Adventures in Eastern Europe, Part 1: Warsaw

Two years ago I traveled to Budapest and had a wonderful time. On that trip, I decided that Eastern Europe* is where it's at as far as interesting and (relatively) inexpensive international travels are concerned.

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to travel to Eastern Europe again, and it was great! Here are some of the highlights of the trip. The purpose of the trip (and really the only reason I can afford to travel overseas with any sort of regularity) is that I was attending a research conference in Krakow, Poland. And because I'm an expert at the side trip, I took two side trips.

I flew into Warsaw three days before the conference, and spent about a day and a half there. I managed to navigate from the airport to the downtown central station via the new train that opened just 2 months ago! It was a comfortable, smooth ride. And for the 20 minute ride, it only cost $1! (Hence you see what I mean about inexpensive travel.)

The first picture I took in Warsaw. This is the Palace of Culture and Science, which isn't actually a palace, just a building that the Soviets built as a "gift" to Poland in the 1950s. The Poles didn't like it, for lots of reasons.

The flight that I took left DC at 3pm and arrived at Frankfurt around 6:00am. I barely slept on the flight (since it felt like it was in the middle of the afternoon/evening), and so I had a killer time getting over jet lag. But I was determined to (a) get over jet lag, and (b) get all that I could out of my short time in Warsaw.

So upon arriving, I walked from the train station to my hotel (only about 15 minutes). It was a beautiful day, and fun to be in a new city that I had no idea where I was going, and I definitely don't speak Polish. (But had maps, don't worry.) Although speaking of, during my time in Warsaw I was approached by three different people, asking me questions in Polish. I took it as a compliment, as I figured it probably meant I looked like I knew what I was doing, and didn't look like a tourist. (Although I've about concluded that traveling alone makes it really easy to not look like a tourist.)

I was able to check into my hotel right away, despite being early. Once I got in, I REALLY wanted to take a nap, but my time was limited! So I dropped my stuff off, got my maps and list of things to do organized, cleaned up a little bit, and then set out on my way.

First thing, I found lunch. I bought a chicken kebab from a street vendor. It was delicious. The woman who sold it to me didn't speak much English, but enough to make sure I got chicken instead of lamb. And she taught me how to say "Thank You" in Polish, which I forgot within about five minutes. Turns out, Polish is one of those languages that does NOT stick in my brain.

I walked over to the Museum of Warsaw Rising, which was all about the uprising of the Polish people in 1944 in an attempt to stop the Germans invading from the west and the Soviets invading from the east. It didn't work. The museum was interesting, and I learned a lot about the Rising, but also about the Polish people in general. They're very resilient.

A big hammer and sickle in the museum:


One of the centerpieces of the museum, runs from the main floor to the above floors. It represents the heart of the Rising and of the people, with the numbers being the dates the Rising occurred over. If you get close, you can put your ear against it and hear the heartbeat. It's kind of creepy, but in a good way.


After the museum, I walked over to Old Town. One of the most interesting things about Warsaw, I think, and a true testament to the resiliency of the Polish people, is Old Town. During WWII, most of Warsaw was totally destroyed. They rebuilt the city, particularly the Old Town, to look exactly as it did before the war, based on old photographs and paintings. So while it looks old, it's actually been built relatively recently!

There is a statue of Copernicus, who was from Poland. The rings around the statue base are different planets, with the sun in the center.

Saturn, part of the Copernicus monument.

Close up of Copernicus:

I ate way too much of this in general:

The next day I explored the beautiful Lazienki Park, which is Warsaw's Central Park. (Though much smaller, of course.) It's a beautiful green space in the middle of the city.


One of the centerpieces of the park is the Chopin statue. Unfortunately, it was closed off for construction, so I couldn't get very close to it.

Zoom in of the statue:

Every Sunday they have a Chopin concert in the concert near the statue. I wish I could have gone, but I had to continue on to Krakow Saturday afternoon.

Next I walked over to the Palace of Culture and Science. They have an observation deck on the 30th floor, to get a great panoramic view of the city.

Poland co-hosted the Euro Cup this summer, and so they had decorated parts of the city to welcome the other European countries, including this outside the Palace of Culture and Science.

The tallest building in Poland.

Panoramic of the city. At this point, most of it looks like a regular, modern city! (In the far background of this photo you can see the stadium that was used for the Euro Cup.)

I then gathered my bags, went to the train station, and bought a train ticket to Krakow. The train ride was express and was only about 3 hours. I didn't know there were assigned seats, so I actually sat in the wrong place at first. Fortunately, the person whose seat I was sitting in was really nice and spoke excellent English, so they were able to help me find the right seat. (Which was, of course, many train cars up. Gah.) But I made it!

Next installment will be my time in Krakow!



* Although the friend I spent time with in Budapest, a native of that city, would argue with me that Hungarians do not consider their country as being in Eastern Europe, but rather being in central Europe. That's another discussion for another day.