Adventures in Poznań!

In hopes to follow Ryan’s ancestor's roots we hopped on a train and headed to Poznań!

The train ride only took about 3 ½ hours….but since I took some Dramamine I basically time and space traveled and woke up right before we arrived. Lucky me! =)

While Nicole was able to time travel, Stacy and I were awake and unfortunately for us, the air conditioning in the train was not working. It got pretty hot at times and so we had to leave our compartment door open to get a small breeze from the external train window.

Side note: This was the first time we have seen Stacy’s bag situation and we were baffled at how much she had to carry! She has her 65 L backpack, and another backpack for her electronics and a purse. I snapped a picture for you to see…

Stacy and her bags.

Later on we even found out that she brought Essential Oils.....

But since she is traveling via trains and buses it doesn't really matter to her since she doesn't have to worry about checking bags.... and her bag has a lot of support so the weight doesn't to be too much of a problem either. Anyways, we thought it was funny.

When we arrived in Poznań we headed straight to our hostel to put down our bags. This was Ryan and my first experience with a hostel so we were pretty excited. We opted to do the 10 bed dorm style sleeping arrangements since it was the cheapest option and it showed there were only 2 other beds taken.

Hostel sleeping arrangements

Our beds

View from hostel balcony

After getting settled we decided to grab something to eat.... there happened to be a Crepe restaurant right on the corner so we stopped there to check it out. I didn't realize there were so many different ways to make crepes. I ordered a crepe burrito.... it was delicious. Ryan got the Spanish crepe that had chorizo, mozzarella, tomato and basil.

Crepe burrito

I didn't take a picture of the other dishes ordered but we all enjoyed the meal. When we were finished with dinner we headed back to the hostel to change since it started to rain. Right before we headed out we met our bunk mates.... Nils and Caine. They suggested we try a place that sells shots for 5 zloty each... we said we might check it later and said our goodbyes. We then headed out and check out Poznań's Old Town.

We stumbled across a concert in the middle of the square so we stopped and listened to a mix of English and Polish songs.

After looking around we decided we would try this place known for it's Polish craft beers! Of course I had to get an IPA... my first IPA abroad!

After our delicious beers we headed back to the hostel to see if we could get some more information about this shot bar that was suggested to us. We found our bunk mates and asked about their plans were for the night... we ultimately decided to go out together and get some drinks!

On the way over to the shot bar, Nicole said she did not want any shots and that she would just get a beer from the bar across the street.... but when we got there and we saw that they had the Matrix shot, she HAD to have it! I ended up having the Jagpple shot (Jager plus apple).

They took us to the shot bar where there were TONS of shots to choose from for just 5 zloty!! That's like a little over a US dollar (1 zloty is a little more than 25 US cents).

Shot menu

I obviously had to try the Matrix shot....

There is a Matrix shot!

I should have just taken the blue pill at this time... the red and blue pill brought about a crazy night!

We hit up a little bar right across the street that sold beers for 4 zloty! We had a quick beer and enjoyed watching the locals sing karaoke! Polish rap sounds pretty cool.

After finishing our beers we headed to the next place... Whiskey in the Jar!

This was a nice place that played some good rock music but the beers were a bit pricier. After, we decided to take our new friends to the craft brew house that we tried earlier. Caine ordered a really weird beer that tasted like a coke mixed with coffee. Stacy and I decided to give him one our of IPAs and we each took turns downing the gross beer and chasing it with some IPA. Beers like that is the reason I don't try stouts.

For some reason we decided to go back to the 4 zloty beer bar.... I met a nice Polish lady that I was talking to pretty much the whole night. I have no idea how much we drank... and really this was about the the drinks take their effect on me and I am unable to remember the rest of the night... so I will let Ryan tell you a bit about the rest of the night....

... The 4 zloty beer bar was definitely the most lively bar we visited due to the karaoke and crowd of people so it made sense to spend more time there. Throughout the night we heard many polish songs along with the occasional American classics. When the American songs played, the place got crazy loud due to everyone in the bar singing along. The drinking seemed to have come to an abrupt halt right after we all took a vodka shot containing Tabasco sauce. Man did my mouth become hot! Soon after the shot, we noticed that Nils and Caine were gone (later we found out that Nils got an upset stomach so Caine walked him back to the hostel), so we decided to head back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, we found Nils in bed asleep but no sign of Caine. Nicole was very drunk so I decided I would go back out and get some food to hopefully help her handle to alcohol. There was a McDonalds down the road, so I quickly walked there. Good thing I walked quickly because I was the last customer allowed before they closed. After bringing back the food and eating, Nicole was still worried about Caine. I went out and looked for him a bit more but in the end did not find him and we went to bed.

The next day I woke up with a terrible hang over... Ryan, Stacy, and Nils didn't seem to have it as bad as me. But Caine definitely had it the worse... when we woke up we found him butt naked on the floor...poor guy. I grudgingly headed to breakfast with the group (minus Caine since we figured he needed the sleep). After breakfast we decided to go to this indoor/outdoor waterpark place that had geothermal pools. Unfortunately Caine only made it about 15 minutes into our walk to this place before he had to turn back. The rest of us made it there unscathed. We saw some cool things on the way....

I really regret not bringing my GoPro or waterproof camera to this place because it was so awesome! We were literally like giddy children running from pool to pool and slide to slide. It was actually the best possible activity for having a hang over. So fun! The best part was that we went on a Monday and it wasn't crowded at all! No lines for anything! Our favorite water slide was only open once every hour for 12 minutes.... after going down the first time we noticed that there were two little 'secret' lounges on the slides so the next time we went down we decided to try to stop at one of them. We kept calling it a 'couch room' since it looked like a little couch sitting area. Apparently I am incapable of stopping myself to get to one of these so Ryan and the others had to catch me every time. You can check out this random guy's video from YouTube of the slide.... around 0:43 you will see people in one of these little lounge areas. We wish it was open all day...

We stayed for about 3 1/2 hours and then decided to head back to the hostel.

Literally the only picture I have of the aquapark!

We a had nice peaceful walk back while the sun was setting...

We went to a place for dinner that served GIGANTIC burgers....

We got a massive chicken sandwich... this picture doesn't do it justice.

After mingling for a short period of time we decided to just get to bed.... I was in desperate need to sleep off my hangover.

Which brings me to today..... Ryan, Stacy and I will be taking a night train to Kraków tonight so we dropped our bags off at with the hostel reception and decided to walk around town a bit to kill time. In the heart of Old Market Square the town hall has a clock tower that has these two goats that butt heads at noon.... so we HAD to check it out.