Fat Thursday

Thursday morning (February 15th), I arrived in the office to find everyone eating doughnuts. Although this is a fairly typical event in my Canadian office where we have a Tim Horton’s in the building, I hadn’t seen doughnuts before in Krakow. And today there were flats and flats of them everywhere.

I found out that the doughnuts are a tradition to celebrate the last day of carnival, Fat Thursday, which ends the day before Lent begins. I asked my team if they gave up anything for Lent, and the reaction was mixed. Regardless of their diet during Lent, no one held back on the doughnuts. One woman ate 6! I believe the team average was four. I ate only two while at the office and was feeling pretty smug about it not eating more.

However, my relocation agent gave me another donut later that afternoon, and then when I walked into my hotel, I couldn’t resist taking another from the huge pile of donuts at the front desk

All smugness was gone by the time I was lying in bed that night, clutching my donut extended stomach.