Welcome to Warsaw!

For a long time now, I had been looking forward to visiting Mike. For those who don’t know, Mike was one of my freshman year roommates at Hamilton College. Though skeptical about each other at first, we quickly bonded over a shared passion for theatre, acapella and everything Beyoncé. Throughout our college years our friendship grew as we shared car rides, stages and rounds of applause – somewhat like Fred and Ginger. Batman and Robin. Or Paris and Nicole.

We walked back from the train station to his place, slowly catching up on life but finding it hard to know exactly where to start. Mike planned to be in Warsaw for about a month and a half. He got in touch with a friend of a friend who lived there, a 30-year-old Portuguese man named Hugo. Hugo had a nice studio apartment in a decent part of town, so Mike asked if he could move in for his time in the capital. Hugo agreed, so Mike was paying half the rent and sleeping on the couch.

When Mike found out that I planned to visit him in Warsaw, he asked Hugo if I could stay with them for a few days. Hugo was outraged.

“Who do you think you are? This is my apartment, not a college dorm room. There’s no way your friend can stay here. I forbid it!” he proclaimed as Mike and him discussed my visit.

I had come to terms with staying at a hostel when I arrived, but Mike told me that Hugo was out of town on a business trip until Thursday. “I have an empty apartment in Warsaw, there’s no reason for you to go to a hostel. Stay with me until he arrives, then we’ll find you a place,” said Mike. Sounded reasonable to me, so we made our way to his place – Panska 98.

We relaxed the first afternoon, went to the supermarket and caught up on the many months that had once stood between us. I really enjoyed the set up that I had, traveling alone but meeting up with friends at different places. We tried to go out that drizzling night, but failed miserably. No worries, there were more nights to come.

We began my first official day in Warsaw by joining a free walking tour of the city. The tour took us to Marie Curie’s house and right past the Chopin museum. It’s a bit sad that all of Poland’s famous people –like Chopin, Marie Curie and Roman Polanski- left Poland as soon as they could to pursue their career; and now they’re all buried (or still living) in Paris. We also were told the legend of the mermaid of Warsaw. The city crest shows a mermaid with a sword. Correct me if I’m wrong, but legend has it that the Warsaw fishermen captured a beautiful mermaid that would scare off the fish of the Vistula river, so they locked her in a tower. The guard that was patrolling the mermaid’s prison fell in love with her. She pleaded for him to set her free and then promised him that if he did, Warsaw would never be invaded. The guard, madly in love, unlocked the cell at night, and set the mermaid free. This story was told to us, as we walked by the ruins of the city. Just goes to show, never trust a mermaid. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Ariel.

After promenading through the windy roads of Warsaw’s old town we ended up at a great beer joint for lunch. After a quick lunch, we made our way to the Copernicus Museum – an interactive kids-friendly science museum.

As would be expected of two overly excited youthful characters, we had a blast and were the last ones to leave the premises. After the museum, we had a traditional Polish meal and head back to Panska, the apartment.

Warsaw was treating me phenomenally. It had been a beautiful day, full of fun activities. That same night we went out to a karaoke bar called Toro in the area of Warsaw where all the bars are. After what some might call an exquisite rendition of “Telephone,” Mike and I were basically D-list Warsaw celebrities; which isn’t technically saying much, but hey – I’ll take it! People would come to us to befriend us and ask us the routinely: “Why you come to Poland?” We sang a little more, the beers were cheap, the fans were thrilled – I’d call our night a success.