Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Polish Foodie Post

With only a couple of days in Warsaw, there wasn't a ton of time to do extensive food exploration, but we did manage to get a reasonable sampling of Polish cuisine. 

 Upon Arrival, we were super tired. We didn't get into the apartment until afternoon and hadn't eaten since early morning on the plane. So we opted for 'close to us' and 'familiar' 

 

 

 It was really good pizza

But the following day, Wife said, (and I quote) "I want authentic Polish Cuisine. A bit of research on Google and TripAdvisor, account for the fact we are in a very 'touristy' part of town, and we selected our location.

The food was quite voluminous and heavy. 

I wanted to try the herring as a Rotary member I know who is from Poland had mentioned it.

 

 Herring itself was slightly pickled, it had pickled onions, crushed beetroot with horseradish, and some kind of sweet/sour pumpernickel bread crumb accompaniments. 

The herring was fine but I found the accompaniments a bit weird.

Then the mains

Potato Pancake with Beef Goulash

 

 The potato pancake itself was excellent, the best item of the meal. It was totally reminiscent of the potato pancakes I grew up with and make to this day. You will not the cream on top of the goulash. That is a very common from our limited observation.

I had Braised Pork Knuckle

 

 Braised meat, particularly things like pork knuckle and lamb shanks are a favorite of mine so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the meat itself was rather bland, and once again, the condiment flavorings were just not to my liking. The horseradish was not particularly strong. The mustard was sweet. So the dish, over all left something to be desired. However, with a sample of just one, I would hate to make an overall judgment. 

Street Food

On our second day, we definitely did not want to eat as much as we had the day before. Just as we were entering Praga Park we saw this kiosk. The three items on the sign are various types of fried pies very popular throughout Eastern Europe though of Caucasus Tartar and Georgian origin. Not knowing anything at the time we opted for two kinds of Bilaszy, meat and spinach.

 

 I 

 The flavor with both were excellent and they were a great value. I jokingly told Wife that I should write a review on Google for the place not thinking a kiosk would be listed. Wrong! The place has a 4.7 rating and thousands of reviews!

Then later, Wife really wanted to try some 'good' Pirogi. Again we lucked out with a place off the main tourist area. We tried both meat and cabbage and mushroom.  

 

The dough was nice and thin. The meat filling was quite good. But the cabbage had an overpowering sweet/sour flavor that I did not enjoy. 

Overall, I found the predominant flavor combinations not particularly to my taste. But, for any in the audience with more experience with Polish food, I would be open to further education.

Airport Food

A last eating experience was at the Warsaw airport before we left. We are used to airport food in the United States which is mostly pretty dreadful. We went to a sit down place and enjoyed scrambled eggs. Not a big deal? Well these were clearly fresh scrambled and cooked, with a very good quality roll for a fraction of the price you'd pay for any sit down restaurant in the U.S., let alone an airport.  

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Day Four - Warsaw Exploring

Today was a classic Eldership 'away mission'. These start with a specific objective in mind and, due to circumstances, end up morphing into general exploration of a grander kind. Today we decided to explore and meander up the 'scenic' Vistula River, filled with all kinds of activities (according to the city's official guide). 

 Scenic Vistula River Filled with Activities

 

 

 Scenic Vistula River Bird

 

 Exciting Vistula River Activities

 

 Exciting View of Old Town from Vistula River

 

 Exciting View of Modern Downtown Warsaw from Equally Exciting Vistula River

 

Exciting Vistula River Art

 

 THEN

We decided to bail on the Exciting Vistula River and head for the old neighborhood of Praga on the east side of the river

Exciting Footbridge Allowing Escape from Exciting Vistula River

 

 As we cross into Praga, we see a most unusual set of capitals...

 

...can you guess what they are...special Turkish visit prize sweepstakes entry for the winners.

WAIT!

You are worried that they're aren't going to be any more pictures of churches!

Thankfully Praga has a number of different styled churches

This one is in the neo-Gothic Style, very different from what we saw in Old Town

 

 I

 really wanted to see how the inside of this church was

 

But they were having a funeral and we were not invited

 

 

On to Praga Park

 

Where we have Praga Park Magpies

 

 

Guardians of Flowers

 

 

And the always popular glass cactus display (which I'm pretty sure would be lit up at night)

 

 

I liked the juxtaposition between the Gothic style church and the modernistic tram station

 

 

Then we found an Orthodox style church which sadly was completely surrounded by trees preventing a good photo shot.

 

 

We wanted to go in here too but there was a christening taking place...and Damn if they didn't invite us again!

There was a last shot as we were wandering around with Fotograficus in floral environment

We had been on our feet for quite a number of hours. But Wife wanted to see if we could find some other street food and have ice cream as well. We took an Uber back to the apartment and rested for a couple of hours. 

 

Then it was back out to Old Town. After we'd gotten our food, we were about to go back to the apartment when I noted, "Wife, look down that street. I don't think we've been there."

 

And we hadn't. It was the New Town area. (New as in newer in traditional history than Old Town, not a modern downtown). The light was great and there were way fewer tourists around. 

 

 

And blessed mercy of the Almighty

 

MORE CHURCHES!

 

 

 

 

A last view of Espouses Fotograficus Polonaise before she ascends to her abode in the nether dimensions

 

 

Water Feature

 

 

A statue to Marie Currie 

 

 

And a sobering reminder that bad shit took place here not that long ago

 

 

Eurasia Mega Trip - Day Three - Exploring Old Town Warsaw

 We only have a couple of days in Warsaw so tired or not we wanted to make use of our time. We chose our Airbnb because it was close to the primary tourist destinations of Old and New Town.

Warsaw is one of the most interesting places to visit from a historical rebuilding standpoint. During WWII, the city was almost completely leveled after the Warsaw Uprising. However, there had been work done for years prior (even before the war started), cataloging in the most detailed way all of the architectural detail of the city. When the war ended, there began a total rebuilding of the city based upon this work. It took many decades. During the process, decisions had to be made on what specific look any given building or monument should have because none of them were static in time. A building might originally date back to the Middle Ages and have had a number of renovations due to the changing style over time. Or their were fires and rebuilding. So decisions had to be made as to what period any particular building was going to be shown as. 

With as short a period of time as we are here, we obviously were not going to go into terrible depth with each building. But it was a good thing to keep in mind as we viewed what looks like a totally well preserved environment. 

Fotografie

Krasinski Palace, Palace of Justice, and Monument to the Warsaw Uprising Fighters

Unidentified Building 

 

 A Plethora of Churches

 

 

 (Extra credit - What kind of capitals on the columns?)

 

 

(Extra, Extra Credit - Two kinds of capitals on this one)

 

  

 And yes, because we KNOW you LOVE the BAROQUE

The interiors 

 

 

 

Contemplating the Divine

  

 And just when you think you will go postal over another Baroque/Rococo interior, you get...

 

 A Modern/Gothic Archdiocese Cathedral

 

 

 Scenes from the Castle Square, Old Town Square and streets between

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Espouses Fotograficus Polonaise

 

 Authentic recreation of traditional Polish Architectural Scaffolding

 Warsaw Through the Eyes of its Statues

 "Begone you modern high rises from our historical center!"

 

"You cannot resist change"

"We will defend the homeland!"

"My King, I bring you an army!"

"I ask for an army. I get a mass of tour groups."

"My lord. This is as good as it gets these days."

 

"Maybe you need a good, kick ass Mermaid?"

Let us reflect on this

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

 Traditional Polish Food

 

 A restaurant that either has smack down poetry or bare knuckle fighting

 

 There is a popular campaign against overly ornate burgers