My last day in Poland began bright and early with housekeeping knocking on my door at 8 AM. I tried to wear a t-shirt and shorts again today but the weather (and my fashion sense!) keeps disappointing me :(. After buying a new SD card and placing my luggage with the hotel, I headed out to breakfast at a random cafe halfway to Old Town. I really like this Warsaw trend of outdoor cafes with umbrella seating! I had the Warsaw breakfast - a delicious combo of bread, cottage cheese, sliced meat, jam, tomatoes, and OJ and coffee. Across from us were seated a group of American retirees who were busy exhausting their infinitely pliable Polish tour guide with inane specifics about their food (Nutrasweet? Sure!).
After breakfast, we made our way to the National Polish Museum. There were permanent exhibits on Greek, Roman, and Egyptian art as well as much Polish early Christian art.
It was heading into afternoon at this point, so we went to get some coffee. Max got a code to use wifi on his phone at the cafe, which for some reason meant he was the only one who could use it! Internet deprivation had set in at this point (2 days). Max used Google Goggles which managed to successfully identify the palace in the cover of our guide magazine! Unfortunately it was too far south to visit easily. We decided to head for a closer palace along the water. Max finally manned up and got Sunny her lilies of the valley she’d been hinting at all trip.
The street on the way there reminded me a bit of Champs d’Elyses, with a wide boulevard, trees, and embassies perched left and right. We saw the Soviet-era US embassy. We finally arrived at some botanical gardens which were quite pretty, saw the palace, enjoyed looking at some peacocks, and got a magnificent pile of ice cream. On the way back to the hotel for dinner and our train to Minsk, Max got us lost and in a sketchy part of town, and it started to rain. My camera zoom saved us when we could read street signs using it that we couldn’t see otherwise. Eventually we find our way to a student diner and then to a Metro station. Max was opposed but eventually Sunny and I convinced him to brave the line at Pizza Hut. It was pretty good and cheap (~30 zloty for a large). We headed to Carrefour Express to get some food for the train (sandwiches and beer), got our stuff, and sat down to wait.
Unsure where to be on the train, we initially sat in a sitting compartment with a Polish girl named Anya. She had dreadlocks, was studying English literature and history at Warsaw University, and was on her way to visit her parents near the Poland / Belarus border. Sadly the train inspector came by and told us we were in the wrong compartment (Polish versus Russian). We had to drag our stuff across the entire train (you can see the moving ground below!) to a sleeper car where an old Polish man was already sleeping. In good old Soviet train style, there were 4 bunks, no air conditioning (hot!), and a few lights that didn’t work. We got our bed linens (Callie would be sad - we had 4 sheets!) but it wasn’t long before the rail attendant came by and told the Polish guy he could have his own compartment. He told us we could move instead (grumpy!). So we had to move yet again. Finally comfortable, we chatted about kids and everything until we hit the border.
We had nothing to declare here but an empty bottle of beer. Polish border control was much more efficient than their Belarusian equivalents (scanning our passports with handheld computers versus taking them all). Max has both a Belarusian passport and an American one. He showed the Belarusian passport to Polish customs, who were very confused as he entered the country on his American passport. Finally satisfied, they let us go and let the train change tracks to a wider grade. We dozed off to sleep.