Hyatt Regency Warsaw

... the Poles, then a communist country, of the arrival of a Polish Pope. <br> <br><br>Alot of the churches were used as places of refuge during the early 40's and the crypts were used secretly as hospitals, once the Nazis (physically) were present in Warsaw - they systematically executed all the medical staff and blew up all the churches so that those in the crypts were buried alive under the rubble... Similar to parts of Berlin where they are rebuilding the ...

... shopping centre (I wasn't complaining!). It houses plenty of brands such as Next, Bershka, H&amp;M, Hugo Boss as well as little boutiques. I even managed to pick up a dress for an upcoming wedding! We decided against the traditional Polish food and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The Polish food was lovely, as was the beer! I preferred to stick with wine as I'm not a big beer drinker.<br><br>Overall, it was a great weekend!

Warsaw, Poland &#8211; June 22, 2209<br><br><br><br>We arrived in Warsaw yesterday, Sunday, June 21, 2009 on Father's Day and got settled into our hotel.  We did get the chance to venture out to the old historic section of Warsaw on Sunday night, June 21, 2009 (see attached photos) which is about a 20 minute walk from the hotel where we are staying.  Our Fulbright hosts, Andrejz and Ola, escorted us to the old part of Warsaw where we ended up ...

... Warsaw is ginormous, I never even thought about that. Krakow was a piece of cake compared to this city. It reminds me more of Chicago or New York than a European City. I'm going to go to Old Town this afternoon and look around, if I can find it. Wish me luck! I'm also going to try and buy my train tickets to Lithuania too, but the train station is SOOOO huge and confusing. Ugh. I'll write again when (if) I get to Vilnius!

Entao... reconfirmando, gostei mesmo de Varsovia, mas ela nao colaborou comigo. Passou o dia BEM nublado, chovendo de vez em quando. Ta fazendo 9 graus (mas sentido 7, segundo o weather channel). Enfim, como com a chva e o frio, nao deu pra ir no Stare Miasto (centro hist'orico em polones), eu fiz uns passeio "internos". Bom, primeiro tentei ir l;a, fui at'e a Ulica (Rua em Polones) Nowy Swiat, q 'e uma via cheia de palacios e tal (toda reconstruida, obviamente), mas ...

... so lame carrying around technicolor bottles of lolly drinks, but we didnt care. Bottles can be cashed in here, so as you can expect street people are gagging for bottels, tonight they were doing a roaring trade, it was christmas i guess, drunk people linning the streets desenping bottles as they had exhausted them. most of the collectors carry around bags, but the big players have carts and trolleys to carry them in. Anyways, back to the game. We sat with lennie ...

I checked my credit cards, bank statement and money that Dorota gave me. I am starting to think that I need to get out of Warsaw for a while. I went to the train station and they accept credit cards for payment for tickets. The bus does not. I am starting to think that I should go to Zakopane. I have never gone during the winter time and it's THE place to go during winter. I also want to see snow. This mixture ...

... to do now. Bar Mleczna Pod Barbakanem in Stare Miasto. I get cream of mushroom soup, klopsy with kasza. Dad goes for borscht with the same entrée. By the time we're done with everything, I am freaking tired. I had grandioso dreams of returning some things at H&M. But honestly I am worn out. I am still trying NOT to get sick. I'm only a wee bit congested and I would like to keep it that way. I go home during rush hour on the tram and guess what ...

... on the right bus, but I began to realize more and more that I had gotten on the bus going in the other direction, away from down town. Even though I did get on the "wrong bus"(right bus, wrong direction) the ride over was pretty interesting. I got to see a more modern, industrial side of Warsaw and I also got to see some of the residential neighborhoods, which was interesting. I pretty much saw a lot of industrial buildings, some old ...

... But I can understand why they reacted the way they did, and this gave me an idea as to why my grandfather was the way he was with my grandmother and mom...when you experience something that painful, would you really want to share that with everybody? And would everybody really understand, especially a stranger, or a foreigner such as myself truely understand something so deeply tragic as this? No of course not, and at first even ...