We managed to sleep in until almost eight in the morning, and took the morning nice and slow so we were ready to check-out of the hotel around 9:30. From there we walked down to the bus station with our suitcase rolling along faithfully behind us. Crossing the street meant going up and down steps, but we found at least one elevator to make things easier. The (very) public elevator was dark, smelly, and creaked as it traveled up and down – I’d hate to get stuck in there.
The previous day we had walked through the bus station and did a practice run to see how it would work to catch a bus to the airport. As it turned out, the actual process was quite easy. We had to gesture and mime our way through a conversation with the ticket office staff, but at the end of it we had two tickets and we knew where the bus was going to pull up. Once the little bus arrived, I threw our suitcase into the back and walked around to start to board. As I was walking a woman asked me a question in what I think was Russian. I just shrugged and smiled, and then another guy asked me another question in another language and I realized that they thought I was the driver. Sorry guys…
We sat a while and waited as more passengers boarded the tiny bus. A Japanese guy got on and asked me in English if it was the bus to the airport. I said it was, although I will admit that I wasn’t absolutely, positively certain of the fact. If we showed up somewhere else now it was on me.
Soon enough the bus driver came by and we started out of town. The bus drove past the Belarusian National Library and the Japanese guy tried to line up a picture from the window of the bus, but when he snapped his picture a tree had blocked the building view. Luckily he was quick enough to take another snapshot. The bus was playing radio tunes, and we heard an interesting Belarusian tune that sounded a lot like Y.M.C.A. except it was a female singer, the chorus was D.I.S.C.O., and they also mixed in a lot of heavy metal guitars. Awesome!
As we approached within a mile or two of the airport I noticed that there were a lot of private cars pulled over on the expressway, with the drivers just waiting around. It was as if they all broke down at the same time and pulled over. After thinking about it, I guessed that it was maybe the local version of Uber, and they were waiting for a summons from their smartphone to pick up people at the airport.
Once the bus dropped us off, we still had some time to kill so we went inside to a restaurant and ate more dumplings and potato pancakes, along with two beers each to celebrate the end of our stay in Belarus. Everything was going smoothly until we reached the front of the LOT Polish Airlines check-in line. The lady checked us in but said that we had to pay an extra fee for our suitcase. I had been warned when buying our plane tickets that some airlines may charge a fee, so it was not totally unexpected, but it was a wake-up call and I was glad we still had plenty of time. The lady said that we should walk down the hall to a special window, pay by credit card, and then bring the receipt back, and to go ahead and skip the long check-in line. No problem!
We found the window at the end of the hall easily enough, and there were two people in front of us already so we had to wait a bit. Lining up behind us there was a British couple that I recognized from the same line we just came from. Evidently they had the same problem we did, but they were far more stressed about it. They loudly talked over the chances of missing the flight or losing their luggage and they kept inching closer and closer into us as we stood in front of – as if that would speed up the process. I smiled at the wife and told her to take a deep breath and relax – I wanted to share a little of our travel zen feeling with her, and to a certain extent it helped. But I think they were just the kind of people that stress easily.
Anyway, we got the bag paid for and we then went through security and immigration. The immigration check on exit was pretty strict, actually – it felt more strict than when we entered. Eventually everything was worked out and we could head to the gate. The design of the airport was interesting – to get to your boarding gate you had to walk through so many duty-free shops. Not walk by the shops – you walked through the shops because there was no other way to go. It was kind of like IKEA – they want you to see everything and they leave you little choice in the matter.
Near the gate we bought some ice cream and water while we waited a bit longer, and then we were boarding the LOT Airlines flight to Warsaw. It was an easy flight, a little under an hour, but one of the flight attendants seemed a little stressed. During the drink service they offered only two choices to speed things up – Pepsi or water. The stressed flight attendant asked the lady in front of us, “Pepsi or water?” and the lady started to ask about what kinds of juice they have, and the harried attendant cut her off with a sharp, “Pepsi or water?” The lady still didn’t get it and tried to order orange juice and this time the flight attendant said it again, with a look that could have cut paper – and the words “Pepsi or water?” actually sounded more like “Are you an idiot lady?” The slightly oblivious lady finally got the hint and chose Pepsi, the attendant moved on, but it was an odd customer service moment that I won’t forget.
Landing in Warsaw meant a return to the EU zone, and immigration was really simple. We caught a train for a 20-minute ride from the airport to the center of Warsaw and emerged in the shadow of the Palace of Culture and Science – an enormous landmark building at the center of the city. Our hotel was not far from there, so we walked through a busy city square. There were so many people out and enjoying the day, especially young people. We walked past a 24-hour kebab shop, but mainly the square held art installations, trees, sidewalks and fountains.
It turned out that our hotel was just a few minutes’ walk from the Palace of Culture and Science, and we checked in to the Mercure Warsaw Centrum. I could see that Kuniko had chosen well – there was a wine bar/restaurant in the hotel called Winestone, and the room itself was clean, spacious and had a big comfortable bed. We’d be in Warsaw longer than any of the other cities, so it looked like a comfortable place to settle in. The hotel maintenance staff were repairing two of the three elevators (they kind of panicked when Kuniko peeked into one of the elevators under repair) but by the evening everything was back in order.
We took a stroll across town to visit my first choice restaurant for dinner, a place called Kameralna. It was in a really old building and everything felt historic inside. We sat outside, on a back patio, and it was easy to get a seat as we had arrived well before the usual dinner hour. The friendly, attractive blonde-haired waitress spoke great English, and we kicked off an eating marathon. It started off with pork and chicken dumplings served fried on a griddle, Kuniko had duck with apple (served with beet salad and gloriously roasted potatoes), and I ate some goulash with potato bread dumplings (with beet salad and pickled cabbage). We also had a couple of big beers – we drank one liter each, so we were stuffed by the end of it. The duck was especially good – it wasn’t just a little piece of duck but one half of a whole duck, with a crispy roasted outside and perfectly cooked inside. Yum!
Since we had eaten so much we did a little walking around the area, getting a feel for the neighborhood and seeing the shops and stores that were lining the streets. We saw a store called “T.K. Maxx” renamed from T.J. Maxx because of a copyright conflict in Europe. Most of what we saw we made little mental notes to get to it later. Warsaw is a major city and there were lots of things to see, and we had only visited one tiny corner of it.
Back towards our hotel we stopped in at a grocery store inside the train station and bought a few yogurt drinks to serve as our breakfast the next day, and then we went back to our hotel room and got ready to head to bed. We have two full days after this to enjoy this city – can’t wait!
