That's right, tagging along with my wife who had to go for work. Hey, free apartment in a European city in August. I loved the city! very beautiful, historical, incredible food, reasonably priced and easy going people. A lot to see and do, great coffee and baked goods. I could go on. I sat down with a new book, A Lodging for Wayfaring Men and a beer by the Oder river on a warm sunny day. I felt compelled to tweet a thought that popped into my mind—what it is that I want from a short holiday, because I've pondered that for a long time.

This is where I attempt to embed my post on X, and realise I need to add some dependencies to make that work, so I'll just quote it.

The perfect break for me is a small city which the tourists crowds haven't discovered yet. High trust society so I can pop to the toilet without having to bring my laptop. A reasonably priced beer and engaging book next to the river. Simple food done extremely well, not elaborate or pretentious. Honest, friendly people, not fake or over-accommodating. Seems like Polish aren't socially programmed to smile all the time and I'm all for it. KYC-free sats from the Bitcoin ATM. Shame haven't seen anywhere to spend them.

I have done very little of anything productive, other than doing a bit of writing.

A couple of things that grabbed my attention during my time in vrot-swaaf, as it's pronounced.

• Church organs are so impressive when you think about it. The recently renovated organ at the St.Elizabeth's Basilica in Wrocław, known as the Voice of Silesia really tickled my megalophilia. Here you have a musical instrument the size of a house, pushing pressure around massive pipes to produce sound. Operated by a spotty teenager at the console (honestly, we thought he was a tourist who snuck into the upper level where this massive sprawling object sat) what a feeling it must be to belt out notes from this humungous machine.
• In Polish cities, quite a common thing are river-side beaches, where they dump a load of sand to build beach bars. You can enjoy the feeling of warm sand under your feet while you enjoy beers, and see the sun set on the horizon, even though you're 300km inland.
• The architecture in the city is stunning, particularly love the stepped roofs which I found out is typical of Hanseatic cities. The Hanseatic league was a union of cities across nothern Europe who traded with eachother during the middle ages, through sea routes in the Baltic and North seas. There's something about the name "Hanseatic League" that stirs something which I can't quite put my finger on.