WARSAW - A FEW MORE TIPS...

TRAVELLING AROUND WARSAW

 

Warsaw is full of cars so you may be caught in traffic jam quite often, but on the other hand it is really well communicated – there’s a big net of buses and trams, and we even have a subway line (yes, just one for now, but in September they are supposed to open the second line, yupi!). The subway in Warsaw is called Metro. You can also use suburb trains, if you live outside of the city center. There are plenty of taxis, but check the company and the tariff (they should have a sticker in the back window telling the price per kilometer)– the price can differ depending on the taxi company. Better not take a taxi without a company logo – the freelancers can charge you twice as much as the corporate taxi and possibly will drive you the longer route (especially if they see that you are a foreigner). 

Warsaw has two airports. The main one – Warsaw Chopin airport -  is located only 20 minutes drive from the city Center and you can take a bus, a train or a taxi to get to the center. The other one – Warsaw Modlin - serves as a low cost airlines hub (currently occupied by Ryanair) and is located about an hour drive from the city center. To get back to the city you can take a bus, the taxi can be a little expensive (around PLN 100) or you can use a private transport company that will take you straight to the door. I can recommend AB EVEREST company, very nice people, always on time. You will pay PLN 40 if you share a ride with someone or PLN 60 if there is no one to share the ride with. You can reserve the ride at their webpage: http://www.abeverest.pl/en/

WHERE TO EAT

One good thing about Warsaw it that you can never get hungry here. There are plenty of different kinds of restaurants, pubs, cafes, with Polish and foreign cuisine. If you’ve never been to Poland you should try some Polish traditional food. This includes pierogi (the dumplings) – with different fillings like potato and cottage cheese (they are called Russian pierogi), meat, spinach and cheese or fruit (strawberries or blueberries are the best). You will find a good choice of pierogi in Zapiecek – it’s a franchise of pierogi themed restaurants, you will find a few in the Old Town for example. 

Another traditional Polish food is the veal cutlet (schabowy) with cooked cabbage and potatoes or kopytka (similar to Italian gnocchi). You will also find nice soups – the red borsch (barszcz) – beetroot soup, chicken soup with noodles (rosół) or white żurek - soup made from fermented rye flour. You will find them in a lot of restaurants, but the really nice one, decorated like an old Polish country hut, is Chłopskie Jadło, close to the Constitution Square (Plac Konstytucji) or Siwy Dym at Puławska street (a little bit far from the city center but great to visit – you will find a spirit of Tatra Mountains there) – those two are a little expensive but they sell good food there. 

Also, when in Poland, try the traditional sheep milk cheese (traditionally made in Tatra Mountains) – called oscypek (this tastes great cold or when grilled and served with cranberry jam) and the fermented cucumbers (ogórki kiszone) – very tasty, although many foreigners don’t like the taste of them;-). And of course try different kinds of Polish beer and vodka;-) The vodka that I recommend is Żubrówka (Bison vodka) – there is a grass straw in each bottle (the urban legend has it, that the bison pee on the grass in the forest, then the grass is picked up and put in the bottle giving the vodka its yellowish color;-))) Do try a mix of Żubrówka and apple juice, the drink is called Szarlotka (meaning “apple pie”).

If you’re looking for other restaurants, check out “Bombay Masala” at the corner of John Paul II and Grzybowska street, a great restaurant with Indian food. Also, check out “U Szwejka”, at the Constitution Square (Plac Konstytucji), right next to Chłopskie Jadło – they serve huge portions there, mostly with meat – it’s a Czech themed restaurant. They have good beer there as well. Another interesting restaurant is “Groole” at Śniadeckich street (right of the Constitution Square) – they serve baked potatoes with different fillings – delicious! Right now, there is a kind of fashion for burger restaurants in Poland– you will find really good ones in Secado at Marszałkowska 66 street (again – close to the Constitution Square) or in the stall/camper “Frytki I Burgery” (meaning “Fries and Burgers”) outside Polna market (on Polna street) or at Bobby’s Burger at Żurawia Street (of Marszałkowska Street) – Barack Obama bought some burgers there on his visit to Poland this month.

During the summer, usually on the weekends, you can find some breakfast open air markets – you can buy there some traditional, home-made food – you can have a picnic and eat it there or just take home. The one that I recommend is in Żoliborz at aleja Wojska Polskiego corner of Śmiała – it’s on Saturdays and starts at 8 am (and ends early afternoon). The atmosphere there is great, you can try many different kinds of food, meet nice people – just enjoy it.

  

TIPS FOR SUMMER IN THE CITY

Since summer is coming, here are a few tips on what to do in Warsaw in the summer. Warsaw slows down in the summer, with kids and students leaving the city, people going on vacation, thus with less traffic. People are more laid back, more relaxed and it’s quite fun to be here, especially on the weekends.

First of all, for the last few years, in the summer, they open public and private beaches on the shores of Vistula River. Usually they are connected with really interesting summer pubs (they are not opened during the winter), where you can lie in the sun chair, drink beer or some kind of drink and just relax. Quite often there are some activities in such places like free Zumba classes, concerts or open air discos at night. 

Also, the public transport offers tourist lines in the summer (usually for the price of regular bus ticket) – you can take a ride in the old fashioned tram, where someone will explain to you the historic sights you’re passing by, or you can take an old bus and do some sightseeing. You can take a ferry boat and see the city from a different perspective. Those tourist lines usually are open only on the weekends.

You can also see the light and sound show over the fountains down the slope from the New Town (see my walk around the city entry in the previous post). Also, there are a lot of free concerts around the city, for example there is jazz festival with concerts on the main square of the Old Town each weekend through most of the summer. You can also catch a free movie in one of the open air movie theaters. 

In the summer, only for a few weeks, you can visit the Warsaw water filters (Filtry) – this is the place where the water from Vistula river is cleaned and distributed around Warsaw. This is one of the oldest still operating water filtering places in Poland and is really worth seeing, so if you have a chance, get the tickets.

So, enjoy summer, or any other season in the city. To say good bye, here’s a song I like about Warsaw by Monika Brodka.