I’ll be honest, I knew next to nothing about Poznan before we got to Poland, aside from knowing it hosted some games at Euro 2012! It just happened to be on the route from Berlin to Warsaw so we took the chance to stop off and see more of the country.
First impressions were not anything special, as the train station is a bit out of town and the scenery is a bit grey, but as we got closer to the centre the buildings became far more attractive, with lots of cool basement pubs and restaurants.
After we checked into our hostel and got some lunch we walked towards the old town, which has been beautifully restored as it was all but destroyed during WW2. Aside from some museums most of the square is dedicated to various pubs and restaurants, a couple of which we obviously had to try.
Yummy dumpings
One of these was our first introduction to Polish food – I had a potato pancake with spinach and Katy had some dumplings! I really should know the Polish names for these but I honestly have no idea.
During our stay we visited a few museums, as plenty were free on Saturdays. We went to the archeology museum, which was very interesting and full of artefacts found in the local area and from around Poland. It was here I almost met my untimely death, as after an hilarious photo taken in the stocks, Katy went to release me and accidentally* dropped the beam of wood on my head! A few expletives may have been uttered.
With potential brain damage we headed onto the National Museum – which we didn’t realise was actually a gallery and not a general museum. I like art though so have no problem spending a few hours at a gallery. I think Katy enjoyed it too! The majority of the work, understandably, was from Polish artists but they did have some foreign art, including a Monet. It was an excellent gallery.
The next day we visited Poznan glass house, which was essentially a series of huge greenhouses full of tropical fauna and animals. There is a similar one near my hometown of Newbury but this was far bigger. I have to admit it was an odd thing to see when it was freezing outside but we wern’t complaining about the tropical conditions. The only downside was that all the signage and labelling was in Polish so we didn’t learn an awful lot. We did however see plenty of fish and lizards (sadly the lizards aren’t free roaming like the one at home!)
And after a lot of walking around and admiring the architecture, that was Poznan done for us! We perhaps didn’t do as much as we would have liked but it was our first chance to have a bit of downtime. I’d love to visit again in summer as it would be a fantastic place with a great atmosphere – when we visited it was relatively free of tourists (like most places we have visited so far!) and we had a whole 6 bed dorm to ourselves for most of our stay!
Where we stayed
We had booked 3 nights at Poco Loco hostel, which as mentioned, was extremely quiet! However the staff were very friendly and the kitchen and common area were perfect. Beds were comfy with everything you need – reading lamps, lockers underneath and small pouches on the walls to keep things. Free WiFi which was a decent speed.
9/10 – highly recommended. We paid £9.35 per person, per night.
