Ciemny piwo in Warszawa!

Ladies and gentlemen, hot on the heels of our adventures in Warsaw, allow me to introduce to you... Anthony's beer face!

Here it is below, even before he started drinking, but the sign above says he's standing in Beer Street, so perhaps he was just imagining the shape of things to come...
The photograph at the top of this page comes from Saturday night, where after watching a re-enactment of a 19th century running street battle against the Russians (the November Uprising), and getting covered in rain that froze on our hats and coats, we found a bar that servied hot wine with massive wedges of orange and beer in every shade of amber you could imagine. We got through the first round faster than you could say Ciemny piwo (dark ale)!

The photo below comes from very late on Sunday night, after I went to bed (for the first of 9 days - eugh) with a respiratory nasty, and Khrystene took Anthony to the pub. For the record, even after seeing this photo, he has NO recollection of this hat. Clearly the lads (below) did a pretty impressive job of plying him with vodka and dark beer. He was so full that he had to pull into an alleyway on the way home to answer a call of nature... and was promptly pulled over by the police, screaming in Polish until K explained he only spoke English. The Polish coppers replied that he could go home, but that he shouldn't come back until he has more culture! *Giggle*But I'm digressing already, and I haven't even told you about how it all started.

Gentle readers you may remember Khrystene's visit to Oxford back in June: well, it was our turn to return the favour, and the occasion was Khrystene's birthday. We took a long weekend and flew over on Friday, arriving just in time to drop our bags at Khrystene's o-so-funky flat in the 'real' old part of town (the bit that wasn't destroyed by the Germans, because it was filled with Russians waiting for the Germans to finish their devastation before coming in to 'liberate' the city... but more on that later), then eat something, and head out to a pub nearby to meet her friends. The place was gorgeous - high ceilings, crowded, quirky, and thick with cigarette smoke - bless those crazy non-PC European types! Khrystene had spent a small fortune (no kidding - about 35 quid!) on a cake - but WHAT a cake... you can't tell from this picture, but it was layers of gingerbread cake and nutmeggy cream, slathered in a slightly liquoricey dense black icing and 70s hotrod flamin' paint job... mmmazing!