Waterless Warszawa

10 – 14 April 2018

I arrived in Poland around 8 pm, it had just gotten dark. A bus took me from the airport to a small old train station with high, heavy windows and large wooden doors. I walked across the cobblestone street towards the small train station. It was rather quiet, aside from some dogs barking in the distance. The weather was still lovely for this time of year with a mild temperature of 20 degrees.

I noticed that my fellow bus passengers were all going to the ticket office to buy their train tickets. I’m so used to buying my tickets from a ticket machine, so I thought that it is a nice change to buy a ticket from an actual person. I already had my tickets ordered online so instead I visited the coffee bar inside the station building. It was’t a large space, but it had a very pleasant ambience. They even had flavored cacao at the self service, that I had actually wanted to try back at home. It’s the little things that make me happy.

After I sat on the train to Warsaw while enjoying my hot flavored coffee, I got on the bus to Piastov, a town just south of Warsaw, where my first host lives. I was greeted by Austin (not his real name, but he has adopted the name) and his friend Natalia who took me to the place where Austin lives with his mother. They were all very friendly and we spent the night having drinks together while talking about our countries and music. At some point during the night we ran out of drinks, so we walked to a petrol station to buy some more. On the way home Austin and Natalia tried to teach me some Polish, although it would probably be best if I didn’t repeat some of the words here.

The next day I awoke feeling a little hungover, but Austin had prepared me some scrambled eggs for breakfast, and seriously, they were the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had. His mother is cook at her brother’s cafeteria and Austin apparently inherited some of her skills. After our brunch we went to the center of Warsaw for some sightseeing. First we went to the top of probably the most iconic building of Warsaw: the Palac Kultury i Nauki (Palace of Culture and Science) from where we had a nice view over the city. Austin got a smoothy and I got a much needed cup of coffee. After that we went to the Old Town, where we started our walk in front of the Royal Castle (which actually seems more like a palace, rather than a castle). Nowadays people can book guided tours through the royal chambers and visit the art exhibition inside. The square in front of the Royal Castle is marked by a large column of king Sigismund III. From there we walked towards the old market square.

The old market square looks beautiful with nicely painted buildings surrounding it. Since the weather was also very pleasant, the square felt really cozy and nice. The entry to the old town is marked by the Warsaw Barbican, which is a large, 16th century defense wall. At the Barbican we turned around and walked once again past the Royal Castle. Halfway we played some tennis with a tennis coach who was demonstrating a fun way to practice tennis, using a tennis ball which was attached to the ground with an elastic wire, so the ball would always bounce back to you.

We also walked past the presidential palace, where the current president still resides. A bit farther down the street stands the statue of Nicolas Copernicus, the famous Polish astronomer. To be honest, I had never realized that Copernicus was Polish in the first place, so I was surprised to see his statue in Warsaw.

After our walk we took the bus back to Piastow, but unfortunately everyone in Warsaw seemed to be going home from work at the same time, so it took us quite a while to finally get home. Once at home, Austin’s mother had prepared us a nice supper. There were two kinds of typically Polish prepared meat: mielone and schabowe. Mielone is a combination of beef and pork made into a ball and schabowe looks a bit like a snitzel, but only much, much better. We had the meat with some mashed potato and beetroot. It was delicious.

For a couple of days, we did have a small problem: there was no running water. Not because I’m staying in some remote village in the middle of nowhere; Piastov is one of Warsaw’s suburbs after all. But the water tubes were getting renewed and that took quite a while. So we had to make do with lots of bottles of water for the time being. For a shower Austin’s mother had to drive us to his father’s place, where I also met Austin’s younger brother. Austin’s mother also showed me several family photos (not sure if Austin was all that happy about me seeing those charming old photos) and I did the same using the photos on my phone.

The next day Austin and I went back to his father’s place again to drop something off and afterwards we went to the cafeteria where his mother works and had some free lunch there. It was a great lunch with bacon, zucchini, schabowe (the sort of snitzel I had earlier) with a mushroom sauce and some salad and French fries. We also got some nice cabbage soup to start with. After lunch we went to the post office where I posted some cards that I had bought earlier. Then we walked to the park to wait for Austin’s mother to finish work. Austin had to visit two kids to teach them English (he does that as a side job), so I planned to go into the city on my own. But Austin’s mother offered to go to a newly opened museum with me. The museum about WW2 had just opened and she wanted to see it. So that’s what we did.

But once we got at the museum, it turned out to be closed. Slightly disappointed we were about to go somewhere else, but a man approached us and told us that behind the building there was a demonstration of some small tanks. So we went there and a very talkative man told us all about his greatest passion . . . In Polish. So Austin’s mother tried to translate for me, but she also hardly spoke any English. So we tried our best using Google Translate. I managed to find out that the small tanks were once used to disable landmines, but that the ones we saw were just props. He did built one of the tanks himself and he was very proud of it. I really hope his wife is as happy with his passion as he is . . .

Afterwards we went to Lazienki park. This is a large park with the summer residence of one of Warsaw’s former kings situated somewhat in the middle. The Lakeside palace, or Palace on the Isle, was beautiful in the light of the setting sun. There were also quite a lot of peacocks around the palace, since they were the king’s favorite animal. After we walked through the small amphitheater, that can still be used for concerts, we visited the famous statue of Chopin. Austin’s mother told me that Chopin was buried in France, but his heart is kept in a church in Warsaw. Such a romantic yet slightly disturbing thought.

After the park we drove home and did some groceries. That night the three of us had some drinks and we shared a huge pizza. It was really nice to spend time with them and they really made me feel at home.

The next day I took my time to write everything down. We also finally had water so I could shave. We left the house rather late that day, since we didn’t have any real plans for the day and I had a lot to write down. Originally my plan was to take the bus to Krakow today, but because Austin told me of a spectacular show that was supposed to be tonight, I decided to stay for an extra day. It would be a show with water, music and projections and when he showed me a video of it, I got really excited since they also played my favorite music. First we went to the city to walk around for a bit. When we had gotten something to eat, Austin suddenly noticed that the show wouldn’t take place today . . . Bummer! Later that night it also started to rain with lightning. So at least we got our light show with water. We took shelter for the rain in a small kiosk/bar next to the Palace of Culture and Science and ordered a beer. Here we started talking with a man named Grzegorz (Gregory). I’m sure he had had a few beers already, but it was still nice to talk with him. He told me of his time in the Netherlands, where he worked as a supervisor in construction for five years. He even invited us to join him in a pub, but we thanked him and went home, where Natalia and her sister later joined us for a while.

The next day I said goodbye to Austin and his mother. I was really lucky to have had them as my first hosts. His mother even gave me some food and juice for on the way to Krakow. It’s a five-hour journey, so some extra provisions are more than welcome. I’m excited to find out what Krakow will bring me . . .