Happy Chinese New Year everyone! =)

I just came back from Warsaw, Poland! It was a very last minute decision to go to Warsaw actually, with a proposal made by ganjiajia on 11/2/10, planning and booking of tickets until 4am in the morning, and us flying off on 13/2/10.

But who would have known that it would turn out to be such a stroke of genius.


Poland, Warsaw:

To be honest, we had a preconceived idea that Poland, or Eastern Europe as a whole, is rather unsafe. If you researched on Wikitravel, you would most likely come across terms such as "infamous for pickpocketing" etc. Granted, our perception of Eastern Europe isn't exactly a place of roses and rainbows, if you get what I mean. But we still went ahead with the trip and really never regretted.


In my own words, Warsaw can be represented by several things:

1) Birth place of Frederic Chopin, Poland's composer and virtuoso pianist.
2010 marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth. (not that I know of until I read the magazine on my way BACK from Warsaw.) In any case, we didn't really see anything that has to do with Chopin as the museum was under renovation when we get there. =/




2) The city of Kebab and Coca Cola.
I didn't expect Warsaw to have kebab, must less for it to be FILLED with stores selling kebab. I have always thought that kebab was an Asian dish, or maybe Brazilian, but Polish? But oh well, as long as I get to eat, it doesn't really matter. An interesting thing to note is that Coca Cola seems to be a national drink for the Poles, as almost all signboards outside the restaurants will contain the Coca Cola sign and the price. So basically you can use the price of Coke as a gauge of how expensive the food in the restaurant is going to be.

In any case, you cannot imagine how blessed we feel to eat the Kebab at Warsaw. Being stuck in Copenhagen really made us feel so poor that every meal and every cent has to be counted and planned. To be eating meat (as in real, cooked-in-a-professional-kind-of-way meat) in Copenhagen is really a luxury. Therefore, since Polish food are generally cheaper than Denmark, we were literally binging on the meats in an attempt to satisfy our craving at least until the next trip.




3) A mixture of traditional and modern wonders
To me, Warsaw was really an eye-opener. I just can't seem to put it down in words, but it was simply amazing. We were uncontrollably stopping every 10steps to take a photo, as the architectural designs of the buildings are intricate, grand and beautiful at the same time. The city has at least a dozen churches in a small area, all of which are beautifully designed and built. You can basically close your eyes, turn to any direction, walk straight, and there is like a 99.99% chance of you seeing a church.

But churches are not all that Warsaw offers. There are also numerous sculptures, monuments and palaces, coupled with modernized shopping centers (equipped with Zara, Espirit, Swarovski and the likes). Even the University looks like a cultural heritage center to me. (on another note, I think it actually is!)




Shall stop here for now. Will talk more about my experiences in Warsaw on my next post! Sleeping time! =)