Warsaw, day 2

My second day in Warsaw was much more enjoyable than my first. I knew the town and the bus system better, and the sites I wanted to see were closer together, so I didn't have to hoof it as far.

I started with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a nearby park:





I mentioned that Chopin is a national hero. All throughout the city, they have interactive benches like the one below. If you push a button, it starts to play a piece composed by Chopin.



In Paris, there's a street named after FDR. I guess the Poles hold Hoover in similar regard.



And of course, Pope John Paul II was Polish, so he's a big deal in Poland.



I spent a good chunk of the day in the Old Town and the New Town. (The New Town isn't new; it's just newer than the Old Town.) You have to remember that after the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans razed pretty much every building in the Old and New Towns. Almost everything there was meticulously reconstructed after the war.



This is the Royal Castle. It was rebuilt in the 70s. They used fragments and artwork from the original castle where they could.

After I finished my tour of the castle, I went to an organ recital in the Cathedral of St. John.

Later in the day, I visited the Warsaw Uprising Monument (which is in a different location from the Uprising Museum). If you enlarge this photo, you can get a brief history of the Uprising.

This part of the monument shows the soldiers entering the sewers, which they used to travel around the city.

As I mentioned earlier, by that evening, I was getting pretty desperate to spend what was left of my money. My plans were dashed when I went back to the New Town, where a bunch of food vendors were set up. If you're traveling somewhere and you see a bunch of locals lined up to buy something, you absolutely must get in line and buy something, too. It's so much more interesting to do that than to find the local Subway. I ordered this. It cost about $4.

I can't tell you the name of this dish other than it starts with a "k" followed by about 25 more consonants. It isn't actually a sausage; it's like a sausage skin with some kind of potato mixture inside. I can't say that it was the best thing I've ever tasted, but it was interesting, and after I ate that (plus the accompanying pickle), I was completely full.

As I mentioned before, it was shortly after this gastromical experience that I followed the large crowd and saw the laser fountain show. I finally hopped a bus close to midnight to get back to my hotel, but I didn't feel unsafe at all. I'm not sure what the overall crime rate is in Warsaw, but the parts I saw were nice.

The next morning, I ate my fancy breakfast from room service and hopped a city bus to the airport, which is very close to the city. All in all, it was a very worthwhile visit.