foods (some Asian, American - hot dogs and hamburgers, some other ethnic etc.). I have had a paczek (singular for paczki) with rose jam filling, a gofra (singular for gofry) with strawberry jam topping, ice cream/sorbet, a zapiekanka with spinach and mushroom and chives, and other dishes (several soups, pierogi, meats, surowki/salads, croquette, vegetable tart, kasza/buckwheat rice, salads, side dishes), candy - toffee Pawelek, vanilla ptasie mleczko, chocolate bar with hazelnuts, princessa waffle bars, one chocolate-covered biscuit candy from a vending machine, paluszki - pretzel-like rods, piernik (gingerbread/cakes), and krowki (caramel candy that I had a while before coming to Poland and not here)... will have to research the rest to see what I am missing, such as pho that is popular due to the Vietnamese minority. ;) After the zapiekanka, I walked around and it sadly began to rain. I hid in a Coffee Heaven (http://coffeeheaven.pl/) for a bit to read and to have green tea, but ended up heading back to the hotel in the rain for a bit before dinner. At dinner, I had a chicken broth soup with chives, thin noodles, and carrots and a salad with chicken, almond slices, some avocado slices, red peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, and balsamic sauce, with sorbet scoops for dessert. Now I am relaxing before Wawel and other tours tomorrow, with a free time before a concert in the evening. We have dinner alone, but will be reimbursed. I am thinking about what to have: kebab? Vegetarian? [http://vegarestauracja.pl/ may be the place... or my old standby Green Way...] We'll see. I received a lot of good info today about history, culture, books, Poland, and the others on the program. The cold and rainy weather was the main downside of the day.
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