Torun gingercakes

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Torun is a very, very gorgeous town in central Poland that is famous for three things: 1) being stunningly quaint and beautiful 2) their famous pierniki, or gingerbread, and 3) birthplace of Kopernik, or Copernicus as he was known in Latin.

Unfortunately, because of my poor judgement, we missed the first train and thus had less time than I would have liked here. Torun has 200,000 people, but it wasn't damaged much in WWII and it really seemed like the most authentic and fun Old Town we had been in, the town square was full of locals, not tourists, and there was even the ruins of an old Teutonic order castle that you could practice shooting arrows for 4 zloty. I didn't, but I'm a cheapskate and the arrows looked questionable. It was located on the Wisla river, same as Krakow and Warszawa, and it was so damn hot that all I wanted to do was go for a swim, but the damn communists polluted so much and their capitalist successors as well, so we had to perspire.

The gingerbread was good, especially the chocolate covered kind. I also had a type of ice cream bar called a "top milk." I wanted a "big milk," which I had seen everywhere, but they were out. Why would you name an icecream bar "Big Milk?"

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but for now, if you go to Poland, be sure to go to Torun, its nice and authentic and mostly untouristed, except for those Germans I saw. You know those types, all silver-haired and travelling in packs.

Oh yeah, there's a statue of Copernicus there too, and even better, the town jail looks like an old castle fortress. I don't know why.

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