I hung around in your soundtrack,
To mirror all that you’ve done,
To find the right side of reason,
To kill the three lies for one,

– ‘Warsaw’, Joy Division

Yes, I’m writing this from Warsaw, capital of the glorious nation of Poland. I’m in a bunk bed in a ,for what I believe is an 8 euro a night hostel just outside of the historical centre. We flew here from Eindhoven with Ryanair. I had a lot of fun in the usual insane queing thing that Ryanair likes to do. I relally like the simplicity and prices of Ryanair, but the amount of unnecessary waiting in line for nothing, it baffles me. What was fun, is the guy that stood in front of me with opium and marihuana incense sticking out of his bag. It just looked silly.

The city feels big, it feels old and grand but also new and vibrant. You might think Strijp-S is swarming with hipster crap, and it is I suppose, but Warsaw had plenty of that too.Here they just do things for free, because it is cool.  Warsaw has both the old and embraced the new. It feels a lot like a bigger Vilnius at times. We walked a lot this far, we climbed the old Stalin buildings tower and looked out over the city. It was rather impressive I think, that building with concert halls and theatres attached to it. The beating heart of cultural Warsaw, given to them by the friggin’ antichrist.  I have to say something about the ladies here, because we tend to think of Polish ladies as being tacky. People look classy here and by now we’ve seen other parts of the city too. These are not villagers ofcourse, but the urban population. Maybe that has a lot to do with it.

So, from there on it was time to check out the old town, which we finally found. It has a light feeling, not the grim concrete jungle that I used to  feel associated with the name Warsaw. The broad streets are full of artists and entertainers doing their things. Restaurants try to lure you in and vendors try to sell you crap as always. People are out and about, enjoying themselves. Very pretty is the monument for the unknown soldier by the way, on a huge empty square where a fire is kept burning. A silent reminder of the grief that lies in the past.

Time for some food as well ofcourse, so I got myself a black beer and a beer snack. The snack was actually a huge sausage, which I could hardly finish. I was stuffed, yes I yielded to the sausage.

Time to give a shout out to the hostel. We’re staying in a small hostel named ‘Fest Hostel’. It’s basically being run by one dude, and has one 12 bed dorm, one 6 and I think 2 double rooms. Everything is clean and nice and breakfast is included. The owner is the friendliest dude ever, and will help with anything you need. Honestly, are you heading for Warsaw? Go spend your nights here and enjoy amazing company. Link here!

We spend the night in the Irish Pub, where the band Backup played some rock covers. Interesting fact is that this was a Polish-Russian band, making them particularly interesting. Check them out if you like. What was most peculiar is the great amount of cougars on the dance floor. It was a weird night, really very weird. We were a bit hung over this morning, which sucks but its part of that holiday blowout moment. After enjoying the provided breakfast we walked around the city for a long time.

We saw the park with peacocks and squirrels, the Botanical gardens and, ironically, some sort of Chinese exposition in the park. When you see Asian people take pictures of themselves in the fake temple buildings in a park in Warsaw, it completes a circle  of some kind I think.  Then I got to see the stadium of Legia Warsaw, which was pretty impressive. On the other side of the city is the stadium of Polonia Warsaw, who went bankrupt a bunch of times. Still 5000 people turn up for their home games, loyalty that always impresses me.

We took some rest and then ate some pierogi, got coffee and went to the Chopin museum. The city was full of nicely dressed people, its time for weddings on saturday. It gives a special charm to the town. We then relaxed at the hostel and now I’m writing this for those who like to know. Tomorrow more museums, now just some Chopin.