Warsaw

I travelled from Berlin to Warsaw to tour the city on my own for two days before meeting up with my group for March of the Living. Warsaw is a fine city, but I wouldn't feel the need to go back.



Day 1:
I took a 5.5 hour train in the morning from Berlin to Warsaw. The scenery on this trip was not nearly as nice as the scenery between Zurich and Berlin. We passed a lot of farms and run down train stations and towns. I got in to Warsaw around 3:30, and the first thing I tried to do was go to the bathroom in the train station. This didn't work out since you had to pay to enter the bathroom, and I had no change. It took me awhile to get to my hostel because I had to figure out underground street crossings in the big streets surrounding the train station, and the area was under construction. It should have only been a ten minute walk, but it took much longer. I was walking around the square that held the Palace of Culture and Science, the tallest building in Poland. The building was a gift from Stalin to the people of Poland, but the Poles thought of it as a symbol of Soviet domination. There is a joke that the best views of the city are from this building -- because you can't see the building while you're in it. It has the second highest clock tower in the world.

By 5, I was out exploring Warsaw. I first walked around the University of Warsaw campus, which was a few blocks behind my hostel. I was staying in the same square as the Italian Embassy. The campus seemed pretty small, and the back end went right up against a small cliff with a park underneath it and a few streets leading down to the river. In addition to this main campus, university buildings were scattered throughout the city.

I then walked down Nowy Swiat, a fancy street full of restaurants and shops. I found a cafe Jackie recommended trying donuts from, but they didn't have any.

Then I went to the Chopin Museum, which was in a building that was supposed to be an old palace but was never completed.

It was right behind the Chopin University of Music.

The museum was very interactive, with a lot of areas where you could listen to music. You are given a card when you enter that you use to activate all the multimedia exhibits; however, some of these multimedia stops were temperamental and weren't working too well.

After that, I went to see the Uni Warsaw Library, which was very green and earthy looking. There are a bunch of shops and cafes when you enter, but only students could enter the reading room.

There was a park across the street along the river, and you could see the soccer stadium that will be hosting games for the Euro 2012 football tournament. There was also a cool looking building that I went to look at, and it turned out to be the science museum and planetarium.

I then went back up to Nowy Swiat to find the milk bar Jackie told me to go to. Just when I had found it, they were locking up. It was only 8:15, so I guess it was a daytime place.

I found a pierogi place for dinner instead. I had pierogi ruskie (potato, cheese & onion) and spinach and cheese pierogi in some special type of flour that the menu touted the health benefits of. I also got turkey and carrot in regular flour dumplings, but those were not as good. I had them in a butter sauce and got a mug of cold dried fruit kompot.

After dinner, I went back for the night to figure out what I would do the next day.

Day 2:
I decided I would start my day at Lazienki Park since everything else I was planning on doing that day was in another part of the city. It rained all morning, and I got lost going to the park when I accidentally followed along a diagonal street when the street I was supposed to be on split. I ended up near a bunch of embassies and government buildings. I could have taken a bus, but I chose to walk instead. Warsaw only has one subway line.
Once in the park, I went to the Chopin monument. It was surrounded by tons of benches and is probably a nice place to sit on a sunny day. There are benches all over the city in areas important to Chopin's life that tell a story about him and play a piece of his music.

I then went to find the palace deep within the park, but I gave up after seeing some nice trees, ponds, and little buildings since it was raining pretty hard and I had been out in that for awhile.

Next I went to find Stalin City, an area that was supposed to represent the perfect communist living style and have statues of workers. I didn't see any particularly noteworthy sculptures though.

After that detour, I headed towards the fancy Polish chocolate shop Jackie recommended, E. Wedel. I bought a few truffles, but the place did not compare to the chocolate shop I found in Berlin.

For lunch, I went back to the milk bar on Nowy Swiat that was closed the day before. A milk bar is a cheap cafeteria-style restaurant from the communist era where workers could get a cheap, government-subsidized meal. After ordering and paying for your meal, you pick it up from a kitchen window and then put your plates on a side table when finished. The milk bar had the menu posted on the wall, and they had one copy of translations of the food items. I ordered a cold fruit soup with noodles, which was sweet and good, and a chicken fillet with noodles and salad. It seems that salad with a meal in Warsaw refers to coleslaw. The noodles and coleslaw were soggy, and the chicken was just so terrible. This all cost only $5, and they gave me silverware spoon and fork, but a plastic knife. The clientele included a bunch of old people, a homeless guy, and some other tourists/conference-goers.

I walked up to the Old Town after lunch, passing the Presidential Palace along the way. Next to the palace, there is a plaque and flowers to honor those who died in the 2010 plane crash.

I also went into the Visitationist Church, and there happend to be a wedding going on.

Warsaw's Old Town was destroyed during the war, but there was enough documentation about it to rebuild it. It is now a UNESCO site. I went up to a terrace at a church that overlooked the Old Town from about five or six stories up.

Then I walked around and bought a cool necklace on sale for $5 and got some ice cream. All the little ice cream shops showed two types of ice cream that looked like soft serve, and I could not figure out what the difference was. One, wloskie, looked like regular soft serve. The other, swiderki, was in a smaller cone, and the ice cream was spiralled so that it came out long and thin. I got the latter, since that was what everyone seemed to be walking around with. The area seemed like a little touristy piece of Prague in the middle of Warsaw. I felt like it didn't mesh into the city that well.

My next stop was the Royal Castle, which was built in the 17th/18th century and destroyed during WW2 (but later rebuilt). The rooms inside are ornate and amazing. The castle served as the residence for the royal family and a place for the government to meet. The first constitution of Poland-Lithuania was signed in one of the rooms. Another room is full of paintings of Warsaw by Canaletto, a painter I really like who is known for his Venetian landscapes.

After leaving the Old Town, I walked to the Supreme Court. The courthouse is a big glass building, and there is a memorial in front for the Warsaw Uprising.

A small park, Krasinski Gardens, is next to the court.

Next I walked toward the Grand Theatre-National Opera and passed the ruins of the Poland National Bank bombed during the war.

I then walked to the Saxon Garden, which had a nice fountain and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guarded by two soldiers. The park was part of a royal palace, and it became one of the first public parks in the world during the 18th century. When it first opened, there was a dress code if you wanted to enter.

Afterwards, I went to the Philharmonic Hall and got a ticket for that night's performance by the Philharmonic Symphony of Rathaus, Tchaikovsky, and Vaughan Williams. The conductor was an old Israeli man with a bad hairdo - a bowl cut, but with longer hair. The soloist was Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang. The concert hall was nothing special on the outside (just a building that fit into its surroundings on a block), and the inside was simple and nice. For only about $8 (students and seniors pay half - and it seemed like the majority of people were seniors), I got a seat in the 13th row. The concert was at six -- talk about knowing your audience. Catch them right after early-bird dinner!

After the concert, I walked back to the Old Town to see what it looked like at night. I visited the New Town on the other side, which is only about 50 years younger. It wasn't very lively, so I went back to this big square in the Old Town to eat there.

There was a guy playing guitar in the Old Town Market Place square, and he was playing for much of the time I was eating outside. I couldn't believe the meal I had for $10. There is no tax or tip here, though I assume tax is already included in the price. I got chicken kiev, but they didn't call it that. I was also given delicious spreads for the bread before my meal. I was given a glass of sherry along with my check as a 'gift from the restaurant.' I thought that seemed odd, but Jackie later said many restaurants that serve traditional foods will serve something to you at the end, often a sort of cherry vodka instead of chocolates with your check.

I passed a bunch of street musicians on my way back to the hostel, and the main streets were lively. Back in the hostel, I chatted with the Austrian guys who were staying on the other side of the wall divider in my room (the hostel was another recommendation from Jackie).

More photos: here