The Fab 4’s first Christmas market abroad and all of our first times in Poland. It took me weeks to learn how to pronounce Bydgoszcz (Bid Gosh Ch) so I cold tell people where I was going exactly because it’s not one of the main tourist places in Poland. Like many of our trips I just took a look at what Ryanair flights were on special offer and picked the most interesting and cheapest looking one! Then I do a bit of research on the destination and if reports are mostly good then off we go. We flew out of Dublin to Bydgoszcz airport which is a joint civilian/military airport so it was a bit odd seeing all the military stuff. From there we eventually managed to figure out how to pay for the bus (there’s a lot less English spoken and signed in a smaller town like this) into the city centre and from there killed some time walking around the not yet fully opened markets and in XoXo where we had a lovely breakfast before walking to our hotel just on the outskirts of town. Pretty much everything was walkable for the whole trip from there. After settling into the hotel we walked back into town for the full night time Xmas market experience.
The Xmas market was nice but not spectacular. Not a hell of a lot better than the only other one I’ve been to in Galway! The usual expensive stuff, mostly food and not too many crafts but there was a nice vibe about town and it was very well decorated. There were shows on the square, Xmas music piped out and a big wheel which we nervously went upon. We were particularly fond of the mulled wine and beer stands! Drinks were definitely had. The only real thing missing was some snow. I had hoped that eastern Europe at Xmas = snow but shit ain’t really like that any more. Thanks global warming.
Day two we just spent walking around town and the local mall which was dangerously (when you have teens) close to our hotel but many a bubble tea was enjoyed there and it was nice to get in out of the cold. That evening we found the coolest little gaming cafe just behind the main town square called Cybermachina! You can grab any board games they have or play yer own (we played our ever present cards) and have some nice cocktails or beers while you’re playing. They should have places like this everywhere!
In terms of food, we had hoped to have our dinners in the market but because there wasn’t much English and we didn’t really know what the food was we stuck to mostly snacks, sweets and beer! On the second night we just ordered pizza from across the road from the hotel. Then it was off home. A short 2 night trip this time but another country visited, an Xmas market experience and more happy memories made.
