Szczecin 2018 – Day One – Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

All my previous travel posts have been documenting our adventures while we have been on holiday so this post is a little different as at the moment I am away on business.

Travelling for business doesn’t always make for the most interesting of trips. Often you are on the outskirts of town on some business park seeing only the inside of an office and a hotel room. However, on this flying visit to Szczecin in Poland I have managed to get out and about to sample the local architecture and cuisine.

I got up this morning to find that lovely great big flakes of snow were falling and settling. In the UK this event would have caused chaos but the plucky Poles were going about their business travelling to work, school or wherever without any problem whatsoever – it was a sight to behold. And so I was able to take the tram (bought secondhand from Berlin apparently) and get to my destination where I spent the day in the office.

It’s always interesting to see how countries not far from your own differ and the culture shock here is the Poles eating habits. I was told that they don’t do lunch in the same way that we do in the UK but something much more like grazing. So a big breakfast and a snack at 11, again at between 2 and 4, and then a meal in the evening. To be honest I do that AND have lunch at 12! So today lunch consisted of gherkin soup kindly provided by my host’s wife.

This evening we went to what was a up-market Spudulike where fillings included a very tasty grilled chicken and broccoli option which would have been very healthy were it not for the cheese sauce. More interesting was a visit afterwards to Bar “Pasztecik” to sample local delicacy Pasztecik szczeciński. This is a like a doughnut with a meat filling, served hot in a simple paper wrapping clearly designed to eat on the go. It wasn’t unpleasant but there was such a small amount of meat in it that really it just tasted like a doughnut! The place itself was interesting too as it clearly hasn’t changed much since it opened 50 years ago. There was a cash desk by the door where you paid. Running the length of the wall was a brightly coloured mosaic leading to a hatch at the back of the room to exchange your receipt for the goods.

Later I walk out from the hotel and did a loop around some of the sights of Szczecin. I had particularly wanted to see the Philharmonic Hall which is the building in the header picture. It’s unlike anything I have ever seen, it almost looks like a temporary structure. Some of the pictures I have seen of the hall the place was lit with coloured lights. Tonight it was only white but no less impressive.

I then walked down to the river and then back up to the Ducal Castle and then past one of the many churches here. I would have lingered longer but it was cold and by this time my hands, which had been out of my pockets taking pictures, were frozen.  I’m hoping tomorrow that I might also be able to see some of these place in the light.

[AFG_gallery id=’54’]