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From my last post, you’ll know that I have been in Vienna for school. School is a two week stint in Vienna, and that means there’s a weekend in between … to go somewhere! (obviously). I mean, to be fair, this is my 4th trip to Vienna, and while I could stay in town, it’s winter. If I’m going to be cold and miserable, I’d rather be that in a new setting. So, to Warsaw I went!
Table of Contents
Overnight train to Warsaw
The night train from Vienna Hauptbanhof leaves around 10:15 pm and arrives in Warsaw Central around 9:15 am. I paid ~ 130 EUR for a single berth compartment, with a washbasin. It’s the same compartment as the 3-berth, but the two other bunks were up against the wall. Here is a short video of inside of the tiny compartment. (Yes, I am wearing hello kitty shorts, seen in the reflection of the window. The temperature when I first boarded the train blasted heat on high and I could not handle it.)
The compartment was clean and the ride was relatively smooth. It took awhile to figure out the main light switch and temperature adjustment switch. All of them are above the door, which required me to stand on top of my bed to reach. When we reached Krakow around 6 am, there was a mild annoyance. The attendant woke Krakow passengers up around 5 am, which caused a lot of commotion and various noises. But like I said, only a mild complaint. In the morning, before we arrived in Warsaw, they served breakfast – hot coffee and an unexciting piece of bread with cheese and jam.
1. Arrival to Warsaw!
The first thing you see when you leave the Warsaw Central station is this magnificent beauty. Even though I arrived in the morning, the photo was taken at night (obviously).
This beloved giant was a “gift” from Stalin to the people of Warsaw. The Palace of Culture and Science (or PKiN for short) was built in the 1950s and designed by Soviet architect Lev Rudnev in the style of socialist realism. An imposing building that stands out in the Warsaw skyline, it’s still relatively controversial among the locals who see it as a reminder of Soviet influence.
But I digress.ย I went across the street from the central station to the Warsaw Marriott hotel (8,000 Chase pointsย transferred to Marriott).ย My room wasn’t ready yet, but that’s fine.ย I was ready for some pierogies.ย I knew exactly where I was going to go.ย
2. Bar Bambino for pierogies
Bar Bambino, a traditional Polish “milk bar” or bar mleczny in Polish. Retro’ish milk bars have popped up in Warsaw as a throwback to the Soviet days, when food was scarce and state-run restaurants served cheap eats.
I looked at the menu online on the train and google translated a few items. But I was unprepared for the FULL BOARD of menu items. Milk bars typically don’t have English menus or English speakers. What to do? I stood at the board staring mindlessly at all the choices. I let a few people go in front of me, while I watched how they ordered, took their receipt up to the window and handed it to the kitchen women as they waited for their food. And then, when finished, took their plate up to the other window for dishwashing.
When I finally felt confident enough to order, I basically walked the woman behind the cashier up to the board and pointed to the first item under the pierogi category. You really can’t go wrong with choosing the first item. It was 7.80 zlotys, which is about $2.30 USD. Surprise pierogi for breakfast! For those who don’t know, pierogies are dumplings, usually comprised of potato, cheese, and/or onion, and are typically boiled.
It was mushroom filled! and a great choice! What was so surprising was the huge slab of butter that appeared on my pierogies, and had melted by the time I brought the plate to my table. Well, if this is how locals do it, I might as well embrace the butter. Remember this phrase, which could be a motto for life in Europe… โจโจEMBRACE THE BUTTERโจโจ.
3. Chopin Museum
From Bar Bambino, I walked on toward the Frederic (Fryderyk) Chopin Museum. The museum, housed in an old mansion, which like much of Warsaw, was destroyed in WWII and then rebuilt to exact specifications after the war.
Chopin is the favored son of Warsaw, and the namesake of the Warsaw International Airport in town. Although he died in Paris, he wanted his heart sent back to Warsaw. And so it was… in a jar of cognac… Still interred in the same jar, his heart now resides at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. I don’t know if you can see the jar or the heart but there you have it. It’s there.
The Chopin Museum is fairly well done. It relies a lot on technology – the entrance ticket is a card. Most exhibit items required you to scan the card to hear his music, or to hear about his life, etc. It was a little unnecessary at best. A button “activating” the exhibit would have sufficed. But nonetheless, it was a nice museum dedicated to his life and music.
4. Desserts at Odette
After the museum, I was hungry. Does that happen to anyone else? I mean, also, the butter periogies were probably still digesting. But I know I had to try some of the desserts that Warsaw is famous for. {So the choice that did NOT win, was a chocolate lounge…} The winner was Odette, a decadent patisserie, hidden a few side streets away from the Royal Route.
I obviously did not know what dessert corresponded to what flavor, but I figured a brown one could never go wrong. Flavors could have included chocolate, coffee, hazelnut, etc. And yet, the dessert I chose had none of those flavors.
With each bite, I really tried hard to think of what flavors were in this dessert. And to be honest, I literally COULD NOT figure it out. So blast me if you will, I tried really hard to identify it. What it was not: chocolate, coffee, or hazelnut flavored.
5. The hunt for traditional Polish food
After dessert, I went back to the hotel to check in and take a little nap. By 3:30 pm, I decided it was time for a late lunch and I set out looking for a specific, traditional Polish restaurant that had multiple locations around town. I passed one of the locations, which had a huge line out the door, and decided to move on toward the second location. The second location was closed until February 13th. So I walked on to the third location, in the heart of Old Town. But I was met with a police blockade of the whole Old Town area. (I later heard that if there is any kind of political event, they just shut down Old Town.) I couldn’t go around, and the police told us everything was shut down so we should turn around.
By this point, I WAS STARVING. As I walked back, I decided to just eat in any Polish restaurant I came across, determined to stick with my theme of eating only Polish food. I came across Ceprownia, which had a sign for a Potato Pancake Festival in the doorway. That’s good enough for me.
By the time I finished dinner, it was around 5 pm. All of the museums were closed and I would be unable to attend my evening plan, a Chopin concert in Old Town, so I went back to the hotel and was lazy for the rest of the night. No judgment… part of vacation is relaxing! Stay tuned for the conclusion of my weekend in Poland.
6. Photos along the way
But first, here are some random scenes from Warsaw.
Day 1 Recap*
- 9:30 AM: arrival to Warsaw Central Station | map
- 10:15 AM: Pierogies at the Bar Bambino milk bar | map
- 11 AM: mixing technology and music at the Chopin Museum | map
- 12:30 PM: morning desserts at Odette | map
- << nap time >>
- 4 PM: early dinner at Ceprownia | map
- finished for the day, since Old Town was closed off…
*To view Day 1’s walk, click on the icon in the upper left corner of the map, and uncheck Day 2 from the menu, and then click the icon again to close the menu.
Onwards to Episode 2 of 36 Hours in Warsaw!
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Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.ย She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!ย She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.
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