A week in Warsaw

There is an old story of a Muscovite travelling to Paris and a Parisien travelling to Moscow meeting half way in Warsaw. Both step off their trains, breath in the air, and think they have arrived at their destination.

Does Warsaw compare to either city? Well, no. But it is full of excitement, fun and history and the perfect city break.

There is also an old Polish joke: Zycie jest jak papier toaletowy: szare, dlugie i do dupy! (Life is like toilet paper, grey, long and...)

Perhaps Warsaw was once grey, but the modern capital is now colourful, exciting and hardly do dupy.

Entering Warsaw, what hits you is its size. The Polish capital feels like a big city, in the way Chicago or New York feel like big cities with skyscrapers towering over you, and London does not.

Added to the optical illusion is downtown Warsaw - Sródmiescie - is dominated by wide boulevards and in the centre is Poland's biggest and tallest building: the Palace of Culture.

Our week in Warsaw started with getting lost, hot and grumpy at midnight looking for a hostel. Subways under the main streets of Sródmiescie are like mini cities and finding the right exit is more about luck than judgement. The lesson I learnt was not to trust my internal compass and check the map more often.

Now under the surveillance of bored security guards, the subways of Warsaw may seem to be an odd place to form your first views about a place, but they seem to sum up the modern history of this city.

Now emblazoned with bold advertising for mobile phones and sheltering kebab shops, it is not hard to imagine the post-war modernity of the city and long-coated Varsovians hiding from the snow as the capital was reborn after World War II.

You can also see the 1980s suffering and queues outside the shops (some of the clothes from that period still survive) and the 1990s post-communist blues where the black market boomed beneath the tramlines.

Looking around Sródmiescie you see bold, grand, depressing concrete towers, the Stalinist Palace of Culture, but also the modern soaring office blocks. New shopping malls are also now springing up offering international stores at international prices and even an M&S.

History seems to seep out of the city, but Warsaw really wears its past on its sleeve and is bold about its future.

But heading north from Sródmiescie along Nowy Swiat (the optimistic New World) and Krakowskie Przedmiescie streets we headed into the past.

This part of Warsaw - newly pedestrianised - seems to want to scream its history and prestige. Along the route images from Canaletto paintings project the grand monuments of Warsaw as they were in the 18th century.

The route is the road taken by the kings of Poland from the palace at Wilanów to the castle at Plac Zamkowy, but now it all dates back only to the 1950s.

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 saw the capital destroyed by the Nazi forces - and throughout the city there are plaques and monuments to moments marked by heroism, death and German bullets.

After the war, the new communist government launched a bricks for Warsaw campaign.
Poles from across the country - with its new borders and displaced people - were encouraged to send bricks to rebuild the capital.

Walking through the narrow streets of Stare Miasto (Old Town) is in some ways more charming than Krakow, which survived the war undamaged.





The pink and yellow town houses around the Old Town Market Place do not feel like a Disney version of the 19th century, but there is the feeling there are no Varsovians here - just tourists and tourist prices.

Beyond Stare Miasto is Nowe Miasto (New Town) where you will find the cooler bars and restaurants - with dated nouveau cuisine of chicken salad with grapefruit - where more Poles will be.

Don't be put off by the name though, Nowy Miasto is probably just a couple of years newer than Stare Miasto.

This may sound a bit negative but Warsaw is a place to be enjoyed and to take in all these strands of history and culture. And the one thing you must do in Warsaw is visit the Palace of Culture.

Heading up 30 floors of the palace in the express lift with a smiling attendant, who it seems has worked there under the same fan on the same seat for 30 years, you get a full view of the Warsaw.

No doubt each day he tells thousands of tourists the speed of the lift - in Polish.

The Palace of Culture was a gift to the Polish nation from Stalin - built by workers shipped over to Poland and locked away in villages away from their Slavic brethren - and was modelled on the Empire State Building.

In 1955 it must have been amazing to Poles and today it is a still a mammoth construction. Below you can see a supermarket and indoor market - worth exploring for bargains and some comedic fashion choices – as well as views up to 30km away.

There is plenty of variety when it comes to eating out. From the pierogi (stuffed dumplings) at the milk bars or restaurants to really top cuisine.

I found a budget lunch at Bar Uniwersytecki on Krakowskie Przedmiescie and also got to enjoy Polish hospitality.

After making my order, I waited uneasily as the waitress at the counter screamed it out and looked impatiently at me. Customer service in Poland is sometimes low on a shop's priorities. But the food was cheap, filling and kept me going.

One of the best places we found - both for price and quality - was Polka po Prostu, hidden across the way from a Pizza Hut on Plac Zamkowy.

This restaurant was designed by Magda Gessler - a sort of Polish Nigela Lawson - and offers a modern twist on tradition Polish dishes.





Going out in Warsaw, as in many capital cities, you are spoilt for choice. But one of the best nights out we had - even though there was a band of aging rockers playing - was at Browarmia.

The bar - the name a pun on brewery and army - is a microbrewery offering some of the best beer in Warsaw.

Meanwhile Paparazzi - now a chain across Poland - offers the chance to swill a few cocktails.

As with any great city, if you head away from the centre you will find some of the less cheesy night clubs - but cheese is high on the agenda in much of Warsaw.

But my favourite night out had to be opposite the Presidential Palace. As the diminutive reactionary Lech Kaczynski ducks the latest crisis across the road, a young crowd spill onto the streets as the windows pronounce the prices of 4 zloty (less than £1) for any drink.

After a heavy night and also a narrowly-missed breakfast in our hostel we were advised to relax in the Lazienki Gardens.





Just south of the centre the gardens have woods with red squirrels and peacocks willing to make friends along with the Lazienki Palace - which if truth be told would fall down under trades description, being just a minor manor house.

All very picturesque - and quite a relief after being jolted around on the tram - but best of all there is a place to buy that first rejuvenating beer as you watch Warsaw folk argue over feeding the pigeons.

Daniel Barnes