warsaw

took a nice swiss air flight to warsaw on friday at noon, as always great service and a beer and a sandwich on the hour and a half or so ride. looking down on the city it was pretty clear that there was a lot of snow on the ground, little did i know then how wet my feet were gonna get. it was about a 30 minute bus to the hostel, which was on the top floor of an old building on one of the main streets. really great place, friendly staff and a tv (for olympics) and just pretty awesome overall. threw some stuff down, went to some random cafe for a fish and meat and vegetable skewer and then some sort of wheat berry and egg salad? tasty though. and also doughnuts filled with jam and some sort of dairy product. tasty also. tried to go to this nice park but the gates were closed after 5. so the girls went shopping and the boys went to the bar. a couple hours and a few 6 poland moneys (about 2 bucks) beers later, we went to meet up for some perogies for dinner. they were pretty tasty. wandered the streets and got some cuba libres(!) and ended the night with some subway.

woke and grabbed some coffee - by the way everything was super cheap here and was so appreciated compared to switzerland - and walked through the old/new town, since pretty much all of it was bombed to pieces after the second world war. but the streets and the buildings that were rebuilt are very nice and the what remains of the castle are quite nice as well. checked out this 'portrait' exhibit at the museum for awhile, it was very well done actually just a nice bit of art in the morning was great. it was kinda cloudy but mostly the ground was very wet. there were a lot of puddles and my feet got quite wet. after walking around a bit more, stopped at this 'milk bar', basically it was during the communist era that these were like on the corners for cheap food with milk related products. now they're still there for super cheap food and it still looks like it's from the 60's, old ladies serving up greasy spoon type food. looks like somebody's kitchen. pretty cool though. i ate some beet soup with beans and some potato dumplings with bacon on top and a pork schnitzel type thing. with a cola for a whopping 5 bucks or something. hahah so awesome. also that meal sat like a brick in my stomach, so full. walked around some more, found some random vintage store, then headed over to the park that we had tried to go to the day before. it was quite a nice park close to the former royal palace. lots of snow everywhere but still some people and a lot of ducks and even a peacock. nice walk for sure. stopped after to have a bit of coffee, chilled out at the hostel and watched some olympics. went for dinner at some random vietnamese restaurant (in warsaw of all places) which was actually pretty good for under 5 bucks too. take that switzerland. drank some more polish vodka which is both tasty and cheap at the hostel, then went out to the conveniently located bar around the corner. good night full of cuba libres. and more subway afterward.

woke up on sunday morning to have some of the delicious breakfast that the hostel had prepared. some sort of tasty apple pancakes and all the regular tasty breakfast stuff as well. good start to the day. then went on a massive trek towards this 'warsaw rising' museum, through all manner of puddles and snow. walked past some cool buildings and also this one called the palaces of arts. then made it to this pretty cool museum about poland during world war two, and all the resistance there was to the nazi occupation. very well done and a lot of information, i definitely learned a lot and totally worth seeing. a big plane in there as well. after the museum we went in search of food, ended up in some random mall, ate some food. proceeded to go to this super sketchy flea market that was kinda like district 9 where people were just selling random stuff everyone on the street outside. an experience for sure. somewhat tempted to buy a phone off of some random guy. but i didn't. anyways, after this, just went to chill in a restaurant for a bit and then off to the airport to go home. swiss air flights are the best. also snagged a bottle of polish vodka on duty free. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBubr%C3%B3wka

not too much happening this week, although i think spring has sprung. it's really quite nice out and i managed to get out yesterday for a short run to test the ankle. feels good. will run A LOT starting right meow. going to ireland this weekend, renting a car, super excited, will be so good.