Never in my life have I booked a trip and traveled this quickly. The boss gave us all an extra day off to “relax,” since everyone at the company had been working serious overtime; like burnout-level hours. We were all wiped out. So at our department head meeting, Gregg went around the table and demanded everyone pick a “free” day to rest up. He didn’t have to twist my arm! But there would be no “relaxing” for me; what is that??? Instead, an insane challenge to put as many more pins in my world map as possible in just four days. Mission accepted.
I took the Wednesday night red-eye from Orange Country (California) to Newark. I landed at 5AM and two hours later was on a flight to London‘s Heathrow. I was at my airport hotel in London just in time for about four hours of sleep before having to get up and catch a 6AM flight to Poland. This would be country #87. By the time I got to my hotel in Warsaw, I was absolutely exhausted, and enjoyed a solid four-hour nap.
I forced myself outta bed and onto the street by 3PM. I could’ve slept all day, but I had an 11PM flight out that night, so needed every last minute to take in Warsaw. The few hours that I had were used to explore the old city. I powered through about an hour of rain–ducking in and out of stores and under awnings to stay dry–before the sun came out and I was able to enjoy a glorious afternoon in old Warsaw.
Know before you go…
The highlight of the afternoon was lunch at Old Town Square. I had no idea how to choose where to eat–there were a dozen sidewalk setups–but I was soon greeted by a friendly waiter from a place called Zachcianek, so that would be my spot.
The appetizer was a magnificent wooden board of the fanciest cheese and crackers I’d ever seen! Some of the cheese was really good, others, smelled like Armenian feet too much. Then came the main course–something to add to the “weird things I’ve eaten” section of this website–wild boar with potato pancakes. It was great, and hopefully no “wild boar activists” see this post and get upset. Oy vey.
After the meal, I grabbed a cab back to the hotel, freshened up, and headed to the airport. I enjoyed Poland and one picture-perfect afternoon was just the right introduction!
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I am surprised that you didn’t try to leverage that “free day” with another American holiday weekend to extend your use of vacation days!
Man, my days are getting so TIGHT!!! I’ve leveraged most of the holidays and done so many balancing tricks, etc.
Great article, thanks for the tips! Poland is a wonderful country to explore, the cities are full of historical significance with plentiful stories to tell and the countryside is vast and beautiful. However, there’s a darker side – there are a couple of tourist targeted scams and crime to be wary of.
Do be wary of the two girls bar scam, currency exchange scam, Auschwitz tour scam, pickpockets, tourist photo scam, taxi fare scam, phony taxi scam, sleight of hand scam, friendly helper scam, scam bus companies, fake police and many more!
My biggest disappointment was that Facebook didn’t let me know that you were in Warsaw Poland that time as I was here and would have loved to have shown you around town for the day. Plus at that time I was drinking beer so I could even have had a few tins with you and shown you the easy way back to the airport by train. I hope you come back to Poland again someday!
Dude I know!!! What the heck?!