WARSAW!!!

Checking out of the hostel at about 7:15am, I made my way, by foot, to the train station which was only about 10 minutes away. Managing to find which platform my train was leaving from I made my way there immediately. After standing for about half an hour in the cold on the platform with no sight of the train and not being able to understand any of the announcements being made I decided that I had better find someone who spoke both Polish and English so they could tell me why the train had not arrived. It had been due to arrive at 8:00am!!! A nice man managed to tell me that the train had been delayed about 50 minutes so instead of standing in the cold, I decided to go and find something to eat as I had left too early to be able to get breakfast from the hostel.

The train finally arrived at 8:45am. I found my seat easily enough and I have to say that the seats are very comfortable and there is lots of leg room on the Polish trains, which was nice. The train trip took about 2 and a half hours and so I arrived in Warsaw at about 11:15am. It then took me a little while to get my bearings and work out which way I had to go in order to get to my hostel. The walk was quite nice and only took me about 15 minutes. However the weather still hadn't decided to play nice and so it was cold and windy and the clouds threatened to drop rain on me at any minute. I made it to my hostel though safe and dry and checked in. Unfortunately was unable to check into my room until 3pm so tried to kill time by using the free internet. After that only managed to pass about 3o minutes and my stomach was giving me the hint that it was time for lunch, I left my bags at the hostel and head out to find food and do what little sight-seeing I could do. Being a Sunday, most of the museums and tourist attractions were closed, which severely limited my options of what to do.

I filled myself with KFC, which was the closest food store to the hostel, and planned where I would head to that afternoon. I decided to head first to see the last remaining section of the ghetto wall, then head on to the Uprising museum (the only museum open on a Sunday) and finally ending at the Old Town.

My first destination, the ghetto wall, was one that I never made it to. This was not a fault on my part at all, but rather the fault of the tour guide book I had been given which stated that the address where I would be able to find this historical piece of the wall was actually the address of an apartment block. Not deterred by this I continued on to the Uprising museum. On arrival, I began to make my way towards the ticket box before noticing a sign which stated that entry was free on Sunday (BONUS!!!). I spent about an hour wandering around the museum, looking at and reading all the different displays about the war and the uprising in Warsaw. Outside there was a wall which I believe had written on it all the names of the Polish people killed either in the war or in the Uprising. I'm going to venture a guess that it was probably the just those killed in the uprising. I could easily have spent more time there but as the daylight hours were limited and it was quite a grey day to begin with that I had best head to Old Town if I was to see it in the daylight. The idea of walking around Warsaw in the dark also didn't appeal to me either.

So it then took me over half an hour to cross to the other side of town where the Old Town was situated. As you got closer to Old Town, the buildings all seemed to become a lot grander, older and nicer looking. For the section of the town which had been completely distroyed in the war and uprising, it was amazing how well the buildings were rebuilt (aparently in exactly the same way as they were before the town was destroyed). It reminded me a lot of walking through the Old Town in Stockholm.

The Royal Palace, which unfortunately closed at 4pm on a Sunday and so which I just missed, was quite a nice looking building (I think it looked very much like all the other palaces I've seen) situated on the outskirts of the Old Town and next to the St Anne's Church. There must have been a service taking place in the church because there was a small group of people crowded outside the front door and singing could be heard wafting out the doors.

I also ventured into the Old Town to the centre square. There was a monument in the middle of the square, though I'm not too sure what it was supposed to represent. After having a bit more of a look and walking past St John's Cathedral, I started to make my way back to the hostel but seeing as it would take me over 45 minutes to walk the whole way back, I decided to walk through Ogrod Saski Park and catch the tram on the other side of the park which would take me to a block away from where I was staying.

That night I just relaxed in my room, reorganised my case ready for the flight home the next day and read my book before falling asleep at about 9pm.

The next morning I was up at about 9:30am. I had a shower, finished packing up my case and then went to breakfast. I then had about an hour to kill before I had to check out and make my way to the airport so I once again went on the internet and then headed out for a brief walk around the area near the hostel.

12pm came quickly enough and I got a cab out to the airport. The taxi however was not a very pleasant experience and the driver was obviously a smoker who liked to smoke in his cab and so when I got in it was rather difficult to breathe due to all smokey air. I did make it alive to the airport and it was such a relief to get out into the fresh air. Warsaw airport is quite a large and very beautiful airport. Unfortunately for me the airline I was flying with did not depart from Terminal 1 or 2 (found within the main building). Instead I had to head out of the main airport, walk 500 metres to this shed, which was to be where I would check in and wait for my flight. I was rather disappointed by this as there were no shops, except for one coffee and food shop, so all I could do was sit there, read my book and wait. Eventually the time came to board my flight. The flight itself was much better than the flight coming over, much, mcuh smoother, and Norwegian even use the allocated seating, which I prefer. It means there's lesspushing and shoving when getting onto the plane!

Once I got to Stockholm I then had a 4 hour wait for my connecting flight to Copenhagen so I sat, read more of my book, bought a Sudoku magazine to help keep me busy and watched the soccer on a TV in the seating area. This flight to Copenhagen was also nice, smooth and ahead of time, so I ended up arriving in Copenhagen at 9:00pm instead of 9:25pm. I then had to catch the train back to Malmö and of course half my luck, the train that was supposed to be heading to Malmö pulled in and said it was nto taking any passengers as there was something wrong with the train. So instead we had to change platforms and wait for the next train, which came about 10 minutes later.

So I made it home safe and sound, but rather tired. The worst part was not being able to look forward to a nice sleep in on Tuesday morning, instead having to get up nice and early so as to be at my school placement by 8:30am. Oh well, life goes on. I do have to admit that I'm counting down the days till Saturday, when i will be able to sleep in and spend the entire day doing absolutely nothing!!! I can't wait. If I get bored and feel like doing something productive I may even add some photos of Malmö to the blog for you to all have a look at. But other than that, that's all from me for now. Next stop....PRAGUE!!!!

Oh and if you've made it to the end of this post....CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I know it's not the lightest reading!!!

Puss och Kram
Alice
xo