single serving friends

I spent Saturday night and Sunday in Wroclaw with a friend of a friend. MV, a friend from college with, told me to meet up with MP, a fellow he did an engineering internship program with in The Netherlands a few years back.

I was a bit hestitant. I felt like I was imposing on him, but over e-mail and text messages, MP seemed up for it.

And it was great. He is one of the most generous, hospitable people I have ever met. He gathered his friends together and we went around the town climbing church towers, looking at paintings in the round and baroque university lecture halls, seeing a silent movie with live musical accompaniment (hooray for arriving in the middle of the Wroclaw Film Festival!) and going to the best places for ice cream, potato pancakes, and iced chocolate with ice cream. He gave up his bed for us and slept on a sleeping pad on the floor. Every breakfast was a feast of bread and spreads and vegetables and deliciousness. He answered most of our random questions about Poland and Wroclaw. (And, to be even more endearing, worried allowed that he wasn't much of a host at one break in our conversation.)

And he introduced us to my thus-far favorite Polish beverage: beer with syrup. Maybe it sounds disgusting, but there is something really satisfying about a good beer with a shot of ginger flavor syrup in it on a sunny afternoon.

I wish Wroclaw and Belgrade were closer together.