(no subject)

[slemslempike]

Anyone have any tips for visiting Warsaw? I'm planning to spend 3-4 days there at the start of February. I like museums, and would especially like ideas about where to stay. I was thinking hotel instead of airbnb, but then I never do get up in time for breakfasts, and it might be nice to have a place to myself with fridge etc. One of the airbnb places has a pool

Comments

[girlofprey.livejournal.com]

I have no tips about visiting Warsaw, but I do want to know about the airbnb places. Are they...in the air?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I would stay exclusively at AirBNBs if they were in the actual air.

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

I last went in 1988 :-) I think it will have changed a lot since then ...

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think so too!

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

The Copernicus Museum is sort of cool - it's actually a hands-on sciencey thing mostly aimed at kids (or those who never grew up - aka puddingcat and me on our visit). Things are labelled in English as well as Polish, usually, so you can know what you're supposed to achieve. The Marie Curie museum in the Old Town (in her house) is worth a look, and you will absolutely need to visit Warsaw Castle, which is a (restored) baroque marvel.

The Market Square has LOTS of cafes, bars, restaurants, and the local post office, which is on a corner on the street just up from the Castle Inn (see below). Roast duck with apple is a Warsaw speciality (we had it in 2 restaurants), and there is a small pierogi-restaurant at the opposite end of the square which specialises in baked pierogis (you can't avoid them, may as well try them in all manner of preparation).

We stayed in the Castle Inn, which is literally opposite Warsaw Castle and is about 1 minute walk from the Old Market Square. The rooms are all - highly individual, by design, and the building is apparently one of the few to survive the Nazi demolition of the Old Town as punishment for the Warsaw Uprising. (Note that the inhabitants of the city doggedly restored the Old Town brick by brick after the war. The USSR paid for the restoration of the castle). Anyway, I recommend the Castle Inn - it's odd, but friendly, reasonable and incredibly centrally placed. (BUT: cars can't get into Castle Square unless by some arcane method that no taxi ever would for us. There would be some carrying of luggage down some few steps and across the square, which isn't enormous, but still . . .)

We got by fine with English and puddingcat's small amount of Polish - for talking to an older lady who didn't know English (and then in the south of the country), I rustled up my bad German. Pretty much everyone knew some English, though.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Phew, relieved that a few words of English might get me by! I also have old, bad tourist German, so perhaps I shall not starve.

The Castle Inn was one of the places I was looking at! It looked lovely. Was it at all noisy at night?

And I definitely wanted to see the Marie Curie museum, but hadn't read about the Copernicus Museum which sounds a lot of fun.

Thank you!

[menthe-reglisse.livejournal.com]

I had a day touristing and a couple of evenings in Warsaw last summer. I too found English and being able to guess similar-enough looking food words on menus sufficient to get by.

I stayed in a soul-less chain hotel which was astonishingly cheap and just as you would expect (but much nicer than I was expecting given that it was about £40 a night). I found the hotel on Booking.com.

I went to the Jewish Museum which was really very good (although not cheery, for obvious reasons). And I wandered around the old town which was very touristy but very charming. I particularly liked the 50s looking decorations on the rebuilt 18thC style buildings. I wanted to go to the Museum of Warsaw but it was shut for refurbishment - it might have reopened by the time you are there.

I also recommend at least a quick look at the Stalinist wonder that is the Palace of Culture and Science. There's a cafe and cinema there now and you can go up on the roof, although I didn't.

I really liked Warsaw. It felt very cosmopolitan but still distinctively eastern european. It may have helped that I was there in summer when just wandering round the streets was pleasant in a way it is unlikely to be in February. But I'd definitely go back.