Warsaw: Concert At The Park

Fantasie Impromptu, one of Chopin's famous works  
(video taken with my little Lumix DMC-FP1)

It's Frederyk Chopin's 200th birthday this year and all of Poland is throwing a yearlong birthday bash. In honor of his great contribution to music, concerts, exhibitions and competitions were held everywhere. We decided on our last day to see for ourselves one such event - held every Sunday from May to September at the Chopin Memorial in Lazienki Park. From Jerozolimskie, we started walking but realized the park is way further than we thought so we hopped on a tram with our unlimited passes. At the park entrance, we could tell where the exact venue was just by following the throng of people walking in the same direction. Chopin, and not Lady Gaga,  apparently have more fans here.

Warsaw: The Ghetto Wall

It rained cats and dogs just as we were about to look for Warsaw's Ghetto Wall. Thankfully the thunderstorm ended soon just as it rolled in quickly. We made a dash out from a Metro station that became our temporary shelter and into one of the trams that would bring us closer to our destination. Since Warsaw has super-wide avenues that require serious leg work (and there's an efficient public transport system anyway), we armed ourselves with unlimited passes (1-day, 3-day or 7-day passes are available).

Warsaw's Old Town

The Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy) is dominated by the Royal Castle

One long envious look at Warsaw's "old looking" Stare Miasto (Old Town) and all I could utter was "how I wish Manila's Intramuros was rebuilt as well". Both Stare Miasto and Intramuros represent the very core of the cities in which they stand. Everything began here - the very umbilical cord to its inception.

Warsaw's Royal Route

Our quest for Warsaw's Old Town led us to follow a part of the so-called Royal Route. In old times, Polish kings built palaces in Warsaw that were connected by a series of roads. Today, this route is a popular way for visitors to stroll and in the process take in a bit of Warsaw's long history.

What's Up Warsaw?

Palace of Culture and Science

After visiting Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga and Latvia and getting spoiled by their relative peace and order - our first glimpse of Warsaw is that of a bustling, hyperactive capital city. Amidst the continuous ramble of trams, buses and taxis racing down its wide avenues, all sorts of people making up the roughly 1.7 million residents go about their business with that kind of urgency so common in Manhattan. And did I mention that the skyline is increasingly going more upwards?
 

On The Train To Warsaw

Staying at Panorama Hotel was really advantageous. It's close to both the main bus and train stations so all we needed to do was just walk, sparing us the hassle of taking a taxi with our big bags. This time we were taking the train to our next destination. Surprisingly, train tickets can't be booked online. We bought ours at the train station first thing on our arrival in Vilnius.