29. Warsaw Part 1

I didn't book a seat reservation on the train from Toruń because when I looked on the PEK App (Polish Railways), almost half of the seats in two carriages were unreserved, these were the ones facing opposite to the travel direction. 

So I felt that there would be no difficulties securing a seat and I noted down five different seat numbers that were not reserved. It was just my luck that the seat I chose must have been reserved at the last minute, so I had to move. Two stops later, the same thing happened. Clearly, the moral of the story is to reserve your seat, even for short journeys. 

Other than these two slight inconveniences, the journey was fairly uneventful. On getting to Warsawa Centralna Train Station, I picked up a Bolt taxi to the apartment to save hauling my pull-along bag on public transport. This was my second time to use Bolt and it was so cheap, even with a tip. 

I stayed in Jerzy and Izabela's Home Exchange apartment in central Warsaw for GuestPoints, in a lovely location in the Powiśle neighbourhood near the Vistula river. 

It was within walking distance of the Old Town, Warsaw University, the Copernicus Science Centre, the Chopin museum, and the Modern Art Museum. There were loads of restaurants, bars, bakeries, ice cream parlours and coffee shops in the area. The closest metro station "Centrum Nauki Kopernik" was only 5 minutes walking distance, and in the other direction it was a five minute stroll to the Vistula river with all its summer bars, restaurants and coffee shops. 

The one-bedroom apartment is their second home, as they have retired to live in Canada permanently. It is an older apartment that they inherited, but it has been extensively refurbished, with an amazing Blutooth built-in audio system in every room. The living room overlooked a green tree-filled courtyard in the centre of the complex.  

Jerzy insisted on taking me for a ten-minute walk around the block to show me the best places to have breaķfast, dinner, etc. This was a first in all my years of home exchanging! Most people write up a housebook with practical information and recommendations. Jerzy instead had it all in his head and wanted to show everything to me in person. It was very kind of him. 

After unpacking and a quick shower, it was off to Warsaw West Bus Station to meet Tricia who was arriving on a FlixBus from Warsaw Modlin Airport. She was coming here for three nights, at the halfway point of my three-week trip. It was my first chance to use the public transport app for Warsaw, which was the same Jackdojade app as Kraków. 

Our first meal in Warsaw was at the shopping complex attached to the West Warsaw Train Station as we were both starving. Two Polish soups, and two hearty Polish main courses of pork and duck, served with beetroot and we were full to the brim. We were both too hungry to even think of taking pictures. 

Another 30 minute Bolt trip for about €8.50 brought us to the apartment, where Tricia went for a nap, having had no sleep at all the night before. I was happy to chill out and watch some satellite tv for the first time in 10 days. 

We later went for a stroll to stock up on groceries and afterwards for a walk to the Vistula Boulevards, a riverside walkway popular for cycling & jogging during the day and at night with bars on boats and terrace cafes. 

Here is one of the boat bars, with the National Stadium lit up in the background. 

We heard great chillout music coming from one of the boats and headed it its direction. It was a cool set up with an outside bar, firepit, deckchairs and a DJ spinning some sounds. 

We also came across the Warsaw Poster Festival just by chance, with many interesting posters simply pasted outside on the modern concrete walls. 

Overall a very cool place for us seniors to hangout!

Despite both of us saying earlier that we wouldn't be hungry for dinner, we somehow ended up in a Polish-Italian restaurant called Sole and ordered pizzas ! They were so good … and only about €8 each.