writebrained, rightbrained

Warsaw sneaker diaries

Here are a few more photos from our afternoon walk in Warsaw yesterday.  We saw a bear in the zoo, numerous street musicians, some of the Warsaw jazz festival, many beautiful public squares, and stumbled into a private performance of a singer at an interesting ice cream shop / gallery / restaurant which was displaying a Solidarity-themed political painting show.

My impression of Warsaw is that it has a lot in common with other European cities: mix of old and new, same modern conveniences, different language but otherwise very similar to other places.  The notable difference is that Warsaw was completely flattened in World War II after the brave, ultimately doomed Warsaw Uprising.  The Old Town area has since been recontructed and presently feels very Disney-like: quaint squares, buildings with medieval details but that are obviously not very old — perhaps because they often use a lot of faux paint techniques to achieve their older look.  Perhaps you could say, more kindly, that Disneyland resembles some of these neighborhoods.  The city sadly doesn’t, architecturally or aesthetically, have a lot of charm, but I suppose you do have to give this town credit for their bravery in the face of harsh occupation, and consider their Disneyification as perhaps the cost of that bravery.

We were also struck by the lack of young faces in the neighborhoods we walked through; with a few exceptions, most of the Poles we saw looked rather old to us.  Where do the younger Poles go (if not the capital city?)  It’s possible that we were in the wrong neighborhoods.  So our overall sense of Warsaw is that it’s lovely, quite modern, but doesn’t have that much inspiring energy: of youth, of art, or of architecture.  We loved how comfortable we instantly felt here though and how easy it was to get around.  We’re also grateful not to have gotten arrested on the tram!  (We later learned to get tickets at the kiosks in the train station.) 

We’re very much looking forward to our early morning train to Krakow tomorrow, as all the Poles we know have praised the city very warmly.

The bears are in a special exhibit facing the main road, so they get a lot of visitors

Old town in Warsaw is full of cute pubs

The Old town square, where a jazz concert is going on

Polish tuba players have some special tricks up their sleeve

Sunset in the square on our first night in Warsaw

Sunset near the Vistula River

Boston to CDG to Warsaw

I adored flying Air France yesterday because it gave me a perfectly good excuse to have a glass of champagne on the flight yesterday to kick off my trip.  After a very short flight, very little sleep, and a brief stopover at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, I arrived uneventfully in Warsaw.  Our hotel turned out to offer us lovely, somewhat luxe digs right in the heart of the city. so we found it a wonderfully convenient base to explore the city.

The first thing we did when we got to Warsaw was try to find a place to watch the World Cup game.  The highlight of our afternoon was taking the tram across the river to Old Town, without figuring out how to pay for tram tickets (so slightly worried that we were going to get arrested and thrown in a Polish gulag - do they still have those?), where we stepped into a delightful pub to watch the soccer game with an inexplicable group of Poles dressed in medieval costumes.  At one point, one of them took out a sword to illustrate a point he was making.  Because his point was in Polish, we didn’t quite catch what it was, but luckily, we were all rooting for Germany, who creamed the Argentinians.  Poor Maradonna!  He was far more distraught than the rest of his team.  (But I understand they came a long way to get this far.)  Here are a few pictures of the pub and our first Polish meal.  Ghabby got some good pictures of the Bohemians  (I don’t know what else to call them)  as they were leaving.   We sampled authentic Polish pierogies and lamb sausage, which were both incredible.

Lamb sausage and pierogies

Bon voyage to me!

Today I’m taking off on a trip I’ve been planning for several months to visit a few countries which have been on my wish list for many years: Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, and Romania.  It is the culmination of a year which in it’s entirety has been a whirlwind.  My adorable boyfriend told me a few days ago that in the course of this one year, I am doing many of the things that people hope to do once in a lifetime. 

It’s true.  For some reason, this year, I decided to live full out, and it has been a blast.  In January, I learned how to tango (in one glorious weekend at MIT).  In February, I learned how to snowboard (which rules!)  From April through June, I’ve been doing a fascinating coaching program on the art and pleasure of being a woman, which has certainly expanded my horizons as well as raised my eyebrows more than once!  In June, I also completed my first triathlon.  Finally, a few weeks ago, I attended the graduation of the fellowship program for entrepreneurs I ran this past year, and yesterday, I wrapped up my lovely startup job of two years, unquestionably the most fun job I’ve ever had. 

It has been a fantastic, fascinating year, chock full of experiences and moments I know I will treasure my entire life.  Quite frankly, it has also been a little exhausting.  I am soooo looking forward to five weeks wandering some of the stunning, illustrious cities of Europe, places that I’ve read and fantasized about, and most importantly, napping on as many sun-drenched beaches as I can find!  Before I take off, I gave this blog a “postcard” makeover, am sending out this address to my loved ones, and am making a promise to write from the road, so I can share my journey with all of you.  Bon voyage to me, and happy Independence Day and summertime to all of you!

Much love,

P