Walking Tour

journal warsaw

Location: Warsaw

There’s an awesome market hall right by my airbnb, Hala Mirowska. I grabbed a large rectangular pastry filled with cheese and spinach for breakfast. They had about 8 different kinds, and I want to try tme all.

outside of hala mirowska
The market hall. It was open every day and always full of people shopping.

I took a long walk to the reconstructed old town, and walked from its southernmost end up to the northernmost, then headed back south on a path along the river. The original old town was razed by the nazis as punishment for the warsaw uprising. The reconstruction is charming and great to walk through. Within the old town, only polish citizens are allowed to own property (as I was told). There are enough restaurants to keep someone busy for weeks. It’s definitely the highest density tourist area. Other than polish, the language I heard most often was german (guided tours).

old town square
Popular square in the old town. It's typically full of people when there isn't a pandemic.

I walked through the university to Cafe Kafka, where Jimmy, Marlies, Aleks and I commonly had a coffee and cake or breakfast, and played cards.

Covid or not, the cafe hasn’t changed in the last three years. It’s right on the edge of what seems to be the main cluster of university buildings. While most of the clientele appear to be students, it never seems to be more than comfortably full.