But, I finally came to see and know the city first-hand. I flew in to Warsaw last Tuesday afternoon with some colleagues for the bi-annual technical seminar for our Consulting and Integrating Team. As expected, the flight was delayed and we landed in Poland at 10:30 in the evening. After about 10 minutes of waiting for the blanked-faced Immigration Officer to encode whatever information he found in my passport in his computer and finally approved my entry, we were off to Westin Warsaw , the venue of the seminar.
Palace of Culture and Science - previously known as Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science but was changed at the wake of destalinization.
The foggy view of Warsaw from my hotel window
The seminar was very informative and an ideal means for knowledge cycle to enable engineers to share and re-use experiences on respective projects thus developing our knowledge. There were three streams with simultaneous sessions and one can choose subjects or topics he/she wants to attend. More interestingly, I got to meet colleagues that I’ve been working with in previous projects and met new ones as well. The whole attendance came from all over Western Europe.
On Wednesday evening, we were brought to a traditional Polish dinner and dance. The restaurant was about 45-minute coach ride from the hotel and located at the outskirts of the city. It was a totally new experience for me as the venue has a barn-like theme with traditional Polish band playing wearing their national costume. It was more like a visit to the past and I truly enjoyed it. Food was delicious and mouth-watering and vodka was overflowing. I just fell in love with their warm wine with a fruity flavour and served in an old-fashioned mug. After dinner, I, together with 20 others, had an attempt of their traditional barn dance with a folk music played by the live band and it involved a caller who instructed the dancers in their dancing. It was pure fun but exhausting with all the jumping and kicking. It seemed that I burned up all my dinner with just a 10-minute dancing. Then the old Polish games went in full swing with lots of cool prizes.
The main entrance of the "barn" where the buffet of authentic Polish dishes and overflowing vodka greeted the guests.
Parlor Game: old-fashioned Polish ski race? It's not as easy as it seems.
Colleagues enjoying the Polish music and dance
With the seminar taking the whole day the next day and the sun setting down quite early, I didn’t have enough time to look around the tourist spots and the shopping centers. But immediately after the closing of the sessions, I grabbed my jacket and ask for the assistance of the hotel attendant to hail a taxi for me and I was off to Warsaw’s Old Town or Stare Miasto. The Old Town was established in the 13th Century and is impressive with its quaint cobblestone streets and unique old architecture. The center of the area is the Old Town Market Square with all the traditional Polish restaurants, cafes and shops. Walking alone around the town gave me a poignant impression of the place on how the Poles survived the German Nazi and Soviet Union invasion. I would have loved to walk further if not for the biting cold. So, after buying some souvenirs and managed to conversed with the limited English of the taxi driver, I was on my way to a modern shopping mall close to the hotel.
Here are some "night" images:
The Royal Castle or Zamek Królewski - the official residence of the Polish Monarchs located at the entrance of the Old Town.
Supposedly, that's the Zygmunt's Column. But the kind gentleman whom i asked the favor of taking my photo just didn't bother taking a shot of the whole monument....just a whole body shot of the pretty lady. hehe!!!
Indeed three days is too short to spend in Warsaw. Given another opportunity, I would gladly go back and get to know more about Poland and its friendly people.
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