Warsaw - Restaurant Recommendation "Zapiecek"

After we visited the National Museum, we hurried to visit the super futuristic shoppingcenter "Złote Tarasy", which was nearby, before the shops closed. After we ran around for hours to use the precious time, we didn't even have time for snacks, so we were starving and wanted to visit some restaurant, which was recommended on Tripadvisor. And we were lucky, that we got the last table. I'm talking about the "restaurant chain" Zapiecek, which has multiple restaurants in Warsaw. I was really looking forward to the Pierogi, which I know from my grandma, so we ordered a mixed plate as a main course as well as Sauerkraut with meat. As a starter we had a pea soup with sausage. And everthing was suuuper delicious. I just love the traditional polish cuisine, because everthing is so hearty and rustic. Just look at their menu (here) and your mouth starts watering immediately. At least mine.:) Also the ambiance is so nice. Classic, but still modern. And when we received the bill, we were also pleasantly surprised, beause it was super inexpensive. We loved everthing about that restaurant and would 100% recommend it!

Nach dem Museumsbesuch haben wir noch schnell einen Abstecher in das nahgelegene und super futuristische  Shoppingcenter Złote Tarasy gemacht. Nach dem ganzen Umhergelaufe, um jede Sekunde der kostbaren Zeit zu nutzen, hatten wir nicht einmal Zeit für einen Snack gehabt und waren total  ausgehungert. Zum Glück haben wir auf dem Weg in die Altstadt noch ein auf Tripadvisor gehyptes Restaurant gefunden, in dem wir glücklicherweise noch den letzten freien Tisch ergattern konnten. Es handelt sich um die "Kette" Zapiecek, die über mehrere Restaurants in der Stadt verfügt. Das Restaurant serviert typisch polnisches Essen und ist auch noch in der günstigen Preiskategorie. Natürlich hatten wir es auf meine heißgeliebten Pierogi (kleine, gefüllte Maultaschen) abgesehen, uns sprachen aber alle Gerichte auf der Karte total an (hier; aber Achtung, wer jetzt keinen Hunger bekommen möchte, nicht anschauen;). Wir hatten also als Vorspeise eine Erbsensuppe mit Wurst und danach eine Auswahl an unterschiedlichen Pierogi und eine Platte mit Sauerkraut.

Alles suuuuper schmackhaft! Und als wir die Rechnung bekamen waren wir ebenfalls überrascht, denn für alles haben wir dann umgerechnet weniger als 30 Euro bezahlt. Auch das Ambiente ist super hübsch! Das Restaurant hat uns extrem überzeugt, also kann ich es zu 100% empfehlen.

Warsaw - National Museum

The National Museum in Warsaw is not only the largest in town, but also one of the largest in whole Poland and has nearly 830,000 exhibits on display, starting with ancient pieces, over to medieval sacred art, Gallery of Old Masters with paintings from national and other european artists such as Rembrandt, Botticelli or Renoir and even applied and modern art. So with its different types of art from almost every period of time, it is really diverse. To tell the thruth, I didn't know much about polish art and now I wonder why, because the exibits are as exceptional as the ones from the famous italian or flemish artists. I even found some favorites there like Aleksander Gierymskis "In the bower" or "Strange Garden" by Józef Mehoffer.

Das Nationalmuseum ist Warschau ist nicht nur das größte der Stadt, sondern auch eines der größsten des Landes und verfügt über Ausstellungsstücke unterschiedlicher Epochen, angefangen bei einer  Antikausstellung (die leider während unseres Besuches geschlossen war), über Kirchenkunst aus dem Mittelalter, eine Gemäldesammlung nationaler und ausländischer Künstler, sowie polnische Moderne und Angewandte Kunst. Das Museum ist somit sehr abwechslungsreich gestaltet und für jeden Gechmack ist etwas dabei.

Um die Wahrheit zusagen, wusste ich nicht viel über polnische Kunst, was schon wirklich eine Schande ist, denn die Kunstwerke stehen denen bekannter italienischer oder flämischer Künstler in nichts nach und ich wundere mich, warum manche polnischen Künstler nicht über ihre Landesgrenzen hinaus bekannt sind. Ich habe dort einige Gemälde entdeckt, die jetzt zu meinen liebsten gehören, wie z.B. "In der Gartenlaube" von Aleksander Gierymski oder "Strange Garden" von Józef Mehoffer.

Warsaw - Day 2 - Change of Plans

Originally my plan for our second day was to visit the Royal Castle. But because an event was happening there that day, it was closed. So we spontaneously had to make a change of plans. My number one tip while visiting a city is, always make sure to visit a tourist office first. Of course you have to research the main attractions before you travel, but it often happend to us, that the sights unexpectedly changed their opening hours. So we went to the tourist office at the Old Town Market Square and they suggested an alternative nearby. So next stop - National Museum.

Warsaw - Rising Museum

During our "city tour" we learned, that the Warsaw Uprising was one of the major historical events of the cities history, if not even the most important, when the polish resistance fought to liberate the city from its german occupation. After these 2 months, over 85% of the city was destroyed.
The museum deals with the events that took place before, during and after that happening. It is said to be one of the most innovative museums of Poland and that made it even more interesting for me. Normally I don't like museums, that are only about war, because I find them too depressing and upsetting, but because this event was so important, even for the identity of the city nowadays, this museum has to be on your schedule, when visiting Warsaw. With its dark atmosphere it takes you back to that wartime, but is more fascinating than depressing, because you see how the people fought for their freedom.

Warsaw - Historical Heart

With our voluntary city guide (part one here for the explanation:) we continued our walk through the historical center, from the castle square to the old town market place and the barbican. I never thought, that the city would be so colourful, quaint and picturesque, but it shows how wrong you could be. Because the city was almost completely destroyed during the second world war or more explicit during the Warsaw Uprising, they rebuilt it and put it back into its original state. 

Because the Warsaw Uprising is such an important part of the cities history, logically our guide ended the tour in front of the Monument, decicated to this event. I think he would have continued the city tour, if it wasn't Good Friday and he wanted to go to church.

Warsaw -The Royal Lane

Ciao! Because once again we had to use our travel emergency solution, we didn't have much time to prepare for that trip. Of course I browsed through tripadvisor a bit and chose some places I wanted to see, but didn't know anything about the routes to find these. So we started just with a rough direction in mind and the name of the stop, where we had to get off the bus. But the info-boards are different to the ones in Germany and if you are not familiar with polish, then all the words look and sound similar. But as I said in my previous post, everything worked like clockwork and a man offered his help and as if by chance he had to go in that same direction. So he asked, if we wanted to join him and as soon as we got on the bus, he started with his city tour. It turned out,that he was a retired german professor and it seemed as if he knew eveerryythingg about Warsaw. We then even walked around together for hours and he told us about the city's history and many stories about the buildings, anectotes, etc. A hail of information went down on us and I really struggled to take good pics, because the weather and light changes alone were challenging.

But it was sooo interesting! Today here is my first part of our walk, down the royal lane.

Weil wir wieder auf unsere Reisenotlösung "Blindbooking" zurückgreifen mussten, hatten wir nicht viel Zeit, um uns auf die Reise vorzubereiten. Natürlich habe ich mich ein wenig vorher bei Tripadvisor umgeschaut, aber wusste nichts über die Routen, um zu meinen ausgewählten Zielen zu kommen. Eines davon war natürlich der Königsweg und das Schloss am Ende von diesem. Also sind wir einfach losgegangen mit einer groben Richtung im Kopf und einer Zielbushaltestelle. Wer des Polnischen nicht mächtig ist, für den klingen die meisten Wörter gleich und an der Bushaltestelle waren wir dann schon am verzweifeln. Aber wie ich ja bereits in meinem vorherigen Post berichtet habe, hatten wir so etwas wie eine Glückssträhne in Warschau. Denn an der Bushaltestelle bot uns ein älterer Herr dann seine Hilfe an und das in akzentfreiem Deutsch. Dieser musste auch in die gleiche Richtung und so fragte er uns, ob wir ihn begleiten wollten. Und so fing unsere Stadtführung an. Es stellte sich heraus, dass der besagte Herr ehemaliger Deutschprofessor war und jedes Detail über seine Heimatstadt wusste. Also führte er uns ganz spontan 3 Stunden durch die Altstadt. Ich musste mich wirklich konzentrieren, um gleichzeitig noch Fotos zu machen, denn allein die konstanten Wetter-und Lichtwechsel stellten mich schon vor eine Aufgabe. Heute gibt es also den ersten Teil und zwar den Königsweg.

Warsaw - Introduction

It's like a miracle. Today I start with my blogposts about a destination, which isn't located in Italy. After we did a trip on my boyfriend's birtday last year, like I do on my birthdays since my 18th bday, we again decided to travel and use Eurowing's Blindbooking. Actually it's just an emergency solution, because we are both slow at making decisions and we wait until it's too late and expensive.

This time Blindbooking brought us to Warsaw and our first time in Poland. Afterwards it felt like destiny, because everything on that trip went like clockwork. Even the bad weather didn't disturb our good mood.

Or flight was quiet late in the evening and after checking into our super nice and modern apartment (Chopin Apartments), which was just at the outskirts of the city center, we even found a small supermarket around the corner. Shopping at foreign supermarkets is one of our favorite things to do, while travelling, because it is always so interesting to try out new stuff. And all the products were so delicious, even the microwaveable dumplings filled with sauerkraut and bacon. :)

The next day we just went out without a  concrete plan and precisely for that reason, we met our own city guide on a busstop. But more details in my next blogpost - "Royal Route".