Lublin Weekend
The weekend is finally here and I'm off with my friends Sebastian (el pibe), Erica, Sergio and Magda (chapita!) for a weekend in Lublin and Nalenchow. So we're an eclectic group - Argentinians, Polish and American... And when Hiroshi gets here tomorrow, Japanese too! We didn't manage to get out of our offices and on our way until nearly five and didn't make it to Lublin until 8 p.m. Along the way we drank mate (I've definitely developed a taste for that!) ate cookies and talked and talked and talked. A interesting cultural contrast: mate and szarlotka!
We're staying at a place called Lubelski Dom Nauczyciela which is a sort of hotel / residence for teachers. We started up with three rooms, but ended up sharing two - guys in one and girls + Sebastian and Erica's amazing golden retriever Mafalda in the other.
Once we settled into the hotel we headed to the old town to find a place for dinner. Since it's Good Friday, that's not such an easy task. Lublin (at least the part I've seen so far) is really pretty, definitely worth a visit. We walked through the main gate of the old town - the Cracow Gate - and wandered around the Stare Miasto. A lot of places were closed, but we finally found a place called "The Donkey's Ear" in Lublin's old town which was great. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the food was great. I had red beet soup and pierogis - really good! While we ate we had an animated conversation about Polish politics and history. After the food, we had some coffees and tea before heading back to the hotel and going to bed. Somehow it got really late....
Note: Thank you, whoever put Lublin in the right place on the map! :-)
The people in the reception weren't able to speak English, but they were friendly and helpful and fortunately when my Polish wasn't good enough, Magda and Sergio were there to step in...
The rooms are spacious, the beds aren't particularly comfortable but I was so tired that it really didn't matter! The sheets and towels were clean and smelled nice and the rooms and bathrooms were also clean. Trying to find a light switch in the hallways at night is quite a challenge... This place also has rooms for handicapped people. As far as decor goes, there's not much, but plenty of nice plants and you can tell that whoever is in charge tries to make the place homey with whatever means they have.
In all, a place I can recommend to anyone who's looking for something inexpensive and wants to get away from bigger hotel chains that pretty much are the same wherever you go... The room cost around 60 PLN per night - less than 20 Euros. A really nice thing about the hotel is that they let the dog stay with us too.
