Surprise Weekend in Poland

Time to try out something new! Last year my dear friend Camilla turned 30. As she is crazy travel addicted too, we decided to give her a voucher of surp.travel - a Swiss Start-Up travel agency where you actually don't know where to go when you book. You can define the departure airport, the timeframe when you would like to leave, if you would like to go 3 or 4 days and exclude 3 destinations (cities, countries or regions) you don't want to go.

By the time we organized the voucher we didn't know that she was expecting a baby and so it was clear, that it might take some time until she will use it. Sweet Baby Girl Emilia Mahé was born 1st September 2018 and by beginning of this year, Camilla thought she is ready to spend a weekend without her (and I have to say she was very brave. Same counts for her husband who spent his first baby-daddy-only-weekend).

Lucky me, she chose me to join her for the surprise weekend and so we booked a surprise weekend for beginning of March.

When the date is coming closer, you get also the weatherforecast to know what you have to pack. And yes, I got the traveldocuments delivered home as well, but we decided to open it at the airport only. The information by when you have to be at the airport was delivered already. We kept guessing, I thought we are going to Poland, Camilla thought maybe rather direction Nordics. At the airport we knew - we are going to Warsaw yeeaaah!

Obviously we had to cheer on that at the airport and started to figure out what we would like to do.

We both love food and it became clear to book a foodtour. Unfortunately the one we requested was not in town (welcome to the low-season) but we found another spot to book. As Poland also has some impressive (and sad) history, we decided to sign up for a free walking tour which was focusing on the history of the Jewish people living in Warsaw before, during and after WorldWar2.

Soon we arrived in Warsaw, took a taxi to our hotel and walked into the old town. As we were hungry we went to eat something and it was super delicious! Can definitively recommend Przy Zamku where we had a delicious mushroom soup and yum duck and beetroot gnocchi. As it was cold as well, we strolled around - the old town is very picturesque and a must-see when in Warsaw and kept ourselves warm with very delicious mulled-wine in cute cafés and bars like the Karmnik - a very cool place with delicous pierogis! Unfortunately it was not the season for trying sweet pierogis, but this is def. something you have to try when in Poland!

We stayed for the evening in the old town as well and after a vodka schlummi (another thing you can't avoid when being in Poland) we went to bed.

Next day, next adventure: After a delicious polish buffet breakfast at the hotel we made our way to start the Free Walking Tour - about the Jewish Warsaw. It was very interesting also sad as it is a very dark chapter of history. Somehow suitable to the history, it was in addition a freezing day, it was incredibly cold and windy and there would have been more comfy places to spend 2.5 hours but this is nature and we were equipped with warm clothes :).

Right after the Walking Tour our Food tour started and it was good that we walked before a lot. You can imagine, we were eating a lot too! It was mostly a private tour as nobody else joined beside the guide and another guy who will work for that company as well. We visited around 4 restaurants in old town, tried out various food in very cool places. Afterwards we decided to go for a drink together. As the company is organizing Pub Crawls as well, Martha (the foodguide) asked if we would like to join for that night. I was first very sceptical having seen another Pub Crawl last night where more than 50 people joined which is not the way I like it. But she checked within the company and said that around 10 people signed up. Sound like a good opportunity for having a fun evening. As it didn't cost that much we thought even if it would not be that much fun, we could leave anytime. Mhm, as usual, we didn't leave and joined until the end. Which means about 4 different bars and a club at the end. It was a fun evening with fun people and I especially liked the club with having a guy saxophon playing along with the club music :).

Sunday was time to leave already. But as we did research before, we decided to go to a Shopping Center which was - open according to the guide. The Center was open yes, but the shops were closed :( Too bad, we were too tired to check out something else (thinking about the Vodka Museum or the Jewish Museum) so we just had coffee, tea and some food before we were heading back to the airport.

It was a super cool weekend, thank you Camilla for choosing me as your travel buddy <3. As I really enjoyed the time in Warsaw, I just booked another weekend trip to Krakow in October :)

I hope I'll find some time where we can contribute our input to the Surp Video Challenge - I keep you updated :

Cheers,

Fabienne