A week or so before I left to go to Krakow Poland, I had asked a friend what places to visit and restaurants to look for and eat at. She had told me to explore around the old city and to at least got to the one and certain restaurant named Pierogarnia where they make peirogi. Well I searched for its location when I arrived there in Poland and planned on the day that I would make the adventure outside of the old city and to this great and wonderful restaurant.
The location was about 3km away from hostel that we were staying at and about 2km away form the old city. The other two student missionaries and I made adventure out on thursday of that week to find this wonderful place, as we walked the weather was getting colder and the rain was starting to get stronger and hard to walk in. about half way on the trip we came up to a big intersection where there was not a cross walk in site, and we had to make a long walk out of our way to find a way to cross this busy road. About 3 big huge city blocks down in the distance we could see a cross walk, it was not a main crossing but was the only one in site. we waited what felt like a half hour for the crossing light to change and the traffic to stop so we could cross. With about 1km left to go the building were getting smaller and a little more scarier and I starting to think that I had gone the wrong direction. We kept looking for a sign with the name of the restaurant, when after a few more minutes of walking we finally found a sign and the building.
Well what sort of looked like a shipping container instead with windows and iron bars over the them. I went around to the other side to see if it was a better site to see. Let me just tell you that the other side was even worse yet and the doorway to go in was even more frightening. I think I stood there in shock and confusion on what to do and where in the world we ended up at. I finally had enough guts to walk through the door and down the long dark hallway to see where this place was. I as started to go in a family came out of one door, speaking Polish. I asked them in English where Pierogarnia was located. They pointed farther down the long and dark hallway. I finally reached where this place was located and a small sign just out side the door with the name of the restaurant. I looked inside and was set back on how small this place was and what it looked like. The eating area with 3 tables and 2 to 3 chairs per table was no bigger that my bed room back at the school that I am staying at. The place to order looked similar to a little hut to order ''non-alcoholic'' drinks from. After a few minutes an old Polish women stepped through the ribbon streamer curtain to take our order, but unfortunately she only spoke Polish and we only spoke English. Then from out of no where a lady come walking into this little restaurant and the only thing I remember her saying was "translate". I stood there trying to process what to do and what was about to happen as other people were waiting in line behind us. This lady explained to us the first two items on the menu and we orders that I waited for our order. Then the lady left, she did not stay to eat at the restaurant or talk to any one, she just translated for us and was gone. We had ordered a plate mushroom peirogi and a plate of apple peirogi. They were the best that I have ever tasted in my life. We all sat there think how in the world did we walk all this way to find a place of this quality looking but had such great and wonderful food. As we were finishing up eating many people were coming in and out ordering food like this was the only place to get food, there must have been 20-30 people coming and going with in 30 minutes. When we were finished we waited for the women to come back out and Thank her for the wonderful food that we had.
When I got back to the school in Denmark and I told my friend who recommend this restaurant about my experience and what this place was like. She was confused and did not know what restaurant I was talking about. So in the end we happend to go to the wrong place, a place that she never even knew about. But I know that God was protecting us and guiding us the whole way there and back safely, and that he sent this random women from out of no where to help us order our food. This is a story that I will never forget about and how I went to a place and God provided guidance and protection over us all. In the end our scary start ended up being a great adventure and a story to tell others.
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| This is the outside of the building with the sign we noticed |
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| The doorway to the dark hallway leading to resturant |
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| The place to order and get your food |
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| Left side is the mushroom and the right is the apple |
JJ
