A bit more of Warsaw

Last weekend I went to Warsaw to see a bit more of the place than I'd previously seen.  I've been a couple of times and seen the old town square and of course the 100m circumference round the main station recently.  On Saturday I went to visit a friend I haven't seen for a while and his girlfriend.

I met them at Warszawa Wschodnia which really didn't seem like a place I'd like to find myself alone at night, before heading out for a meal.  Considering that we ate in a restaurant in the very heart of Warsaw the prices were really cheap, for a sznitzel the size of a pizza I was really impressed... until we got the bill and found that my bottle of water was 19zl!!  As much as the huge meal I had just eaten and more than 2 and a half times more than a litre of piwo.  We literally couldn't believe the price but we were assured it was German water and therefore justifiably 10 times more expensive than any bottle of water I could have found elsewhere.  That's capital cities for you I suppose.

I have to say I was really quite surprised and impressed with the bit more of Warsaw that I saw.  The very centre is as nice as any other place in Poland and definitely worth visiting, particularly around the old castle walls, square and Nowy Swiat area.  The old town was reconstructed after the total devastation of WW2, it looks great now and I honestly felt like I was on holiday while I was there, it kind of felt reconstructed though, but maybe I was just being a Torun snob.

I still say it's different and Warsaw becomes more and more modern as you leave the centre but it's an impressive capital and there is definitely lots to see and do there.  Hopefully it's a place I'll see a bit more of in the future, but I think I'll always come away to see more of my kind of Poland, and to buy water.