Glo finally visits the Motherland

One day, Glo, close to tears, told me that she felt bad she had never visited Hamtramck, and the Polish bakery, and Le Detroit Macaron, and the Polish restaurant. No worries! She worked a shift at Five Guys that morning, and off we went. We were running low on gas, and I forgot to fill up near home. I told Glo that I should probably turn around, but she said "we can just get it when we get there."

Nice idea, but I knew where we were heading. However, how bad could it be?

Poor Detroit. Looking back over the genealogical records for John's maternal grandfather (and beyond), his family lived in Detroit during Detroit's hey day. Different neighborhoods housing different ethnicities and languages. Hamtramck was the Polish area and was where John's family settled. The current mayor is even Polish, and when I walk the side streets with the small houses with neat yards all smushed together, I can imagine what it was like back in the day. But most of Detroit has been taken over by urban decay. The neighborhoods are dangerous and falling apart. Hamtramck is no exception. Within a block of each other sit the Polish bakery and the restaurant, but that's about all that remains of the Polish heritage.

So finding a gas station? I pulled up to three different stations with the first two having no pumps that were operational. At the third, I found one pump that was working and said a quick prayer for my safely while remaining outside my car to pump my gas. Of course, Glo was sleeping through this ordeal....

We finally arrived and found parking easily. The macaron shop was first. I was pleased to see that Glo appreciated how cute it was, because honestly, we LOVE that place. We walked out with 30+ macarons in all different flavors, and how thankful I was they gave me the military discount without my military I.D.

Next, the bakery. What a difference when we don't show up on paçkzi day! The women were super helpful because we were the only ones in there and were also very European, kinda pushing us to try this or buy more of this ;-) I made the mistake of saying "thank you" in Polish as I left, and they responded to me in Polish! Yeah, I have no idea what they said....

Finally, the Polish restaurant. The façade of the place is being redone, so Glo didn't even believe it was a restaurant. I told our waitress that it was Glo's first time there, and in a move of utter friendliness, she brought out every kind of soup they make for Glo to taste. No joke, the best one of them all? The DILL PICKLE soup! It was seriously so good. Glo ordered pierogis and sausage, and I got schnitzel. Come to find out a few weeks later, the owner of the place is being sued for sexual harassment. Why is that NOT a surprise?

And we were done. In and out. And it was as delicious as always!

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