Day 3: Krakow to the High Tatras

I guess we didn't spend enough time in Krakow, but that's my fault because I did no research before we left. There is so much to do there and there are so many restaurants wafting delicious smells, and I especially would like to visit the pharmacy museum and the stained glass workshop (where you make your own small piece of stained glass). So we'll just have to come back. One thing we did do was walk the grounds of Wawel Castle, built by Casimir III the great and dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries (though the hill has been settled since the Paleolithic era); it was transformed into a Renaissance palace in the 1500s. The castle is comprised of a number of architectural styles now, but most importantly it's lovely.

Also lovely is eating regional specialities, like the below rose glazed donut filled with rose jam. Floral and sweet, about half of the jam ended up down my purse when I took a big bite.

Krakow is also very fond of its pigeon population, and has the largest pigeon population in Europe outside of Venice. So if you like diseased flying rats, this is your city! (Just kidding, I loved Krakow...but pigeons are gross.)

St. Mary's Cathedral...a trumpeter plays from the tower every hour, which Wikipedia has taught me is to commemorate a 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while warning the city of a Mongol attack. (I wanted to take a city tour, but since Taylor wasn't feeling well I was on my own and no one would take just one person in the little city tour carts. So, I did a self tour with the help of Wikipedia and a guidebook from the hotel.)

A dragon made of bread and nuts at a street festival.

One of my favorite things in Poland was the flavored vodka, which was certainly a surprise as I don't generally like hard liquor. But the vodkas here are smooth and sweet and not rough at all, so I treated myself to four shots at Wodka Bar, a tiny place with three tables and that offers over a hundred flavors of vodka. A hundred!! That's crazy. I had caramel, salted caramel, eggnog, and fig. The eggnog flavor was intende and a very thick texture but the caramel was my favorite.

In the afternoon, we left Krakow in rush hour (terrible idea) and started our three hour drive to the High Tatras, an alpine mountain range on the Polish and Slovakian borders. They are part of the Carpathian Mountain Range and have the highest peaks in Eastern Europe. Our hotel was the Grand Kempinski, on Strbske Pleso (a glacier lake). Below are the lobby, the staircase, the fireplace in the lobby, and the restaurant. 

We decided to have dinner at the hotel since it was pouring rain, and it was a great choice--if Michelin came to Slovakia, I think this restaurant would have a star. The best thing was the truffle "caviar"--not really caviar at all, but little balls of truffle oil. Mmm.

We started with an amuse bouche of whipped goat cheese and beet root.

Taylor had lambs neck (not pictured) and I had Tatra style pierogies, which were soft and buttery and hereby and delicious. (In other news, it is stretchy paint time from here on out.)

We also had wine pairings, and I really enjoyed learning about the different Slovakian varietals. My favorite was called Tokaj, which is an amber colored, very sweet wine from south of Kosice. For dessert, I had caramelized apricots with apricot sorbet and white chocolate, on a sponge cake. 

I was asleep in my clothes by 9:30 pm, exhausted, so it was a good day.