Warsaw, Poland - Day 56-58: Perogis and 'Milk bars'

Last night, we had dinner at Zgoda Grill bar - a Polish restaurant that served up heavenly perogis and warm red wine. Polish perogis are very similar to Tibetian Momos or Chinese dumplings - just lighter and way more tastier! T's best friend - Robert is of Polish descent has always waxed eloquent about the comfort of warm homemade perogis. We loved it so much, we went back twice.


Today we had lunch at a Polish "milk bar" that I chanced to read about online. The food itself was plain and watery, but the experience was priceless - trying to decipher a huge Polish menu list tacked to a wall and watching matronly women serve up large portions from steaming vessels. Milk Bars are one of the few remnants of the Communist era - basically a cafeteria style restaurant that provided subsidised food to Polish factory workers much like a company canteen.

Bratislava, Slovakia - Day 50 : Europe's youngest capital

Bratislava may be Europe's youngest capital but it has a long and myriad history, having served as the capital of the Habsburg Monarchy. The old town is packed with Baroque churches and medieval towers - but we didn't get to see it all because of the torrential downpour on the ONE day that we had in Bratislava!

When we walked through the old town, it was getting a major face-lift. All the buildings are being repainted in pastels (!) and there is a definite push to make the city more attractive to visitors (large and swanky tourist information centers). Perhaps Bratislava is trying to attract at least a sliver of the tourists that overrun Prague every day and rightfully so. It has an interesting mixture of Soviet architecture and 16th century buildings, and is just 60 kms from Vienna. If you are ever in the vicinity, it's definitely worth a visit.

We wanted to make it to the Novy Most - a futuristic UFO bridge over the Danube built by the Soviets but never did because of the weather. So we did what anyone does when it rains - found a warm place to sit down and dig into food. T got this delicious plate of 'Makovegulky' - warm gooey poppy seed dumplings.