Warsaw Layover

Hey everyone,

I’ve made it to Georgia!!!  Cue celebration music and streamers!  It has been a long two days of travelling but I’m now happy to say I’ve made it to my final destination, albeit a little jet-lagged.  We arrived to Tbilisi at 4am from Warsaw and were assisted by the incredibly friendly Teach and Learn in Georgia staff.  They showed us how to exchange money and escorted us to the hotel where we’ll be staying for orientation until August 22^nd.  The trip started off with a bang however, with a 12 hour layover in Warsaw, Poland with two of my fellow soon-to-be English teachers.

I met up with Erin and Abbey in Chicago before our 9.5 hour flight to Warsaw.  (The flight itself was really boring since I attempted to sleep the entire time but maybe only managed a few hours of sleep).  When we got to the Fredric Chopin Airport we exchanged $30 each and attempted to find some lockers to store our carry-on luggage.  Even with the help of a friendly cab driver, the lockers weren’t working that day, so instead we just carted around our bags through the rainy Warsaw weather.  We really wanted to take the bus out to Old Town since the Facebook groups described how it was pretty easy.  What happened was that we got on the right bus but we ended up getting off at the wrong stop (didn’t want to actually miss Old Town now!).  We got off at a main stop in what appeared to be a busy central area of Warsaw with a huge movie theater and a mall in the area.  Since it was raining, we wanted to take a minute to figure out a plan so we head to a nearby bar that was advertising happy hour.  Mind you it was 11am in Warsaw at this point, 3-4am in the States.  We each ordered a Carlsberg beer (not to bad actually) and just talked for a while out of the rain. 

After asking our bartender how to get to Old Town we decide to take another bus since walking in that weather wasn’t really feasible.  However, we didn’t get on the right bus so we ended up getting our own bus tour of Warsaw, just by staying on this bus while it rode around the city.  This ended up making me really tired since the time difference was catching up to me.  In the end, we decided to get off the bus at the same center location we started at, aiming to find caffeine and food.  We briefly walked through the crowded mall before deciding to eat at this Mediterranean restaurant.  Apparently Polish people love kebabs, they are sold everywhere.  It was an interesting cultural situation where we were in Polish Warsaw, eating Mediterranean food while listening to the likes of Eminem, Drake and Rihanna on the radio; quite the cultural mix was occurring! 

With our time winding down before we needed to head back to the airport we ultimately decided to try and find Old Town, especially after seeing it was right on the map the whole time (it was written small and in the corner!).  We walked through the rain some more and finally made it to Old Town!  It’s this picturesque part of Poland where the shops all have outdoor seating and the store fronts are all painted beautiful colors and the architecture is amazing!  We strode around taking pictures and looking at the place we should have been exploring all day!

We capped our day in Poland off by buying one last drink in a 24 hour bar in the middle of Old Town.  Eventually we made it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare and met up with a few other English teachers who were also on our plane. 

So that’s a recap of the past 30 hours or so as I sit here in the hotel lobby writing this.  I’ve taken a nap and they are about to serve lunch, so hopefully I’ll be able to try some Georgian food already!

Love and miss you all so much!

Kelsey