Part 3 - Warsaw

We hopped on another train for about a 3 hour ride. This time we didn't get trapped in bunk beds, but we had to stand cause there was no room. That's what you get for taking the cheap train.

Zosia met us at the train station and we had an awesome weekend. It started off with an amazing homemade dinner with her family, then they had a cake a presents for us afterwards for our birthday! It was so nice to celebrate with friends. The next day, Zosia showed us around the city:

The Palace of Culture and Science, the world's second largest clock-tower. There are 3288 rooms on 42 floors, with an overall area of 123,000 m², containing cinemas, theatres, museums, offices, bookshops, a large conference hall, and an accredited university.

Technical Museum

Sala Kongresowa (Congress Hall)

A really neat building with a hole in the middle

Shopping center called Wars Sawa, from the derivation of the city's name, believed to be a combination of the names of a fisherman Wars and his wife Sawa.

The tram we took! I think we used every form of public, ground transportation possible during this trip.

We went to the old town next. Here is a view of the National Stadium they are constructing for the UEFA Euro 2012 hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine.

The Royal Castle

The Old Town Market Place

The Warsaw Mermaid, which is the symbol of Warsaw

Kristen, on the walls around the Old Town

Then we walked to Zosia's university, and saw the Presidential Palace along the way.

Entrance to the University of Warsaw

A map. The university is pretty spread out.

The only palm tree in Warsaw!

A bench at the entrance to The Baths Park that plays Chopin music. He was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw.

The Chopin Monument. There are concerts here, and people sit in the many benches surrounding this area.

One of many red squirrels that were running around this huge and beautiful park.

There were also many different kinds of birds, including peacocks.

The bus ride home to another fantastic dinner :)

The next day we went to the Chopin Museum, the most technologically advanced museum I have ever been to.

This piano played music when you set different books of sheet music on it.

Here you could listen to his work while looking at a book about it. Even the book was electronic, as you flipped the pages, the projector would show the next page on the screens of the book (I hope I explained that well...)

This sums up our weekend pretty well: Zosia waiting while we took pictures like crazy

The entrance to the museum

A mural on the outside of the museum

Then we went to the university's library, which is an awesome building

Science!

The inside, the roof is all glass

We did some bowling inside! But you had to pay for time, not games. So we played for an hour and didn't quite finish the second game

Us with Zosia's boyfriend, Mariusz on the roof! It is one of the largest and most beautiful roof gardens in Europe.

Picture time! We took a lot...

It was so cool, I wish our library was like this!

Pretty sunset

That night we went home and played Monopoly, with Zosia's dogs

Here's the other, such a big dog! Forgive me Zosia, I forgot their names :(

Before going to the airport, we picked up some Pączek Różany (bottom right), like a jelly filled donut, but not as sweet. It was good!

The rest of the pictures are on Picasa (as always):

Warsaw