Enjoying Polish Hospitality – Rather meets Wolviex
 

Dear Friends,
I want to share with you a great experience. During my stay in Krakow, definitely one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, my wife and I had the privilege to meet Wolviex last Monday. Knowing each other only from this forum, we agreed to meet in front of the Muzeum Narodowe, the National Museum, (kind of a blind date ;) ), where he works. Being welcomed like old friends, we were guided through the exhibition of arms and armour, the Gallery “Armament and Colour in Poland”, which is closed for the public on Mondays. Wolviex provided us with white gloves, took the keys to the showcases and gave us the chance to have a really close look and even handle to many of the articles of virtu.
On display are objects, starting from the medieval times, swords and war axes, beautiful armour and weapons from 16. and 17. century, crossbows and magnificent hussar’s sabres and armours.
After spending more than a hour in the exhibition, we were invited to the “catacombs” of the museum, the archive and pool of objects, which are not displayed in the exhibitions. We spend an other few hours among Persian and Ottoman sabres, daggers, shields and helmets and saw many pieces, Wolviex presented in the forum. Our meeting ended in an excellent Italian Restaurant, it was a wonderful day! Thank you, Michal, for everything!
We enjoyed the National Museum so much, that we decided to come again the next day to see the other departments, old furniture, goldsmithery, glass and costumes, from the middle ages to Art Nuveau.
Additional fine collections of weapons and armours are in the Royal Castle, the Wawel and in the Czartoryski Museum and for all enthusiasts it is a must to visit them as well. I can only recommend to all members of our forum to visit Krakow and to stay minimum 3 days, in order to have a chance to enjoy the cultural richness of this city.
To make you all envious, I include a few pictures of Wolviex and me during the visit of the exhibition. Enjoy! :D
Regards to all of you,
Norbert

Thanks alot Rather, and thanks to our friend Wolviex, great post! ;)

Its always fun and interesting going into museum storerooms and archives, you never know what you might find in there. :D

I knew Michal was a great guy but, as my daughter said, he is also a "hunk" :D
Poland has an amazing history: rich in tradition, culture and often tragic. It's weapon culture and the number of first-rate researchers into arms and armour are unsurpassable in Europe.
No visit to Poland is complete without a bottle of " Wyborowa" or, better, "Zubrowka". Better make it two bottles : now, when both Polish President and the Prime Minister are identical twins, nothing there should come in singlicates :D

@ariel -I am the fat one in the white shirt, Wolviex is the good looking one in the checkererd shirt. Just to make it clear.. :D

That's what my daughter thought too :D

Ariel, knowing what goes into the Zubrowka I am not so inclined to even taste it, left alone drink a whole bottle of it. Fortunately, the photos above show plenty of other good reasons to go there.

Don't listen to him, guys! He sounds like a Chardonnay dude :eek: :eek:
After Armenian Brandy and Peruvian Pisco, Zubrowka is the drink closest to ambrosia (although Montenegran Loza and Romanian Tuika are not far behind....)
Gosh, I've been writing grant proposals far too long :( :(

I myself am a rakiya dude, but maybe you should tell everyone about an important ingredient in the Zubrowka (which I think gives it its name), and let them judge for themselves.

TVV,
I don't know what you were told :) but Zubrowka is made with an extract from Bison grass (whatever other bison related liquids or solids you were told about are drefinitely not present in this fine beverage).
I like it best with apple juice... :rolleyes:

TVV,
A rakia dude?
Bulgarian rakia? Plodova or grozdova? Man, I am so sorry for the the "Chardonnay" slur :o :o
As to Zubrowka, please look at this:
http://www.zubrowka.net/
and the truth will make you free!

Thanks a lot for the pictures. Those are some beautiful armors and clubs.

Bulgarian, yes, and I prefer grozdova. As for the Zubrowka, now that I have both Ariel's and Perkun's reassurances about certain Bison liquids not present in it, I guess I might consider trying it one day. I guess I was really naive to believe in that myth, shame on me :o . And I appologize if I have hijacked the threath, but it was probably worth it, if others had the same doubts and fears.

Well, guys, sorry to tell you the sad truth, but among all, Briniewitz is the choice for a real connoiseur... :p

Interrupting your interesting discussion on vodkas, I would like to thank Norbert for his visit in Poland and in my museum. It was really great pleasure for me to guide him and his wife amongst treasures under my costody. It was great time I enjoyed very much and i'm looking forward to meet with Norbert again in the future. I'll be very happy to welcome anyone of you in my beautiful city and guide you in National Museum, just let me know if you plan anything ;)
Thank you for this thread and don't bother yourself discussing vodkas :cool:

haha.... well,I wouldn't like to dissapoint your daughter, but I'm already engaged :rolleyes:
(psst... any picture and address of your daughter? :D :eek: )

I can't wait till I'm there in September. Here's to hoping we can meet Michal. :)

And Zubrowka is just fine, nothing quite like it - in a good way. :cool:

Iann: Yes I remember about your arrival to Europe, and I will wait for you :), just let me know! I'll be happy to show you some of the things :cool:

How nice.

You meet the nicest people on this forum. Thanks for the photos and the warm reception for another forumite.