Warszawa kicked my ass - aka a weekend from hell

Ah, the capitol city. The place of glamour, lights, sounds and tall buildings. The city of tolerance, of fast reliable public transportation, of teaming night life, the city that never sleeps, right? Right...? Well you would think that wouldn't you?

This past weekend IAESTE "organized" (I use that term VERY loosely here) a weekend get-together in the capitol of the country. We were all very excited about the trip, but it didn't take long before we were all VERY disappointed. I can honestly say, that this past weekend was the worst one that I have spent during my 3 month stay in Europe. Why you ask? Well it was a combination of things, like the fact that the weather was crap (pretty much rain all the time) as well as the fact that I was suffering from a cold/flu and was going through a personal hell, but mainly due to the 'unique' experiences that somehow all managed to happen at the same time... I will give a short summary of the bad experiences and then sum up with some attractions that we managed to see and experience.

So here it goes, the story of how Warszawa beat Monika...

1. Leaving Lodz on the 6:20 a.m. train on Friday morning.
Why? Well... Actually we still don't really know why... Our responsible in Lodz, Ania, decided that it would be fun to leave early... Turned out that IAESTE Warszawa had nothing planned for the Friday until 8:00 p.m. and was quite shocked to hear that we were at the train station at 8:40 a.m. "What are you doing here??" was the question that we got when someone called from the station to ask whether we would be picked up and taken to our accommodations... Not a good start. Thanks for robbing us of our sleep Ania...

2. Wrong hostel info on the website that had our itinerary on it.
About 9 of us decided that it was stupid to wait at the train station for 1.5 hrs for someone to take us to the hostel, so we broke off from the group and headed to the address that was given to us. It was raining and we were tired and wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, the address given to us was incorrect... We didn't find out about this till AFTER we went through the trouble of checking in (read below) when one of the IAESTE Warszawa people came and yanked us from our beds...Why won't IAESTE just let me sleep???

3. The awful, rude, bitches; the Ladies Behind the Glass. (LBGs)
Now checking-in to this incorrect hostel was like mission impossible. After filling out random pieces of paper which asked for the most obscure information ever (names of parents?) we were presented with 5 sets of keys. Problem was that was only enough for 7 people. After kindly asking if I could have another double room, I was informed that I ALREADY received 6 sets of keys...

(Translated from Polish of course)

"I'm... I'm pretty sure that there were only five sets." - Monika
"NO! There were six, I put them all right there!" - LBG #1 pointing at the counter
"No, I'm sure that there were only five. There are four here and I'm holding one in my hand... That makes five." - Monika starting to get angry
"Well, I'm don't know where the sixth one went, but I put it there and it's not there so one of you must have it! You saw me put them there, didn't you?" - LBG #1 turning to LBG #2
"Yes, of course I did! It was right there, I saw it!" - LBG #2
"Clearly, I did not put it in my pocket!!" - Monika losing patience and wanting very much to punch the LGBs # 1 & #2.
"Well one of you must have, cause I put them there!" - LBG #1

At that VERY moment, enter the cleaning lady holding in her hand the SIXTH set of keys;

"I just finished cleaning that room. Here are the keys you gave me." - cleaning lady as she hands the last set of keys to LBG #1.

You should have seen the look on LBGs' faces! THOSE IDIOTS!! I thought that I was going to kill them... Did I get an apology? Ha! Ya right, this is Poland!!! And as it turned out I went through all that stress and arguing for nothing...

4. The disgusting hostel that they put us up in.
Oh yes, this fantastic place not only had brown water coming out of all the taps, but also a smell from the toilets that was noticeable 20 meters down the hall. Oh, and did I mention the dirty carpets, beds and walls?

5. The tram driver that decided not to stop.
First of, in the biggest city in the country, you would expect good public transit. You would expect... But alas, in Warszawa trams only run till midnight. Feeling really crappy because of the cold, I left the party on Friday night around 11:00 p.m. The party was in one of, if not THE doggiest areas of Warszawa (great planning there IAESTE), however Liz accompanied me back to the hostel. We got to the stop and shortly after the tram came...it came and left and we were left standing on the platform like before with looks of disbelief...

"Is this a joke?? Why didn't she stop and open the door??" - Liz
"It's not a joke Liz. Welcome to Warszawa..." - Monika

Not a problem, one more tram. Have to wait 25 more minutes but there's one more tram before midnight. The tram came and stopped... however 3 stops before ours it decided that it was done for the night and turned into the garage. Nice... We ended up taking a taxi the rest of the way.

6. The taxi driver from hell.
On Saturday night we all went to a club. After salvaging the night with a private party in the basement of the club (we got to be DJ's so the music was awesome!!) we decided to head home around 1:30 a.m. It was pouring outside and it took us about 5 minutes to flag down a taxi. Having been warned about 'mafia taxis' in Warszawa I looked down at the meter: 9.50 zl. 9.50 zl??

"Umm, is that the base tariff that we start from?" - Monika
"No dobra dobra, gdzie jedziemy!!??? (OK OK, where are we going??!!!)" - taxi driver yelling but canceling the meter.
"Umm, plac Naturowicza..." - Monika, shocked...
"No ale GDZIE??!!" (Ya, but WHERE??!!) - taxi driver
"Just to the tram stop that's fine.." - Monika, still shocked.
"HA!! Just the tram stop.." - taxi driver in a mocking voice.

When it was time to get out, we were searching for small change and he started getting angry asking if we have the money. After reassuring him that in a second we'll find some and all he needs to do it chill, I handed him some change and we all got out. Only after he drove away, did Liz inform me that he said "kurwa"(equivalent of bitch) to me as I was getting out. Nice...

So there you have it. That's a compilation of all the terrible experiences, that you never think could possibly happen to one person, in one weekend, but somehow they all happened to me...

Between all the poor organization, and unfortunate events, we did manage to do some sight seeing. If you are still reading this blog entry, I hope that you enjoy the pictures from the few experiences that made this weekend bearable.

A cartoon from the Warsaw Uprising Museum. There was one room that talked about Poland's fate after WWII all the way till 1989. The whole room was SUPER red, and you can see the glow of it reflect on the picture. A bit of a dark shot, but I was trying to capture the ambiance.
TRANSLATION:
"I am your saviour, I free you from the Natzis" and the tied up person is supposed to represent all of the Polish people.

Pretty 'kamienice' in the Old Town Square.

Again more 'kamienice'. I love these so much here in Poland, they are simply gorgeous.

Mike and Katrine hanging out in the square. The sun was out for about 45 minutes, and you can see the pretty, light-up colours of the buildings in the background.

Again, more pretty buildings. I guess you can call them "The Puffins of Poland" when it comes to my picture taking.

This one's for you Chris :)

A shot of a really funky, kind of astrological clock in the vicinity of the Old Town Square.

Hehehehe, in Warszawa there is a round-about at the base of a very funky street that reminds me of Yorkville (except it's mostly food and cafes and not so much shopping). On this round-about the city decided to put up a fake palm tree. Why? Who knows!! One of the IAESTE Warszawa people told me that whenever there is a big storm, all the leaves get pulled off the tree and usually all that remains is the fake plastic trunk. But, after each storm they repair the tree so that it doesn't look ridiculous... Ah, the irony...

Palace of Science and Culture (Polish side-note: how does that translation work??)

Me and Erin trying to be creative with the camera.

A view of the city from the terrace of the Palace of Science and Culture (30th floor).

The Zamek (aka Castle, but really more like a palace) in the Old Town.

Some colourful decorations inside the 'zamek'. What can I say, I like birds!

Inside the 'zamek'. How many mirrors do you see?

This upcoming weekend we're taking a trip to Berlin. Liz is done her IAESTE and is heading home, but not before partying it up with us in Berlin!! Liz has some friends there and they graciously hooked us up with accommodations until Tuesday. We're hoping that this will be a redemption weekend and that we can give our little schedule-obsessed German a proper send-off. Fingers crossed for good weather!