Warsaw Up & Rising

Okay. This is coming on three months late, but I've been busy travelling to: London, Belfast, Edinburgh, Croatia, Sardinia, day tripping in West Cork, Dingle.... You get my drift.

Warsaw Uprising is now the city of the up and rising......

Here's ten things that you may or may not know about Warsaw:
1) Warsaw was voted the ugliest city by Trip Advisor. Sure, the painstakingly rebuilt Old Town area and the pedestrianised street of Krakowskie are beautiful, but once you start heading out of the main touristy areas, everything aburptly changes into run down and bullet-ridden blocks of concrete flats.
Ugliest city? You be the judge.

Slightly off topic, they were celebrating 10 years of....the collapse of the soviet union? End of comnunism...? Hence the displays on the streets anyway.

They also seem to love the previous pope (John Paul number whatever). I already knew he was Polish, so it's safe to assume that he was probably from Warsaw.

(Below: In the Old Town - Warsaw's version of Trafalgar Square complete with tourists taking photos of the pigeons. Why oh why.... Don't they know that pigeons are just rats with wings...)

"Scenic Warsaw" versus "The Real Warsaw"
Mostly captured in the Eastern district called Praga.

(On a side note, Op shops in Warsaw seem to charge for clothing by weight. This means I win! :p)

(Below: Apparently it's okay to stand on your apartment balconey almost naked. Maybe it's just like the car window assumption: You can look out, but surely people can't look in...?)

And on a more touristy note: The Palace of Culture

The hulking, monstrous building was created by Stalin. Beautiful or reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984? I think you already know what I think.

2) People in Warsaw love their curly wurly soft serve ice-cream cones. These are literally EVERYWHERE.

3) The man on the traffic light is in segments.

4) Every big European city has their own version of the "Crappy Fried Chicken Store"

5) The Food: Again, if Trip Advisor is anything to go by, Warsaw's been voted the third worst place for food. I don't think I'm one to fairly comment given that 90% of my meals were paid for by GSK and were on the more exclusive fine dining end - such as the Belvedere Restaurant frequent by VIP's and diplomats. The Belvedere's food was good, but I suppose if you want to compare it to other fine dining restaurants....well......Jackson's in P Town still wins by far.

(Below: Fine dining @ the Belvedere)

(Below: First dinner in the Old Town - my roast duck with cranberry jelly & yorkshire pudding-esqe pastry things.
The duck was on the dry side and was a bit too bland for my liking.)

Polish food is reknown for being stodgy and heavy, and there seems to be a strange sour after taste to most of their food. That and there's plenty of sauerkraut, cabbage (in many shapes and forms) and a strong emphasis on meat.

Although their dumplings looks very similar to the Asian ones, I think the Chinese definitely win hands down. Dumplings v.Polish have a much thicker skin, and the fillings ranging from cheese to meat are just very heavy, blander and oilier......

Perhaps my most authentic dining experience was at the "Milk Bar". These local diners (complete with surly service, 80's chrome furnishings and extremely cheap food,) were subsidised by the state in communist times, and basically allowed the common worker to afford an occasional meal out. My meat filled pancake? Total cost around 1.20 Euros. Quite tasty, too.

6) There appears to be a fairly large Korean community in Warsaw given that one of the tv channels is Ari Rang. I know that Asian people are everywhere, but how the hell did Koreans end up in Poland...? I just don't see the connection....

7) Thai and Japanese food is really popular, but what they serve you is essentially pseudo-asian food with a serving of sauerkraut on the side. Ever present in the Japanese restaurants were the two "Kims" - the chef by the name of "Kim-Something" and the presence of kim-chi on the menu. Not surprising from point number 6, really.

8) Eastern Europe is still stuck in the 1980's. Unfortunately, I don't have the footage to prove it, but honest to God, when I walked into a local Polish shopping centre in Praga, I swear that they were playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". I tried to film it with my camera, but wasn't able to pick up the background music. Oh well.... :/

On a more personal note:
9) Hanging with family

In recent times, the L family meet up when there is an allergy/important medical meeting in Europe. It's the only time that I get to stay in 5 star luxury, never mind that all four of us crammed ourselves into the one room, and that only one of us is attending the conference. (Tee hee hee.) The bed was heaven, the shampoo was perfumed with lemongrass, and the view from the VIP lounge was pretty amazing.

(Below: "Room with a View")

10) Why is it that hotel elevators always have mirrored ceilings? (Rhetorical question here.) As a stereotype, Asian people just can't help themselves but to then take photos......

On a side note, cousin JP also brought along her fish eye camera....

Make any place look charming, really.