A weekend foray to Warsaw:

Unfortunately I was left with a couple of spare days and no available accommodation in Berlin. A combination of a huge music festival and the Berlin marathon meant that there was not a spare bed in the city! Rather than getting upset, it was a random decision to jump on a train for Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
After leaving Berlin it quickly became clear that:
1. I had accommodation and knew where it was;
2. I spoke no Polish;
3. Poland was not covered in my guidebook;
4. I had no map of Poland; and
5. I had no idea what was in Poland to see.

On the train ride to Poland, I spent the train trip trying to converse with the friendly Pols who shared the cabin. Trying to enjoy the beer that was literally forced on me, (I was still feeling the effects of post-Oktoberfestitis) I was subjected to the holiday photos of one of the blokes. With the physique of a true truck-driver, which is what he was, the varied shots of him in his budgie-smugglers standing somewhere in Europe were more than painful to the eye. However, he was a friendly fella who only meant well and was kind enough to insist on making sure I got off at the correct station.
Given that I was arriving at 2230 on a Friday night, the area around the station was full of people. Being wary around train stations is very important, particularly late at night and so I wasted no time in getting to my hostel that was a 20 minute hike. Dominating the central square near the train station was a monolithic building that towered above everything else. It reminded me of something out of Gotham City and half the time, while staring at it, I was expecting to see the Bat signal illuminating the clouded sky.
The main attractions of Warsaw were????? Well anyway I spent the whole of the next day wandering the streets of the new “Old Town”. During the war, Warsaw coped a bit, to say the least. The entire old town of Warsaw was levelled and in the time since, the Old City has been faithfully reconstructed to what it was in its glory times. Despite the fact that it is new, the detail of the reconstruction retains a charm that equates to what it must have originally been. Without realising it, the day was gone as the sun began to sink back into the horizon. If I had known there was more to see I might have been disappointed that I’d managed only one thing, however since I knew no better, as I got onto the train early the next day, I figured I’d had a good weekend away.