Warsaw
Driving to Warsaw
We got stopped again by a patrol car in Poland, on the way to Warsaw. After 4 months of travelling without being stopped or checked (the ferry port in Dover didn't even ask to see anything!) we'd now been stopped 3 times in 3 weeks. The man stepped over to the window on my side (I was driving, as I had been on all 3 of these occasions). He was friendly enough despite only using a total of 3 English words in our exchange - the first was 'open'. I opened the sliding door. He poked his head inside to look around. 'Home?' 'Yes', I replied. 'Wait' was the third and final word, as he walked back to his car to check through our documents with his colleague. We were a lot more laid back about being stopped this time, but for some reason they were taking ages to finish their checks, which made us start to wonder. However, all was fine. The guy's colleague eventually came back to hand over our documents and send us on our way.Warsaw took 6 hours to drive to, and it was one of the toughest drives yet. The sat nav did a right number on us. Took us on some mental route. We were still hundreds of miles away from our destination when all of a sudden we were directed off the main road and onto a terrible bumpy path through miles of fields. We were still 3 hours out - why weren't we still on a fucking motorway?! Poland's roads are not great in general. In fact, that's an understatement. They seem to be tearing up all their major roads. Everywhere is a building site.
Luckily, after the gruelling journey we found a really nice campsite. There was nobody else in the site at all, so we had the bar, restaurant, shower and toilet blocks to ourselves. And the shower block was pure luxury. New, clean, heated floors, great showers - an absolute pleasure. We really appreciate these things doing what we're doing, as they can be hard to find. The site's bar was run by a couple of really friendly women. Rach had quite a few giggles with them. Probably about my face or something.
Despite this, we actually left the campsite for the 2nd and 3rd days to park up for free outside Warsaw Zoo (got to look after the pennies, especially while the weather was still warm enough to not need mains hook up). We had a look round the zoo. Some of it was great, some of it a little bit depressing. Rach did find it funny when I showed more interest in a wild red squirrel in a tree than the zebras behind it. Also, hippo shit is massive.
Walking Warsaw
Walking around Warsaw on the first day was one of the highlights of the trip so far for me. I remember being in pure amazement. It really is stunning. The architecture of the city is made even more impressive when you consider that 85% of it was flattened during WW2. My specific favourite part of the town are the half a dozen or so buildings in the old town square, sitting at different heights and angles, all painted in different colours.They were building a giant Christmas tree in the square, and a giant Panda (?) mascot stood around trying to give people hugs. Rach didn't want one.
I ate a potato cake with chips (?!) and Rach had a tunnel made out of sugary dough. We had a few drinks and discussed one of Rach's thousands of business ideas and the possibility of renting the van out when our travels have finished. If you're reading this and fancy it for a weekend or two, give us a shout.
We watched Joker for a second time. The cinema was located in my favourite building of all - Palac Kultury i Nauki, or the 'Palace of Culture and Science' - a building which coincidentally looked like something straight out of Gotham City; almost Empire State-esque and lit up all purple in the night sky. I later found out that it housed offices, nightclubs, gyms, restaurants and a cinema and was built by the Soviets as a gift to the Poles, presumably to butter them up after the almighty communist shafting they gave them during and following the war.
The cinema was so cheap - £4 a ticket WITH a free Mojito! That is seriously one of the best deals I've ever heard of. Weirdly though, they charged you to use the toilet. Bizarre. After the film we had a chinese, which destroyed my belly, then got Lime scooters back to the van.
On our 4th day in Warsaw we drove back to the nice campsite from the first night. Sometimes, when we are driving somewhere, I visualise getting back to the van (home), but then snap out of it and realise we are already in it. It's a bit weird.
There was a specific spot in the campsite, right outside our van, which smelled of some kind of dog/fox shit, but I could not for the life of me find it. It was fun trying though.
So you'd rate Warsaw higher than Walsall...
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