There’s no denying that the Poles love their pierogi (dumplings). Found in cheap and cheerful cafeterias, upmarket restaurants and hospitable households throughout the country, these doughy delights are an essential part of any visit to Poland. Perhaps somewhat stodgy for non-natives, pierogi are one of the mainstays of traditional Polish cuisine. Baked, boiled or fried and usually served smothered with lard, sour cream, butter or onions, pierogi come in a variety of sweet and savoury fillings. Pierogi ruskie (cottage cheese, potato and onion), pierogi z kapusta i grzybami (with cabbage and mushrooms) and pierogi z miesem (with meat) form the holy trinity but those with a sweet tooth will be happy to know that sweet cheese and fruit varieties are also popular. Seen by some as a drab reminder of Poland’s somewhat austere past, pierogi are currently enjoying something of a revival. The classics still prevail, but they can often now be found alongside more contemporary takes on this quintessential Polish dish such as venison with bacon or chicken with Mexican chili beans. Sharpen your forks and forewarn your stomaches as we take in the best five ‘pierogarnias’ in Krakow…

Zapiecek Polskie Pierogarnia

Taste better than they look...

ul. Sławkowska 32, www.zapiecek.eu

Pierożki u Vincenta

Pierożki u Vincenta is a popular choice located in Kazimierz, Krakow’s former Jewish quarter. This bright, airy spot on Bozego Ciala has table service, making it ideal for the cautious tourist wishing to avoid any blushes whilst trying to pronounce ‘kapusta i grzybami’ in a busy queue. The extensive menu features the traditional savoury or sweet favourites alongside more adventurous fillings like the Emporer’s Pierogi with lamb, rosemary and thyme, and Napoleon’s Pierogi with liver and apple. The mixed portions are a good option if a decision is hard to make. All dishes come with a choice of toppings and sauces. The meat and mushroom, and Mexican pierogi are highly recommended. Vincent’s Pierogi are often in demand, so you may have to wait your turn for a table.

ul. Bożego Ciała 12, www.pierozkiuvincenta.pl

U Babci Maliny

A hit with locals and tourists alike, the venerable U Babci Maliny has two establishments within the old town. While both are decked out with a faux folksy charm, it is the larger branch on Sławkowska that stands out with its fish tank and slightly curious nursery vibe. Portions here are large, filling and good value for money; those wishing to walk on the wild side can even try their dumplings fried. The pierogi ruskie are the best in town. Those looking for some liquid refreshment to accompany their meal will be pleased to know that the smaller branch on Szpitalna serves beer.

ul. Sławkowska 17 and ul. Szpitalna 38, www.kuchniaubabcimaliny.pl

U Pani Stasi

The joy of dumplings

ul. Mikołajska 16

Awiw Restauracja

Occupying a sunny spot on the bustling ulica Szeroka in Kazimierz, Awiw Restauracja is a good choice for those wishing to indulge. Located towards the pricier end of the pierogi spectrum, Awiw offers a tantalising range of dumplings to tempt all tastes. Fillings range from mushroom with cabbage to the more regal venison with bacon and veal with chanterelles. When the weather is good, Awiw’s outside seating is a real bonus. Look out for the daily happy hour, which sees all pierogi reduced by around 20%.

ul. Szeroka 13, www.awiw.pl

….Pierogi Festival

If you simply can’t enough of the little doughy pockets then be sure to time your visit to Krakow with the city’s Pierogi Festival, in August. Krakow’s Festival Bureau should have the exact dates – if not ask Cracow Life. (For other weird festivals in Krakow and beyond then we recommend you check out our feature on the bizarre festivals and cool events around the world).

Mud: a devout regular on the UK festival circuit

So I’m dozing in a slightly musty tent, my legs still caked in mud from the night before, when the familiar far off cry of ‘bollocks!’ awakes me – moments before a fold up chair bounces off the canvas. This is my cue to get up and do it all again.

I loved going to festivals when I was a teenager. In England in the 90s your options were fairly limited – Glastonbury, Reading, Phoenix and the Essential Festival (RIP) were about all the ones I knew about. They were all comprised of much the same setup: big (generally muddy) field, a few whacking great stages and lots of kids filling themselves with as many dodgy substances as they could before they had to go back to their parents’ house. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but the experience begins to wear a little thin as you pass the milestone of 30 and start the rapid descent into middle age.

Indoor arenas get the green light

I like camping, but I don’t like people chucking bottles of piss at my tent. I love the atmosphere of a huge crowd, but I also like not peeing in a trough, having a shower, maybe a little sit down on a sofa. I like eating food that I’ve made myself with a cooker and ingredients from my fridge – burger van fare tends to taste a bit shoddy after a couple of days. Basically, I’m becoming a bit of a grumpy old man, but I do still really like the idea of festivals. It seems that I’m not the only one, and in recent years the UK has seen a sharp rise in the number of festivals hosted at holiday parks dotted about the country. Dedbeat, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Bangface Weekender and Bloc Weekend have provided a more civilised (and I use that term in the loosest possible sense) way of seeing lots of music and getting pleasantly off your head, while still having access to a bed, toilet paper, soap and all those good things.

For the last three years, Bloc Weekend has been my festival of choice – it has a good selection of music firmly plonked at the stranger end of dance music, with headliners over the years including Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin, Autechre, Surgeon, Carl Craig, Luke Vibert and Dave Clark, alongside legends such as Afrika Bambatta, Salt n’ Pepa, Grandmaster Flash, The Future Sound of London, Karl Bartos (of Kraftwerk fame), Model 500 and A Guy Called Gerald. There’s a lot more to see besides the big names though, with five stages running through most of the afternoon and night since Bloc upped sticks and moved to Butlin’s at Minehead – no early closing festival restrictions with indoor arenas.

Put your hands up... if you fancy an early night

For the first two years, Bloc was held at the old Pontin’s site in Hemsby (which has since closed) – a holiday park that somewhat resembles a Soviet prison camp. The much-needed move to Butlin’s has given the festival a slicker, more professional feel and the extra facilities are very welcome. There is a range of accommodation to suit most budgets – from the fairly shed-like Standard Rooms all the way up to the Deluxe Suites (leather sofas, plasma screen tellys and a damn good shower that pins you to the floor). All the Butlin’s facilities are open too, so you can go for a swim in the fantastic pool, go bowling or play endless games of Dance Dance Revolution. A fairly conservative capacity of 5,000 has kept the festival from seeming too busy and it’s rare to have to queue for anything on offer. The Centre Bloc is the main stage with the largest capacity dance floor and a seating area around the back. Red Bloc below it is a similar size (but with a better sound system) with Tec Bloc, Jak Bloc and the new RFID dome a little more on the intimate side. The crowd is generally a mix of twenty to thirty-somethings, but age really isn’t an issue; everyone’s there to have a bit of a dance and hear some great music. There’s a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere around the place and even the security are pleasant, which makes a very refreshing change.

'scuse me mate, got any Garth Brooks?

We turned up on Friday night and quickly checked into our gold apartment (pushing the boat out), right next to the arenas and with a good kitchen and bathroom, and flicked the TV on. One of the clever things about previous Bloc Weekends has been the live video feeds straight to your apartment from the stages, so you can see what’s on right now and working out which stage you want to go to. This feature was absent in 2010 for most of the time and I missed it (it was, however, replaced with a channel playing Groundhog Day on an endless loop – quite fantastic), but the set list in the brochure was well laid out and for the most part the stages ran to time. A bottle of gin found its way into my stomach and the weekend was off with a bang. The atmosphere throughout the festival was fantastic as always – all too often at events like this you end up standing in a room of very serious looking young men, scratching their chins and not dancing, at all. Bloc isn’t like this. Even the more famously chin-scratchy acts like Autechre had everyone moving – even though they killed the lights and had no visuals whatsoever. Moving on through Saturday night into Sunday morning, Surgeon was on top form, with an amazing set culminating with Outlander’s The Vamp, which nearly tore the roof off.

Dancing in the dark

My only criticism of the lineup (apart from the clash of Autechre and Model 500 – argh!) would be that it sometimes got a bit too relentless. Lots of harsh Dubstep and pounding Techno is fun and all, but it’s refreshing to hear a proper tune occasionally, so when Grandmaster Flash dropped White Lines, or Salt n’ Pepa played Push It, or even when Mix Master Mike scratched over System of a Down it felt like a breath of fresh air. Luke Vibert, Grandmaster Flash, Mixmaster Mike and Salt n’ Pepa helped to keep the party atmosphere going and Bloc stalwarts AGT Rave Cru delivered on the promise of an amazingly tight set packed with floor fillers that got the Sunday afternoon going with a bang, but all too often it was glitchy drums and wobbly basslines, so if that isn’t really your thing, be warned. This isn’t Ibiza house and (thankfully) you won’t see Basshunter on the bill any time soon.

Sunday is fancy dress day at Bloc, last year it was 80s themed, this year it was weddings. Lots of men in white dresses, vicars and bridesmaids wandering around with kept everything nice and silly for the last day and provided a much needed energy boost after two days of solid dancing.

Things get blurry...

One other thing to mention is the new RFID Fenchurch dome. A tiny stage with amazing visuals projected all over it. It worked particularly well for the opening set of Digitonal – lush cinematic music with a hint of a 303 here and there. A very nice way to while away an hour, lying on the floor with yet another pint of mediocre beer from a plastic cup.

I’m fairly embarrassed to say that by the middle of Sunday night, I was done, broken, knackered. My feet refused to dance anymore, so with a tear in my eye I made the decision to not stay out for Derrick May. Popped to Pizza Hut to pick up a takeaway and sloped off back to the apartment to watch a documentary on Saturn’s rings on the BBC (and Groundhog Day for the 6th time – Andie McDowell is very annoying by this stage…). But, Andy McDowell aside, that’s one of the things I love about this festival – it’s nice to be able to do things like that. If I’d been at Reading, my only escape would’ve been to sit outside my tent, dodge the bottles of piss and listen to some talentless moron playing Wonderwall on an acoustic guitar…

For more info and tickets for Bloc Festival 2011 head over to the Bloc official website.

More Festivals for the Over 30s…

Relax, take it easy... at the Big Chill

ATP Festival
All Tomorrow’s Parties’ yearly UK shindig is, like Bloc, held at Butlin’s holiday camp in Minehead. Matt Groening (of Simpsons’ fame) ‘curates’ for 2010 and amongst the big names playing in May are Iggy and The Stooges, Spiritualized, Joanna Newsom and Coco Rosie. A perfect venue and line up for enjoying ‘the twilight of your youth’.
When: 7th – 9th May 2010
Where: Butlin’s, Minehead
Website: www.atpfestival.com

The Big Chill
The original festival for ageing ravers, The Big Chill was founded in 1995 when the organisers realised that the down times were becoming much more enjoyable than the ‘up times’. So couldn’t we just get rid of the messy noisy and let’s face it dangerously unhealthy prelude to the cosy chill out sessions? Decent grub, a slew of masseuses and therapists, plus of course several days of downtempo audio magic make this a perennial fave for festival goers who have outgrown the leg warmers and whistles.
When: 5th – 8th August 2010
Where: Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire
Website: www.bigchill.net

Camp Bestival
The sister festival of Bestival on the Isle of White, Camp Bestival is timed for the first week of the school summer holidays in Lulworth Castle set on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset. A mix of a holiday camp and music festival, kids of all ages are invited with those under 10 years of age entering for free. There’s an animal farm, kids entertainment area and an eclectic line up which in 2010 includes Madness, Calvin Harris, Chipmunk, Mr. Scruff and of course, the main man, Rob da Bank.
When: 30th July to 1st August 2010
Where: Lulworth Castle, Dorset
Website: www.campbestival.net

For more festive fun, take a look at Urban Travel Blog’s guide to the weirdest and coolest festivals for 2010.

What we all need at this time of year is something to look forward to. Something to assure us, as we stand on a freezing cold platform waiting for a near-mythical train to take us home, that the jig of life is well worth, erm, jigging. That’s why the Urban Travel Bloggers have pooled their brainpower to compile a hitlist of the hottest events, coolest capers and funkiest festivals worth checking out in 2010… from Croatian carnivals to bathtub boating in Belgium, from food fights to film fests, and with plenty of parties, pyrotechnics – and even a few giant penises – thrown in, this is one events guide worth a rigorous read. (For the exceptionally lazy, head to the bottom of the page for a quick reference list with dates!)

Hot Events & Hip Festivals for 2010

The original Beasty Boys

January: Already done the Rio Carnival? Well how about the Rijeka Carnival? The girl from Ipanema won’t be there, but there will be lots of scary guys wearing animal masks frightening the evil spirits of winter away (by ringing bells), as well as grand Venetian-style balls, Bacchanalian parades and a general air of reckless abandon before the the abstemy of Lent.

February: Electronic music freaks are certainly in for prosperous 2010 as this year seems particularly rich in digital raves worth rocking up to. Berlin and New York kick things off, with the techno capital hosting the 11th edition of Club Transmediale ‘Festival for Adventurous Music and Accompanying Visual Arts’; whilst the Big Apple holds its inaugural edition of the innovative and ambitious Unsound Festival… imported fresh from Poland, via Belarus.

Surely you're taking the pith?

On a ‘cultural’ tip, if you can’t wait for this year’s La Tomatina tomato battle in Bunol Spain, then why not make your way to Italy for some fruit pelting antics at the Ivrea Orange Fights instead. Somewhat more painful, but at least it doesn’t smell so rank…

March: Whilst the majority of March festival goers will either pack their skis or their suncream, to head off to the Big Snow Festival in Andorra or Winter Music Conference in Miami respectively, we’ll probably sneak off to little old Wroclaw for some piwo, pierogi and Pat Methany at the Jazz on the Odra festival. Grrrreat.

Proudly sponsored by Viagra

April: Fellas with an inferiority complex might want to avoid Kawasaki in Greater Tokyo on the first Sunday of April: the Festival of the Steel Phallus invites cock-worshippers from around the world to pay homage to erections so enormous they would make Graham Norton blush. If these divine dicks prove too much to handle you can always suck on a shaft-shaped lolly instead, or a rudely-carved root vegetable.

May: Sick of Lederhosen and bratwursts? And American students who have watched Beerfest one too many times? Then why not swap Oktoberfest for the Czech beer festival in Prague… for one thing it’s in May which means you have considerably less long to wait to get your hands on a mug of malty magic.

If, after a couple of days, the liver starts complaining you can swap pints for pics, by hopping on an overnight train to Krakow and catching some of the superb Photomonth Festival. Participating museums, galleries, cafes, bars and even the odd disused brewery turn the city into a giant exhibition space for arresting images from around the world throughout May.

June: Air and LCD Soundsystem are amongst the headliners at this year’s Sonar Festival which takes place in urban venues in Barcelona, and also boasts a lively day time programme if you’re really keen to get on it. Cheapskates needn’t be put off by the ticket price – an unofficial Sonar Off programme of parties in every club and on every beach make Barcelona the place to be in mid-June.

Nothing says I love you, like a hammer in the head

Whereas almost every city and country in Europe will be celebrating midsummer night in style, for our money the best place to be on 23rd June in 2010 is in Porto in Portugal for the Sao Joao Festival. As the street party unfolds simply buy yourself a plastic hammer and bish anyone over the head who you like the look of. It’s the start of many a beautiful relationship… and the odd unwanted pregnancy.

July: As festival season reaches its peak there are some tough decisions to be made! Here are some hot happenings that are worth checking out before the hoi polloi get there, starting with Calvi on the Rocks, a glamorous dance festival in a medieval Corsican town that sits upon a 5 mile stretch of beach. Arrive by yacht if you can. Also kicking the island vibe (somehow it’s ok to misbehave if there’s a stretch of water between you and civilisation) is Trena Festival… held on the remote isle of the same name off the coast of Norway, somewhere near the Artic. Stages include a mountainside cave, and ents include morning yoga classes.

A happy clappy crowd at Melt

August: Exit may have brought Serbia to the attention of festival goers, but if you’re a bit old for Carl Cox and glowsticks you might want to ditch Novi Sad for Guca instead – a tiny town of 2,000 that hosts a huge trumpet festival of 600,000 people each year. A cacophonous delight and a great way to experience the legendary Balkan hospitality and party spirit. As it’s the festival’s 50th birthday Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have been invited to come down and sink a slivovitz together!

For a more chilled out affair, join UTB as we head back to Croatia… this time to Petrcane near Zadar where the magical Garden Club plays host to Electric Elephant. A hip, more sophisticated alternative to the larger dance events, punters can treat their hangovers with a dip in the Med.

Belgium. Definitely not boring

September: More famous for sausages than sausage dogs, nonetheless Poland hosts what we believe is the only Dachshund Parade in Europe (there is another in Washington, however). The little weiners are dressed up in waistcoats and paraded around Krakow, usually on the first or second Sunday in September, starting at the Barbican in the Old Town.

Back in the UK the camping music festival season closes with the aptly named End of the Road festival in Dorset. Folk music aplenty, a fair few ciders, and headliners who sound suspiciously like episodes of the Mighty Boosh. The Wilderness of Manitoba anyone?

October: With the weather turning nasty it’s time to switch our attention back to beats and beeps, so we suggest heading back to the Balkans – this time to Belgrade for the acclaimed Dis-Patch Festival. The focus of events take place over three autumnal weekends, stretching into November.

Buddha lost a lot of weight on his travels

If that’s a little too scary for you then why not snuggle up with your partner in the back of a cinema in the beautiful Estonian capital of Tallinn… the Black Nights Film Festival is a great chance to catch the city free of rampaging tourists and mix sightseeing with the silver screen.

December: The Mods live on… in Leon. A bizarre place to keep the spirit of 1960s soul, pop and garage rock alive, but that’s exactly what happens in December at the Purple Weekend festival, which features mod and Brit-pop bands and includes surreal scooter runs courtesy of the Leon Scooter Division. One for Quadrophenia fans…

Right that just about wraps up our alternative festival guide for 2010 2010! Anything we’ve forgotten… other than the small matter of a UEFA World Cup in South Africa? (Check out out guide to Cape Town if you’re going!). Below is an easy reference list to synchronise your travel diaries with:

Festival Hitlist – Dates & Details

Rijeka Carnival – Rijeka – 17th January to 16th February 2010
Club Transmediale Festival – Berlin – 28th January to 7th February 2010
Unsound – New York – 4th to 14th February 2010
Ivrea Orange Fight – Ivrea – 13th to 16th February 2010
Jazz on the Odra – Wroclaw – 28th February to 7th March 2010
The Festival of the Steel Penis – Kawasaki – 4th April 2010
Krakow Photomonth – Krakow – May 2010
Czech Beer Festival – Prague – 14th to 30th May 2010
Sonar Festival – Barcelona – 17th to 19th June 2010
Sao Joao Festival – Porto – 23rd June 2010
Calvi on the Rocks – Calvi – 2nd to 5th July 2010
Trena Festival – Trena Island – 8th to 10th July 2010
Melt! Festival – nr. Berlin – 16th to 18th July 2010
Guca Trumpet Festival – Guca – 13th to 23rd August 2010
Electric Elephant – Petrcane – 27th to 29th August 2010
The Bathtub Regatta – Dinant – August 2010 (TBC)
Dachshund Parade – Krakow – September 2010 (TBC)
End of the Road – Dorset – 10th to 12th September 2010
Dis-Patch – Belgrade – 23rd October to 8th November 2010
Dia de los Muertos – Oaxaca/Mexico – 1st and 2nd November 2010
Black Nights Film Festival – Tallinn – 11th November to 5th December 2010.
Purple Weekend – Leon – December 2010 (TBC)