Travel blog #1: Warsaw, Poland

I just came back from a citytrip to Warsaw, so I thought it might be interesting to share my experience, tips and must-sees with you. Happy reading!

A few months ago, one of my friends asked if I wanted to go on a short holiday together. Since I never say no to travelling, I was immediately keen to go, but I was a bit short on money since I already had some very exciting trips planned for this and next year. After some research we decided to travel to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. I had been to Poland one time before, but more on the countryside, so I was excited to see what the largest city of the country had to offer. I was not disappointed! Let me take you through everything we (my girlfriend and two of my closest friends) did when visiting Warsaw.

Day 1

We arrived in the new city center around 17 'o clock. The bus dropped us off right in front of the cultural palace, one of the main 'attractions' in Warsaw, so a great way to start our trip! We walked to our airbnb to settle in and freshen up a bit. If you ask me, one of the greatest things about travelling, is buying groceries for your first meal in another country and exploring the neighbourhood where you're staying. So we did exactly that. After walking around for about half an hour, we all got hungry and went looking for a restaurant. We stumbled upon a Thai place that looked appealing, maybe mainly because of the name of the restaurant (Pho Ever Yum). We decided to eat there because we were all pretty tired from the long journey and didn't want to look any further. The food was good, but the prices were better. We each payed about 12 euros for an appetizer, a main dish and homemade lemonade. We continued exploring the city with full stomachs and full wallets, strolled through a lovely park near the Palace of Culture and discovered a bar (Cafe Kulturalna) where you can get cocktails for as little 4 euros per glass. Here in Belgium you would pay at least double for the same amount, so we grabbed a seat and took a look at the extensive menu cart. The bar also offers a few vegetarian and vegan dishes, but we opted for a Cuba Libre, a fancy rhubarb-lime cocktail and some Polish beers that tasted like dishwater. They got nothing on Belgian beer but were still nice to try out. The waitress was very sweet and happy to help my friend out who wanted to make a list with essential Polish words like 'thank you' and 'hi'. She didn't even blink an eye when said friend messed up the words about five times and made up an entire new language.

The cocktails were great and we weren't ready for bed just yet, so when we spotted homemade wodka on the drinks list, we knew we had to try them! They had three flavours: lemon, rhurbarb and Stout, a dark beer. We ordered the last two, since they unfortunately ran out of the lemon one. Amazing flavour for less than two euros: the rhubarb wodka was tangy and sweet at the same time, while the Stout one had darker, more interesting flavours. I didn't really taste like beer, more like a combination of chocolate and very black coffee (which is the best flavour combination if you ask me). If you're looking for great ambiance, lovely and cheap drinks or food and an amazing location, you have to visit this bar! And while you're there, make sure to go to the bathroom. This may be an odd tip, but the building itself is absolutely amazing, since the bar is located in a theatre. After all this, we returned to our apartment and had a good night's sleep.

Day 2

After we woke up, we had a quick breakfast and headed for the old city center. I had heard lots of great things about it and wanted to see it with my own eyes. Since my brother was also visiting the city and knows his way around, we met up with him and he showed us around. Once we arrived in the centre, it was obvious this was the more touristy area. There were lots of people wandering around, going in and out of shops and restaurants, looking their eyes out just like us. The old city centre is absolutely beautiful: cute streets with interesting shops, gorgeous and colourful houses and so much more. It was very hot this day, so we had a refreshing mojito at a local coffee shop and took off our shoes to cool our feet in one of the many fountains we passed. Not sure if that was legal, but it sure felt great.

We had lunch at a pizzeria, where I had pasta with porcini mushrooms, hot chili pepper and lots of olive oil. We strolled around some more and then decided to check out one of the many shopping malls that Warsaw has to offer. None of us are the biggest shoppers (unless we're talking about second hand stores, but those aren't really a thing in Warsaw as far as I know) so we didn't buy anything, but I thought it was interesting to see how much the prices differ from those in Belgium. Books were also cheaper, but most of them were written in Polish so we couldn't really take advantage of that fact. Our shopping spree didn't last long and we decided to check out the huge Carrefour in the mall, where we got some pierogi, a typical Polish dumpling-like dish and stuff for dinner. I had hoped to find lots of interesting vegan meat replacements, since Warsaw has a ton of vegan restaurants and is known as a progressive city, but if I'm honest, I was a bit disappointed. We searched for almost half an hour and eventually asked (oh to irony) the butcher if there were any vegan options in store. They pointed out two types of vegan sausages, one for baking and the other one for on a sandwich. We got both, grabbed some drinks and crisps and went home to our airbnb.

For dinner, we had a classic Belgian dish called WAP, which stands for worst (sausage), appelmoes (applesauce) and patatten (potatoes). Afterwards we had some drinks in a park just outside our apartment. It was still really nice outside and chatted and drank and tried out these (apparently, I was a bit scared to try them) really nasty bacon-flavoured crisps. Even our meat eating friend didn't like them, so we left them in the airbnb for others to try.

Day 3

On day three, we all wanted to go for a swim. Weather had been crazy in Warsaw and we needed to cool down. Unfortunately, my girlfriend didn't pack a swimsuit so we had to change plans. We decided we wanted to switch things up a bit and be in nature, so we headed to one of the two botanical gardens in Warsaw. On the way there, we saw a protest and asked some police officers what it was about, but they wouldn't tell us. Nevertheless, it was interesting to watch, even though we couldn't understand the banners and didn't know what the hell was going on. We had lunch at a cute little cafe near the entrance of the gardens and then went to check out all the beautiful plants and flowers. I would recommend coming here if you love strolling around nature at your own pace. I've never seen so many types of roses before!

After an hour or so, we headed back to the old city centre to find some souvenirs and get some ice cream. I had heard about N'ice cream Factory, a popular shop that makes its ice cream with the help of liquid nitrogen. It sounded very fascinating, so we wanted to try it out. The concept is simple: you pick a base (soy milk, cows milk, yoghurt or water for sorbet) and then choose three flavours. All flavours are displayed on the wall, so you can easily create your own ice cream flavour. But no worries when you don't know what to combine, the staff is really friendly and happy to help! I chose a soy based-ice cream with espresso, dark chocolate and salted caramel. It was delicious, and seeing how it was made, made it even more fun!

After we finished our ice cream, we took the bus to the world's smallest house. Needless to say, it was very small. I would honestly be surprised if it turned out that you could fit a single bed in it. It was squeezed between two huge apartment blocks and didn't even look like a house. Unfortunately, you can't go in there to take a look at how it is furnished and such, but it was still interesting to see. Apparently, this is a place that travelling writers visit when they want to focus on what they're best at, writing. We had some drinks at a cafe near the world's smallest house, overlooking a beautiful church. This neighbourhood reminded me of Paris somehow, with it's broad boulevards and impressive houses. After we finished our drinks, it was already getting late and we went looking for some place to eat. For our last night in Warsaw, we wanted to eat out somewhere a bit fancier. I had my eye on a completely vegan pizzeria (Leonardo Verde) that I found on Happy Cow, so we went there. The interior is pretty nice and so was the food! I was feeling a little fancy so I ordered a cocktail I never tried before: a New York Sour. It had red wine, bourbon, lemon and is originally served with some whipped egg white on top (which sounds gross, I know), but since this was a vegan restaurant, they replaced it with soft peaks of aquafaba and dried flowers (which sounds just as gross, I know). I was a bit held back at first, but it actually tasted great! None of companions liked the drink because they are babies and can't stand bourbon, but I would really recommend you try it out if you're in the mood for something different. I wanted to try out the arancini as a starter (kind of like fried rice croquettes), but they ran out of them so I settled with the garlic focaccia. I'm used to focaccia being thick, chewy but this one was thin and reaaally crispy, with garlic oil drizzled all over it. And it was huge, which is always a plus for me ;) the pizza I had was also very good. It had mushrooms, homemade 'ham' that tasted like the real stuff and very flavourful cheese. I found the cheese to be a bit sticky, which is almost always the case with vegan cheese I guess, but it tasted great! The cheesecake I had for dessert was a bit of a let down, since it had way too much coconut in it for my liking. My own fault maybe, because lots of vegan cheesecakes are based on coconut but I'm not a big fan of it in sweet things. The cheesecake I make is way better in my humble opinion, so I'll make sure to share the recipe on here soon!

After our dinner we went to cafe Kulturalna again, because I told my brother about the wodka they serve and he got curious. I ordered a homemade rhubarb lemonade for 2 euros and we had some more of that amazing Stout wodka. Again, a fun and relaxing summer night with awesome company and great food!

Day 4

Last day of the holiday! I was sad to leave because time had flown by like crazy. We had to take the bus to the airport around 18 'o clock, so we decided to take it easy this day. We visited a tiny museum called Fotoplastikon, a large wooden drum-like contraption where, through viewing holes, three-dimensional pictures are produced using a special dual-lens camera (thanks, Ecosia). In this case, the pictures were all taken during World War II. After seeing these we wanted to go to the next room, only to find out it was empty. Apparently, this one room was everything the museum has to offer! A bit disappointing, but since a ticket only costed 80 cents, I would recommend you check it out when in Warsaw.

Because of this, we had more time on our hands than we had anticipated, so we went for a drink at Matcha Tea House. As the name suggests, this isn't a regular coffee or tea shop. Here you can find all things matcha: from iced matcha tea to matcha lattes and matcha cakes. A few of the desserts were vegan, but I settled with a iced latte with soy milk. My brother, who joined us after the museum, had a lovely plum wine.

We were getting kind of hungry and decided to get some food at a traditional Polish restaurant. I ordered pierogi with sauerkraut, mushrooms and fried onions on top. I'm usually not a big fan of sauerkraut, but stewing it made the flavour more mellow. Plus, I was happy to finally try out some Polish food! Most of the classic Polish dishes aren't vegan, but veggie pierogi often is, just make sure to check it out. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the name of this restaurant, but there are a lot of likewise places in the centre!

After this, we grabbed an ice cream at the same place as the day before. This time, I went for a combination of coffee, oreo's and cacao. Delicious as well! We packed our bags, said goodbye to Warsaw and promised the city to come back for more.

Overall thoughts: Warsaw is made for citytrips. There isn't that much to do or see, but you should definitely be able to fill your days easily. I loved the contrast between modern and traditional architecture. The neighbourhood we were staying at was a bit rough-looking, but it had a certain charm to it. I also really liked the fact that we had an airbnb in an apartment block that almost literally screamed 'communism'. There were a lot of beautiful parks, gorgeous churches and quite a few of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. All in all, a great city to spend a few days in!

All pictures are taken by my very talented girlfriend Luca, check her out if you want to: www.instagram.com/deridderluca/