Warsaw Poland Impressions
Yesterday morning I took a train from Krakow to Warsaw. The train takes about 3 hours and costs roughly 22 EUR. As usual the train ride made me fall asleep for the most part but before I knew it I was back in Warsaw and enjoying the scenery (buildings and women).
The train station/bus station is right in the commercial centre of the city and about a 20 minute walk from the main hostel area and the edge of old town.
Most of the hostels border old town and get really busy in the summer time.
Most people get to Warsaw by train or bus and arrive at the Central Station (Warszawa Centralna). There is a tourist information office at the station itself as well as several in or around old town.
Most hostels give directions on how to get there by public bus, but to be honest I would just walk, it takes 20 minutes sure, but it's really quite simple to find the old town area and it will give you a good orientation of the city.
When you exit the Central Station you will see this GIANT tall old communist type building... If you don't see it, walk somewhere to the other side of the station. Make sure it is on your left and side (its a few blocks away, but keep it on your left and walk along the main street on your right called "AL JERO ZOLIMSKIE" It's a really big main drag with big stores, casinos, KFC, McDonalds, and malls.
You need to walk several large city blocks until you get to "NOWY SWIAT" which should take you about 10 minutes. There you will want to take a left turn. Nowy Swiat has a HI Hostel near that main corner where you just turned, but there are much closer ones to old town if you keep following it.
If you keep on NOWY SWIAT you will get to the University on your right and there is another hostel on Kopernika just behind and around the corner called Hostel Helvetica.
Now if you want to get to old town instead, just keep in Nowy Swiat which changes names to KRAKOWSKIE which will take you right in to the heart of Old Town.
The Old Town is really quite beautiful, I very much like the fact that it is a lot different in style from most of the old towns your will see around eastern europe. This is largely due to the fact much of Warsaw was destroyed during the war and it's actually a rebuilt version of old town, like new-old-town or something to that effect.
Regardless of the actual "oldness" of the area, I really like the feel of it, thought I don't like the prices. Warsaw if much more expensive than Krakow and will hurt the wallet by 30% more on average at most cafes and bars. If you want to save money I highly suggest doing the supermarket thing and going out to eat less often.
There are some nice areas which are slightly cheaper than old town off of Nowy Swiat along Ordynacka and Chmielna streets.
For me Warsaw is good for 2 days tops though, it's got some decent bars and clubs but it's a lot more posh and not a hard party city like Krakow.
--
Next stop for me is Kiev in the Ukraine -- I'm heading out tomorrow night and I think it's going to be an interesting and somewhat frustrating experience. Why frustrating you ask? Well, prices for hostels aren't too great so far, plus there isn't a great deal to choose from and the rating are abnormally lower than most other countries. I'm planning 3 days in Kiev for now, but we will see how things work out, I'm sure I can make a great time out of anything, but sometimes cost becomes too much of a factor for this budget traveler. Out of interest there is currently trains twice daily from Warsaw to Kiev. 0605 and 2135 at a cost of 180 Polish or about 50 Euros. It's a long trip, I depart at 2135 and arrive in Kiev the next day at 1620 or so. Ouch!
The train station/bus station is right in the commercial centre of the city and about a 20 minute walk from the main hostel area and the edge of old town.
Most of the hostels border old town and get really busy in the summer time.
Most people get to Warsaw by train or bus and arrive at the Central Station (Warszawa Centralna). There is a tourist information office at the station itself as well as several in or around old town.
Most hostels give directions on how to get there by public bus, but to be honest I would just walk, it takes 20 minutes sure, but it's really quite simple to find the old town area and it will give you a good orientation of the city.
When you exit the Central Station you will see this GIANT tall old communist type building... If you don't see it, walk somewhere to the other side of the station. Make sure it is on your left and side (its a few blocks away, but keep it on your left and walk along the main street on your right called "AL JERO ZOLIMSKIE" It's a really big main drag with big stores, casinos, KFC, McDonalds, and malls.
You need to walk several large city blocks until you get to "NOWY SWIAT" which should take you about 10 minutes. There you will want to take a left turn. Nowy Swiat has a HI Hostel near that main corner where you just turned, but there are much closer ones to old town if you keep following it.
If you keep on NOWY SWIAT you will get to the University on your right and there is another hostel on Kopernika just behind and around the corner called Hostel Helvetica.
Now if you want to get to old town instead, just keep in Nowy Swiat which changes names to KRAKOWSKIE which will take you right in to the heart of Old Town.
The Old Town is really quite beautiful, I very much like the fact that it is a lot different in style from most of the old towns your will see around eastern europe. This is largely due to the fact much of Warsaw was destroyed during the war and it's actually a rebuilt version of old town, like new-old-town or something to that effect.
Regardless of the actual "oldness" of the area, I really like the feel of it, thought I don't like the prices. Warsaw if much more expensive than Krakow and will hurt the wallet by 30% more on average at most cafes and bars. If you want to save money I highly suggest doing the supermarket thing and going out to eat less often.
There are some nice areas which are slightly cheaper than old town off of Nowy Swiat along Ordynacka and Chmielna streets.
For me Warsaw is good for 2 days tops though, it's got some decent bars and clubs but it's a lot more posh and not a hard party city like Krakow.
--
Next stop for me is Kiev in the Ukraine -- I'm heading out tomorrow night and I think it's going to be an interesting and somewhat frustrating experience. Why frustrating you ask? Well, prices for hostels aren't too great so far, plus there isn't a great deal to choose from and the rating are abnormally lower than most other countries. I'm planning 3 days in Kiev for now, but we will see how things work out, I'm sure I can make a great time out of anything, but sometimes cost becomes too much of a factor for this budget traveler. Out of interest there is currently trains twice daily from Warsaw to Kiev. 0605 and 2135 at a cost of 180 Polish or about 50 Euros. It's a long trip, I depart at 2135 and arrive in Kiev the next day at 1620 or so. Ouch!
