untitled

UPDATE: here's an older photo of that market:

due to a lack of locale understanding this post will remain untitled. A pulled a muscle in his back and my toes are fed up with aimless walking, an activity i have previously characterized as meandering. it's just that this particular place is difficult to pin down. it has a certain tourist reputation to uphold and if you aren't into what it's known for, complications arise, especially if you didn't expect to be confronted with these specific limitations... i'm being vague but what i mean is this town has specific attractions associated with it and if you weren't expecting to be limited to those, you (meaning me) might get confused about what to do here exactly. 

above is the main square in the old town. you can see it's no where near as charming as poznan and in fact it is huge and imposing and left me cold. there's also this arcade with vaulted ceilings that houses tons of stalls selling all the trinkets that may or may not be made here. amber is the most popular local attraction because this region is known for being a historical source. A discovered the most interesting thing in that building were above all the stalls and painted on the high walls: insignias from the local municipalities and the guilds associated with them. i took a picture of poznan's and another town whose name i'm familiar with but can't pronounce.

prior to visiting the main market square, we had stopped to get breakfast at what we assumed would be a touristy bagel chain. below is the interior or Bagel Mama that has really good bagels and coffees and seems to be run by an american guy.

after all this sightseeing (we also stopped at the new old town flea that was very crowded and the best stall had lots of old photos and postcards) my toes and A's back insisted we convalesce. on our way to do so we passed this bridal store with the most wacky wedding get up i've ever seen:

we stopped at this literature cafe, an island of tranquility amidst the hubbub of the old town buzz. of course in my desperation to relax i forgot to take photos of the salad, cake and coffee we devoured.

after all that excitement i just had to decompress so we crossed back to "our" side of the river and stopped at the apartment...i was going to blog but ended up texting n and r (hi!). we then set out to get dinner but on the way wanted to check out a park closeby that's tucked away behind all the domiciles on a little hill.

here's the main entrance. i think we snuck in through one if the secret side paths.

after a light dinner of bun chay and pho we took a short detour before buying some groceries (cookies and pretzels and chocolate and an interesting herbal shampoo) at the local "Lewiatan" and now I'm going to brush my teeth etc. As for tomorrow...we will possibky ride the streetcars and check out the botanical garden...in the meantime, here's a couple views of this side of the vistula by night:

oh, here's a little video of this apartment that has the nicest design and furnishings that are what ikea can only aspire to: