katiesfootprints: Warszawa

Okay, the first half of this one is written in a style I haven't dabbled in before. It gives you a rare insight into how my brain actually works, imagine me thinking all of this – yeah, yeah I know, me thinking, it doesn't happen very often so might be a bit rusty... But this is me arriving into Warsaw, late at night, the first time I'm by myself to date.

Right, so I'm by myself now. I can do this, I'm a big kid now. Oh look at that the bus is early into Warsaw – said: Var-shah-va. Var-shah-va

– hey, is this my stop? I don't think it is, but I'll get off anyway. That station looking building says central on it and it's always good to be in the centre of a new giant city.

Ooh, this building IS a station and those are train tracks – well that's good because I do need a metro. And it finishes at eleven so I better get a move on because its ten fifteen. Must be one around here somewhere. Damn hostel not giving any directions. Alright, how do I buy a ticket? And actually find my right train.

Wow, this is a huge metro station!

Oh there's information I'll go and ask. Okay, miscommunication here, he says the train will be here at 1.18pm tomorrow, well that's not right because I know my stop is only three kilometres away. This mustn't be a metro station, it must be an actual train station... fancy, remember this for Thursday.

Oooh a metro looking train thing just went by outside I'll go out by where it stopped.

Or not. That is in the middle of a giant street.

No cabbies I do not want a ride I have soooo got this under control, plus I'm not in the mood to be ripped off, never mind the fact that I inadvertently deleted the confirmation email with the hostel address on it and no one speaks English around here. Lucky I dropped that pin on the iPhone map otherwise I really would be up a creek without a paddle. In Poland. Speaking no Polish. Right, I'll head underground to get to the middle of the street then.

Cash machine! Cash is good. Ticket machine! I need one of those too. Perfect, I'm getting warmer! I'll stick this fifty in that the ATM just gave me to break it up, oh cool you're going to give me back the change in coins – that won't be annoying.

Metro must be around this corner, oh that's not good, everything's closed – I'll ask this security guard. Nope, he doesn't speak English. Oh but this nice man offering to help me speaks English AND Polish, finally something is about to go right. Uh huh, okay, yep – walk five hundred metres down the road, on the left, “yep sure no worries I can do that I just needed to know where the metro station actually was and then I'm sorted, I'm just running out of time is all”, last train is in twenty minutes...

Oh those giant chain fences make it look like you aren't supposed to cross the road here, oh well, I need to so I'm going to.

Yuss, nailed it! Here's the station, and there's my stop on the board going that way and yep that board over there is going in the opposite direction so I should stand on this side because that's what the giant arrow says too.

Here's the train, excellent I'll be there soon. Wait, what did you say moving train that I'm now in? That stop isn't in the direction I want to go! Oh my, it's five to eleven please let there be another train going the other way, please let there be another train going the other way. I'll just get off at the next stop (if it ever comes, gosh this is a long time between stops) and no one will even notice I went the wrong way because I'll have to walk through the station...

Oh okay, just the one platform then, I'll just take these two steps and wait here while everyone sniggers because they know I am a stupid tourist who got on the train going in the wrong direction.

Well, look at that with two minutes to spare even, here's the train. Only five stops now - including the one I've just come from. Perfect, that wasn't hard at all....

- Idiot! I'm hoping there aren't too many more experiences like this to come my way, although I'm sure if anyone can manage to get themselves worked up like this, it'd be me.

So, after the debacle of getting to the hostel I was excited to find that my bed was actually a capsule! Pretty nifty – it reminds me of the huts I built in the cupboards when I was a kid. I had the next days activities mapped out, I just needed to get up in time to do them. Unsurprisingly, I didn't manage this but set off anyway. The walking tour was just a general introduction to the gorgeously rebuilt Old Town but with a bit of a twist – vodka shots and pickle sandwiches! Apparently, lining the stomach with greasy or pickled foods before consuming copious amounts of vodka assists in warding off a hangover... I'm not yet converted but will attempt to assimilate this anyway. So, with the warning that it is rude by Polish standards not to drink when requested to by them we tapped glasses and bottoms up.

Following this, my newly acquired friends and I (see, not by myself for long!) headed to the Jewish Cemetery I had read about. There is an estimated quarter million graves in here and they are jammed right into every last spot imaginable and available in the 82ha walled confines. But probably the saddest part of this truly moving experience is the fact that during WWII the Nazi's came in and began removing headstones to re-use as roads and thus there is now many unmarked graves. They also burned any paper records that were kept and there is now no way of knowing who lies in these unmarked spots.

We continued to wander on, now in the rain, to the Pawiak Prison Museum. Like the rest of Warsaw this was completely destroyed during WWII – full of Jewish Prisoners at the time. We scrubbed up on more war history and Warsaw history before closing time.

It was now feeding time for us – dumplings, or perogei as they are known in Poland. We selected a few to share - champignon with cream and onion, salmon, and Russian flavoured – and all agreed they were delicious. A beer was by now well deserved as we had just spent nine hours walking and I chased this with a quiet night in (writing this) while the others moved on to different parts of Europe.

Market Square