Warsaw - congress & couchsurfing & sightseeing

Wow...what a great trip that was. I never had much of an intention to go to Warsaw...simply wasnt calling me. But I went as I had the premonition of the congress going to be a nice one. Right I was!

Originally I had booked myself into a hostel but for the heck of it I checked out the fellow couchsurfers of Warsaw. One profile really intrigued me...some super, genius-like-smart "powerfrau" named Paula. So I requested a couchsurf and got lucky, meaning invited...
What a wonderful host and excellent conversation partner she is. An open to new undertakings...she simply joined me for one of the congress parties and let me teach her some basic salsa steps...the girl is cool!

I had chosen this time to go by train again. The 6 hour ride to Holland had been okay and Berlin-Warsaw is about 6 hours too. I got another special offer by the railway company for Berlin-Warsaw. On the to Warsaw I had lovely company: Sandy, Javier and Valesca; salsero/as from Berlin. Very good company. On the ride back I was alone but one cannot have it all, right? I was just happy that the train had only 20 min delay. It should have been arriving at 10:05pm and I would have been early at work; now with the delay I had to sprint from the platform straight into the Hotel (which is located in the same station "Ostbahnhof") to be starting my night shift on time (10:30pm). Phewww...

I did some sightseeing and even more salsa dancing. The music was very good for the most part. The dance floor was a bit rough in "Ground Zero" but I could manage. The polish dancers didnt ask for dances at all, which I was told by my polish friends, is down to polish social habits. It seems that polish people are not very open in public and do not make eye contact easily, let alone adress a stranger directly. So no one struck up a conversation or asked for dances. But I did. Of course! ;-)
I had plenty of very very good dances, most of them though with the international dancers who had come from all over Europe (and some from overseas).

The culinary highlight on this trip was a dinner at a Perogi-Restaurant..very yummy! I do have the name and address, so write me an email should you plan to go to Warsaw! I did not get to try a "Polish kebab" but I was assured that they are unique...so you go and try and tell me! ;-)

Alright, wont make it too long. I got plenty of pictures...more then I can post here...so you are seeing only a small selection...if you want YOUR photo: email me!

---

---