It’s a nine hour flight.
Well, I slept some and actually felt more or less human when we landed. We made it to the hotel, showered, changed and met back downstairs to go explore the city a little.

Our hotel, Le Meridian, sits right on the edge of Olde Town Warsaw, and directly next door to the Presidential Palace. My room looks down on the courtyard in front of the palace and I can watch the Presidential Guards do their thing.
I’m traveling with Bob, our new business development guy, and Klaudia, one of our art directors. Bob is here because this is a new business deal and Klaudia because she speaks fluent Polish.
We head out from our hotel and walk towards Olde Town. Olde Town is very cool, but looks very much like other old sections of European cities I’ve been to. Not that this is a bad thing, it’s just that Europe starts to look like Europe after awhile. Just a different language.

It says a lot about how young American culture is, but all these old European cities look like Disney sets to me. Obviously, this is where Disney got his inspiration, but it’s odd to see it in person. It all looks like fake facades, where if you walked behind there would just be plywood and a naked lightbulb swinging idly.
The Poles seem nice enough, certainly friendlier than the Russians, and they seem to have their shit together more. After all, they had a pretty good head start on the rest of the former Soviet Union, so they’ve had more practice with capitalism.

We stop at an Irish Pub, because I have decided that I have a duty to visit an Irish Pub in every country I travel to. So far, I’ve been very successful. Didn’t see anything in Costa Rica, but I’m sure if we’d spent more time in San Juan, we’d have found one. The pub itself was very cool. It was a labyrinth of caves really. Stairs that went up, then down, and cavelike rooms with curved ceilings that reached the floor. And like a lot of Irish bars in other parts of the world, there was nothing Irish about this place beyond the fact that they sold Guinness. They didn’t even have a decent cider, which was my real purpose for stopping in the first place. But no matter, we’d gone to the trouble so we stayed for a proper pint of Polish ale. Not bad. Had my first shot of Polish vodka as well, and sipped it on ice. Very nice.
We left the pub and entered another large square surrounded by restaurants and stores with apartments above. Like Paris, nothing taller than three or four stories. Eventually, we found ourselves a little outdoor cafe and sat down. We ordered a cheese plate, champagne and strawberries, and large plate of pierogies.

While we were sitting there, a young bride and groom, which we had seen earllier getting married at a church built in 1725, walk by having their picture taken by a photographer. I run out of the cafe and catch up to them, snapping away.
Two of the things I love about Europe are the quality of the cheese, and the price of champagne. Sure you can get lots of nice wines, but I can get those at home. You can’t beat high quality champagne and cheese at rock bottom prices.

We were eating light because we figured we’d still eat dinner somewhere later, but when the time came, we ate dessert and had more champagne at a small restaurant near our hotel, then went to bed.
Well, Bob and Klaudia went to bed. I decided to try another Irish Pub and find my cider. I walked several blocks away only to find people inside and the door locked. I knocked and the guy who opened the door pantomimed that they were closed. I walked away feeling very forlorn.
I walked back the way I had come and decided to stop in at the place across the street from the hotel. It sat on the corner and had been busy all night. Turns out, it’s sort of like an America diner, only everyone stands, drinks beer or vodka instead of coffee and eat fish instead of eggs. A waiter from the restaurant we visited earlier is there and he beckons me over and buys me a shot of vodka.
My bed beckons.
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