Polish Wedding (& a few hours in Berlin!)

When Christian and I studied abroad in Finland, we weren't the only exchange students who met and fell in love. Our favorite travel buddies Denis (French exchange student) & Emma (a local Finn! aka Denis' souvenir from Finland) were another couple and Bob (Dutch exchange student) & Agnieszka (Polish exchange student) were too. 

Considering 3 couples came out of our semester abroad in Finland, we're convinced Lappeenranta is the place for love <3.

Anywho, just a few weeks ago...our dear friends Bob and Agnieszka got married!! It was a no-brainer that we were definitely going to travel East to Poland for the wedding. 

Christian flew out a few days early to hang out with his best friend (who lives in Wroclaw) and I came out later via overnight train (I love trains!). I left The Netherlands and 9 hours later I woke up in Poznan :). Shortly after, Christian and his friends arrived too. 

It was only a quick weekend in Poznan but we were able to squeeze in some Polish nightlife and chilling in the sun. Once wedding day came, we walked to the church and oh myyyy what an elaborate church it was!! At the reception, we toasted to the bride and groom, pigged out on a table full of Polish food, sipped on chilled vodka (there was a bottle at every table!) and well...later in the night, did some more pigging out...on a roasted pig! It was incredible and met every expectation I had about the sheer awesomeness of a Polish wedding (and it was in THREE languages: Dutch, Polish and English). 

It was quite incredible to be able to study with these two as they fell for each other then to be able to be a part of their wedding day.

The next day, I had to head back to Amsterdam pretty early. I had no complaints though because I flew out of Berlin and, after taking the 3-hour Warsaw-Berlin Express, I had a few hours to kill before my flight. Two words: Prater Biergarten! I loved this place when we first visited Berlin years ago and just knew I had to return--and I'm so happy I did. I'm now convinced that no pre-flight meal is better than a German bratwurst, kartoffelsalat (potato salad) and a couple white beers (carb overload anyone?) in a shady biergarten! But when in Rome...errrr Berlin, right?

TIPS

*Drink a beer at Brovaria brewery in Stary Rynek (Poznan's main square). I got the beer sampler--delicious!

*Walk into a vodka bar for a quick shot between bar-hopping (only 4 zlotys or 1 EUR)

*Rent an apartment near the main square, there are tons to choose from--we booked via Air BnB (we are big Air BnB fans)