So as I was talking to a friend of mine today (in German!) I realized that I may have been a little too hasty in trying to shove all of Poland into one little entry. The trip really was one of the best I have been on in a while. It was a great experience because it taught me how to communicate when the people around you don't necessarily speak the same language but more importantly it taught me how much fun you can have in one single unplanned afternoon by just simply doing things like walking into a restaurant where nobody speaks english, or buying that weird looking pastry just because the name looks funny. It was a good primer on how to travel in Europe, something that is actually more complicated than it seems. Knowing German and English together helps tremendously, as those are two of the most commonly spoken languages here, but there so many more experiences to be had outside of those two languages. I want to go into a little more detail into one my experiences where there was little if any english spoken and the rewards for taking a risk where tremendous.


So on our tour through the old city section of Warsaw, which was completely destroyed during World War 2 and then rebuilt exactly, Marcin brought us into an old restaurant that was a hold over from communist days (at least that's what I think he said, I wasn't really listening at that point) and I looked at the prices and everything was dirt cheap. The essential set up of the restaurant was that you ordered your food, then after you paid you walked over to a window, handed the woman at the window your ticket and in a few minutes you received your plate of food. It's a wonderful take on American fast food, everything is already prepared but they don't use any of the shortcuts that we do. Greg, a really nice guy from my program, noticed that someone was eating chicken and mashed potatoes and realized that it would probably be cheap to come here with a translation of chicken and potatoes and hope for the best. We had lucked out on Polish food up until that point, and at about $3.50 a plate what did we stand to lose? So we asked our guide for a translation of chicken and potatoes in Polish. He wrote it down for us and we returned to the restaurant with our friend Brian in tow. Greg did the ordering for all three of us, it turned out that the cashier spoke enough English (most everyone in Poland knows English actually) for him to get our order across. We went over to the counter and this is what we ended up with:




























For reference, that is a plate with a full chicken breast, a huge pile of mashed potatoes, and heaping serving of cabbage. It was all delicious and really cheap.




That was kind of sappy, but I feel like the only way I can really do a blog like this is if I do the big events in a hurry and find little moments to cover. I really enjoyed eating lunch at this little cafeteria because it was so good and very Polish. I don't know if I could even find this place again if I tried. It seems pretty old and settled, so I'm sure it'll still be there if I ever decide to go back to Warsaw (which I would very seriously consider actually). I have pictures with the name on them that I can use for reference. I'm not even sure if I would go back to this place even.


I dunno. Poland was a first rate country, we had an excellent guide so point us in the right direction but the most fun I had was when I was just walking around own my own with other people. Not having any plans or knowledge about the country.



Poland you were amazing, now it's time to move on to other things.


Like Bristol, I'm going to Bristol in about a month. Crazy!