Last weekend, Jim and I joined Joasia in Warsaw. I have been there several times before, but I have never quite enjoyed it as much as I did this time. I’d like to give the presence of Jim all the credit, but I think it has more to do with the way the trip unfolded.
First of all, when I was supposed to depart on Friday evening, right after work, two passengers decided to check in their luggage but not show up in time for the flight. This meant that their luggage had to be taken out of the hold for safety reasons. By the time that had been done, we had lost our take-off slot and we had to wait. When our next slot came around there was a giant thunderstorm, and so we got pushed even further. Then it turned out that the cockpit crew would be working for more time than they are allowed, so a new cockpit crew had to be arranged. In the end I was about 2,5 hours delayed and only arrived in Warsaw at 00:30.
Jim had already arrived and had met Joasia at a cocktail bar called Woda Ognista (Firewater) and I joined them there. This place had been recommended by my homie Mounir, who had discovered all the places to go when he had gone to Warsaw for a bartending competition several months ago. I arrived just in time to order and we ended up pounding a bunch of drinks before the place closed. It made for a few and energetic arrival.
The hotel we were staying at was very centrally located and while a bit dime-a-dozen, it did the trick just fine. The next morning we got up early to take an Uber to Legionowo, where Joasia’s from, in order to have breakfast with Joasia’s mother. While there, we ate delicious food, had some delicious home-made, bathtub liquor, and also helped do some household chores that required some tall people.
After that we took an Uber to the Royal Castle, which is a place I had visited before, but was eager to show Jim. The second time around I had an awesome time looking at the place with my upcoming D&D campaign in the back of my mind. It was tonnes of fun to have that perspective. Also, for some reason I can’t quite explain, I had a better appreciation of a lot of the art and furniture in the castle.
Afterwards we went to have pierogi and shot of rabid dog and then were reinvigorated enough to walk around the old town center of Warsaw. Having played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it’s easy to imagine the old town of Warsaw as the backdrop for a lot of Geralt’s adventures. Very cool, too.
At night, we had dinner at Under the Red Hog, a communist-inspired restaurant with a strong satirical bend to it. I made all the right choices; a delicious truffle-mushroom-cheese soup, with some wild boar sausages as a main, all accompanied by a bottle of beautiful Hess Zinfandel. After dinner we made our way to the Kita Koguta cocktail bar, which was very cool, but perhaps slightly too busy. There I learned the differences between triangles and circles when it came to choosing a bathroom, and how people at this particular bar seemed to disregard the triangle and circle rule that I had just learned. A few doors down was the Kiti Bar, which came highly recommended by Mounir, so we ended the night there.
The following day I woke up more refreshed than the previous day, despite having had more alcohol the night before. We made our way for breakfast at a Wedel eatery, which specialises in chocolate, which was cool, and we had a relaxed breakfast. Incidentally, we were sitting outside in a really nice part of Old Town, and watched people who were dressed to the nines go to church. We were also sitting opposite of a museum dedicated to Marie Curie, which was a beautiful little building, very well maintained and kind of perfect in a lot of ways that I have a hard time putting into words.
We decided to wander the city a little bit more and make our way to Łazienki Park, which I remember to be beautiful and quite from one of my previous trips. Unfortunately, on a Sunday where it’s beautiful weather it was jam-packed with people. There is a monument to F. Chopin in the middle of the park, which was, to our luck and surprise, holding an open air piano concert, which we ended up enjoying.
All in all it was a very fun and successful trip. I’m glad to have seen a side of Warsaw that didn’t suck, and I’m also glad that Jim and I had the opportunity to see another place other than Amsterdam or Chicago together.
