Day 5: Fifth Day in Warsaw

This morning, we went to Zamek Królewski, the royal castle in the old town. The rooms inside are very fancy, it is hard to tell from these pictures. They have been decorated to match how they were during the reigns of various rulers. Much of the castle was destroyed during the first days of WWII, since it was a symbol of polish sovereignty. It has since been restored and many of the works of art that were rescued from the fires are currently on display. 

After touring through the castle, we walked to the old town, and visited a folk art shop.

The eggs shown below are a traditional polish decoration, made by first painting a design onto an egg (goose in this case) with wax, then dyeing the egg and scratching the wax off.

We then ate lunch at a milk bar, which is a type of inexpensive restaurant that first become popular in Poland after WWI. The milk bars offer very cheap home-cooked meals, usually for around 3-4PLN (just over a dollar). After WWII, they were subsidized by the state, which was important for workers during the communist regime who would not be able to afford another restaurant. As meat was too expensive for lower wage workers, most of the dishes at the time were made of vegetables and milk products. As an attempt to curb alcoholism, the bars tried to popularize milk and other non-alcoholic beverages. In our case, we had delicious tomato soup for lunch!

We then visited the Marie Skłodowska-Curie museum, which is located in her birth house near the centre of the old town. This small museum is mostly composed of photos from her life, as well as some of her scientific instruments. 

In the evening, we went to the Rite of Spring ballet held in the Grand Theater. The ballet was very interesting, the music was excellent, and the theater itself was very ornate.

Following the ballet, we went for a walk towards Plac Marshałka Józefa Piłsudskiego (Piłsudski Square) to see the tomb of the unknown soldier. The monument, the last remnant of the Saxon Palace which occupied the spot until WWII, is especially nice when lit up at night. Inside, an eternal flame and two guards surround the tomb.

Before going home, we visited Ogród Saski (Saxon Gardens) directly behind the monument, which features a beautiful water fountain.

Day 4: Fourth Day in Warsaw

This morning, we started out with a visit to the Museum of Pharmacy, modeled after a pharmacy from before the second world war. A typical pharmacy would have one room set up as a store front, with a separate laboratory for preparing and mixing medicine.

Kuba's cousin Magda works at the museum and was kind enough to show us around. This is a tool they would use to replace corks into bottles.

In the lab, every pharmacy would have a secured cabinet for storing dangerous compounds like narcotics and poisons. Not to be outdone, the museum had a shelf stocked with original bottles labelled with, among other things, "Opium" and "Cocaine" (now empty of course). Contrary to the white labels on most bottles, these had black labels with white text and a coloured border depending on the contents (narcotics were red, poisons were white).

It seemed that to fit in with the crowd we had to grab a couple ice cream cones. Stores selling pastries and ice cream ("Lody", as they're known in Polish), can be found on every street corner in the historic core and seem to be especially popular on warm days.

A (second) mandatory stop was made in the beautiful Wedel Chocolate Lounge where we both enjoyed warm milk chocolate with whipped cream. Wedel is famous for its chocolate drinks, desserts, and chocolate covered praline wafers which are hand designed and can be requested for any special occaision. 

On our way back to the apartment, we passed once again through the Old and New Towns, seeing now familiar sights like the former fortified outpost "Barbican" and ulica Mostowa (Bridge street).

While walking along the Old Town Wall, we saw this large clock decorated with zodiac signs and moon phases.

That evening we visited Kuba's family in the Targówek district located in the northern part of the city. This region is a typical suburban neighbourhood of post-war construction featuring rows of apartment blocks. His cousin was there along with her husband and three young boys who were more than happy to give some polish lessons in return for practicing the English they're learning in elementary school.

Day 2 and 3: Second and Third Days in Warsaw

To start off the day we strolled from our apartment towards the old town square. The day was beautiful, so of course Isabel ended up getting a sunburn.

Along the way we saw a marker showing where the Ghetto wall once stood. With few remaining sections of the wall, these markers outline the Warsaw Ghetto which, during WWII, housed over 400,000 Jews within 3.4 square kilometers.






We then followed the "Royal Route" which follows two prominent pedestrian malls: Krakowskie Przedmieście "Krakow Suburb", and Nowy Świat "New World". Along the way we passed by the Presidential Palace...






...and the main gates to the University of Warsaw.






A brief detour from the Royal Route led us to the university's new library,
Biblioteka Uniwersytecka w Warszawie (BUW), which has an extensive roof-top garden
accessible to the public.






At the end of the Royal Route are the Łazienki Królewskie "Royal Baths". This extensive park has many beautiful buildings, winding paths, and ponds that are often visited by locals during the summer months. This is a large bronze statue of Chopin overlooking a fountain and flower garden.






This is the Palace on the Water in the park which we toured, both inside and out.








At the end of the day, we wandered through the Castle Square and Old Town which, thanks to poor weather, offered an excellent opportunity for some evening photography.






The next morning we set out on a trip to the Wilanów Palace, and on our way to the bus we passed by the old collections building of the National Library (left) and the Supreme Court (right).






The weather was less than ideal but an absence of other tourists made for a great walk. The palace exterior is very intricately decorated and painted bright yellow (not done justice in these pictures).

The palace gardens also made for a nice walk, even though most of the flowers weren't in bloom yet.






Many flower beds were arranged into fun geometric shapes and patterns!












Finally, at the end of our rainy day, the sun came out one last time for a beautiful view of the palace.

Day 1: First Day in Warsaw

We made it! We got to the apartment in Warsaw this morning, got settled in, then went exploring. We walked to Stare Miasto, the old town square, which is as awesome as I expected! In the center are cafés, are around the outside are little gift shops (like this amber one!)

Then we saw Zamek Królewski, the royal castle. We're hoping to go back and look inside there in the next few days.

As we continued on our walk, we got to the wall that used to surround the old city.

Then we met up with Kuba's family for dinner, and afterwards walked back to the apartment in the evening.

Now we're planning what we will do for the rest of the trip, what day trips we'll be able to take, and what other cities we will visit! We'll update again soon :)  xo