Warszawa aka: Warsaw

My old pen-pal is from Warszawa.

: )

I miss him a great deal.
He told me so much about it, and I fell in love with it ever since.

I wonder what he’s up to.
I saved every single one of his emails and even his picture!
lol

Don’t laugh, he’s an amazing person!

I spent only a short time in Warsaw, and unfortunately the damage inflicted upon it first by WWII and latterly by communism have detracted enormously from its appeal to me.

The high-rise buildings distinguish it from many of the Central and Eastern European capitals, but the city does not have the same sense of energy and purpose as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava or Bucharest.

OK, we did go there when it was raining non stop, so I have to admit I’m probably influenced by the weather. There are some nice things to see in Warsaw (the Jewish graveyard is gorgeous) and the place has a fascinating if somewhat dreadful history. But as a city… It’s hollow. It was blown to smithereens in WWII and then rebuilt. It’s a business city now. But it has no heart. Barely any Poles live in the rebuilt old center, which is only a nice facade for tourist. It reminded me a lot of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Rotterdam was bombed in WWII and was completely rebuilt as well. Though it is now a very interesting place with museums and good nightlife, it also lacks that old city feel.

If you want to go to Warsaw, visit the fantastic Bistro 44. Saved us from quite a few rainclouds.

Grandparents came from Poland when they were children.

Visited museum with old Soviet tanks, very cool. Also went to huge outdoor flea market, bought old WWII and Soviet medals. Probably fakes, but it was fun. Wish I could have toured more and seen the ghetto museum (I’m just assuming there are some?).