We didn't expect much of Wroclaw; after all, it was only the place where we had to catch the bus to Prague from. However, we have been pleasantly surprised. Things like the free laundry service at the hostel have been a godsend, as our jeans have been in serious need of cleaning. Things like the lack of milk at breakfast, however, are not so good. The hostel has a number of signs telling us that milk is available to buy from reception, and now we know why. Keeley was very unimpressed at the lack of milk for cereal. Despite this, the rest of brekky was good (with about four different varieties of bread) and we decided to wander the streets to experience the town. The town square is nice, and although large pales in comparison to Krakow's gigantic version. We went to a market in an amazing church-like place, and saw the greatest variety of vegetables so far on the entire trip. There was also a significant number of flowers and confectionary. In stark contrast to the markets, we found the major, modern shopping centre only a couple of blocks away. This marked an important milestone in our trip: Keeley found some new boots to replace her old ones that she unsuccessfully tried to fix with duct tape. After lunch, we explored a bit more and found a cool little street that has been restored to its medieval state, complete with (statues of) farm animals. We split up for a bit and I went to the Panorama Raclawicka, a 15m high x 120m circumference painting on the inside of a spherical building. The entry fee was a little steep, but it was very cool because the foreground of the painting had been 'extended' into a three-dimensional model. This filled in the five-ish metre space between the viewing platform and the painting, and in the foreground it was genuinely difficult to tell where the 'real' stuff stopped and the painting started. It was very detailed and the presentation about the history of the battle (where the eventually ill-fated Polish resistance against the Russians in the 1800s began) was good.
The beauty of this place seems to be in the details, just like the Panorama. There is a collection of fifteen gnome sculptures scattered around the city, hanging off lamp-posts, sitting on stairs, guarding postboxes, etc. Every now and again you'll stumble across one without even trying. It's very cute. There is also a very interesting sculpture at a major intersection called "The Anonymous Pedestrians" and shows commuters sinking into the pavement on one side of the road and climbing out on the other. It's quirky and different.
We went out for dinner tonight to a traditional Polish restaurant. Ordering almost blind (we knew the words for 'chicken', 'beef' and 'pork') we ended up with some very nice meals for a very good price. Keeley had basically crumbed chicken, which although not 'traditional' was very nice, and I had pork medallions with a spinach and cheese sauce on top. It was delectable. Both meals came with sauerkraut, sweet grated carrot and a coleslaw sort of thing. To finish off our excellent day we had excellent ice creams, which were massive and had three big scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, topping and fruit. I'm a bit sad we're leaving tomorrow, but on the flip side I'm not sure there'd be much more to do around here. It was nice to have a relaxing day though.
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