Note to readers: I haven’t had time to integrate photos into this post, but I have put up some Warsaw photos here.
My early Krakow photos can also be found at my Flickr page.
Today (Thursday) I arrived in Warsaw, Poland after flying from SFO to Chicago, then Chicago to Warsaw on the national Polish airline, LOT. The trans-Atlantic leg was a bit grueling, with the flight clocking in at almost ten hours. In addition to the usual cramped seats in steerage, I was fortunate to deal with a group of ten-year-olds sitting behind me that kept switching their seats (result: lots of banging of my seat) and thought it fun to play with the tray table connected to my seat. Their torment was not limited to me, as a poor older lady two seats over also had her seat repeatedly banged. While she did nothing, I finally had enough, turned around and told the kids in stern fashion to stop it. I probably should have banged the table and seat of their mom, who was negligently sleeping across the aisle.
There was also a large group of Polish teenage girls who had a social gathering in their seats, rather than try to get some sleep on the overnight flight. This didn’t really bother me, as I had earplugs, but it was amusing to watch an older Polish guy hit on these clearly underage girls.
When I couldn’t sleep, I watched many episodes of “24: Day 7″ (the recently concluded season) on my PSP.
Once on the ground, I caught the correct bus from the airport to our hostel. However, there was still a several block walk from the bus stop to Nathan’s Villa Hostel (where Mino and Meghan were waiting for me). I managed to get disoriented and wound up walking about a half an hour out of me, clear off of my limited maps. That made it difficult to find my way back on track, but I was able to do so and showed up at the hostel as a grimy, sweaty guy. Mino and Meghan were there to greet me and, after dropping my bags off, we were off for some sightseeing. However, we weren’t able to get out the door without attracting an interloper: a Canadian gal who was in from Berlin and decided to invite herself along. I’m not sure if that’s common practice in hostel culture, but she wasn’t much of an addition due to her boring personality and interest in vintage clothing shops and ridiculous Polish outfits, to the exclusion of anything else in Warsaw.
Our walk took us north to the heart of the old town, along a lively street (Nowy Swiat) that is part of the Royal Way–what the king would take when leaving town for Krakow, if I recall correctly. On my misadventure from bus to hostel, I noticed that everything seemed closed, and M&M confirmed that the Poles were celebrating a holiday (what, exactly, remains unclear). As we walked north, masses of Poles were walking south. It appeared that a church service had gotten out just then.
The old town in Warsaw is a bit strange to behold, once you know that the town was almost completely leveled in World War II. It was rebuilt to perfectly match the pre-war appearance, complete with crooked buildings in certain places. I don’t find it to be Disneyland-esque, as some have characterized it, but it is strange to look on the buildings and know that they are only 50-60 years old. Also, I was interested to see that the Communists had been in charge during this reconstruction, as their own architecture is so brutal and ugly.
By the end of the walk, I was really dragging after all of my travel and could hardly keep my eyes open. Mino and Meghan were also quite fatigued, as they had taken an overnight bus ride in from the Baltics. We went back to the hostel and took naps.
One thing I realized that evening when we were all getting ready for showers: I packed too much clothing, and some of the wrong kinds of things. I didn’t realize that Mino was doing the true hostel life, with two pairs of travel pants, no jeans, no nice shirts, etc. Luckily I packed somewhere in the middle of a luxury vacation suitcase and a hostel suitcase, but my 4 collared button-down shirts and nice pair of jeans aren’t likely to be used.
Dinner was at a nearby Indian place, with constant rain requiring some dodging from arcade to arcade for cover. We then returned to Nowy Swiat for dessert before turning in at the hostel. Apparently there were some noisy drunk gals hanging outside of our window for some time during the night, but my REI ear plugs saved the day (or maybe it was just my tremendous fatigue) and I slept like a champ.
Off to Krakow in the morning via train…
I wish I had been there to witness the stern warnings to the unruly plane passengers.
I’m glad the trip is going well!