We're Here!

It's quarter to ten in the morning here in Warsaw...meaning it's almost 1 AM at home.

We arrived at about 6:30 in the evening, got to our hostel by 7:30, and were asleep by 8.  Yes, you're reading that correctly--the first thing we did on arrival in Warsaw was sleep.

When we first got into the cab at Chopin and actually started heading into the city, I thought it looked a lot like Vancouver: sky scrapers, new construction galore, and rush hour congestion.  But then as I was watching people weaving in and out of traffic and forcing their way into lanes where it did not seem like they could possibly fit I realized drivers in Vancouver looked sane and cautious by comparison.  It made the roads and drivers in Kamloops look absolutely pastoral by contrast.  Their cars also really resembled a convergence of canines at the local dog park: everyone seems to drive with their nose up the tailpipe of the person in front of them.

Also, the area surrounding Warsaw is flat...and I mean prairie flat.  The only difference is the fact that there are trees everywhere.  I looked out the window as we were making our descent and thought for a moment that we had passed through an inter-dimensional wormhole that came out in Alberta.  For a girl who grew up west of the Canadian Rockies, that can be a bit alarming and a little disorienting for the first few days.  At least it looks like the mountains are only a short train ride away from Radom if we start getting homesick and want to seek higher ground.

Today we will start branching out from our temporary digs at the New World St Hostel.  The rooms are comfortable, the staff is fantastic, and it seems to be fairly close to almost everything one could possibly want to see.  I will keep you all posted on our adventures over the next few days.  One of the first things on our agenda will be trying to get Polish cell phones. 

This promises to be interesting.