Krakowskie Przedmiescie (and other really long street names)

Slept in a bit and got up at 10am this morning. It my vacation dammit and I'll sleep in if I want to!

First order of business is to head the central station and the galleria in hopes of finding a postage stamp. Welp, the galleria said that they didn't and maybe try central station. Central station said nope, and didn't say anything. Apparently, in Poland, folks aren't used to being able to get postage from stationary stores or news stands. Feh. I headed over to the Palace of Culture ans Science (that huge building in the center of town) and asked the tourist office. Yah! A post office in the building (not surprising, EVERYTHING is in that giant thing). Gots stamps!

So headed back over and found the bus that would drop me off at Old Town. The plan is to start at the bottom of Old Town and walk down Krakowskie Przedmiescie/Nowy Swiat into town. The street is a famous shopping main drag with a bunch of cool buildings to check out on the way. The first thing I did was take a brief trip up to a panorama view next to the bus stop.

 After my meager 15 flights of stairs to get to the roof, I realized I needed something to eat. I found a sushi place and got some ramen noodle with beef soup, kim chi, veggie and shrimp tempura, and a Coke. While filling, the Coke was maybe a 4oz glass of soda and not enough to keep me awake. Luckily right next door was a coffee shop were I could get a latte and some cherry and cream cheese pie covered in a crisp meringue cover. Somewhat of a sugar overload, but it was a very tasty pastry.

The street was a casual walk with some cool shop and interesting buildings to look at.

I noticed during my meal a guy outside with a hand written sign showing it to passersby and animatedly saying various things. When I used my camera to zoom in on his sign, I noticed what had to be various Bible verses - some from Genesis and older texts. I figured out that we was an End of the Worlder and was preaching to whoever walked by. Whew. Its good to know that the US doesn't have a monopoly on religious nutjobs. 

PacMan gets medieval on someone's ass.

I also got stopped by a Polish student and asked to rate her English skills and smile. I pretty much knew it was a pitch, but since we were near a university - I thought that it just might be a sociology experiment like she said. Nope. I got to write down how well I rated her English, my name, and signed it... and the very end box was how much I was willing to donate to feeding starving students. She said if I gave her 100 zlotys, she would give me a kiss. Err, that's a pretty expensive kiss. Anyway, I gave her 10 for the effort and she reached into her purse and pulled out a blown kiss sticker. Heh. So I would have got stiffed on the kiss too. Well played cute Polish student, but not good enough.

The street seemed to end a lot quicker than I had figured, but it dropped me next to the Warsaw National Museum. I had originally planned to hit that one on my last day, but I figured I had time and it was open late on Thursdays.

The museum was more of a gallery showing the Old Masters of Polish mainly, but other, paintings and statues from 1600 to 1800. I was hoping more for Polish history and traditions, but it seems that there isn't one in Warsaw - at least not that I found on the map. Cest la vie. I can dig me some art.

 And here we see the famous eighteenth century Dutch painter... wait a second...

DOWN KITTEH!! BAD KITTEH! BAD KITTEH!!!

The museum was huge consisting of a ground floor and two floors above that. The building was also very big, so I was able to keep wandering about for about four hours or so. I took snapshots of only those pieces that really struck a nerve or I found interesting, or creepy, or both. The top floor had one section of the museum dedicated to Polish Modern Art, so I was able to fill that little void fairly quickly.

Use #1 for Legos. Robbing a .... thing...

Use #2. Lego concentration camp. As part of the Nazi Lego collection.
Wasn't a big hit during WWII.

After this I was somewhat knacked, so I hopped on the tram (not a lot of them, so this was a first in Warsaw) that happened to run from the museum down to the central station. I headed back to the hostel for a bit, then headed back up towards the station where all the restaurants near the Marriot was located. Hit the Green Cafe for a tasty Tom Kha soup, hunk of cow with potatoes and grilled veggies, a carrot/celery/ginger fresh juice, and a shot of Polish vodka. 

I.m back at the hostel now and just in wonder that tomorrow is my last day in Warsaw, and my last day of sabbatical. Damn, time sure went by fast. Welp tomorrow I plan to hit Hala Mirowska, an old market area that dates back to 1900. The buildings were destroyed in WWII (with pretty much EVERYTHING in Warsaw), but rebuilt in the 1950s. Now they are were the traditional "Russian market" is held. I figure I can see if there is any cool handmade stuff to pick up on my last day here that I could stuff into my luggage now that I have some more room.