Day 1 - Bloc party...

...eastern Bloc that is. We arrived safely in Poland with nary a hitch. I am feeling quite pleased with myself for navigating to the city center via the public bus system.

Warsaw is a surprisingly beautiful city with a great public transportation system with buses, trams and an underground metro. We really haven't had to use it much though because our hostel is so centrally located - across the street from the national symphony, and just a short walk from the Palace of Art and Science. Literally a palace (see the photos) housing three theatres and multiple museums.

I was too much in sensory overload already to venture into a museum, so we spent the afternoon on the plaza just sketching and napping in the sunshine. One of the theatres had giant red arrows pointing to the door. Not subtle, but pretty neat.





















Dinner was at a milk bar, a holdover from Poland's days as part of the Eastern Bloc. The restaurant is still government subsidised, so the food is super cheap - 14 Zloty or about5 dollars for a big dinner for 2! The menu is in, and all the staff speak only Polish, so we chose at random, and very carefully wrote down our choices. A tiny grandma saw me looking confused and steered me to the counter where I handed over my list, had my bill tallied, and slip printed. She then pointed out the window where I was to pass the slip through to women in smocks who were preparing the food. Five minutes later, we were rewarded with potatoes, pirogi, tea, mineral water and the best honey I have ever tasted!


After dinner we opted for a little stroll, and discovered... Theatre IV! We thought we might have taken a wrong turn and wound up back in Richmond!

In other theatre news, we did go to see a play tonight at Teatr Studio. Six, maybe seven flights up in an attic space, we were presented with a stunning set and the best lighting design ever which totally reminded us of projects presented by our friends Jeremy and Andy (really it did). The actors were entirely compelling, and we had a thorough story running in our heads. Whether it was the same story as the one being told on stage...eh...it was good anyway. Oh. Did I mention the ticket-buying process, the ushers, the rest of the audience, and the play were speaking ENTIRELY in Polish? I recognised exactly one phrase the entire evening. Djeng-ku-yay or "thank-you" (phonetic and very wrong spelling of it here).

Finally. One of the best things I've seen. Posters with Bush as the devil. Rock on Warsaw!