Saturday in Warsaw (2 of 4)
I woke up (8:30am) a little later than I had initially planned. But after yesterday’s fiasco, I was determined to make the most of my day today. This time of year, the sun rises at 7:30 am and sets at 3:50pm in Poland. I was going to make the most of my 8.5 hours of daylight. After breakfast in the hotel, I was in these Polish streets by 9:30ish.
First up? Old Town. As you know, 90% of Warsaw was destroyed in WWII. The entire city has been rebuilt from the ground up. The city planners masterfully rebuilt the city to look like it used to look pre-war times. Even though the buildings in Old Town may look like they’ve been around for hundreds of years (they kind of remind me of the buildings in Amsterdam), these buildings are less than 80 years old. Even the Royal Castle on the Old Town Square (which was hundreds of years old) was bombed and rebuilt after WWII. I wanted to see all that Old Town had to offer, but first I had to find a way to get there.
I walked back to the Palace of Culture and Science (PCS) so I could catch the 160 bus to Old Town. And again, no luck! I probably waited about 30 minutes before giving up. After looking at a too-detailed map in a strange language, I just couldn’t figure out which bus, metro, tram, or train stop to get off (yes, that’s four different types of transportation) because even though my maps had an icon for every tourist attraction and the names of every little street, they didn’t overlay the transportation stops (which would have been helpful). Luckily, I caught a break: the Information Office in the PCS informed me that I could catch Tram 4 on the other side of the building, on a street that runs parallel to the street that Bus 160 supposedly runs. That was great. Now, I only had to figure out which direction to catch the tram and how to get to the tram stop.
When the powers that be rebuilt Warsaw, they created an extensive transportation network that connects underground. Metros and trains run underground while trams and buses run overground. Specifically, cars operate on about one-third of the street. In addition to car lanes, there are bus lanes. These bus lanes have railings that separate them from the tram lines which run in the middle of the street (think median). Some intersections only have crosswalks on one side of the street; others have none. But, next to each crosswalk, there’s a bike lane. So, at any given time, you can have bus riders, tram riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists all using that intersection. Also, jaywalking is not a thing here (culture shock for this Baltimorean). Pedestrians wait to cross only with the green walking man signal, and only in the crosswalk. Now, if you are at the crosswalk and wanted to go to the tram stop in the middle of the street, you would have to go underground to cross the street, come back up, cross the street to the part of the street with access to the tram, then go down again (to cross a different street), and come up to the tram platform (Yes, it’s that confusing). Hopefully, you choose the right direction because there’s a different platform (on different parts of the street) depending upon whether or not you wanted to go north or south, east or west, or whatever.
In my case, I walked to the street with the tram (no problem). At my intersection, I could see the tram platform. But it took me 40 minutes to finally get to the right tram stop. That was just unfortunate! I finally got on the Staniewicka stop and five or six stops later, I got off at the Stare Miasto stop. After walking up a couple of flights of steps, I finally made it to Old Town.
After doing a little people watching, I found my way to the Royal Castle (not the chicken spot, an actual castle). I took the audio guide tour (50 PLN) and I’m glad I did. I learned a lot. I wish I had more time to take pictures of the castle but I just couldn’t bring myself to use my DSLR much. Indeed, on my last three trips, my expensive camera has been little more than a paperweight. The technology in these phone cameras is ruining me. I don’t know if I’ll get back to the love of manual photography any time soon. But I digress…
After leaving the castle, I decided to go to the Royal Castle gardens (because you know, it’s the middle of winter and all). This was an uneventful pitstop since all of the flowers are pretty much dormant this time of year. There was no color at all (just brown, not even green) but it was a nice cool hangout spot. In fact, I sat on one of the benches there to determine my next stop. The Maps app suggested that the Warsaw University Library was only a 15-minute walk away. I figured I’d walk around Old Town one more time before setting off.
Across from the castle, there’s St. John’s Archcathedral. This church which is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, is best known for its gothic façade. The inside was cool but I didn’t stay too long here. I had to get to the library. I was headed to the library because my research suggested that it would be a cool photography spot. It has an outdoor rooftop terrace of vegetation, running streams, fish ponds, stone sculptures and pathways. However, I was quite impressed with the exterior of the library as well. The outside had these huge green “murals” of music, chemistry, math, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Cyrillic, and Greek. They were mesmerizing (at least they were to me). The inside of the library mixed the green metal from the exterior’s designs with actual greenery. Unfortunately, they closed the rooftop terrace right when I got there. But, looking up, I could see some of the plants on the outside. I think they may be brown from winter as well. No biggie that I couldn’t go up. I ended up spending a couple of hours here. I stepped into one of the student stores and grabbed a chicken panini like thing for lunch while I charged my phone.
By this time, it was 3:15pm. I had to hurry and walk back to Old Town because the sun was setting quickly. Earlier, I had bought a ticket so that I could watch the sunset from the Observation tower of the St. Anne’s church (next to the Royal Castle) and I got back just in time. After climbing about 200 steps or so, I reached the observation platform right when the sun was on the horizon. And man oh man, what a sunset it was. The low-level clouds were all lit up with brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows. You couldn’t have asked for a better shot.
Photographers know that the best time to shoot landscapes is during blue hour, right after sunset. Unfortunately, it was getting dark and I had to find my way back to my side of town. I decided to forego an ideal photo opportunity just so I can try and get home safely. But rather than just take Tram 4 back home, I figured I’d make more of an adventure out of getting home than it actually was (that is dark, can’t read signs in foreign language, battery almost dead, and feet hurt). I hadn’t seen the river yet, so I decided to navigate to the Vistula River and walk along its bank until I got to the nearest metro station. I eventually found the Centrum Nauki Koperknik station where I jumped on the M2 metro two stops to Swietokrzyska station. I walked back to my hotel from there. Wow! I can’t believe it. I really made it to Old Town and back home in one piece, without speaking one word of Polish. That’s awesome.
Once I got back to my room, I relaxed for a bit and caught a couple of the Saturday games of Super Wlld Card weekend. But I fell asleep on the Jags-Chargers game. (Imagine my surprise to find out that Jacksonville actually won that game.). Anyway, Sunday is my last full day here. I’m not sure what I’m going to do just yet. But stay tuned. I’m sure drama will be involved somehow.
