On Friday I woke up late... uuuuh yeah! I took the elevators down to the front desk. The elevators were neat. You push the floor button before you enter the elevator. Then, the display in the hallway tells you which elevator (labeled A through D) is yours. I bet it was quicker because the system can determine the fastest way to service everyone. I had the hotel put the extra breakfast on my account. It was just a coupon that I took to a place right next to the pizza place in the adjacent mall. The breakfast was tiny, maybe 2 eggs, a croissant, more bread, tea and freshly squeezed orange juice. Man, that oj was terrific, and I got it the next day without the overpriced, fancy breakfast.
I went back to the counter and a short girl with short reddish hair and a good, full figure helped me figure out how to get to the Burn Selector Festival that night. She first had me take three different trains/trams, but then she revised it to just one super long tram ride with a short walk to get to that specific tram. I got a map from her and directions for a good city sights to explore before the show.
I set out walking to the "old town". I noticed that in all the places I walked, there were huge buildings and TONS of construction everywhere. The city felt very modern and in progress. This all served as evidence of how Emil told me that the city of Warsaw was completely leveled in World War 2. He said about 2% of the city was left in ruins and the rest was completely bombed out. I believe it. Everything I saw looked new and not like the old cities of Krakow or Tallin. It was interesting and a little sad to know I couldn't experience the city in its pre-war state.
On the way to the "old town", I stopped in a nice park. I found the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I think it's a tribute to the fallen in WW2, but I'm no history expert. The park was pretty. Here is the park.
And here is the Tomb (of course, under construction).
I walked by a stage where three people were reading a play or a script. There were cameras, and it looked pretty official. It was probably only a little before noon and the crowd was wimpy, though. I walked a bit more and stopped to blog a bit on a bench. A non-bum looking guy came up to me and said a bunch of stuff in Polish. I gave him my dumb look and he said, "Oh, it's okay, I can speak English, too!" He asked for "a couple Polish bucks to get something to eat." I didn't want to give him money so I told him I was a tourist and only had cards. He went on for a bit telling me about he was in America for something like ten years. He was in Detroit I think and he talked about the Lions and maybe a couple of baseball teams. He said he loved it there but got deported because he wasn't legal. I think he said his brother was still there. He said thanks and "peace out, homie! Hahha!" as he left. Then when he was walking away, he just kept saying "Goddamn America! I love fucking America! Fucking Americans!" and laughing. It was hard to tell if he was super mad and mocking me or just bummed that he wasn't there anymore.
After the park, I made it to the "old town". It was clearly built to look like an old town, but all looked very new and pretty with again a lot of construction. It was pretty, but a bit plain with nothing huge and awe inspiring dominating the skyline. Here are a few shots.
Of course, the last picture shows that some construction was going on in one of the tourist restaurant filled squares.
After the "old town", I went to the Audio Visual Water Fountain. It was a big Vegas type water show that I think was coordinated to an app or video that you had to download on your personal device. It was neat to watch the water, but I missed plenty of the experience. Here's the fountain (ignore my finger in the foreground of the shot).
It was time for lunch. I left old town and walked towards the hotel. I found a Thai food place and thought, hey, haven't had that in a LONG time. The little Thai lady knew plenty of heavily accented English, so the transaction was easy. The food was pretty good, but talking to her was most memorable. She asked where I was from and about my travels. She said Warsaw and Poland is nothing special. She had been there 15 years and thought the people were too closed minded. She said they don't like to travel or try new things and again that Poland was nothing special. Perhaps she was just bummed business was slow, hahah. Whatever it was, she was eager to tell me that there are better places to see, and that made me laugh and appreciate her honest opinion. It was also funny to see this small Thai woman speak Polish with young lady customers. You just always assume Asian immigrants only have to learn English, but no, it depends where they go (duh). It's just funny to see them in another language. Hahah, but I suppose that was just "nothing special, nothing special" with a frown and a head shake.
I walked back to the hotel but stopped for ice cream at a cafe. It was the only time when there was a complete language breakdown. I greeted the grandmother looking woman in Polish, but that was it from there. I spoke English and it practically turned her mute, haha. I pointed to the strawberry, and she put one scoop in a nice waffle cone. Then she looked at me and held up one or two fingers? It was funny because she was holding the cone and holding fingers up awkwardly. I said, "Oh yeah, okay, I'll have two" and she didn't understand so I just said yes and nodded a bunch. She put another scoop in, and I think I only knew the price from the readout on the cash register. I probably said "djzin koo-yay" and happily left. It was funny because it took me until my last full day on the trip to totally not be able to verbally communicate with someone.
I walked back toward the hotel and figured out my routes for later that night to Burn Selector and for the next day's ride to the airport. I was really glad I did a walk through of both those trips.
When I got back to the hotel, I went to the grocery store in the mall. I got a bunch of sausage and eggs and some dumplings since the hotel had a fully equipped kitchen. I was proud of myself for saying hello and thank you in Polish when paying for the groceries. I saw the readout on the cash register and was able to pay without dumbly holding out my money... "how much do you need?"
I cooked up all the sausages in a pan on the stove and that was probably a mistake. What I didn't know was that there sausages have very thick, airtight casings. I was unable to flip them (other than by moving the pan around) because I couldn't find the silverware drawer. I called down to the front desk and they said it was in a hidden drawer. They couldn't help me find it, so they were going to send someone up. It took quite a while for the guy to come up, so I let the sausages cook. I was watching some really great news network (maybe called RT News?) and then BAM! (I can't stress the loud sound enough) a sausage exploded all over the stove and under the cabinets. The casing had popped, and it was super dramatic. I should have cut them into coins or just boiled the entire links as the directions and the hosts in Krakow did. Finally, the guy came up and showed me where the silverware drawer was. Right above the microwave that was inside a lower cabinet. Man, I felt dumb because I was sure I checked everywhere. The guy was in and out and I'm sure was used to showing this hidden drawer.
I cooked up all the eggs and sausages and lots of dumplings so I could eat a cheap, big, protein packed meal before going out. I saved half the eggs and sausage for breakfast the next day. I got dressed, made sure I had my map, put on a little bit of men's perfume and I was out the door to...!
I went back to the counter and a short girl with short reddish hair and a good, full figure helped me figure out how to get to the Burn Selector Festival that night. She first had me take three different trains/trams, but then she revised it to just one super long tram ride with a short walk to get to that specific tram. I got a map from her and directions for a good city sights to explore before the show.
I set out walking to the "old town". I noticed that in all the places I walked, there were huge buildings and TONS of construction everywhere. The city felt very modern and in progress. This all served as evidence of how Emil told me that the city of Warsaw was completely leveled in World War 2. He said about 2% of the city was left in ruins and the rest was completely bombed out. I believe it. Everything I saw looked new and not like the old cities of Krakow or Tallin. It was interesting and a little sad to know I couldn't experience the city in its pre-war state.
On the way to the "old town", I stopped in a nice park. I found the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I think it's a tribute to the fallen in WW2, but I'm no history expert. The park was pretty. Here is the park.
And here is the Tomb (of course, under construction).
I walked by a stage where three people were reading a play or a script. There were cameras, and it looked pretty official. It was probably only a little before noon and the crowd was wimpy, though. I walked a bit more and stopped to blog a bit on a bench. A non-bum looking guy came up to me and said a bunch of stuff in Polish. I gave him my dumb look and he said, "Oh, it's okay, I can speak English, too!" He asked for "a couple Polish bucks to get something to eat." I didn't want to give him money so I told him I was a tourist and only had cards. He went on for a bit telling me about he was in America for something like ten years. He was in Detroit I think and he talked about the Lions and maybe a couple of baseball teams. He said he loved it there but got deported because he wasn't legal. I think he said his brother was still there. He said thanks and "peace out, homie! Hahha!" as he left. Then when he was walking away, he just kept saying "Goddamn America! I love fucking America! Fucking Americans!" and laughing. It was hard to tell if he was super mad and mocking me or just bummed that he wasn't there anymore.
After the park, I made it to the "old town". It was clearly built to look like an old town, but all looked very new and pretty with again a lot of construction. It was pretty, but a bit plain with nothing huge and awe inspiring dominating the skyline. Here are a few shots.
Of course, the last picture shows that some construction was going on in one of the tourist restaurant filled squares.
After the "old town", I went to the Audio Visual Water Fountain. It was a big Vegas type water show that I think was coordinated to an app or video that you had to download on your personal device. It was neat to watch the water, but I missed plenty of the experience. Here's the fountain (ignore my finger in the foreground of the shot).
It was time for lunch. I left old town and walked towards the hotel. I found a Thai food place and thought, hey, haven't had that in a LONG time. The little Thai lady knew plenty of heavily accented English, so the transaction was easy. The food was pretty good, but talking to her was most memorable. She asked where I was from and about my travels. She said Warsaw and Poland is nothing special. She had been there 15 years and thought the people were too closed minded. She said they don't like to travel or try new things and again that Poland was nothing special. Perhaps she was just bummed business was slow, hahah. Whatever it was, she was eager to tell me that there are better places to see, and that made me laugh and appreciate her honest opinion. It was also funny to see this small Thai woman speak Polish with young lady customers. You just always assume Asian immigrants only have to learn English, but no, it depends where they go (duh). It's just funny to see them in another language. Hahah, but I suppose that was just "nothing special, nothing special" with a frown and a head shake.
I walked back to the hotel but stopped for ice cream at a cafe. It was the only time when there was a complete language breakdown. I greeted the grandmother looking woman in Polish, but that was it from there. I spoke English and it practically turned her mute, haha. I pointed to the strawberry, and she put one scoop in a nice waffle cone. Then she looked at me and held up one or two fingers? It was funny because she was holding the cone and holding fingers up awkwardly. I said, "Oh yeah, okay, I'll have two" and she didn't understand so I just said yes and nodded a bunch. She put another scoop in, and I think I only knew the price from the readout on the cash register. I probably said "djzin koo-yay" and happily left. It was funny because it took me until my last full day on the trip to totally not be able to verbally communicate with someone.
I walked back toward the hotel and figured out my routes for later that night to Burn Selector and for the next day's ride to the airport. I was really glad I did a walk through of both those trips.
When I got back to the hotel, I went to the grocery store in the mall. I got a bunch of sausage and eggs and some dumplings since the hotel had a fully equipped kitchen. I was proud of myself for saying hello and thank you in Polish when paying for the groceries. I saw the readout on the cash register and was able to pay without dumbly holding out my money... "how much do you need?"
I cooked up all the sausages in a pan on the stove and that was probably a mistake. What I didn't know was that there sausages have very thick, airtight casings. I was unable to flip them (other than by moving the pan around) because I couldn't find the silverware drawer. I called down to the front desk and they said it was in a hidden drawer. They couldn't help me find it, so they were going to send someone up. It took quite a while for the guy to come up, so I let the sausages cook. I was watching some really great news network (maybe called RT News?) and then BAM! (I can't stress the loud sound enough) a sausage exploded all over the stove and under the cabinets. The casing had popped, and it was super dramatic. I should have cut them into coins or just boiled the entire links as the directions and the hosts in Krakow did. Finally, the guy came up and showed me where the silverware drawer was. Right above the microwave that was inside a lower cabinet. Man, I felt dumb because I was sure I checked everywhere. The guy was in and out and I'm sure was used to showing this hidden drawer.
I cooked up all the eggs and sausages and lots of dumplings so I could eat a cheap, big, protein packed meal before going out. I saved half the eggs and sausage for breakfast the next day. I got dressed, made sure I had my map, put on a little bit of men's perfume and I was out the door to...!
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