It has now been a couple of hours since my Flixbus dropped me off near the metro station Marymont in Warsaw, Poland – or as the Poles say: Warszawa.
I have been here before, not too long ago. Just a few months have passed since. So the terrain didn't feel too unfamiliar. Buying the metro ticket, getting into the right one (it is pretty hard not getting the right one in Warsaw, since there are only 2 lines, thus a maximum of 4 directions) and arriving at my accommodation for the next 2 weeks, give or take.
But that's the difference: 2 weeks! My first visit, that I have just mentioned has only been for 2 days. And there is another difference: Last time that I've been here, my motto could be boiled down to "plan nothing, do nothing". Well, that would be a bit too harsh, but that could have been my reality, since I barely did any planning – and that is a massive over exaggeration already. What has been my great fortune has been, that I stumbled across an Englishman with similarly little time to spend in Warsaw. But unlike me, he planned things out. So what he told me, he is doing is the following: Back home in the UK he's working construction, if I recall correctly. His lifestyle isn't all to expensive, so whenever he has gathered a fair bit of money again, he uses it to go to his next destination. This way he has been to virtually all of Europe at the young age of his mid-20s.
So this time I came to the realization that I cannot guarantee myself another well-organized Englishman will cross my way. So since my arrival in Warsaw I've put a fair amount of time into talking to, what might be, humanities most beloved (and hated) new friend, ChatGPT, about what I could do in my time around here.
And while I've done this research I saw ever more how Poland seems to be a lot different from other eastern European countries. I perceive Poland to be one of the wealthier nations in the east of Europe – even though some research seems to falsify this thesis as Poland has a GDP per capita barely higher than that of Russia. But also politically I feel like Poland is on one side of extremes when it comes to talking about their "socialist" past. Speaking positively about the past can easily get you into dangerous territories in regards to law enforcement.
But one thing that I had to find out as well: The Pałac Kultury might easily be the most popular tourist destination in all of Warsaw and it remains mostly untouched even though this building seems to have a deep history interlinked with the socialist past. As far as I've figured out so far, it seems to have been a present by the Soviet Union to Poland.
So I've created a list of places I'd like to visit. Among those are not only a fair share of museums and squares critically reminding of the socialist past, as well as both World Wars. It's also a collection of current political sites of importance, like the Sejm (parliament), as well as the Instituto Cervantes, the Goethe-Institute and a multilingual library. Also some mandatory visits to great parks throughout the city must also be included.
Let's see how many of those places I'll be able to tick off in my time, that might not be super short, but certainly isn't an eternity either.
What are your observations on Poland? And do any things come to mind that I must visit or read more in depth about while I'm here?
