Warsaw, Poland
I took a quick trip to Warsaw, Poland over MLK weekend in 2023. During my 2.5 days on the ground, I I traveled across town in buses, trams, trains, and metros, caught an awesome sunset, strolled the banks of the Vistula River, wandered a huge park in the pitch black, took 40 minutes to cross a street, visited five churches (including an archcathedral) and had service in a cathedral, visited a castle and a palace, watched a dance video being shot, and practiced my Greek, Organic Chemistry, and Spherical Calculus. Weekend trips to Europe are very doable from the US East Coast.
Thursday / Friday
After dodging a tornado, I traveled from Atlanta on Thursday evening arriving in Warsaw Friday afternoon, by way of Paris. I took the S2 train from the airport to the city center where my hotel was. After checking in and relaxing for a bit, I walked around the neighborhood to get my bearings. I tried to get a tourist pass at the Palace of Culture and Science but decided that it wasn’t financially advantageous to get because many of the attractions that I wanted to see were not included in the pass. I tried to visit Old Town but the bus never came. Since it was dark (but not late), I abandoned that idea and headed back to the hotel. En route, I stopped by a local restaurant to get my first authentic Polish meal. After dinner, I headed back to my room for the rest of the night. To be sure, I wanted to hit the ground running on Saturday. Believe it or not, my first night in Warsaw was already done.
Saturday
Txoday, I tried to catch the bus to Old Town again. And again, the bus never came. However, Tram 4 which runs parallel to Bus 60 also goes to Old Town. Eventually, I caught the tram and made it to Old Town where I visited the Royal Castle, the Royal Castle Gardens, and the St. John’s Archcathedral.
Afterwards, I walked about 15 minutes to view the outdoor rooftop terrace at the Warsaw University Library. This terrace is said to have vegetation, running streams, fish ponds, stone sculptures and pathways to navigate. Unfortunately, the outdoor rooftop terrace had just closed when I got there but the grounds around the library were scenic enough. The exterior of the library was decorated with messages and calculations from calculus, chemistry, music, Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic. When I left the library, I headed back to Old Town Square to catch a radiant sunset at St. Anne’s Church’s Observation Deck. Shortly after sunset, I strolled the banks of Vistula River before heading back to my hotel. I was in for the night. The only other thing that I wanted to do was to visit a palace that was inside of the urban park on an island. I wanted to see the palace… and tomorrow was as good a day as any to try.
Sunday
II totally forgot that I had booked two hotels on this trip. So, I had to check out of my one hotel and into another later today. I checked out of my hotel early but left my baggage at the front desk while I explored more of the city. I had about six hours to kill before I could check into my new spot so I decided to visit Praga, the part of the city that was largely spared from WWII destruction. En route, I stopped by a synagogue in central Warsaw which was largely spared from WWII bombs. Unfortunately, it was closed so I made my way back to the metro to go to the religious center of Warsaw, Praga. While in Praga, I visited three churches and actually had service in the Michael the Archangel and St. Florien the Martyr Cathedral. (Nope, I didn’t understand one word that they were saying.). After visiting the churches, I picked up a snack from a mall in the area and headed back to my first hotel. I picked up my bags from the baggage check and took a 20-minute walk to my new hotel. I checked in, rested for a split second but I didn’t stay long in that hotel because I still wanted to get to Lazienki Park to see the palace on the island.
I caught the 180 Bus to the park. After wandering in the pitch black dark for about 15 minutes, I stumbled onto the palace. I took my obligatory pictures and headed out of the park. It was only about 4:30 pm but the sun sets at 3:50 pm in Warsaw this time of year. At this point, my trip was coming to a close so I decided to get some souvenirs. But since it was Sunday, most non-touristy stores were closed. Because of this, I decided to catch the 116 Bus from the park to the tourist-friendly Old Town again. I picked up a snack in a store across from St. Anne’s Church and afterwards found a few souvenirs for the family. After souvenir shopping, I caught the 116 in the opposite direction to get back to my hotel. My trip was truly coming to a close. I fly out tomorrow.
Monday
All good things must come to an end. I checked out of hotel and walked to the tram station where I caught Tram 7 to the Central Railway Station. Here, I transferred to Train S2 to take me back to the airport. Security was a breeze at the airport. I wanted to head to Bolero lounge but it was in a part of the airport where non-Schengen flights fly out of. If I had gone to that lounge, I would have left the country of Poland and been in No Man’s Land. Instead, I picked up breakfast from a local airport restaurant and headed to my gate, ready to start my long trek home.
I landed in Amsterdam where I cleared immigration and was (appropriately) stamped out of the Schengen region. I had about a 40-minute wait to board my bird back to the US. At times, the time seemed to go by fast and at times it seemed slow. But 8 hours, 50 minutes later, and we had landed in the good ol’ US of A about 8:30pm. Clearing immigration here was a cinch because I have Global Entry. One look at my passport and the CBP Officer said “Welcome Home.” I grabbed my passport and headed out of the Atlanta airport to wait for my wife to give me a ride back home. I got home, slightly tired, slightly jet lagged, but mentally ready for a long day at work the following day. Could I have taken Tuesday off to recover from my trip? Yes. Should I have? Probably. But since I was traveling west, the jet lag was not too bad. Afterall, I gained 6 hours in the time difference alone.
And that was my trip. Would I do it again? You betcha! In a heartbeat. Where to next? I guess you have to stay tuned to find out.
