Tłusty Czwartek

After spending my morning brushing up my Polish (that's how I spend many mornings) last Thursday, I headed off for my usual pre-reading ritual: good coffee. Lo and behold, as I trudged through the snow -- seriously, so much snow has been falling -- I saw a crowd of people. Even though I knew who they were and why they didn't mind hovering in the wet snow for hours, I was surprised at how long the queue was on ulica Chmielna:

Obviously, they're all waiting for fresh pączki (also known as Krapfen, Berliner, or just plain old jelly-filled) on the last Thursday before lent. Fat Thursday! This place on Chmielna (thanks, Greg, for the hat-tip) has the freshest and best in Warsaw. So fresh that they can't be kind when they serve you. No matter: delicious!! And everyone here thought a minimum two hour wait was critical to their pre-Lenten parties. I waited forty five minutes before deciding that I wasn't that picky about my donuts, unless it's the cake doughnuts in Ball Square at Lyndell's, which are obviously the only ones I'll eat in the greater Boston area.

Then I went and had my coffee and this nice, very adequate, but not earth-shattering pączek: