vintage market Kiermusy

Held once a month in a small village Kiermusy. A big gathering of people trying to sell their vintage goods. A unique experience for us :) 

It was some real luck that it was happening exactly when I was leaving Bialystok for summer holidays, because otherwise I would have missed it for sure. We had been talking about visiting Kiermusy on its vintage market day for awhile then. I was hoping to find a great opportunity to purchase some vintage cameras for small amount of money. Unfortunately that was the case :) There were Smenas, Agfas and the simplest Zenits around - for about 30 PLN each, definitely not what I was looking for, but also some better cameras, even a Leica (that I was not sure was not a fake) but for regular hundreds like prices. I wanted to spend some money, yet not that much. I laid my eyes on a beautiful vintage music box. In my price range, still playing beautiful Chopin tunes. The lady told me it was a French pre-war music box, I did not really believe her. At home I found out that it's an actual '70s or '80s box made in the US. See? More trust issues from now on.

I love vintage markets. If you ever happen to be in Prague, make sure to visit the flea market by Vltava - I wrote a post about this one here, where I shot those vintage goodies with my previous analog camera.

10 things to do in wroclaw

There is no end to Wroclaw related posts, folks! I know that most of you will probably never visit Wroclaw, which is a fantastic Polish city, but as long as my memory is still fresh after my trip, I decided to tell you some more about what you just must see! I promise that it won't be much about me talking, but instead showing you what is there to be loved and admired in this city and how you can fill your days while being there! There will be some cool food places mentioned as well, as I know that exploring always results in hunger! Since I wouldn't want this post to get tooooo long, I divided attractions into specific pages, click the name of the attraction and it will lead you to photographs.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE WILD 

ADMIRE BEAUTIFUL VIEWS FROM THE 49TH FLOOR

EXPERIENCE ART

WALK THE BRIDGE OF LOVERS

WITNESS A BATTLE

STROLL AROUND BEAUTIFUL TENEMENT HOUSES 

SPEND A JAPANESE AFTERNOON

GET A YUMMY BREAKFAST

TRY SOMETHING NEW FOR DINNER

SPEND THE EVENING WITH SOME HONEY BEER & GREAT MUSIC

(each is a link, so click away!)

the dwarves

Over the few days in Wroclaw, I heard that there are over 200 dwarves there. The official dwarf website says 163. Still enough to fill a few days of exploring. Not all of them are placed on the street. They are also in more or less official buildings - a museum, a public pool, a school. You also need to get on a tram with a specific side number to find one. Lots of work! So a hunt is truly a hunt and you cannot fear asking other people for help if you want to find them us. Map on the right shows the location of dwarves in the city centre. On the left, you can see the dwarf "Panoramist" Panoramist is what you would call – a historical dwarf. Look at his outfit and how well he rides the horse. He looks almost like Tadeusz Kościuszko. He gallops on a ledge of the rotund where Panorama Racławicka is displayed. Its authors – Mr. Kossak and Mr. Styka would probably be surprised that the masterpiece they painted is popular in dwarf world as well.

Just like I said in the previous post, our trip was not limited to dwarf searching. We also wanted to explore other sides of the city, so it wasn't our main goal to spend our days looking for them. If we came somewhere and we were lucky enough, we could add another little dwarf to our collection. I did not photograph all of them that we saw. I felt like it wasn't neccessary.

wroclaw called wroclove (the essence)

I came back from the overheated south of Poland a few days ago. The whole country is burning up, making me think that bus drivers that don't activate the air conditioning are murderers. It's tough to live in such heat. Wroclaw was particularly hot with its 39 degrees of Celcius in shade. I put up with it, just like I would so during some exotic vacations in Africa. This is my time, I thought. I don't sunbath like ever, knowing that sunburnt skin is unhealthy skin, ageing faster, and just generally nothing I should be proud of. In Wroclaw I let the sun kiss me slightly. 

Those few days south made me feel alive again. We were eating in restaurants, as my appetite was huge. So weird during such hot days, I have to admit. We walked the streets, a bottle of water in one hand, the city guide in another, my eyes covered with cheap sunglasses, that are probably ruining my eyesight. Each day was fun and unique. It's hard to tell you just one thing that I loved in Wroclaw. It's a beautiful city, and I was really in love with what I saw. One of the main attractions that did not require tickets, but did indeed make us walk further and further each day, was searching for the dwarves (the city special). We spotted about fifty of those (out of about two hundred, oh my), mostly because at times I felt like just walking and looking for them was not worthy of the time in this city. We had so much other stuff to see. Museums, parks, bridges, little islands. I think we made the best of our stay. I want to show you some of my memories in photographs. I hope you will enjoy them. Please, tell me what you would like to know. Do you want to see more dwarves? Should I do top 10 places to visit while in Wroclaw? I'm open to suggestions and I cannot wait to tell you more about my trip!