Happy new year! New year, new enthusiasm for updating the blog. The last post was heralding the end of summer in Poland, and now here I am back on the sofa in Belfast wondering where the year went. So our new year’s resolution is to try and combine our enthusiasm for travelling, eating and giving opinions when no-one asked for them with a new found effort in getting those posts up!

Our big adventure for the last half of the year was a week in sunny Texas, living the good life in Austin and falling in love with the city. As usual we packed a lot into our trip and looked forward to blogging each little detail that made the city so special… But a few Tweets and a few months later and we still haven’t dared tackle the mountain of posts that deserve to be written.

So – in a bid to clear out the old to welcome in the new – we’ve decided that we’ll just have to do a quick run through of the whole week… and of course try harder next trip!

Before breaking into a bullet point list, let me mention the highlight of our trip (and the reason we were in Texas in the first place) – we were thrilled to invited to my friend Chris’ wedding to his beautiful Texan bride Jenny. It was a gorgeous day in the grounds of the period Barr Mansion in Austin – and to say the location (and the food!) was amazing is an understatement. Perfectly cooked rare steak at a wedding? Unbeatable. Oh and carrot cake? Fantastic. Jenny is very talented photographer, so check out her blog – particularly if you are in the Austin area!

Ok, let the datablast begin!

• Breakfast at Gordon Ramsay, Heathrow Terminal 5 – pricey tea, so-so food, but the peace, quiet and complimentary papers would take us back.
• Hitting busy roads of Houston, immediately following 9 hour flight, just after sunset in a left hand drive car was a little unnerving, incredibly exhausting…
• … so it was a relief to reach the very cushy (and cheap!) Hilton Garden Inn Houston Galeria
• Next day was the beautiful old houses of Galveston…
• …and the space age relics of the Nasa Space Centre
• Onwards to Austin and the Wee Cottage we were staying in – a cute and ultra cheap little house near the trendy SoCo area of the city
• Fantastic to meet up with Rachel, one half of fellow bloggers Boots In The Oven for a little tex mex before booze and bowling at the spectacular High Ball bowling alley.
• Rachel also for accompanied us to Smitty’s Market barbecue in Lockhart – how come everyone in Austin seems so skinny with this near by?!
• The Mexican Martini – our new favourite drink. We’ll post our ultimate recipe soon.
• Loved visiting Whole Foods flagship store – I don’t think there is anything like this near Belfast…
• Took a drive out to the epic watering hole at the the Hamilton Pool
• Watermelon and cucumber sorbet from Amy’s Ice Cream was a revelation… might try to replicate this come summer…
• Spoilt for choice for great tex mex spots, burgers. Oh and cheese fries made for an embarassingly great experience.
• Torchy’s Tacos made the best breakfast tacos – perfect with a hangover too.
• Of course we went to see the Austin bats! Just don’t ask how the photographs turned out.
• The Banh Mi from Lulu B’s food truck were so good, they have almost single handedly got us planning a trip to Vietnam.

Well, to say that that abbreviated list isn’t doing Texas – and Austin in particular – justice, is a gross understatement. Truly have we never found ourselves in such a green, relaxed city, packed with friendly people, amazing food options and a great attitude to keeping itself unique.

Keep Austin weird, we’ll be back!

Another weekend and another festival hits the streets of the Tricity. Last week I was roused from a mild hangover by a fifty strong samba band marching outside my window. I fought the urge to close the windows, grabbed my camera and headed down to join the party.

The troupe slowly made its way from the railway station down to the cobbled streets of the Old Town where it stopped on the steps of Dwor Artus to bang out a couple more numbers.

I’m a little sketchy on the details, but at least some of the group were from L’Omberico Del Mondo – a Polish group that plays up and down the country – but the charistmatic conductor had the strongest Scottish accent I have heard for a long time.

It was one of the last days of pure sunshine of the year and the streets lined wall to wall with smiling people – it really made me appreciate being able to spend summer in the Tricity.

A full set of pictures can be found on Flickr.

We took you to the Sure Bar for drinks before and after reading that it served ‘the best burger in Poland’ according to the usually accurate tourist magazine In Your Pocket, we decided this would be the place to close out an indulgent week of birthday celebrations.

We’ll cut to the chase, it was not the best burger in Poland. It was not even the best burger in Gdansk – the £8 (38 PLN) dense, flavourless meat patty falling into second place behind the £1 (5 PLN) McRoyal from McDonalds. If you are looking for the best burger in Gdansk, save your money and head for the golden arches.

Fish in Gdansk has been good, but we’ve never had a battered fillet. The fish is served looking a bit sorry for itself. The batter a little soggy on the top… as if it has been left resting somewhere… but where has the deep fried fillet been sitting? A quick flip and the answer is obvious – it’s been sat keeping warm a touch too long under the grill.

We really wonder why a restaurant/pub that is trying to elevate the quality of international food in Gdansk would let something like this out of the kitchen. Anyway, the waiter was apologetic and offered a replacement, but as we had an early flight the next day we were short for time and picked out the cod within. The fish that could be salvaged from between the soggy and burnt portions was ok, but the lemon mayonnaise (definitely not tartare sauce as described) was really nice and woke up the chalky chips.

The seating options for dining are realistically limited to five tables at the rear of the bar. Unfortunately this left us sitting right next to one couple and only a couple of tables away from another. In a bar that only had six people in it, that meant social awkwardness, whispering for everyone and the embarrassment that comes with photographing one’s food.

We quite like having a drink here. The cocktails are expensive, but interesting and well made and hotel gave us an opportunity to do a bit of ‘celebrity spotting’ when we came for a drink after stumbling into a premiere up the road.

So when you are in Gdansk, for cocktails come to the Sure, to be sure, but set your eating expectations low.

Food
Service
Decor
Value

Sure Bar
Radisson Blu Hotel
Dlugi Targ 19
80-828 Gdansk