3 | First 6 Hours In Warsaw
After an exhaustive day of sitting and sleeping on planes and in airports, I have made it to Warsaw!
On both of my flights, ATL to CDG and CDG to WAW, I did not have the best seat mates, but I survived. On the trans-Atlantic, the man next to me murmured in an unidentifiable language on and off and took up more than his fair share of space in our row. From Paris to Warsaw, I sat in the middle seat. I was so uncomfortable I kept my heavy coat on the entire time, because I did not want to disturb these (assumingly) already annoyed French people, because we sat on the tarmac for AN HOUR. I still have no idea why, because they would make lengthy announcements in French, but then short, heavily-accented announcements in English. So basically I ended up getting to Warsaw an hour late.
This ended up being completely fine and left me still being 30 minutes early to meet my landlord and real estate agent. Eventually they both arrived and gave me a small tour of the apartment, which mostly included proving that everything worked. Eventually they handed me the keys, and I was alone at long last.
I quickly began unpacking my suitcase and duffel to be able to better gauge what I may have forgotten and would need to pick up at the grocery store. Eventually around 4pm I left the apartment and walked across the street to the grocery store. Ok, this is not meant to sound ignorant, because I have been to grocery stores in countries besides the United States before, but this grocery store was SO SMALL. I'm not sure if it just wasn't a full grocery store or if all grocery stores in Poland will be like this. Honestly, I can't decide which, because there was a produce section, deli, and bakery, so who knows maybe they all will be like this! Either way there were a couple of things I couldn't find at this store that I will need to try to hunt down tomorrow (between the bureaucratic visit to register my temporary residence in Poland and bowling with SGH Orientation). I was initially surprised at the price of some items such as dish towels, but in the end I came away with the haul shown below for ~37 PLN.
Backing up a bit - during the 30 minutes I had to just stand around in front of my building, I mostly just stood next to some stone stairs that did not seem to even go anywhere and then walked around to the front of the building (reminder: I had a giant suitcase, duffel, and backpack in tow so not much exploring could be done). I knew that I was on the side that faced SGH's main building, so I mostly stood on the corner and studied this huge, pink building (haven't decided if it's a monstrosity or not yet). Eventually I was taken up and shown around, but when I was shown the balcony, I still did not take a glance in the other direction. I continued to just look at our main building. WELL. When I went to the grocery store, I had to walk away from SGH's main building in order to get in the crosswalk. As I was walking, I looked up to see the financial district, which is located at the center of the city and includes Stalin's Palace of Culture and Science. This was the first time that it really hit me that I was in Poland and would get to call Warsaw home for the next 20 weeks. I was almost brought to tears by this landmark building that garners a lot of conflicted attention from many visitors and locals alike.
On both of my flights, ATL to CDG and CDG to WAW, I did not have the best seat mates, but I survived. On the trans-Atlantic, the man next to me murmured in an unidentifiable language on and off and took up more than his fair share of space in our row. From Paris to Warsaw, I sat in the middle seat. I was so uncomfortable I kept my heavy coat on the entire time, because I did not want to disturb these (assumingly) already annoyed French people, because we sat on the tarmac for AN HOUR. I still have no idea why, because they would make lengthy announcements in French, but then short, heavily-accented announcements in English. So basically I ended up getting to Warsaw an hour late.
This ended up being completely fine and left me still being 30 minutes early to meet my landlord and real estate agent. Eventually they both arrived and gave me a small tour of the apartment, which mostly included proving that everything worked. Eventually they handed me the keys, and I was alone at long last.
I quickly began unpacking my suitcase and duffel to be able to better gauge what I may have forgotten and would need to pick up at the grocery store. Eventually around 4pm I left the apartment and walked across the street to the grocery store. Ok, this is not meant to sound ignorant, because I have been to grocery stores in countries besides the United States before, but this grocery store was SO SMALL. I'm not sure if it just wasn't a full grocery store or if all grocery stores in Poland will be like this. Honestly, I can't decide which, because there was a produce section, deli, and bakery, so who knows maybe they all will be like this! Either way there were a couple of things I couldn't find at this store that I will need to try to hunt down tomorrow (between the bureaucratic visit to register my temporary residence in Poland and bowling with SGH Orientation). I was initially surprised at the price of some items such as dish towels, but in the end I came away with the haul shown below for ~37 PLN.
All of this was a struggle because of how small and busy the store was...
Backing up a bit - during the 30 minutes I had to just stand around in front of my building, I mostly just stood next to some stone stairs that did not seem to even go anywhere and then walked around to the front of the building (reminder: I had a giant suitcase, duffel, and backpack in tow so not much exploring could be done). I knew that I was on the side that faced SGH's main building, so I mostly stood on the corner and studied this huge, pink building (haven't decided if it's a monstrosity or not yet). Eventually I was taken up and shown around, but when I was shown the balcony, I still did not take a glance in the other direction. I continued to just look at our main building. WELL. When I went to the grocery store, I had to walk away from SGH's main building in order to get in the crosswalk. As I was walking, I looked up to see the financial district, which is located at the center of the city and includes Stalin's Palace of Culture and Science. This was the first time that it really hit me that I was in Poland and would get to call Warsaw home for the next 20 weeks. I was almost brought to tears by this landmark building that garners a lot of conflicted attention from many visitors and locals alike.
The mysterious stairs with some leftover snow
The main building of SGH
I'm currently waiting for Eli to call to be the first to get a proper tour of the apartment, but I keep dozing off, so who knows what will happen, but goodnight for now!
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