Warsaw in War-time!!

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Visited my friend Andy in his now home-town of Warsaw for a long weekend. I paid for the bargain flight, but once there, Andy paid for everything! It was his way of thanking me for having a friend of his to stay with me in London for three weeks at an hour’s notice a few weeks ago!

Andy and I used to work together, and spent many an hour over espressos (him) and cappuccinos (me) gossiping about our love lives, futures, work, anything really. He always says exactly what he thinks, which I found a really refreshing change, and I think he taught me to stand up for myself a bit more, although I’ve never exactly been much of a pushover. However, while half an hour a day of complete honesty is a nice break, 24 hours a day of it for an entire weekend can be a bit galling when some truths hurt!! We had a fair few arguments this weekend, although all in the best of humour(!) but it didn’t detract from the fact that I had a fabulous weekend!

Warsaw is fantastic! I stepped off the plane and was greeted by a friend of Andy’s, who escorted me to a coffee bar in the centre of town (my only trouble with this trip is that I don’t know any of the names of places, because I always had a local guide showing me round, and didn’t need to look at a map once!), where apparently café culture is really taking off now. I had always thought that café culture had been around in Eastern Europe for years, but apparently not so much in the former Communist-bloc countries.

I wasn't aware that it was Independence Day in Warsaw that weekend, and as we were sipping our coffees, we heard cannons firing, and saw squadrons of World War One soldiers marching past the window! Or rather, people dressed in WW! uniforms! It was very surreal.

More on the sights and sounds of Warsaw when I have time.

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