Poland

We finally got to sleep in this morning but set an alarm for our entry into Chopin’s Museum. We took a Bolt to the museum (we are staying in central Old Town) and got in with no waiting. The museum had many artifacts from Chopin’s life, including his last piano. He was born about an hour outside of Warsaw and trained here before spending much of his later years in France before dying at 39. We got to hear a lot of his music as well and the kids were good. It was a beautiful building. Afterwards, we walked to the nearby Electrownia
Powisle - a converted power plant that has been turned into a food hall and small mall. We had delicious Mexican food (can’t get it in the UK) before walking back to our flat. After a short break, we headed back out to the nearby Warsaw Uprising Monument (featured in the recent movie, The Big Pain, largely set in and around Warsaw). It was an absolutely gorgeous day (we couldn’t have had much nicer weather on this trip) but after getting some cash (Złotny), we made our way to the downtown of Warsaw for our scheduled (free) food tour. We started at the controversial Palace of Culture and Science - it was beautiful and imposing (and, apparently, the most famous building in Poland) but as it was a ‘gift’ from Stalin after the war, its seen by some as an oppressive symbol in the country. It was a beautiful building though and has a lot of museums and theatres inside with a viewpoint at the top. Unfortunately, we won’t get to go inside but glad we got to see a different part of the city. Our guide (from the Gdansk area, next city on our trip) showed us the first McDonald’s and explained how big of a deal McD’s is to Poles and how special it was the day they opened, with 40k people showing up for the opening. Our first stop was for the Polish street food ‘zapiekanka’ - basically a bagette style pizza sandwich (minus the tomato sauce) - almost like a Chicago hot dog with cheese and full toppings minus the sausage on a toasted bun. It was absolutely delicious (and cost about £3). Lussi’s was apparently the original and most famous stand in the city. We then go to try local pickles, snacks, coffee, a stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a milk bar. The latter is a government subsidized restaurant that serves cheap and fast food (like pierogis and cold beetroot soup - which was surprisingly tasty but enormous and quite the pink color with a strong dill flavor). It was a beautiful night to eat outside and we couldn’t eat the entire $20 meal before moving on to the local chocolate shop and finishing the night with donuts. On our way home, we stopped by the Warsaw mermaid, believed to be the namesake of Warsaw (she being named Sawa and had children with a local fisherman name Wars). After packing our finally dried laundry, we watched the end of the movie Premium Rush before bedtime. We will be sad to leave Warsaw behind so quickly tomorrow. It’s such a beautiful city - given that 90% was destroyed in WW2 and rebuilt in the 50’s, I guess that makes sense - but we didn’t realize how clean and safe it would be.Læs mere