Another trip to the Far East.

So again we wanted to go to sunny sunny, Sokolka and this time, it would be by train rather than with Marty's Dad, as we had the chance to leave a little earlier as my classes were cancelled and Marty had a day off.We've got a ticket to ride, and a train with windows you can hang out of helps!
And luckily no poles to hit us when doing said leaning.
On arrival, as per every return visit to the family home, Marty's Mum dishes up delights. Here we have one of the traditional soups. Beetroot soup, Barszcz, or to be easier pronounced for silly Australians, it is Borscht.
Of course, the soup was only the first course then we had one of my favourites: fried fish with mashed potatoes and home made salted cucumbers. These are not the ogorek most people associate with Poland, as these are more a short term dish typical of late summer. Where the cucumbers are soaked in briney water but are to be eaten within 48 hours so that they are still crunchy.

On the Saturday, it was a nice day and we decided to go to the lakes district of Poland which is called Masuria. It is filled with around 2000 lakes, and was once a very popular German "Spa Resort" in the early 1900's. It is a really pretty location, but like most every pretty part of the world these days, is over run with city slickers escaping the rat race.
We hired a paddleboats for an hour and set off down an inlet. Some like Marty were very elegant. Others just threw tantrums.
The reflections on the still inlet water were lovely and very pretty.
Where the green meets the water, it is idyllic and just another world away from the hustle and bustle which you find 2.5 hours south west of here. It is seeing these things you realise why so many people holiday here rather than overseas. Still I am not so sure why so many want jet skis and speed boats......

We drifted into the main lake town of Augustow where we grabbed some fresh, but now fried trout. Something I hadn't had before. It wasn't too bad, but I have had better trout in Poland.

More meat and greet

So after a couple of weeks of sickness, snot and sleep for the house on Makolagwy Street, we decided to run out into the night to try and forget.

We went to Svejk Restaurant (http://www.uszwejka.pl/index.php?lang=en), it is a great place and full of hustle and/or bustle. On Friday night it was bursting at the seams and we were waiting for a table in the non-smoking section (yes smoking is still legal in eating establishments here).

Once in and seated we had a great seat, in the sense that it was between the kitchen, the bar and the stairs to the bottom floor, and we could watch lots of different food and drinks passing by. This made us super hungry, and so after seeing another massive plate of meat go past, we knew we had to have something crazy. So we ordered the Svejk platter, which is insane (please see photo above). The platter was huge as was the beers (photo also attached below). So we had a great meal and I didn't even have room in my sweet corner, aka dessert pocket, of my continually expanding belly. That is indeed quite a feat!



Also attached is a photo of a great little trout that Miss Marta made me as a surprise dinner one evening when I was a little sick. It was amazing as she was able to make trout taste nice, something not everyone can do! Otherwise it has just been the end of snot and coughing hopefully on the way to a great week and weekend. Come on sunshine!