Warsaw

Warsaw is a lively capital - a great centre for entertainment, with broadly friendly locals who are always keen to try out their English, and a large ex-pat community. Aside from Krakow this is probably the only place in Poland you will get away with speaking no Polish whatsoever. Spend a week here if you are in a drinking or clubbing mood - prices aren't rock-bottom, but they still beat western Europe, but you can have every drink in a different bar or club for a fortnight and never run short.

You might run short of fun for the daytime however. Warsaw was completely flattened by the Germans at the end of the second world war. Really flattened. There are only a few hundred buildings in the entire city which survived. Suprisingly there is still an old town, complete with marketplace and royal palace, but along with Nowy Swiat (New World Street), and a couple of other streets, these were painstakingly rebuilt from scratch in the post-war period. This is of course worth seeing just to marvel at how well it has been done. Other buildings of note include the enormous Palac Kultury (Palace of Culture), which looms over the city from a massive square near the station. Although it is clearly one of Warsaw's few assets, it was a "gift" from Russia and is a much-hated symbol of Soviet repression to a large proportion of the population. It is always in some danger of being demolished or hidden by new building. There really isn't much else to see, so if you are not keen on nightlife you will probably want to get out after a couple of days.

Climate and weather

Summer.

Warsaw can become swelteringly hot during the summer, with plenty of sun and quite high levels of humidity. The only thing to do in this weather is to grab a punnet of strawberries from one of the dozens of street stalls and stuff yourself.

Winter.

As it is at the centre of a massive plain at the heart of central Europe, Warsaw can sometimes be even colder than the mountainous regions to the south, and is certainly cooler than the coast. You might be lucky in December and find that Warsaw is quite comfortable, but the chances are that if you turn up in the middle of winter you will need a decent coat and won't want to spend too much time outside. Since the public transport system is mostly trams and buses operating from open stops, you are going to get cold.

Landscape and scenery

As was noted earlier, Warsaw is not famous for its mass of historic buildings. This does ignore how ugly the remainder of the buildings in the city are however. The whole of the central area is a mass of hideous grey soviet-era blocks, interspersed with the odd modern skyscraper (none of which have much to recommend them). A few interesting developments such as the bizarre glass building by the Centralna station suggest that things are very slowly starting to improve.

In terms of actual scenery, once you get out of town (which is a long way in any direction) the surrounding countryside is quite pleasant, composed of huge evergreen forests and national parks. The Wistula river meanwhile, which runs along the edge of the city centre, may be rather brown but at least it provides a break from the endless grey concrete of the city.

Language

Compared to other areas of Poland, English is pretty widely-spoken in Warsaw. Any establishment that ever has any tourists will have somebody on the staff who can talk something that sounds like English. Outside of the tourist centre, and in dealing with officials such as the police, you are likely to find more trouble if you don't speak Polish. You are never far from an English speaker however, and most are more than willing to help translate. Bear in mind that Polish is a phonetically-spelled lanuage with somewhat different sounds to those normally found in English, so Polish English speakers often pronounce words strangely, and may have a little trouble understanding suprisingly common words when you speak. Just try a different word or pronunciation instead.

German and Russian are less widely spoken in Warsaw than in other parts of Poland, though they may be worth a try as a last resort.

Shop opening

Shops in Warsaw are open broadly western hours, from about 9 or 10am to between 6 and 8 at night. A wide range of shops is open at the weekend, although they tend to close a couple of hours earlier on Sundays.

Most of the large city centre shops are located between Nowy Swiat and the Palace of Culture. There are a range of bookstores, supermarkets and boutiques in this area. In particular Traffic, located in the dead centre of this area, has several floors of books, with international and Polish DVDs and music in the basement. The top floor of Traffic is a stylish club with live music most nights of the week.

There are a number of out-of-town shopping centres. In particular Arkadia is a favourite amongst the ex-pat community. This has the usual range of shops you would expect at any out-of-town mall.

Crime and punishment

Crime.

Poland has a not-wholly undeserved reputation for violence. Warsaw is fairly typical in this respect. In terms of robbery, there are a large number of genuinely poor people begging or hanging around in the city centre. The risk of being robbed or otherwise attacked is probably much the same as in Britain, which is to say fairly low, but it is always best to keep one eye on the people around you and the area you are wondering into, particularly if you are alone after dark.

Police.

The policia in Warsaw are augmented by a massive number of patrols by the Straz Miasto (town guard), and on the transport system by a plain clothes "Control" officers checking tickets. Most of the time all of these people will find it easier to leave foreigners alone, but they do occasionally bug people for ID or pick on minor offences for the hell of it. Carry a photocopy of your passport to show them.

Basic laws.

Drinking in public appears to be illegal in certain zones in central Warsaw, and is certainly not allowed on public transport. The general population could not care less, but it may be best to hide your alcohol from the authorities.

Arriving by Plane.

Warsaw Frederick Chopin Airport is the largest in Poland. It is located half an hour from the city centre by bus in the Okecie district. Scheduled flights arrive here from all over the europe. Economy flights usually arrive at Warsaw Etudia Terminal, which is about five minutes walk from the main terminal (from the main terminal walk past the domestic terminal and keep walking. It is not particularly well signposted). Etudia is an appalling travesty of a building with almost nothing in the way of facilities either before or after security, so you might want to hang around the main terminal for a while if you are early for check-in.

Warsaw is a pretty cheap destination for budget flights, but if you are having trouble finding a cheap flight, bear in mind that train travel is not expensive in Poland, and it is possible to travel here from several other cheap airports. See the main Poland section for more details.

Arriving By Train.

Warsaw is the heart of the Polish rail network, and almost all international trains run through here, including the Berlin-Warsaw express (3/day, 6 hours, 35 euros) and Brussels to Moscow service. Trains also run to Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Budapest, Prague and Vienna. For details of these international trains see the main Poland section. Most Intercity trains within Poland also run either to, from or through Warsaw, with only a few long-distance regional trains avoiding the place completely.

Most trains stop at at least three different stations called Warszawa (Warsaw) as they head through the city. You almost certainly want to get on or off at Warszawa Centralna. This hideous Soviet-era monstrosity hardly offers a warm welcome to the city, with its warren of subways full of dodgy-looking shops and kebab stands, and its cold oversized concrete concourse, but look on the bright side - it's central (right by the Palace of Culture), and buses and trams head out to the whole city from the bus station and street directly beside it. If you are familiar with Polish railways you may be suprised by the use of centralna (central) rather than glowny (main). The reason for this is that there is a pre-war station called glowny a couple of blocks to the north, although this is now a museum rather than a station so there is no room for confusion.

Arriving By Coach.

Eurolines run coaches to Warsaw from as far away as Edinburgh, and as close as Munich.

Getting around by public transport

Travelling by bus, tram and subway.

Public operator ZTM runs most of the buses and all of the trams in Warsaw as an integrated network. Either buy a single ticket which covers a journey on a single bus, subway trip or tram (about 2.50 zloty at February 2006) or a Dobowe ticket which is valid on all subways, buses and trams for 24 hours after the first use. The dobowe ticket costs a little less than three times the price of a single trip. Tickets are available from newstands and tobacconists displaying the ZTM logo. Either way you need to validate your ticket in the machine as soon as you board the bus, and an extra ticket must be bought for luggage. For full details (in Polish), see the ZTM website. During the day buses run regularly (about every 10 minutes on key routes up to every 30 minutes on quieter routes. From about midnight to 6am the regular schedules for both buses and trams are replaced by night services. These run over a more limited range of routes, and are as irregular as one per hour, but will still get you home using the same cheap tickets.

Fare dodging is rife in Warsaw, and inspections are rare so it is probably quite possible to get away with it. That said, the revenue control inspectors patrol in plain clothes, and while Poles might be happy to argue with them it will be much more difficult for a foreigner to do so. In any case the day tickets are extremely cheap and nobody likes moocher so just pay up. It is also far more risky to dodge fares on the subway where the control will just frogmarch you to the police station to be dealt with by the big boys

Private buses.

Various locations which are not well-served by ZTM buses are served by one of a dozen private operators. Unlike the rest of Poland these are generally coaches rather than minibuses, and are much less common. In the even that you need to catch one you just need to pay the driver. Expect to pay a little more than on the ZTM buses, and bear in mind that the ZTM day passes are not valid.

PKP local trains.

The Polish nation rail company PKP run a network of local and commuter trains in the greater Warsaw area. You are unlikely to need to catch these for any reason, but if you do just buy tickets for them from the non-Intercity windows in stations in the same way as for any PKP train.

Internet

Internet Cafes

There are a large number of internet cafes in Warsaw, and a suprising range of prices. The best prices for most of the day, and the largest place which is open 24 hours is Simple Internet Cafe, which is located at Centrum near the Palace of Culture. Just go into the subway from the metro station or tram and follow the signs. This place is particularly cheap if you happen to be there in the middle of the night

Free Internet

Most of the backpackers hostels in Warsaw have free internet, although this is often only a single terminal for a large number of guests. If money is really tight just hang around the terminal for an hour or two until it is free.

Gay and lesbian travellers

As with the rest of Poland, a slavish devotion to socially-conservative Catholicism means that many people take an extremely dim view of homosexuality. This is reflected by the city government. The mayor (now the president) has banned the Gay Pride festival three years running on slightly spurious public-order grounds, while little effort has been spent on discouraging violent "family values" demonstrations. That said, the situation is not quite as dire as in the rest of the country, and there is an active gay community and a fair number of gay venues in Warsaw. As in most places, younger people and students usually take a much more liberal view than their parents.

Hostels

There is an increasing number of independant hostels in Warsaw which open year round offering accomodation for around the 40 zloty mark (slightly more in summer). Unfortunately Dizzy Daisy who run good hostels in other locations only run summer hostels in Warsaw, however both the Nathans Villa and Oki Doki hostels are open year round, and are welcoming to backpackers. There are an astounding number of reports of overbooking and people having to sleep in corridors or share beds at Warsaw hostels, so if somebody tries to climb into bed with you in the middle of the night don't go Macing them until you know that their intentions are amorous.

It is possible to get cheaper accomodation at the Polskie Towarzystwo Schronisk Mlodziezowych (Polish Youth Hostel Association) affiliated hostels. Reviews suggest that these are a guarantee of inconvenience however, with lockouts, curfews and a total lack of atmosphere. Warsaw is probably a good place to take advantage of friendly accomodation and meet some people.