Baby steps

So I woke up this morning early. It wasn't my plan, I just happen to have forgotten to set my time clocks back when I crossed a time zone. So headed down to have breakies with the hostel, which was a cup of yogurt and a bowl of cereal. There were some pastries but they were tiny and somewhat stale-ish looking. Then I hopped in the awesome shower to find out the drain was clogged up, so it overflowed the shower area and started in on the bathroom floor. Feh.

Hey kids! Let's play "One of these things is not like the others"!
Hint: There are two things in the picture.

So I headed out with the idea of just figuring out where all the places are that I might be interested in. My usual way of doing this is finding out where the hop on/off bus is located. That usually an easy one as there always is one in any large European city and it usually starts by the central rail station. Warsaw was no different. It costs generally about $20 (80 zlotys for 48 hours) and does a 45 to 90 minutes loop around a city hitting all the major tourist points and cool monuments/buildings. I can then circle a couple on the map for checking out on foot later.

I thought I was late for the first bus but turned out I was an hour early due to not changing the clocks on my laptop/phone/camera. So I ended up heading across the way to check out the modern art themed galleria attached to the central station. It was pretty cool. The escalators where in different places, forcing you to walk through the oddly shaped open areas and balconies. This gave the whole thing a very natural and airy feel to it and the shops were all spotless. More of a high end shopping center though I may go there to get a briefcase to put souvenirs in on the trip back. That way I don't have to stress them breaking in the checked bag.

I then cruised across to the tourist center which was located in the Center for Science and Culture. Some Poles hate the center, though it is a major landmark and houses museum, cinemas, shopping centers, etc. Mainly because the Soviets built it back in 1955 at they didn't like that period in Polish history. The newer generation though seems to like it though and I think its pretty cool. There is a panoramic view at the top which gives you a great view of the whole city.

I didn't have time to figure out how to get up to the top by that time, so I hit the hop on/off bus and headed out through Warsaw.

The tour was only about 45 minutes and seemed even shorter as the bus driver didn't like stopping anywhere. I wanted to get out at the second to last stop, got up and headed down, and he kept on going. Eeerr, ok. I ended up getting off on the last stop and heading up towards the National Museum. I was hungry and the hop on/off brochure had an advertisement for some authentic Polish food. I hit that and it was essentially a pirogi joint. With a dozen different flavors of pirogi! Hmmmmm...

So I had Russian style (meat, potato and cheese), meat and cabbage, spinach and cheese, and mushroom cheese potato. I tried the pan fried style and had a glass of "fruit compose". It was basically apple/pear juice that they steeped in raisins, dried fruits, and spices. The whole lunch was really tasty, though the service sucked. I think its because they only hired cute, tiny, thin girls and forced them wear skimpy Polish peasant outfits. They seemed kind of annoyed to be serving folks. Cest la vie. I may have to hit it up again, them pirogis were tasty.

The National Museum was a bust unfortunately. It is closed on Mondays so I'll have to hit it up later this week. Friday would likely be a good day for it. So not much left to do but head back to the central station and check out the view from the cultural center.

I got to the building and managed to find the right entrance to head up on top of the main tower. This is harder than it seems as two parts of the building were museums and the entrance I went in an first was actually a multi-cineplex. It might be cook to check out later on as it seems there was some kind of film festival happening showing art films. There was also a shopping center but I couldn't figure out how to get to it. Like I said, this thing is HUGE. 

Anyway, for 18 zlotys I got to take the express elevator to the top and look out over Warsaw. 

The views were pretty spectacular, but it was mainly just a cityscape. There were no particularly striking buildings like in Rome or St. Petersburg. And there wasn't the immense grandeur of a city like Moscow or New York. It was just, well, standard blah colored buildings with the occasional architecture difference or color. I mean it was cool looking but not something I could spend a lot of time just looking around.

All new Alkohole! Alcohol... for assholes!

About this time I was getting tired and wanted to just chill for a bit. The lack of sleep and upset stomach the last couple of days have taken their toll, and besides - the plan was to just burn the day doing some wandering around and get my bearings. So I headed back, got some soda and ice tea for the hostel, and relaxed to read a bit.

This ended up with a two hour nap (just what I needed though actually) and I headed out to have some munchies at the Indian place down the street I had seen earlier. Chicken samosa with green lime mint spice sauce, mutton marsala, garlic nan, and a lime soda. It was tasty, but not anything to write home about. (Wait a second, I just did - didn't I? Crap.).

Now a short walk around the block and I'm feeling more situated. It seems like a pretty peaceful city. Might be due to a large police presence. Warsaw isn't as bad as my first impression.