Apr 2, 2012

Warsaw, Poland


01 (Sun) - 02 (Mon) Apr 2012

1 of 8, 16 days Central Europe trip

WarsawKrakówPragueBrnoViennaBratislavaSalzburgBudapest

Lodging: Okidoki Hostel, Plac Dąbrowskiego 3



Day 1


Riga International Airport, Latvia
This marked our first step onto the journey of 16 days Central Europe trip. Whoohoa!!!

The reason was, Lunds Tekniska Högskola (Faculty of Engineering LTH) was having Easter Break for that week and the following week was re-exam week. Min Khai and I are from LTH and since we didn't have to resit for any exams, we have a fortnight of break, while Wei Ling and Jolene who're from business school had to skip some classes.

There's a transit in Riga, Latvia for our flight from Copenhagen, Denmark to Warsaw, Poland. And that made us realize that Latvia's unit currency or Latvian Lats (LVL) was actually greater than the Great Britain Pound (GBP). What a discovery.


Air Baltic's aircrafts are so funny-looking, but cool.


Okidoki Hostel
From the airport, we negotiated the price with a taxi driver who'll be taking us from the airport to our hostel. Sadly when we're there, he charged us more than we deal we had, such a disgrace for his dishonesty.

We deposited our luggage at this hostel with a cute-sounding name because it's still too early to check in.

We got a few attraction directories and city maps from the hostel and it's time to head towards the city and check Warsaw out!

Our first destination will be Warsaw Old Town (Stare Miasto).

Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza (Tomb of the Unknown Soldier)



Pierogi

Zapiecek, Podwale 1
We've reached the Old Town but before exploring, we had our lunch at Zapiecek and had really delicious Pierogi.

Pierogi are Polish dumplings, very well-known in Poland. Zapiecek has a lot of the local delicacies and pierogi is one of them. You have to try them if you come to Poland, if not, you have not travelled to Poland.

There are fried and non-fried ones, with different fillings of your choice.

We shared Dumplings with meat and cabbage and Fried dumplings with meat, 11 pieces each.

I also had Grandma's broth with noodles. Imagine drinking a warm bowl of soup in the cold weather. Mmmm......

Grandma's broth with noodles @ PLN9.99


Dumplings with meat and cabbage (11 dumplings) @ PLN23.99


Fried dumplings with meat (11 dumplings) @ PLN28.17


Their uniform


Contented faces

Warsaw Old Town

Zamek Królewski w Warszawie (Royal Castle in Warsaw)


Kolumna Zygmunta III Wazy w Warszawie (Sigismund's Column)


Warszawska Syrenka, Rynek Starego Miasta (Old Town Market Place)



Barbakan w Warszawie (Warsaw Barbican)


Rynek Nowego Miasta (New Town Market Place)


Kościół Karmelitów Bosych (Carmelite Church)
That's about it for the Old Town.

After that we headed towards the city area for a different profile of Warsaw, and also to buy train tickets to our next destination, Kraków.

Don't think Mr. Bean's from Poland though.




University of Warsaw




Starbucks Coffee, Nowy Świat 62




Złote Tarasy (Golden Terraces)



Color tone changing of the Palace of Culture and Science at night.

When we got back to our hostel room, we're like, "One, two, three beds, where's the 4th one?"

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Tadang, it's above the door and Min Khai was sleeping on it.


Day 2


Okidoki Hostel
We have to leave Warsaw for Kraków by evening from Warsaw Central railway station, hence we quickly made our moves to the remaining interesting attractions in Warsaw before running out of time

We'll be visiting the Łazienki Park for the day.


This street is all about foreign embassies.


Park Ujazdowski (Ujazdów Park)


Łazienki Park


Chopin Statue
How many of you didn't know that the famous music composer Chopin is a Polish composer who grew up in Warsaw?

I am one of those. Despite being musically inclined, seriously I'm immediately turned off whenever the history of music is discussed. But I do know that he's from the romantic period though. ^^

This grand statue of Chopin is just right in front of the park entrance. Nearby, there're monuments and statues for other music composers.

The classical side of me really likes Chopin's music, such as Fantaisie-Impromptu.



Franz Liszt is not a Pole (Polish people) but he reminds me of this funny episode of Tom and Jerry:

The piece played is Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in C# Minor composed by Franz Liszt, the episode is called The Cat Concerto (1947).

Łazienki Palace


Łazienki PalaceŁazienki Palace, also known as the Palace on the Water, is in Łazienki Park as well.

It's literally on a huge lake and there's where we're chasing after a beautiful peacock.






And that's how the childish us chased the peacock out of the front of the palace. Haha... (Actually we just wanted to take photos with it, but sadly it didn't fan its tail)









Zapiecek, Aleje Jerozolimskie 28
Our lunch at another branch of Zapiecek will be our last meal in Warsaw before leaving.

And again, we're sharing a dozen of yummy fried dumplings.

Baked ribs with cabbage on hot plate @ PLN11.99/100g


Dumplings with spinnach leaves and cheese (12 dumplings) @ PLN30.76


Bigos @ PLN25.99


Crepes with cottage cheese and raisins @ PLN16.49

I shall end the blog post with this interesting photo:

What a zebra crossing... Thanks to Chopin.


For more photos, please check out my photo album Warsaw, Poland on Facebook.

Javin Tham A master's degree graduate in engineering, a musician at heart, loves playing with soft toys.

1 comment:

  1. I just in love with your Pics.It seems to be like i am with in the warsaw on seeing your pics.I too wants to visit there. My cousin had a visit and they also had a great fun there,they hire a car from carrentalwarsawtrainstation.com whih saves thier lots of time to visit all such places.

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