Piwo n Perogie

Dobranoc z Warszawy. Good night from Warsaw. Once again I am coming to you from a different foreign city. This may become the norm on this trip as we are on the move a lot.

 To catch you all  up on my adventure since I last checked in two days ago, Yesterday was our last day in Berlin. We (the GAdventures gang) all met for breakfast in the morning before heading out on the city train to Alexanderplatz square. From there we checked out an old cathedral which had been heavily damaged by bombing during the war but rebuilt afterwards. You can tell where old meets new by the color of the bricks. We went in for a minute, had a quick look and left due to there being people in there for their Sunday visit. From there, the plan was to take the city bus to Brandenburg gate but due to the Berlin Marathon in progress at the time, no buses were running. You can check out the  Marathon results and info at www.bmw-berlin-marathon.com. On a side note, one of the members of our GAdventures gang (from Victoria BC) was participating in this years marathon.  Anyway, we walked over to Brandenburg gate just in time for the first participants of the wheel chair races to return. We watched that for a while and I must say, it was pretty awe inspiring to see. We then split up and went off in different directions from there. Some stayed to watch the marathon, some went sightseeing and others just went off and did their own thing for a few hours. I went back to the old section of the wall for one last look and then after a couple small pit stops, walked back over to Alexanderplatz and visited the Menchen Museum. This museum holds the Body Worlds exhibit. Although I did see it in Toronto many years before, I decided to see it again. For those of you who haven’t been, its all real human bodies, who were donated by the families, prepared and dissected to show various systems, organs etc of the body. Its a very interested and well done exhibit. As always, check out my pics on facebook for a better understanding of what it was. 

 After our various activities, we all met back at the hotel, got ready and headed back out for some Octoberfest celebrations. Alexanderplatz square had turned into endless food/beer/craft/clothing stands. Although it rained off and on, we found our spot to sit and ate and drank for a couple hours. It was a great way to end our time in Germany. Despite Berlin’s sorted past, or maybe directly because of it, I highly recommend this city and Germany itself. Just keep in mind that they use the Euro there despite many of the surrounding countries still have their own currencies.

 This morning we had a early rise to catch the high speed train to Warsaw Poland. Once we boarded, I very quickly noticed it was identical to the train on the movie Eurotrip with its separate compartments. I laughed to myself and couldn’t help but hear “excusie” over and over in my head. Only some of you will get that reference. Luckily my compartment was all people from my group so it was a great train ride.  The gentle rocking and the occasional “whoosh” of passing trains made for quite the relaxing experience. We just sat back and drank tea and expresso while we watched the German countryside turn into the Polish countryside. With the help of the recent rainfalls, the countryside were very green and lush. The rolling hills ripe with farmers crops ready for harvest.

We arrived here in Warsaw at 1:15 pm. Lucky for us, the rains had stopped by then.  After the usual checking in of the hotel etc, we met our tour guide in the lobby for a walking tour of old Warsaw. I urge you to check out some of my pictures because words can not do it justice. I will eventually update this page to where I can post links to my pics as well. It will just make things easier. Our tour guide took us to many must see areas of Warsaws old city. The bright greens, oranges, whites and blues were just among a few of the colors of the buildings that surround one of the town squares. We are told that Krakow (our next destination) was far more beautiful but in that moment, I didn’t understand how that was even possible. It was exactly how I pictured it, and not disappointed.

 We stopped at various spots, learned a little history and moved on to the next. We visited the monument  of the Hero’s of the Polish uprising in 1944. It was very well done as are most monuments through out Europe.  From there we stopped at the former home of Mary Curie who was a Polish-French Physicist and Chemist.  She was the first women to  win a Nobel Prize for her pioneering research in radioactivity.  We then walked by the Cathedral where the heart of composer Frederick Chopin is buried in a column inside. If time permits, I may try to get back there tomorrow morning to see it for myself.  A few more historic stops were ready for dinner. Our tour guide ended with this advice, he urged us to keep traveling, whenever and wherever we could. I could have not agreed more! We then head to a restaurant called Restauracja Zapiecek. This was an authentic Polish restaurant so of course Perogies was my dish of choice. I figured I had several days here so may as well try the few dishes that Poland is known for and boy they did not disappoint. We all sat and chatted about our busy day and what we enjoyed most. Of course a Tyskie beer was a must have as well.

 With a very busy day ending on a high note. I headed back to my room here at Hotel Hetman, which is quite nice I must say, and uploaded my today’s pics, answered some messages and wrote this blog. Not as detailed as i’d like to get into but its been a long day and im spent. I will try to get into more detail of the sights I see, restaurants I eat at and places I stay as the trip goes on. Hope you all have a great night (or day depending on where you are) and i’ll talk to you all soon. Wiwaty i dobranoc, Cheers and Good Night.

The World is Vast and Meant for Wandering