Top Ten: Ice Cream Shops

It has been about four months since we have returned to the United States.. As our time abroad was nearing an end, my little family started compiling top ten lists of our favorite things and places. To begin this series - I will start with the ever critical, ice cream or gelato.

The Tasting Committee at Work

10.   Don't have your passport handy? No worries, the Swedish ice cream bar "Magnum" is available in freezer cases throughout the U.S. (Target, Walmart, etc.). When wandering the streets of random cities and an appealing gelato stand was no where to be found, a quick stop at a convenience shop could always yield one of these frozen delights. If you haven't tried one yet - I dare you!

9.   Centrale del Gusto in the Mercato di Mezzo in Bologna, Italy. A wonderful market in the Food district of Bologna with some of the best eats in town. Not to mention a crazy-good stop for ice cream (or a macaron..).

8.  Grom. Our saving grace for gelato amongst all of the tourist traps in Venice, Italy. Grom's all-natural artisan gelato can be found throughout Italy, as well as in - Malibu, New York, Osaka, Paris and Tokyo. If you ever stumble across one of their shops somewhere in the world, grab a scoop - you'll be glad you did!

Grom - Venice

7.   Cupcake Corner. A fun little shop in Krakow, Poland. One step in however, and you won't remember if you are in Poland or America... A cupcake menu that changes for each day of the week, you will find temptations such as Red Velvet, Banana Split, Oreo, White Chocolate Pistachio... Very Americana... My reason for a stop-in however, is the homemade ice cream. Red Velvet and PB Chocolate are lovely, but Sweet Carrot - that's where it's at!

Cupcake Corner - Krakow

6.   Grycan. Another Polish joy. With ice cream parlours located throughout Poland, grab your spoon for a scoop or sundae and take in the happiness of an ice cream steeped with history and family tradition!

5.   Softis. Soft-serve ice cream found in Norway and Sweden. One of the more affordable dining options in these countries, the soft serve is amazingly more rich than it's soft serve cousin in the states. The part that's even more fun is picking your topping - cocoa powder, jimmies, peanuts and my favorite, licorice (salt licorice in Sweden). Perhaps one of the greatest reasons to trek up to Scandinavia..

Lejonet & Björnen - Stockholm

4.   Amorino. Upon first finding this lovely gelato in Milan, Italy, it held top honors for a long time. I can't even tell you how amazing the Pistachio and Speculoos flavors are... Amorino can be found in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Luxemburg, and... New York!

Amorino - Lyon

3.   Terre Adelice. Located in Lyon, France directly across from Amorino, I passed it up at first because the ice cream was in plastic tubs... However, upon passing it a second time and seeing a line that extended for quite a while... There was a definite reason there was a line.

   A flavor menu a mile long, divided into categories of flowers and plants (maple, lavender, rose, geranium, violet - wonderful!..), exotic fruits (lychee, mango..), alcohol (Chartreuse - awesome!, Grand Marnier, rum raisin..), cheese and vegetable (goat cheese, Mascarpone, Roquefort, tomato & basil..), regional fruits (Bergeron apricot, Morello cherry, Mirabelle plum, rhubarb..), indulgent flavors ( salted cream caramel, Arabica coffee, Valrhona cocoa powder, Commercy madeleine, licorice, sheep's milk Madagascar vanilla..). If there was time for all of them, I'd be so happy.

Terre Adelice - Lyon

2.   Gelarto Rosa. Another holder of the number one spot for quite some time.. A sweet little shop in Budapest, Hungary, with a fun selection of flavors and a couple that rotate out daily. My favorites are cinnamon, Mexican chocolate, and white chocolate lavender. I bet you might find a reason to stop by at least twice a day...

Gelarto Rosa - Budapest

1.   The shop that stole the show? Gelateria Romana. After visiting this shop in Bergamo, Italy, life was never the same. They can be found across Italy (I wish I had known to look for them in Rome..) as well as a shop in Madrid, Spain. To begin, they pour molten hot chocolate (brown or white) into the bottom of your cone. Then, gracefully top with your chosen flavors (Mascarpone with coffee and dark chocolate, white mint, hazelnut pesto, Grandma's cookies..).

   May you be feeling ridiculously inclined, they'll even top it off with fresh whipped cream... The only downfall... The girl that despises people who speak English (or maybe all people in general, it was hard to tell)... Either cross your fingers that she'll be out for a smoke break or just accept that she'll all but spit in your ice cream. Nonetheless, it still gets the number one spot in our book.

Romana - Bergamo

If you find yourself out and about in the ice cream world, please enjoy responsibly and with ultimate enjoyment.

Charlotte - Gelarto Rosa

Disclosure: We're just regular people on a regular budget. Therefore, we haven't been to all the ice cream shops across Europe, nor have we been to all of Europe. Darn the luck, nobody even gave us a free scoop - this life-altering information was funded out of our own pocket and is highly researched. There are places that didn't make the list. But I give my word that those that did are nothing but awesome.

Back to Budapest

I love Budapest. Just absolutely adore it. If someone would have introduced me to aparthotels, I probably would have already made a couple more trips to Budapest..! An apartment operated similar to a hotel, five of us were able to spend three nights right in the city center for a fraction of the price of a hotel. I am hooked.. On Budapest... And aparthotels...

View of the city from the Liberty Statue.

The Wujek Coal Mine

The two red and white striped stacks of the Wujek Coal Mine stand tall on the outskirts of the city - near the park where we spend a large amount of our leisure time. I was familiar with this area having faced a lot of struggle and that so much of it is quite recent history. However, a visit to the museum located at the still operational mine, left me in deep awe of what was happening in the 1980's. This was a world where the joys of Pee-wee Herman, Donkey Kong and the Cabbage Patch Kids were probably the last things on anyone's mind.

Kopalnia Wujek (Wujek Mine)

The Anonymous Pedestrians

At an intersection in Wroclaw, stand fourteen bronze statues designed by Jerzy Kalina. The statues which are also referred to as "Passage" or "Transition", were unveiled on the eve of the 13th of December in 2005 - the 24th anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law in Poland.

The Anonymous Pedestrians

Snapshots of Prague

We've only made a couple short visits to Prague (plus a couple stop-ins for a quick Starbucks fix while en-route to Germany). A very mystical and magnificent city full of Gothic beauty, it just isn't one of my favorites. For as stunning as the city is to view from the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle, for me the culinary interests are too lacking.

View of Prague

Return Visit: Berlin

The last stop on our Christmas Market Extravaganza was Berlin. I can sum up our Christmas Market journey in short by saying that if there is a city that knows how to put on a market (or over a hundred..) it's Berlin!

Berliner Weihnachtszeit

Christmas Market Tour: Dresden

In the city of Dresden, there are eleven Christmas Markets. We only attended two of them... The market in which we spent the most time was the Dresdner Striezelmarket which was celebrating the 579th anniversary of the first market held in 1434.

Tis the Season

It is Christmas market season - my favorite time of the year here! Last weekend we were in Wroclaw, where there is a beautiful market. A couple of carnival rides for the children, lots of lights and decor, stall upon stall of traditional gifts and to top it all off, a generous amount of traditional fare to choose from along with grzaniec (mulled wine) to finish. You really can't have too much Christmas..!

Grzaniec

Budapest

I have visited Budapest (Hungary) twice now and I would still like to return at least a couple of more times... I would certainly say that out of all the cities that I've spent time in, Budapest is probably my favorite. Certainly probably.

Chain Bridge

A Look at Vienna

I'm still making my way through the overwhelming amount of pictures that I have taken in the past couple of months... As Vienna is just under a four hour drive away, it is one of our frequented places to travel. The food and beer are similar to those of the Bavaria region of Germany (our favorite) and the crisp whiteness of the architecture has an unruffled tranquil feeling. It's my city of contentment.

View of the city from St. Stephen's Cathedral

Snapshots of Norway

This summer we took a trip to Norway where I discovered the most amazing land that I've ever seen, met the most wonderful relatives and spent a lot of time in the rain - it was glorious!

Boat Tour from Stavanger to Preikestolen.

Castle Trekking: Silesia (Part Two)

Another day, another castle... The first castle today is Siewierz and the tour will end with my favorite of the bunch, Ogrodzieniec.

Ogrodzieniec Castle

Castle Trekking: Silesia (Part One)

This weekend we spent a total of two hours driving to visit five pretty cool castles in the region of Silesia. I'll cover three of them today and follow with the remaining two on Thursday.

Zamek Bedzin (Bedzin Castle)

Katowice: Airshow

Perhaps one of the greatest attributes of life in Katowice is that you just never now what you'll stumble upon.

Katowice Airshow

Castle Trekking

It has been a busy summer! Between traveling through Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and a long return visit to Montana, I am posed with a tremendous amount of pictures and a bad case of writer's block!

   To get things rolling, I'll begin with Germany. More so, the region of Bavaria in which my visits revolve around three things; butter breze (a halved pretzel sandwiched with a thick slather of butter), bier (by the liter mugful) and leberkase (a thick slice of liver meatloaf sandwiched in a crusty roll with mustard).

Neuschwanstein Castle

Interview: First Time European Visitors

For the last three weeks, my parents have been visiting and we've traveled through several countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Norway). In the following interview, my parents will answer the questions that I was ever-so curious to ask. Also, in the month ahead, I will provide more detailed posts about the individual places that we visited.

Ready, set....

Red Army Cemetery

There is a sobering amount of war history in Katowice that I have yet to fully put together. I have a feeling that in order to fully understand the city, these pieces of the recent past are important. This post skims the bare surface of a small portion of these events.

Katowice in Bloom

Today, a distraction from my almost typical musings. Instead I have been inspired by the intensity of spring; behold a bouquet of unpredictable randomness.

American Treasure

On today's adventure, Lottie and I swung into a large grocery store to grab some rolls for our picnic in the park. My usual store does sell packaged sliced 'wonder' type bread but it is stashed up out of reach high above the fresh rolls. Today like the star of the show, I all but stumbled upon loaves and loaves of US tost (toast) stacked on a table in the center of the bakery section.

   The glory of it being called US tost made me chuckle right out loud. In case you're curious, duza paczka is advertising that it is a large package.

Seasons change!

Yesterday's snowman became today's puddle and it looks as though the season of being cooped up in the apartment is over! Now that we've made it through our first Poland winter, I hope to have a lot more daily life adventures to share.