Wishing all my friends, family, current readers and future readers …
A Whole New Year filled with Fabulous Opportunities, Awesome Adventures and Exciting Journeys!
All the Best,
Oscar
Oscar Krol's official website. Updates on New Novels, Reviews, Short Stories and Other Snippets are posted here. My Novel "Leaders of Hope" is Available on the Amazon Kindle Store! Only 2.99$ ! Contact me at anytime at: oscarkrol@gmail.com
Wishing all my friends, family, current readers and future readers …
A Whole New Year filled with Fabulous Opportunities, Awesome Adventures and Exciting Journeys!
All the Best,
Oscar
Rating: 8/10 Cups
Kardamon Cafe’s Official Website: http://cafekardamon.pl/ (not working)
It gets me every time. |
(Summer Time) |
The park itself is a sweet place, complete with duck infested ponds. The green headed mallards bobbing in and out of the water. The flock is joined by the high and mighty swans, who prefer instead of bask in their glory as families with children “ooed and awwed” – the white knights of the bird world. Adjacent to the feeding frenzy are signs prohibiting the feeding of the local birds. The sign was promptly pooed on by seagulls, pigeons and ducks, the swans at least kept their etiquette. The park maintained rows of towering trees, that were cut to look like a vertical wall of hedges that continued along one length of the park. A literal wall of green. To the side of it, were smaller, albeit older trees that were cultivated to create a canopy over park goers. The canopy of course, passed every year with autumn. leaving gaps and holes in the would be branchy blanket over you, creating a pattern of sunlight that tattooed the pavement, such an artsy display that I almost felt bad for walking over it… Almost.
A frosted day. |
The latest attachment to the park however, (since i last visited months before) is the Japanese style garden. How Japanese you might ask? If you didn’t, i am telling you anyways. Japanese in the manor of placing spacious back-less wooden benches and a standing, i assume to be a birdhouse, with a flared roofing to it, symbolic of feudal Japan’s architecture. Regardless of the name, this section, although new, was off the beaten path and was perhaps the quietest section of the park. On aforementioned benches, was still a layer of frost that was refusing to melt, despite the onslaught of sunny rays that assaulted the ice crystals.
Reviews
Moving on. After the park, I scouted the area for a cafe. The result of which showed 3 cafes right across the road from the park. The first being Flemming cafe (http://www.flemming-cafe.pl/) Hopefully named after Ian Fleming, but I doubt that. Of course, this cafe was closed on this Sunday. So there goes that review for now.
Kardamon Cafe
Further down the road, is a small little place “Kardamon” (http://cafekardamon.pl/). The sweet name alone brought me inside, it brought nostalgic memories of living in the Middle East, and my feet carried me inside. It is a small little place, sweet because of it. The purple theme made it warm but authentic, unique in my opinion. The seating and tables were comfortable and strong. Meaning that anybody could sit down without worry of breaking the chairs. The bar is also nicely presented and one could sit there comfortably, if you want to make chit chat with the barista of course, or if you are like me, you choose to find your own little corner to hide away from everything. The atmosphere was almost quiet, if not for the television playing Taylor Swift and other pop stars i couldn’t care to name. The music took away from the feel, but i believe that is more because the barista, no older than I, was left pretty much alone and bored in an empty cafe. Not a diamond in the rough but a hidden gem, this cafe was a lovely place to have a really good espresso.
I don’t consider myself an expert on coffee or espressos, but having spent time in Italy, working in an Italian restaurant, Vecchio Mulino (http://www.vecchiomulino.eu/), I know a good coffee from a crap one. Kardamon cafe near Oliwa park, has some really good stuff. Highly recommended.
Kafe Delfin
Since however, I was in an experimental mood, for coffee… nothing else you dirty minded fool, I decided to head into the last cafe on the street. Kafe Delfin (http://www.kafedelfin.pl/) Or the Dolphin Cafe in English… (I wasn’t aware of this translation until I looked up the website for the cafe, I, at first attributed the name to Delphine from Greek mythology) Is it a cafe about the sea, full of pictures about dolphins and other sea life? Nope. The cafe instead takes to heart, the subject matter of old-school films. Ancient theater projectors and film reels are scattered through the premises, and the walls are dotted with black and white pictures of actors, remembered, dead, alive and forgotten. A unique idea, but the red walls felt a bit hostile to me and made me feel more like I had to take the coffee and leave, rather than sit and spend the day talking. Regardless, I had two espressos here. Both very decent as well. Whilst having my first however, I came to the conclusion, at the same time as my girlfriend (as we texted), that I should take upon myself, to be a bit more out going, and enjoy more coffees in various cafes, as I travel Gdansk, Poland and the world. Whilst sharing my experience with all of you, out there, who apparently read blogs.
That is what this shall be. The first installment of a semi-autobiographical, semi-review and semi-self promoting blog. As i travel the world, I will share my experiences, worthy of note, as I quest for the best “HOLY ESPRESSO”….. The term was coined by my girlfriend, who politely asked me not to use it. So use that as a loose title until I come up with a better on in due time. Updates will be randomly frequent with periods of nothingness. In between which, I will post updates about my novels… whenever I get to writing them. Find more at http://holyespresso.blogspot.com/
See ya.
Leaders of Hope cover. Designed by Abdullah Alomari |
Opening his eyes to an isolated sandy beach in the middle of nowhere with nobody in sight could be considered a blessing to some people. At 16 Gordon’s dark blond hair absorbed the heat of the sun and tanned his white skin. The crystal blue waves calmly brushed on the shore in front of him, there were songs of various tropical birds in the cool air and the wind filled his hair with the distinct sea shore smell. So as most people would do he lied on the smooth sand, swam in the ocean and watched the birds fly past with grace and arrogance. In the midst of this heaven on earth there was no pain, no harm and no worries, a life most people would want.