I enjoy getting to know various cities while attending music festivals that are organised in them. I got to know Kraków that way, same with Katowice and now Białystok which I visited with a sole purpose of dancing to techno music at Up To Date Festival. Festival tourism is a special kind of travelling and consists mostly of checking out as many restaurants and cafes as possible without making too much of an effort. Hungover is a beast, you know?
Just so you’re aware: I’m currently translating this blog post to english, one year later, while packing to go to Białystok once again. I donn’t thing much have changed in the city in the meantime, but just in case it did check if all the places described here still exist. But that’s oinly if you’re going to Białystok RIGHT NOW. I’ll update all the information and add more as soon as I get back from this year’s edition of Up To Date Festival.
Goodnight, goodnight, it’s been charming.
As far as accomodation goes we needed quite a lot of space as we travelled in a group of six (same this year). We were also looking for something on the budget. Be prefer to spend our money on important stuff such as food and drinks. We opted for Saport apartment which we found via Booking.com. It was ok, althoough a bit far from the city center. The best thing about this particular space is that there’s a lot of space in the living room so I guess if you need a spot for a larger group of people, just ask the owner if you can bring your own mattress. This year we wanted something closer to the city center. I will let you know how it turned out once I get back.
What to eat
The first place that comes to mind when thinking of food in Białystok is Czarna Owca (Black Sheep) restaurant known for the delicious pizza they serve. We were dreaming of this pizza even before we left Warsaw. I’m attaching the ‘messenger proof’ 😉
We did as we planned and started our adventure in Trattoria Czarna Owca. As recommendedby those who’ve been there before we’ve all opted for pizza, even though other ptions on the menu looked amazing as well. Every pizza was great, not too complicated, with quality ingredients. The portions are big as well so you won’t leave this place hungry. It wasn’t the best pizza of my life but it was definitely high on the list.I’m sure I’ll be coming back there this year as well.
But the spot I liked way more than Czarna Owca was Inna Bajka, a chilled out spot with hammocks and sunbeds. The interior is pretty cool but we used the last days of summer to the max sunbathing and drinking called beer. They have quite an extensive menu so it took me a while to choose. Plus every week they have a few different special, seasonal meals as well. We liked Inna Bajka so much that we visited twice and… this year we found an apartment right next to it 😉 Great place for lunch, breakfast and drinks.
The best part about travveling in a group of six is that you get to taste a lot of different dishes. I tried a bit of everyone’s order but I must admit I like mine the most. The first time we went for lunch and I got a lamb burger (OMG! DELICIOUS!) served with sweet potato fries. The portion is enormous and I didn’t manage toi eat it all. The next day we came back for breakfast. I went for salmon tartare with beetroot and poached egg. Delicious. We did have to wait quite a while for our food as they had some problems in the kitchen but the staff kindly gave us 50% discount for the inconvenience which is very nice of them
Plus we waited even longer in the famous breakfast place Bułka z masłem, popular among festival goers. There we ordered bagels and had to wait almost an hour to get them. Plus their not that good so I don’t really understand the hype. And the portions were not big enough in my opinion. Five minutes after finishing my bagel with bacon and a fried egg I started thinking about lunch. Not a good sign. Others had even less luck. In salmon bagels they ordered there was no… salmon!
I did hear a lot of good things about cakes served in a cozy cafe called Baristacja. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to visit it. Hopefully we’ll be able to fix this mistake this time. Last year the hungover didn’t really leave us craving sweets so we only went for traditional banoffii icecream at u Lodziarzy in the city center.And that’s it for the food. I’m sure I’ll be able to recommend you more spots after this year’s visit.
In the meantime
When we planned our trip to Białystok we only really thought of listening to music and eating, but it turned out that we needed to keep ourselves entertained in between the meals. We decided that a bit of culture, long walks and lots of laughs will be best for our tired brains. We delt with the cultural portion of the entertainment by visiting Galeria Arsenał created in cooperation with another gallery from my hometown – Lublin. We enjoyed the exhibition about nature where they used sounds of forest. The other part, all about east border of Poland was too much for our hungover minds. Maybe will check out what’s on show this year if we get enough time.
Next up was a walk in beautiful gardens and a park surrounding the biggest tourist attraction of Białystok – Branicki Palace. Our main mission was to find the statue of a ‘monster dog’ which we managed to do. The walk did us good and helped with getting appetite back to appreciate yet another restaurant 😉
It’s all cool but enough of the tourist stuff. What we really enjoyed was a bit of ‘alternative shopping’. We walked the main streets of the city and stumbled upon a Chinese Shopping Center. We had to check it out! There’s absolutely EVERYTHING being sold in here. You can feel almost as if you were teleported to Bangkok. There are tons of stickers, shoes smelling of plastic, glitter, stress relieving silicone boobs, golden cats that keep on waving to who knows whom, 3d Jesus paintings, etc. Plus it’s an amazing place to get yourself festival-ready with all the tacky shit that you can stick to your face 😉
That’s it for now. I’ll be sure to update this blog post with all the new spots we find this year. What are your Białystok recommendations? And are you going to Up To Date festival? Let us know in the comments!
Balmas
Freelancer, also known as an unemployed. Etnographer and photographer. She spends most of her free time in Photoshop or Lightroom. The sole purpose of her life is to travel around the world (on top of her must-see list are thecountries where she can stuff her face with tacos). She values people who understand irony. Enjoys minigolf as well. When she grows up she'll run her own hostel and a restaurant. She decided to start writing a blog only because she wants someone to send her a Boosted Board ;)
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