Warsaw night life

This summer is going to be long and warm, so if you are a party animal Polish capital – Warsaw, is your place to be!

Only here you can enjoy the atmosphere, the variety of flavors, aromas, creativity and inspiration. Thanks to the courtesy of Westin hotel (Marriott group) which is our business partner already since its opening we can share with you these amazing pictures of the most marvelous Warsaw by night. Sink in the crazy and fast life style which this city guarantees, go clubbing and dance like nobody is watching and have a unique cocktail with a view on the city or Vistula river. Let’s have some fun!

Picture by Marcin Łuniewski

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Perfect Mother’s Day in Warsaw

Mothers are the most important human beings in our lives. They support us through our whole life, stand by us and love us no matter what. They deserve to be treated as princesses the entire year, but there is one totally special day just for all the brave Moms – the Mother’s Day. In Poland, we celebrate this day on 26thof May.

I am sure that not only I have a huge problem with getting to an idea for a unique gift every year. Flowers and something sweet are a must, but what else? Well, let me help you and introduce you to my “Perfect Mother’s Day in Warsaw” Guide.

First things first – breakfast! Warsaw is a real breakfast capital, there are more and more spots, where you can have a fancy meal in a beautiful spot. Let’s start the day in an  luxurious restaurant located in one of the most important hotels in Poland – Bristol. It has opened in 1901 and over the years a lot of politicians and famous people have stayed there. The architecture is truly unforgettable and it will definitely help you and your mom get in a great mood for the whole day.

While being in the heart of Warsaw, you can have a nice walk and admire the Royal Castle and the Old Town. Feel the real atmosphere of Poland and it is really easy, when you are surrounded by these marvelous buildings. Beside sightseeing the most popular places, I suggest to just get lost in the small streets, it can be really magical!

It is a celebration day so there have to be presents! I would suggest buying something made by polish local people, just like Risk Made in Warsaw. High quality material, beautiful and unique design and very friendly staff is the key to their success. These clothes are made for any age and any size – perfect for Mother and Daughter!

You can also pop into a great cosmetic store – JEJU with only natural products, a lot of them are being made in Poland. If you are read our articles, you might know this place from the Cracow issue.

For lunch take your Mom for a real dumpling feast – Le’pię is a fun variation about this polish traditional meal. It is a very cozy and small restaurant with delicious food.

What sounds more like mother day than a SPA session! Natur Lov is a place like no other, your Mom will have finally a moment of full relaxation. The SPA owner uses only natural cosmetics and treats each client very individually. You can enjoy the pure calmness and be able to forget about the whole world.

Warsaw is full of beautiful squares and parks. Spend some time in Łazienki park, feed the squirrels or have a coffee at the Grzybowska Square with a view on the mix of the old church and new skyscrapers. If you are interested in giving your mom flowers and by the way see some locals, go and check out Hala Mirowska – you can find there not only fresh and colorful bouquets, but also fishes, meat, fruit and vegetables.

After this long tour through the nicest parts of Warsaw, you will probably start to feel hungry – grab a taxi and go straight to Stary Dom Restaurant, which in polish means “The Old House” and inside it really is! You can feel like at your grandparents house with lots of dark brown furniture and flowers everywhere. If you want to taste real polish cuisine – this the place to be! You should definitely order a tartare, because the chef will come to your table and prepare it right next to you.

With full stomachs go to Weles, a secret bar hidden in one of the streets in city center for the last cocktail and relax after a whole day of attractions. Cheers to all Moms!

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Fully kosher hotel in the heart of Kazimierz District in Cracow

Kazimierz district in Cracow is well-known for its jewish history. Now it is about to get a step forward. Between ul. Dietla and Podbrzezie, next to the Temple synagogue with the Jewish Community Center, a 4-star hotel is about to open. It wouldn’t be unusual, if not for the fact that is going to be completely kosher!

The opening is planned for autumn next year. Hotel will have 117 rooms, a kosher kitchen and a mikveh (used for ritual washing of the body).  The hotel will be on a standard of 4 stars. The height of the building was adapted to the surroundings.

The investment includes reconstruction of the tenement house at ul. Dietla 59 and the creation of a new building with an underground garage for 25 parking spots at ul. Podbrzezie 4. The new hotel will have a historical façade with numerous decorations and a characteristic balcony.  The hotel will have a courtyard, a conference and banquet area with a total area of nearly 500 m2.

Only kosher meals will be served at the restaurant in the hotel. The kitchen won’t use pork or any non-kosher products. In the restaurant there should be separate cutlery sets for the meat and milk meals, because in the kosher kitchen these dishes can’t be mixed. Orthodox Jews do not eat meat after eating milk for six hours.

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The Royal Castle and its beautiful garden

The Royal Castle has always been an important symbol of Poland. Today, the former residence of rulers and kings of Poland is one of the most recognizable monuments of the city.

The culmination of his many years of reconstruction is the opening of the castle gardens. The restoration project for the lower gardens started in 2017. Archaeological, construction and gardening works were carried out thanks to co-financing from the EU and the Ministry of Culture. The garden is now more beautiful than ever.

            The arrangement of the Lower Garden lasted 482 days. It started on September 6, 2017, ended December 28, 2018. In this short time, the unused 1,9-hectare space in the foreground of the Royal Castle, between Arkady Kubicki and busy Wisłostrada, has changed beyond recognition. A modernist garden was created here with a lawn deep in the ground, a granite terrace with fountains, a system of paths, decorative vases, flowerbeds, rows of trimmed bushes and trees, and a complex technical infrastructure hidden in the ground.

For the first time in its history, the Royal Castle in Warsaw has fully decorated gardens. Their finished lower level was waiting for it over 200 years, from the time of Stanisław August Poniatowski. The grand opening has taken place last Saturday – 11thMay.

You can Visit Poland to see the garden or just click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-rg4uMD2ZM

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Obwarzanek Krakowski – delicious tradition festival!

Let’s talk about something super delicious and one of the reason to visit Cracow! – Obwarzanek Krakowski.

Braided ring-shaped bread that is boiled and sprinkled with salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc., before being baked. It has a white, sweetish, moist and chewy crumb underneath a crunchy golden-brown crust. You can get it nearly at every street cart in Cracow streets. It has the status of a regional food with protected geographical indication by European Union.

Now the best part of it all – this year will be the first festival of Obwarzanek ever! On the 26th and 27th of May at Szczepański Square and Planty – masters of pastries from Krakow and the surrounding area will present their products. The date of the event is not accidental – it refers to the privileges granted by Jan Olbracht on May 26, 1496, under which the bagels could be baked and sold only by the Cracovian bakers.

Each visitor will be able to try an obwarzanek – both sauté or with traditional additions of poppy, salt and cheese, as well as in the form of culinary variations created by the best restaurateurs. Local restaurants will start in the competition for the best variation from obwarzanek. At the stands, you will be able to taste various of other specialties from the region. Beside eating, everyone will enjoy a Street Theater performance and many other artistic events, workshops on drawing, preparing obwarzanek from salt mass or baking laboratory.

Krakow was chosen the European Capital of Gastronomy Culture 2019. The advantage of Krakow’s cuisine is its diversity, gastronomic tradition is derived from many cultures. It’s not only one of the most beautiful cities in Poland, with a great history, but also a magnificent place to eat.

In June last year, the European Gastronomic Academy unanimously decided that Krakow will be the European Capital of Gastronomy Culture 2019. In the strict finale of efforts for this title, the capital of Lesser Poland defeated even Lisbon.

Picture source: https://www.thespruceeats.com/jewish-polish-krakover-bagels-recipe-1135425 (btw, you can find a recipe how to make a real Obwarzanek here)

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Street art taking over Polish walls

Street art in Poland is growing rapidly and the design and concept is definitely world-class. It is not only a way of expressing yourself, but also a form of freedom, tribute and message, which can be seen and understood by everyone. It has become one of the most popular trends in contemporary art.

In Poland there are being festivals organized in every major city, galleries and auction houses exhibit works of street artists, dozens of murals are created, publications are published, debates, workshops and lectures are held. It is a trendy issue already for several years. We have selected just a few of them, there are many more!

  1. Etam Cru – Mateusz Gapski and Przemek Blejzyk, both are graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in the department of Graphics and Painting in Łódź, so as you can see they are highly educated in the area that they create. They are the most known duo in polish street art, thanks to years of work and studies together, they created a unique and recognizable style. They started in Bydgoszcz, now you can admire their paintings in Olsztyn, Łódź and Warsaw. Over time, they began to spread their talent abroad – Bulgaria, Germany, Russia, Portugal and the USA.
  1. M-city– his real name is Mariusz Waras, and he is also very close to the university life. He graduated from the Graphic Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk an currently he works as the assistant to one of the professors at the faculty of painting. His style is based on working with templates. M-city works are very well-known world-wide and his work was featured at the opening of Urban Nation Museum in 2017.
  1. Sepe – Michał Wręga. Since 1996, he has been associated with graffiti art and the Polish street art scene. He currently lives and works in Warsaw as a graphic artist, painter and illustrator. His works can be seen on walls in such cities as: Munich, Oslo, Prague, Berlin, Lille, Lucerne, Warsaw, Gdańsk, Łódź, Wrocław, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin, Katowice.
  1. Natalia Rak – finally a girl in the business. She has started her adventure with art long before she graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. She grew up in a small village and out of boredom started to create. Now she is one of the most known street artist in Poland, her hallmark are very bright colors.
  1. Chazme – Daniel Kaliński currently living and working in Warsaw was born in Switzerland. He is a graduate of Faculty of Architecture on the University of Warsaw. His art is very architectonic and full of straight shapes. He sometimes cooperates with Sepe. Their styles are really opposite, but that is just what makes it unique and breathtaking.
  1. Pener started working in the street art surrounding already in the middle of the 90s. He focuses on the shape, frame and mixing various materials. His artistic achievements contain paintings, walls and animations. His style can be defined as large format abstractionism.

While talking about polish street art, we have to let you know about the new amazing works than we can now admire in the streets of polish cities. First of all the giant mural that has been created this September in Częstochowa. It is a marvelous outcome from a very fascinating duo cooperation – Stefan Rybicki is a local watchmaker and originator of the whole idea and Tomasz Sętowski is an artist known not only in his city. The unveiling ceremony of the mural, which is called “Guardian of Time”, was at the same time the opening of the 15th Cultural Night in Częstochowa. Another amazing, artistic initiative have been created in Warsaw as a tribute to Kora – a great singer who died of cancer last year. What is so unique? It changes every season. The “hair” of the singer makes it special, the author of the mural presented it as a crown made of branches. The rest of her hair consists of the branches of a real tree growing next to it – now, during spring, she has a beautiful green “haircut”.

 

Picture source: https://www.etamcru.com/etam/madamme-chicken

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18 nominations from Poland in the Mies van der Rohe Award 2019!

The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award is a Prize organized by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, “to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Europe’.

The Prize was created in 1987 as a partnership between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe. Competition is open to all the works completed in Europe within the two-year period before the granting of the Prize.

383 projects from 38 countries – this is a list of the nominees for the Mies van der Rohe European award 2019. This year, 18 objects from Poland were fighting for the main prize.  All the projects nominated this year are pretty amazing, but we have chosen our favorites. They are not only beautiful in the way they are designed and built, but they are very functional.

You can for example send your kids to this super modern school which looks like straight from Hollywood films. Akademeia High School in Warsaw, designed by Medusa Group is a one of a kind studying area in Poland. It focuses on educating young people in order to help them achieve the highest qualifications and get into the best universities in the world.

“By the way House” is the second of our top favorites. Designed by KWK Promes studio, located in central Poland on a beautiful, huge field above the river bank. The owner’s wish was not only to make the best use of the existing landscape conditions, but also to move the interior from the current apartment. The owners wanted mainly to have a private and intimate leaving area, so the house is in the center of the plot, and the living area is on the first floor.

Building of the District Court in Siedlce is a mix of the seriousness and calmness of ancient buildings. Thanks to the restrained form the building looks enormously majestic. In the interior, architects contrasted architectural concrete with transparent glass details. The harmony effect was obtained by combining empty spaces filled with light and full, simple forms.

Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk is built on a lot at Władysław Bartoszewski Square near the center of the city. It is located in a symbolic architectural space, 200 metres from the historic Polish Post Office in Gdańsk and 3 kilometers across the water from Westerplatte Peninsula, both of which were attacked in September 1939.

NAWA – the sculpture of Oskar Zięta on the Daliowa Island in Wrocław is a part of the events related with the celebration of the European Capital of Culture. It refers to the main slogan – “metamorphosis of culture”. Its form is an artistic interpretation of the constant transformation of the city. NAWA is an ultra-light, but solid construction consisting of 35 steel arches forming a gate through which you can walk.

The lucky nominees were 18 objects, but we have chosen (subjectively) 5 of them. Polish architects and architecture companies grow rapidly showing that our country represent the world level.

 

picture source: EUMiesAward website

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XVII Rally of Historic Vehicles in the SIMP Castle in Rydzyna

Just before May started in a beautiful castle located about 80 km from Poznań and Wrocław (village called Rydzyna) took place an unusual event – a rally of antique vehicles. The location is very important, because this castle is the home for The Association of Polish Engineers and Mechanics.

The rally is an annual event carried out jointly with the Leszno Automobile Club. Both collectors associated in various automobile clubs and private collectors take part in it. As part of the Rally program, participants have to overcome a route of around 60km, on which there are checkpoints. There they have to solve a task, answer questions or perform complicated maneuvers with a vehicle. Everything is scored separately. Vehicles are classified in the following criteria:

  • 1,2,3 place in the Car classification
  • 1,2,3 place in the Motorcycle Classification
  • 1,2,3 place in the Classification Military vehicle
  • The best-kept car
  • The best-kept motorcycle

The second day is all about the fans. At the Market Square in Leszno audience choose the most beautiful vehicle and there is an official award ceremony.  This year the favorites were: motorcycles: D-RAD R04 from 1927 and D-RAD R06 from 1929, and cars: MB TA from 1936, Chevrolet Impala from 1958 and Plymooth Valiant from 1960.

The Caste SIMP in Rydzyna is well-known for various of interesting events like elegant balls that will take you back in time. It has been built at the end of XVII century by Italian artist who lived in Poland. Together with the park and all the areas, it was the most magnificent magnate residence in Wielkopolska. The castle collections consist of, among others, sets of furniture, antique engravings, souvenirs of the Sułkowski family and natural collections (including a collection of tropical butterflies, hunting trophies). It is daily open for visitors and it also exists as a hotel containing 47 luxurious rooms. Feel free to contact our office, if you are interested in experiencing a true royal holiday with a lot of activities.

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Polish pilot landed on the Sopot pier!

Redbull is very well-known for making the impossible possible and also this time they managed to shock us! How? One of the best racing pilots in the world, Łukasz Czepiela, landed on a pier in Sopot.

Just imagine having an ordinary Saturday walk and suddenly seeing a plane land just next to you on an extremely narrow, short and wooden area. Sounds insane? Well, it really did happen! But, don’t worry it wasn’t any accident or breakdown. It was supposed to be an inauguration of the season at Sopot pier. Thanks to the amazing skills of the pilot, the whole situation was very secure and there was no danger that something bad could happen to the famous spot in Sopot.

Łukasz Czepiela is definitely a pro when it comes to air acrobatics. He has the title of world best pilot in Challenger class from the Red Bull Air Race. Even for him such a landing wasn’t easy, he was preparing himself for many months.

The plane used for this show was also very special. Carbon Club EX2 is a machine categorized as STOL, “which stands for short take off and landing”. To make the landing possible there was a minimal amount of fuel in the tanks.

Czepiela shows his amazing skills for example during the Red Bull Air Race where he has to face much more difficult quests, like chasing between narrow walls. His famous flight under the bridges for the National Flag Day has been admired by whole Warsaw.

Sopot is one of the most visited and charming Polish cities throughout whole year. The clean air, especially on the pier, where the concentration of iodine is twice as high as on land, what makes it the best place for a get away from the polluted cities.

Picture source: https://www.redbull.com/pl-pl/czepiela-wyladowal-samolotem-na-molo-w-sopocie

 

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