SOLO EURO: DAY 18 [WARSAW]

in the morning, i took a 2 hour train ride to warsaw and then a bus to drop off my stuff at the hostel. i think there was filming nearby. i saw tons of police and lights. this was by far the coldest day of my trip and very windy. i literally had my scarf wrapped around my face. also, i went to costa for the first time. man is it expensive, but all the british youtuvers go there. it seems to be the starbucks of england.

maybe because of the weather (or because this was towards the end of my trip and it was october), i never experienced crowds at all in warsaw. during my two days, the streets stayed empty, except for the random group of school kids. not going to lie, this does affect my enjoyment of cities. i enjoy myself so much more when there are less tourists.

king sigismund's column. lots of refurbishing was being done during my visit. i stopped at a tourist info store and picked up a french brochure (there were no english ones).

so pretty. i would even say better than prague.

warsaw's old town is from the 13th century, but almost all the buildings are rebuilt. much of the town was blown away by the nazis in 1939. the town rebuilt, and then even more damage was done during the warsaw uprsing in 1944. practically every building was destroyed and half the population was killed. the uprising plays a big part in warsaw's identity. you will see the resistance symbol everywhere. interestingly even though the town was not rebuilt accurately, the scavenged bricks and decorative items were used in the rebuild.

once gain we revisit a memorial to the katyn massacre (more on this later). these are everywhere in poland.

'the place sanctified by the blood of poles who died for the freedom of their homeland. here on september 2, 1944, the hitlerites shot 50 people.' these are called tchorek plaques and they are all over warsaw. this one is located in the castle square, and commemorates the 50 hospital patients and workers who were executed.

there are so many ornate details in the architecture.

after, i continued my walk throughout old town and visited the old town walls.

i also visited a random church up on a hill.

maly powstaniec, the little insurrectionist. this memorial located against the old town wall commemorates the child soldiers during the warsaw uprising.

 marie curie, polish chemist who was the first woman to win a nobel peace prize (and first person to win twice). she was born in warsaw. i also visited the home she was born in.

another famous symbol of warsaw is the mermaid. the city legend is she protects the city after local fishermen freed her when she was imprisoned by merchants. this statue is located in the center of the old town square.

i also visited the museum of warsaw.

another church. these roofs are really popular.

such a strange door. disembodied body parts of angels (including a hand).

the warsaw uprising memorial. more on the uprising in the next post.

monument to to the heroes of warsaw. 

after i made my back to the hostel. literally right next door was a pierogi restaurant, zapiecek. this place was so cute and all the food was served on cute polish ceramics. i even returned for dinner the next day.

i had hot tea and pierogi with bacon & 'gravy.' the gravy was literally meat grease. i should have known better.

on a side note, i kept a journal of my trip where i wrote notes about my days so i could remember the little moments. my last note from this day says 'bitch slapped my bag (black eye?).' i have absolutely no idea what this is referring to.

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luckily i stayed across the street from old town warsaw, the hostel was narrow and consisted of quite a few floors (maybe 4 stories). it was a good location with nice workers, but the beds were strange. it literally felt like you were sleeping in a crate. the bunks had wooden frames that were enclosed on 3 sides (the foot, the dead, and the wall) while the 4th wall had a curtain.

said crate bed.

even though the hostel was not bad, the experience was not the greatest. no one in my room talked to me at all and at this time was the peak of sickness. the congestion hit and i did not sleep well having to blow my nose every 5 minutes (and the claustrophobic feels of the bed crate did not help). i'm sure others also did not sleep well because of my sniffles too.