Both of us fell asleep without fully recalling actually getting under the covers and putting our heads on the pillows. Naturally, I woke up around 4am ready to roll. This is unfortunately pretty standard for me when traveling to Europe. To complicate matters, the temperature in the room was impossible to control. It was stiflingly warm under the duvet, but a bit brisk outside of it. How do you work with that?
Eventually we faced the day by going to a nearby bakery for some baked goods. It was very cold and rainy outside (with a feels like temperature of 34 degrees). My apologies to Los Angeles and my persistent complaints about the “May Grey.” I will gladly take my 65 and overcast over whatever this nonsense is… Based on the weather radar the rain would not end any time soon either. It was certainly an indoor day. While a perfect day to go to a museum or two, the good museums including the Ghetto Uprising Museum have chosen Tuesday as their day of the week to be closed.
Even after walking just across the street for our baked goods, we were suitably frozen and thought that it would be a good time to use the hotel’s sauna. Luckily we didn’t have to share it with anyone. Our hotel is inexplicably Scandinavian-themed from its menu to its overall design, but none of its locations are in Scandinavia, so the sauna culture hasn’t made it down to Poland yet it seems. At 110º celsius, it was almost too hot. Breathing the hot air through my nose seemed to burn my nose hairs. Throwing water on the rocks did little to up the humidity in the sauna as it would immediately dry on the rocks and evaporate. Nicole spent only a few minutes in the sauna before leaving and finding she could get more than enough heat just by sitting outside the sauna door. I would do intervals of a few minutes and then recover by utilizing the Scandinavian method of running under a cold shower — thereby making each step of this process frankly unpleasant, but I’m a purist. They say this is good for blood circulation, blood pressure, healthier skin, and reduced stress. None of that can be verified because we returned to the room and took a fifteen minute nap that just about killed us.
Eventually in the afternoon, the rain mostly stopped enough to go out and explore a bit. We walked to the nearby Stare Miasto (old town). To be clear, it isn’t actually that old. It was rebuilt in the 1950s since Warsaw didn’t exactly have an easy time during the war, and much of the city had been destroyed. It was meticulously recreated to look like what it used to and subsequently seems like more of a tourist trap than anything else. Passing the Hard Rock Cafe and numerous ice cream stores (who weren’t generating much business today), we eventually stopped at a hidden tea shop called Same Fusy I had found online.
It was tucked away in a quiet cellar. They lit a real candle for us. Wowsers! We had an apple pie with some vanilla rooibos tea. As Nicole suggested later on, we should have drank something with more caffeine to help propel us through the rest of the day. After all, it’s the first night of the Eurovision Song Contest tonight, but that doesn’t begin until 9pm. Before Nicole fell asleep on top of her tea cup, I brought her back outside where she got a shock from the cold air. We thus began our walk back to the hotel.
We took a different route back where we caught a glimpse of the Palace of Culture and Science (the tall drink of water you see in the picture above). It is a unique building that I wanted to see because it reminded me of a similar looking one in Moscow that is part of Moscow State University. Its Polish neighbor is just 3m shorter, and still rather imposing in the skyline. It was built during peak Stalinism and Soviet oppression, and therefore surrounded by a bit of controversy. Post-USSR, it is now surrounded by plenty other high rises that aren’t associated with Soviet dominance and help diversify the skyline.
We then grabbed our dinner at the hotel. There were a few options on the nearby blocks, but we had our fill of walking outside in this weather that is frankly just ass. I suspect some of my readers might find this statement crass and exaggerated coming from two Los Angelenos, but I need to emphasize that at no point today was my body at comfortable temperature. We walked down to our dinner wearing a sweater and a jacket. Nicole got some schnitzel and potatoes whilst I had lompe, which is like a savory Norwegian potato pancake with filling. I then burned the roof of my mouth on a hot potato which is a distinctly Polish experience.
I made another trip to the sauna as they say it helps to encourage a deeper sleep, but I also wanted to warm up. A couple of dames showed up so I couldn’t fully relax. Furthermore, the seats to Tashkent keep disappearing by the minute which is a little unsettling a day before the flight. We will see what happens tomorrow, but we watched Eurovision before calling it a night. If you don’t know Eurovision, it’s a very over-the-top, flamboyant contest where European countries (and for some reason Israel, Azerbaijan, and Australia) each submit an entry. It is an intense three night extravaganza of campy dance breaks, strobe lights, and fog machines. If you don’t know, get to know . . .
passports & pepto bismol 