Welcome to Warsaw
I'm in Poland now, quite tired from the overnight bus. Warsaw is pretty impressive, especially since it was totally rebuilt after the war. I'm staying in a cute hostel called Oki Doki, it has free wifi (yay) and very funky decor... except I'm in a five bed dorm, and the other four beds are occupied by a Swedish family which is slightly isolating.
There is this really really annoying American rambling on about economics and foreign policy and he has absolutely no clue. He basically proposes that foreign countries should just deal with tourists and we shouldn't be expected to respect their culture or beliefs or traditions because we are foreigners. Ick. The scary thing is that he has been to lots of countries... so he has no excuse for ignorance... and he is so loud that I can see the people at reception want to slap him. Grr. Very annoying. But I had a really interesting conversation with a young American girl about the ramifications of their conservative domestic policy. You win some, you lose some.
Speaking of Americans, there were two on the nightbus with me. One was from the hostel I stayed in at Vilnius. A young guy, who seems somewhat disenchanted with life and travel and I can't really figure him out. Sometimes he is friendly and chatty, sometimes distant... always cynical. The other guy was older, and seemed to have travelled extensively, except he was in a perpetual state of panic and ran around the bus station "do you speak English" in trying to find the way in to the city. If he had taken time and looked at signs, it really wasn't that difficult. Then he was lamenting about "I've never been to a city where so few people speak English". It was 7am at a suburban bus station. Really, what do you expect? Sigh.
A small piece of advice... never buy a kebab in Poland from an Indian. You end up with this crazy fusion that just does not work. Polish coleslaw, kebab meat, with some sort of spicy indian sauce. Very weird, very wrong.
The rain seems to have followed me, but there ain't anything you can do about that. Stay tuned...
Oh and here is two photos from Warsaw just for good measure:
Stalin style anyone?
A sculpturein the Old Town Square in Warsaw
There is this really really annoying American rambling on about economics and foreign policy and he has absolutely no clue. He basically proposes that foreign countries should just deal with tourists and we shouldn't be expected to respect their culture or beliefs or traditions because we are foreigners. Ick. The scary thing is that he has been to lots of countries... so he has no excuse for ignorance... and he is so loud that I can see the people at reception want to slap him. Grr. Very annoying. But I had a really interesting conversation with a young American girl about the ramifications of their conservative domestic policy. You win some, you lose some.
Speaking of Americans, there were two on the nightbus with me. One was from the hostel I stayed in at Vilnius. A young guy, who seems somewhat disenchanted with life and travel and I can't really figure him out. Sometimes he is friendly and chatty, sometimes distant... always cynical. The other guy was older, and seemed to have travelled extensively, except he was in a perpetual state of panic and ran around the bus station "do you speak English" in trying to find the way in to the city. If he had taken time and looked at signs, it really wasn't that difficult. Then he was lamenting about "I've never been to a city where so few people speak English". It was 7am at a suburban bus station. Really, what do you expect? Sigh.
A small piece of advice... never buy a kebab in Poland from an Indian. You end up with this crazy fusion that just does not work. Polish coleslaw, kebab meat, with some sort of spicy indian sauce. Very weird, very wrong.
The rain seems to have followed me, but there ain't anything you can do about that. Stay tuned...
Oh and here is two photos from Warsaw just for good measure:
Stalin style anyone?
A sculpturein the Old Town Square in Warsaw
posted by Ashlee at 6:26:00 am
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