Arriving on Friday (04/28/2017)
We took a train from Krakow in the late afternoon and we arrived in Warsaw at night, something we always avoid doing on our trips. We felt unsafe, with a bad impression of the place, but that image of a confusing big city disappeared the next day.
We took a bus from the train station (we bought the tickets from a machine at the stop) and got off near our accommodation, Ego Apartments. We waited 5 minutes for the guy to show up so we could do the check-in and I loved everything right away. What an excellent apartment! I thought the decor was super clean, the apartment is clean and smells good and the location is really amazing. I highly recommend it! Some photos:
As we arrived late and hungry, we left our things at the apartment and went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the guy, Pod Pod Zegarem, 2 minutes walk from our little corner. The decor of the place is very interesting with clocks everywhere, the service is poor, but the food is worth it and is super affordable! Our dishes were delicious, but the appetizer beef tartare deserves more attention…how about trying it?
Day 1 – Saturday (04/29/2017)
We woke up and went to have breakfast at a place that was highly rated on TripAdvisor, To Lubie, and despite the confusing service, the food was very tasty. We walked around that area and I thought the architecture was really cute. It's true that everything was rebuilt after the bombings of World War II, but I think they had great taste in choosing colors, details, etc. Take a look:
We went into some churches that had also been rebuilt and I found it interesting how in almost all of them there are photos from after the bombing. It gives us an idea of the absurd damage that was done to the city, so it is quite sad.
We walked to the square Warsaw Uprising and then we calmly passed by Barbican and its wall.
We walked slowly through the cute streets and arrived at the main square in the historic city center, Old Town Square. It's so cute with its colorful buildings, restaurants and a mermaid statue in its center.
After taking lots of photos and resting on the benches in the square, we headed to the square Zamkowy, where is the Royal Castle and the Zygmunt's Column, the oldest monument in the city. The energy of this square is also very vibrant, but what caught our attention were some very obedient colorful pigeons, which were free and when people wanted to take photos, they paid their owners. It seemed like a profitable business to me…
We entered a small market in front of this square and despite seeing several stands Of food and crafts, nothing really caught our attention. We even tried to buy some snacks at one of them, but the woman spoke NO ENGLISH, so we went on with our lives. Oh, so...the Polish people are not very friendly and it was obvious that they are not very happy with tourists. Patience, right?
We stopped at a snack bar and bought a zapiekanki, a baguette with filling on top that looks more like a pizza, which is nothing special, but it was enough to satisfy our hunger and we continued walking.
We entered the St John's Cathedral and a few more churches nearby, and then we sat down in the main square to rest. We stopped at one of the touristy restaurants and ordered beer and a plate of sausages and fried potato cakes. It was lovely to enjoy the sun and the late afternoon there.
We went back to the apartment, took a shower and went out later for dinner. We walked to a place that was still new to us and as we were in the mood for Japanese food, we stopped at a restaurant that we found really different, the Sakana Sushi Bar. It's the style without tables, with everyone sitting at the counter, you know? After some waiting, we managed to sit down and were very well attended by a chef who was behind the counter preparing the food in front of us. He explained to us that we could either take the dishes that were being passed around on the little boats or that we could tell him what we liked to eat and he would prepare surprises for us. We did a bit of both and the guy did a great job! I have never eaten so much delicious food in such a short time, and the restaurant was packed. We drank and ate a lot and of course the bill was the most expensive of the trip (100 euros for the two of us), but it was worth every penny. I highly recommend it!
Day 2 – Sunday (04/30/2017)
We followed the suggestion of a Polish woman we met and went to visit the Royal Castle, which is free on Sundays. When we got there, we were shocked by the line and decided to see the rest of the city and visit it later in the day. How frustrating:
We continued walking towards the President's Palace and we stopped at a tower next to the castle to see the view of the city. We paid a symbolic amount, climbed a few steps and look at the view, how beautiful:
I recommend it! 🙂
We continued walking down the street Krakow Preachers, which is extremely pleasant and beautiful, and we stopped at several churches and places to take photos.
I was impressed by some of them and I think they are all worth a visit, but one that I couldn't miss is the one with the urn with Chopin's heart, the Holy Cross Church. You will see that throughout the city there are signs and benches that mention the Polish and the cool thing is that there is always some music playing.
We had lunch at a typical Polish restaurant for tourists on this street and despite going in with low expectations, we really enjoyed the food. The name is Specjal Wiejski.
We passed last by the statue of Warsaw boy, right next to our apartment, and we ended the day at the same restaurant as the first day (the one with the clocks).
Leaving the city on Monday (01/05/2017)
We had breakfast at a place close to the apartment, went back to the apartment to get our things and decided to order an Uber to the airport, which was very far from Ryanair (40 minutes from Warsaw). We saw that we could take a bus to a well-known building and then take a frescão from there and that everything would cost 20 euros for both of us, but when we saw the price of the uber – around 22 euros per trip – we didn’t even think twice. 🙂
The airport is quite small, but it has a duty free filled with vodkas Wyborova. We ended another trip with a flourish. <3
Read about the entire trip to Poland in the links below:
