Smell the coffee
Poland; Krakow; Kazimierz
Sometimes when you’re on the road you find yourself with a ‘favourite bar’ within a day or two of arriving. Cult bar Alchemia has been the hit that our Polish recommender said it would be, but joint top is Mlecvarnia. Very impressed they were too, when we mentioned we’d found this arty little hangout.
In a side street in the bohemian Krakow quarter of Kazimierz, it takes its name from the place where the farmers would take their produce to sell to the state. Or not, depending on how well the shambolic communist system was working that day. Accounts from those days tell how, despite the food shortages, a farmer could arrive to (reluctantly, because he could get more selling it privately) sell his allocation to the state only to find the official buyer hadn’t shown up.
Like one of the writers featured in the book “Beautiful Kazimierz” we’re lingering over a strong cup of coffee during another lazy start to the day. After last week’s snowboarding in Zakopane, it’s nice not to be doing too much. Good coffee in the morning is one of those smells which reminds you it’s good to be alive. We’ve not always been the best at good coffee in the UK (putting it kindly) but maybe we’re catching it up. Black gold when it’s good, fools gold when you are given a bad cup.
Last night we sampled the delicious Krupnic (pronounced as it looks) in here, which is honey-flavoured vodka, washed down with the locals’ favourite lager Zywiec (pronounced Ziv-eets). Travelling hand-luggage only means no space for bottles, but with so many Poles in the UK it shouldn’t be too hard to find some back in London.