Although we have moved on to Budapest for almost two full days now,
I have finally found the time to recap our travels throughout Warsaw. Hopefully
this longer post doesn’t become too monotonous so I can attempt to loop in not
only what we have seen and the itineraries we have created, but also a few amusing encounters thus far (hopefully it’s not only Andrew and I who will think they’re
entertaining!).
Day 1 we arrived from our overnight flight into Warsaw
around 1:30 in the afternoon and were soon thereafter working through the stereotypical
difficulties of arriving in and attempting to efficiently and effectively travel throughout a foreign country (i.e.
finding a decent exchange rate, hoping the cab driver speaks some English, shortly thereafter almost certainly determining he does not, and ensuring the proper address gets
into his possession anyways). Upon arriving at our first AirBnB we were quite
happy with our location selection as we were staying in the Old Town Square –
the mecca of all tourists in Warsaw which we would typically prefer to avoid
but with our short duration of stay here was quite perfect). The Old Town Square, the oldest portion of the capital city, was actually established in the 13th century being entirely destroyed during the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and meticulously rebuilt. The site is even a part of UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites as "an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century". A couple pictures of
the Old Town Square seen below:
Our apartment was in the building second from the left in the picture above. The statue represents a mermaid which is mythically believed to live in the Vistula River and protect the Warsaw residents from danger.
On the first night, Andrew and I were mostly exhausted after finding our place and doing some impromptu touring of the neighborhood but were also ready to celebrate the beginning of our trip! We selected what turned out to be a fairly trendy bar/restaurant and celebrated with an upscale dinner and a bottle of champagne to top it off. We also had quite a few interesting lessons to learn during this dinner and throughout our stay in Warsaw detailed below!
1) People are entirely unsure of Andrew or I's nationality. We have been deemed as residents of Germany, Sweden (mostly Andrew), Poland, and sometimes quite adequately the United States (although I've also determined, and been guided by Andrew, that sometimes people aren't quite sure what or where those are so referencing America has been our best bet). All throughout our stay in Warsaw we were approached by individuals speaking to us in various languages or handing us menus in these respective languages only to be either disappointed or intrigued when we indicated our true American nationality.
Our waitress this first evening was ecstatic to hear of our American origin and reached out to us for advice on what to do in her upcoming trip to the States (note on back of receipt from our waitress pictured below!)
2) Water is sometimes served in bottles which in the United States quite resemble a handle of vodka. After ordering what we believed to be still water we were quite terrified when our waitress approached us with what appeared to be an extremely excessive amount of vodka for the two of us - especially following the champagne.This truly was, a gigantic bottle of water - I promise.
Following dinner we went back to our new home and prepared for the first full day of our travels throughout Warsaw.
During our last trip to South America, we picked up the habit of joining a free walking tour in any new sizable city in order to get our bearings and highlight a few of the city's main attractions. The tour guide is always a local, and typically a native, of the city or country you are touring and has always provided us with quality insights, local legends and plenty of other miscellaneous narratives which are difficult to pull out of your standard travel guides. So in Warsaw we stuck with what we knew and started Wednesday (Aug. 19th) , our first full day, with a free walking tour taking us through some of the following points of interest throughout the city and we looped in a few extra sites over the next two days (Lazienki Park,stock exchange, Warsaw Uprising Musuem).
montage of site seeing pictures from (also somewhat a compilation of Andrew standing in front of many tourist attractions...)
Spotted one tall American individual on the walking tour...
Gates protecting the old city, now serves as the bridge from the old city in the the new city of Warsaw
Justice House
Monument to the Warsaw Uprising Fighters
The Little Insurgent Monument for all young soldiers
Bronze Bell which Warsaw residents believe brings fruition to any wish you make before circling the bell with one hand placed on top (like Andrew is up to in this picture)
Royal Summer Palace in Lazienki Park
Another part of the Royal Summer Palace in Lazienki Park
Following the tour, our guide directed us to multiple restaurants
offering authentic local Polish cuisine which we gladly sampled over the course
of the next few days. In fact, immediately following the tour we bee-lined
for the first restaurant on the list and ordered their authentic pierogis and
potato pancakes with a beef stew. At my insistence, we had sampled an order of pierogis on our first day as a tribute to
my Polish ancestors (of course) and more-so due to quite a few delicious pierogi experiences in my
past! The truth is the pierogis from the first day, from a very touristy
restaurant were rubbery and awful – Andrew was extremely skeptical and I was
unsure if I would be able to even sample another pierogi. Luckily for us (and
not so lucky for our waistlines) from the recommended restaurant, and on our
second attempt, we started to fall in love with Polish cuisine. See Andrew below
enjoying some potato pancakes with stew:
Following, this delicious lunch we toured out to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. After longer than I would like to admit attempting to find the museum and a break in a massive hammock at an outdoor pop-up shop to recoup (wish I had a picture of this) we were treated to a wealth of information regarding Warsaw during WWII and the Warsaw Uprising in particular. That evening, we tried a craft beer/pizza restaurant which introduced us to some delicious Polish beers and called it a night.
On our last day we toured Lazienki Park which was very beautiful and interesting to see the palaces which had been unharmed by the invasion. Capping our park visit off with a trip to the stock exchange and some additional authentic Polish food we had one more night to spare. We luckily had the opportunity to check out a few local bars which resulted in Andrew and I being pulled in to a 3 person dance with a Warsaw native who insisted on singing every lyric of the song being played in Polish. Andrew and I mostly smiled, laughed and danced along until we figured we could feign the extremely difficult to pronounce lyrics no longer! We ended our stay with a trip to a brand new cocktail bar called Bar & Books which not only served delicious cocktails but allowed us to make friends with the bartender who although technically from Prague gave us many insights to Polish culture. We also made friends with one other couple at the bar who lived in Warsaw.
To top off the trip, as all of you may have, at one point or another attempted to pronounce my last name you know it's not the easiest. The friendships we established on the last night gave me the opportunity to get the scoop on how to properly pronounce our last name as I had promised my family I would report back. On video, and from respectable Warsaw locals, the pronunciation is "Roman-chook" so yes, we have been saying it entirely incorrectly! Will have to reconvene with the Romanczuk clan on this one.....
All in all, Warsaw was a wonderful way to take a slight peek into my family history but also mostly a fantastic start to our trip! I can already tell it's going to be an incredible three months!
<3
Please message either of us if you would like additional details or a more thorough listing of restaurants, sights, etc. if you plan on traveling to Warsaw.
