"Hey, remember when Jen tried to be gluten-free in Central Europe?"

{Ed. note: this is directed at search engines producing results for words in the subject. I didn't really find much guidance online earlier this year, so I thought I'd throw my own experience out there. In other words, if you *can* eat bread and/or don't plan to visit this part of the world, you probably won't care about any of this...}

A year and a half ago I found out I was potato- and wheat-intolerant. So when I told people our first Phase Two stop was Central Europe, the land of bread and potatoes, it was always with a laugh... and also a tiny prayer to The Universe that I wouldn't wither away from malnutrition.

Our first few days in Poland I meticulously avoided everything wheat- or potato-related. Armed with a Polish translation food list, we would carefully scan ingredients on grocery store packages and restaurant menus. It wasn't too different from being back home, actually.

Turns out that "no potatoes no wheat" in Central Europe really is a pretty ambitious endeavor. At first this meant a diet of corn flakes or oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast; a salad for lunch (pre-packaged from the grocery store or from a cafe); rice/rice noodles and veggies/canned tuna/kielbasa for dinner; fruit (fresh or dried), carrots, peanut butter, peanuts, and chocolate for snacks.

our intro to Warsaw

his: pierogies

hers: chef salad

... sooooo not fair

sausage:

welcome to Prague!

... now that's fair

Eating the same things over and over again got kinda boring. One day a guy at a hostel made eggs for dinner, and that opened up a lot of new ideas for us.  But even that got boring after a while.

also boring?

"English" breakfasts in foreign lands

I was thrilled to find rice cakes, rice vermicelli, bean noodles, dried soy products, and of course peanut butter in Polish grocery stores. Up until we got to Turkey these items were actually pretty easy to find in all the countries we visited (though for some reason the rice products got more expensive the further south we went, and peanut butter was more scarce in Romania).

sometimes the labels
were even in English -

neat!

A chain called Carrefour - kind of like the Safeway of Central Europe, slightly overpriced with a decent variety of food - carried everything I needed and their markets were in all the major cities. Even tiny markets in Bialowieza and Nemcicky had rice snacks and dried soy.

Bialowieza makeshift dinner by tea kettle:

rice noodles, rehydrated soy, mystery spices

Fruit stands were also easy to find; plums and apples during fall harvest season were fantastic.

Krakow fruit stand:

part one

Krakow fruit stand:

part two

Nemcicky rule:

pick one, eat one

After a few weeks in Poland I got curious and tried bread. Nothing terrible happened so I continued to experiment. Turns out that for whatever reason, wheat has not been as offensive to my system here.

the first offender:

thanks, little old pastry shop lady

it was all downhill from there

It could be that the wheat strain here is more pure. But my guess is that it's everything *other than* the wheat, yeast, salt, water and sometimes egg that goes into packaged wheat products in the US that caused me the real trouble. (I'm talking to you, potato starch, guar gum, xanthum gum, and everything I can't pronounce!) Here, I can't always read the ingredients but when there are just three or four listed on a package, that's a good sign that the product is not going to have too negative an impact on me. And bread is baked each morning, sold so fast that it's not even individually wrapped, and stale by day three.

we must've eaten 847

of these fresh-baked rolls

in Central Europe

Wheat products are not always fun on my system but they are almost always tolerable, and this has made life so much easier. Leftover hostel breakfasts of bread, cheese and meats became free lunch.

whereas pierogies become

not free lunch...

... so did dumplings

Cheap eats from doner kebap stands became viable snack options.

our first kebap -

thank you, Olomouc!

our 53rd kebap -

thank you, Bucharest!

So did bagel carts and pastry shop snacks, which ended up being lifesavers in some cases. Like that day in Budapest when we were starving and a two-mile walk from any signs of a supermarket. Of course, they weren't exactly the tastiest options...

best when purchased at 6am -

otherwise, for them there birds

... or the healthiest.

as the was the case

in Brasov

and Olomouc

and Krakow

But with all that walking it really didn't matter.

Pasta (which I can mostly also eat) became dinner. And garlic bread was often involved too.

Budapest hostel livin'

Lisinia farmstay livin'

Bucharest homemade pasta livin'

And all these lovely cheeses and jams now included bread accompaniment!

homemade cheese: even better

And beer was back on the menu!

Prague beer

Olomouc beer

Brasov beer

... you get the point.

Sometimes I even got to make AND eat bread made from scratch - something I have really missed.

There is still the mysterious yeast/potato connection... But I'm not doing a science fair project, I'm just trying to eat pain-free. So whatevs, we'll just roll with it.

Have not tried potato yet... Not intentionally, anyway. It's hard to avoid in soups and for some reason doner kebaps often include a topping of "chips" ("fries" to you US folks). I definitely know when I have had it and I still suffer afterward. But it's much easier to explain a potato allergy to a new volunteer host or restaurateur than to rattle off the list of things I can and cannot eat.

I shouldn't eat bread with every single meal but I still do. BECAUSE I CAN. But less bread and less sugar (mainly via honey in my yogurt and tea) are in my future - I'm starting to need less weight so that I don't need more pants.

luckily, we are past Krakow's zapiekanki

unluckily we are still in the land of pide

(OK, this is not exactly a bad thing)

However. When we get to Vietnam, I dare say all bets on "less bread" are off... but at least I will be able to counter the bánh mì with loads of delicious vegetables!

Poland on less than $30 per person per day.

Our next installment of "how much does it cost?" is brought to you by Poland.

Initial budget: 14 days at $1206 ($86/day, $43/person/day)
Actual cost: 18 days at $1006 ($56/day, $28/person/day)

The initial budget was a serious WAG because despite heaps of research, we really had no idea how much things would cost. Lodging ended up being far less expensive but we made up for some of that with meals/alcohol as we tried the local flavors. Otherwise, though, the category estimates were higher than actual costs but not too far off. Maybe 15 years of accounting and project management are worth something after all?

Here's the breakdown with some details...

pie chart not to scale

• Lodging: $473 - dorm rooms at hostels averaging $13/person/night, and a private room in Białowieża for about the same cost.
• Transportation: $193 - this includes buses and trains between major cities, trams and buses within major cities, and transportation to tour excursions (in Poland's case, the bus to/from Auschwitz - $13/person). This does not include our plane tickets to Warsaw ($490 each) which are included in our overall running cost per day.
• Groceries: $110 - our guess is that half of this cost is peanut butter.
• Meals: $103 - includes trying local foods, lunches on the go, countless train station coffees, and a few "first" and "last" night celebratory meals in cities.
• Tours: $65 - major expenses included the tour for Białowieża National Forest ($11/person) and the free walking tour guide tips ($6 * 3 tours). Otherwise, nominal costs to climb a church tower for panoramic views and that sort of thing.
• Alcohol: $46 - beer is cheap but yeah, we will start paying attention to this. Or not.  If we keep up our other frugality (except for not skipping must-see touristy places!) this is just fine.
• Gear: $3 - clothes for our upcoming Czech farm stay.
• "Misc": $14 - a large part of this cost is public toilets, which typically cost $0.30-$0.50. If we forgot the coffee line item for Canada, we definitely forgot Jen's gerbil-sized bladder and the WC line item for Central Europe. Otherwise we don't have great documentation on what this entails but at less than $1/day we aren't so worried about it.
• Gifts: This blog is still your gift. And you're still welcome.

Other fun Poland facts...

• Cities visited: 6, technically speaking (Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Białowieża, Zakopane for 15 hours, and Katowice for 60 minutes en route to Krakow)
• National parks visited: 1 (Białowieża National Park)
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited: 5, technically speaking (Old Town Krakow, Historic Center of Warsaw, Białowieża Forest, Auschwitz Birkeneau, Centennial Hall in Wroclaw which we saw from the outside)

So that's Poland in a nutshell.  Overall we're still on track too.  Stay tuned for our Czech money post - we're gonna blow you away!

How approximately 10 minutes in Zakopane turned into 15 hours.

Despite all the recommendations, we didn't intend to spend any time in Zakopane ("Zack-o-pa-nay") - we wanted to head through this touristy area of Poland straight to the quiet town of Zdiar in Slovakia, just across the border.

We also didn't intend for the direct Zakopane-Zdiar bus service to be discontinued (until ski season) three days before we arrived in Zakopane. But it was, and we didn't really find this out until 5pm, and a taxi to Zdiar would've cost us about $30, and other options weren't available until the next morning, so we were stuck there for a night while we figured out Plan B.

there are far worse places to be "stuck"

far worse places

far, far worse places

Food notes - none, other than:

• there is a small grocery store about 10 minutes west of the bus stop on the main strip
• and also a Biedronka about 10 minutes southwest of the visitor's information center

Lodging notes:

• we stayed at Stara Polana Hostel because it was easy to find and the other easy to find place, Target Hostel, was closed until the next day - Stara Polana was definitely a youth hostel, as evidenced by the huge kitchen/dining area and giant soup pots, but since it was off season we got a private double room with a bathroom pretty cheap and we had a lovely view of the mountains from our window

the digital old-school radio was a nice touch

The woman at the Zakopane tourist office was incredibly helpful and told us exactly which buses to take. She forgot to mention that we'd need euros for the Slovakian bus, and we forgot to think about that too. We got off the bus at Lysa Polana as instructed, walked across the Poland/Slovakia border as instructed, found no "bankomat" (ATM) and in fact no town at Lysa Polana...

woohoo, walking across the border!

um... now what?

... and hoped the nice man who spoke English and offered to taxi us to Zdiar wasn't an axe murderer. He wasn't, and after a pricey but appreciated 15 euro ride during which we peppered him with tourist-related questions to ensure we got our money's worth out of that 15 euro, we arrived at the Zdiar bankomat and then our hostel destination.

And immediately extended our stay until Wednesday. Ahhhh... mountains. How we've missed you.

Krakow recommendations you might not find on TripAdvisor.

Look. Everyone who goes to Poland goes to Krakow. We know this, so we won't bore you with how fun it is to sit in the Market Square and people-watch or window-shop in the Cloth Mill. We won't go on and on about the beautiful riverside on a clear day or the picturesque Market Square at night. We won't detail every single gorgeous church and cemetery. We won't tell you about the bugler... But!

We will tell you that the parks in the area are totally worth it on a clear day.

slowly enjoying Krak Mound

slowly absorbing Parc Jordana

We will insist that you check out the various open markets. Of the more known markets Stary Kleparz was our favorite...

so much fun to browse

... but we also ran across Plac na Stawach near Parc Jordana one morning where we were treated to absolutely ginormous free samples of delicious pastry treats by one of the shop owners. And on Saturday morning we went to Hala Targowa's flea market in search of a warm sweater for Patrick - no luck with that, but if we'd been looking for socks, pirated DVDs, or antique dishware we would've totally been in heaven.

We will highly recommend the free Jewish quarter walking tour. (OK, this one is on TripAdvisor but bear with us.) We also did the general free walking tour our first morning in the city, which was interesting and a helpful introduction, but we got much more out of the Jewish quarter tour led by one of the 200 self-identified Jewish residents living in Krakow these days. The tour will take you through the Kazimierz district and Krakow's ghetto - we wish we'd done it earlier in our visit, instead of waiting until our last day to explore these less touristy neighborhoods.

If you do any of the free walking tours, we will suggest you seek out some of the street art highlighted on the free map. Most of the art is outside of Old Town, and it's a great way to see Kazimierz if you don't get to the Jewish quarter tour.

anti-corporate scrabble aht

anti-communist mural aht

anti-television stair aht

(steps lined with famous quotes)

On Auschwitz-Birkenau... yes, everyone who goes to Krakow tours these camps and yes, we did too, and no, words can't possibly express how we felt during and after the whole experience.

What we will say is that we did a self-guided tour around Birkenau before visiting Auschwitz, and we recommend that order vs the opposite. That wasn't really our original plan but you can only visit the Auschwitz museum tour-guide-free before 10am and after 3pm (guides are about $20/person and it sounds like they rush you through it so we wanted to visit on our own time), and our bus from Krakow didn't get in until about 10:30. So we took the free shuttle to Birkenau (no guide required anytime) and wandered there for about 3 hours before heading back to Auschwitz. English translations are available on all the maps and monument plaques, and being able to walk through what remains of the buildings at Birkenau before seeing Auschwitz helped us to appreciate (for lack of a much more appropriate word) the atrocities of both sites even more.

Other things we will tell you about Krakow...

the world's best laudromat is at the corner of Dietla and Starowislna

the pigeons are very efficient (or maybe just picky?)

seeing Peruvian flute players in Native American costume

in the middle of Krakow is just weird

the national pantheon underneath the Church of St Peter and St Paul,

soon to house influential artists and writers,

is pretty awesome

October might be the best time to visit

Lots of great food cart-type places in Krakow (finally!), great eats in general too. Food notes:

• "bagels" from the street vendors - get there early, before they go stale
• beetroot soup and pierogies at Domowy Przysmaki - just do it!
• cinnamon donuty things from street vendors
• unpasteurized Tyskie from Alchemia
• zapiekanki in Kazimierz's Plac Nowy

Lodging notes:

• Hostel Atlantis: cheap, lots of people, a bit industrial and noisy for our taste, big kitchen and common area, choir practice between 8-9am while we were there (better than it sounds - they were amazing!)
• Football Corner Hostel: also pretty cheap, all the football (that's soccer to you Americans) your little heart desires, only 3 dorm rooms and on a quiet street so in theory nice and quiet (except for when your UK dormmates party until 3am and snore like buzzsaws after they do finally settle in for the night), very close to the bus/train station and main square, but really lacking in common area space so we never felt completely comfortable

We had a great time in Krakow, and I'm sure that the 200,000 students (1/4 of the population) enjoy studying there, but soon enough it became another city and we were ready for some down time. Five regrets, though - not going to the Wieliczka salt mine ($30/person for admission), not taking the Communist walking tour ($20/person + guide tip), not going to Schindler's Museum (not pricey, we just ran out of time), not seeing a puppet show at Teatr Groteska ($20-30/person, we found a deal where first time visitors could get tickets to select performances for ~$3, but they were sold out while we were there), and not getting to Ojcow National Park (hint: if all the info you can find says "you need a car to get there", you really do need a car to get there). But that just means there's more to do next time we visit!

Speaking of cities and getting out of them - time for the High Tatras... and Slovakia!

Friday five: gnome hunting (and other fun!) in Wroclaw.

Wroclaw ("Vro-tz-wav"), known as Poland's Venice, was not in our original list of "must-see" places. But we ran across a quirky Wroclaw city map at our hostel in Warsaw highlighting funky street art, bridges galore, and a gnome scavenger hunt. And then we spontaneously decided to go to Prague and Wroclaw was right on the way... To our surprise it ended up being a highlight of Poland.

We got a really good vibe riding the tram from the bus station to our hostel. Warsaw was bustling with activity, but Wroclaw felt alive. In our short stay we would feel some kind of pulse flowing from the river and canals we crossed, the parks we passed through, the weekend events...

  

Senior Day celebration in the square 

(same day as Gnome Day, natch)

rainy day marathon 

(causing a 2 hour delay for our bus to Prague)

... and the countless youth we saw roaming the streets. All of this is probably why it's a big destination for Europeans looking for cheap beer and a good time on their way to Krakow. But it's so much more than a party town.

Like Warsaw, this city has also been taken over and reclaimed numerous times over the centuries. Given its history of being invaded and conquered by various countries and cultures, now it seems to be a bit of an ethnic and cultural melting pot. For example, our free walking tour guide (love these guys!) pointed out a corner where four religious institutions live harmoniously.

well, at least that's how he described it -

residents will have to confirm

Wroclaw also seemed to be a bit more modern than Warsaw. Vegetarian restaurants and foods were easy to find; the multimedia fountain used that irritatingly catchy Daft Punk song (as well as other equally terrible pop songs) alongside classical music during the water show; even the street art was more art than a political statement.

Honestly, it reminded us a lot of Portland.

Other than the elevator to the top of St John the Baptist's church for a wonderful panoramic view of the city, and the tip for the free walking tour guide, we opted to skip tourist attractions that cost money. We did visit the impressive ethnographic museum (free on Sundays). The exhibits featured centuries-old decorative, cooking and farming artifacts; some details on the area's history over the last 500 years; and an entire floor of life sized dioramas showing typical life back in the day. Really, who doesn't love a good life-sized diorama?!

Otherwise, we just meandered and enjoyed the city. Five Wroclaw experiences that made this our favorite town in Poland, in no particular order:

a Hare Krishna parade down the main square

where no one really seemed to blink an eye at first 

and then lots of the crowd joined in pulling the carriage down the square

walking everywhere - they have a good transit system too 

but the main city is totally walkable top to bottom in a day

(or bike-able if you have short legs) 

speaking of walking, the canal path was really charming 

(and featured the first signs of autumn)

speaking of canals, there are over 100 bridges throughout the city 

even tiny bridges where tiny gnomes light tiny oil lamps

and speaking of gnomes, not gonna lie - 

the gnomes are pretty awesome 

(moreso the original gnomes than ones commissioned by merchants to draw business)

Food notes:

• great chicken salad lunch at Bela Cafe (no link available, check the CitySpy map though)
• excellent falafel at Vega
• instant packages of borscht are actually quite good if you add the right amount of water (and reconstituted soy nuggets and canned peas)

our most random meal yet

Lodging notes:

- Corner Hostel was in a great location but sort of dark and sort of dirty and and very, very noisy

but our room had a balcony with a great view

Definitely a cool town we'd like to visit again. Next stop: a few days in Prague before hitting our vineyard/orchard Help Exchange gig. Charles Bridge and Czech beer, here we come!