Welcome to the second part of my Warsaw adventure. If you missed it, you may want to read the first part here: @joonto/joonto-s-travels-warsaw-i
My search for a new place to live starts in Warsaw. When I announced that, my Polish friends in Malta asked me: "Why Warsaw?"
Reason number one is that, after 9 years spent on a tiny island, I'm tempted to experience the big city life. Now, the biggest problems with big cities is that they are expensive. All the West Europe capitals require something like 50-60k EUR a year to have a decent life. All of them, expect Berlin and Warsaw. I love Berlin, but the thought of dealing with German bureaucracy on a daily basis gives me the chills. Bureaucracy seems to be the strong side of Poland. Everything is digitized, quick and straight forward. Most of the documentation is available in English too. Finally, as the owner of Rzeźnik Steakhouse, Robert, told me, corruption is very low. This allows even a foreigner new in town, to open a business quickly, without having to rely on friends of friends.
Reason number two is that living in a big city could be a medicine for an introvert like me. Nine years spent in a place where everyone knows everyone worn me out. At the beginning it's cool, because you make friends quickly. You just need to meet few buddies and in a few days, you will have hundreds of friends, simply by joining their groups. However, on the long term, there is a dark side to these easy friendships. You end up to bump into the people you know, too much. In Malta there is no privacy. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone gossips about everyone. Everyone slept with everyone. Everyone hurt everyone. I need a place where I can interact with the people I like, when I want, with the assurance that when I go out alone, I won't bump into them. I want to be free to date a girl without the fear that she might be already dating my buddies or being friend with someone I dated in the past. A big space like Warsaw seems to offer the proper protection against this unnecessary embarrassment.
Reason number three is that Poland's economy is in a strong expansion phase. In Warsaw itself, I could observe how many new business buildings are being constructed. Big companies are relocating to Warsaw and this process sped up after Brexit. Warsaw can become the new London and if it does, buying a property in this place could be a jackpot investment. Imagine owning an attic in the center, for the next 10 years.... It smells like Malta 10 years ago, but without that aura of corruption and greed that smashed the island.
Reason number four, which I thought about only once I left Warsaw, is connection. Poland sits at the very center of Europe. From there, you can go anywhere else and with different means, not only airplane. I'd love to take the train as much as possible. Only when you live in a place without trains, you can understand their picturesque value. What other mean of transport allows you to enjoy the countryside like trains? It's on the Gdansk-Warsaw train that I could see foxes, cows and deer, all in plain sunlight!
I tell you, Warsaw and Poland are full of surprises. Let's see what I discovered during my two weeks there! Plus, the Palace of Culture and Science is so Gotham City that a bat-fan like me cannot resist!
I want to say that my long stay was possible thanks to my friend Margaret, who rented me her amazing flat at residential rates (basically as if I was staying long term). Dzeki dear! See you soon in Malta!
Social Life
Warsaw is a big city, so you have all kind of activities you want to meet people. Night life is the easiest way, of course. Yes, there is even a Latino place, where you can dance your goddamn salsa. It's called Teatro Cubano. Everyone who loves Latino music is in love with this place. Mind you that there is a dress code in this club, so make sure to wear smart and with long trousers for men, elegant and heels for women.
Of course, I avoided the Latino and preferred the nearby Opera House Club. The club itself is not that big, but it's furnished in an elegant way, all wooden with an Oriental touch. You have Buddha heads everywhere and the wooden architecture reminds a little of a Chinese palace. But what really matters in a club is not the furniture, but music and vibes. These were great. It had been 2 years I hadn't been in a club. You can't imagine how liberated I felt when I could dance like crazy on a dance floor! When I walked in, a basic house track was playing, then the DJ mixed over this piece an unmistakable line: "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT out out out" (delay effect)! The night kicked in fast. This DJ was mixing popular hits like Mambo #5, L'Amour Tout Jours, Without Me, Crazy About Love or Call Me, all remixed in a crazy new way. This was a real DJ, not a silly dude just pressing Play on his Mac!
I don't have a stronger love-and-hate relationship that I have with the dance floor. I love it, because when the music I like plays, I'm able to get loose in the craziest moves, feeling like I'm expressing my true self.
I hate it, because of past traumas that make impossible for me to grab the girl I like to dance. It's hard to break the loops. When I'm on the dance floor with a girl I like, I'm the closest to be a machine. They say that a machine cannot break from its program. Exactly, I feel like I'm programmed not to dance with her. Even when I desire a girl so bad, my arms can't grab her, no matter how strong I tell them to do it. They won't move! I feel like a host from Westworld. They are programmed not to kill humans, no matter what humans do to them. Yes, my hate for Latino music is strongly linked to those traumas. I used to dance salsa for a while, then something happened, touching some painful spots. Now I can't dance with anyone, in any style I like, not only that stupid salsa. Peter Gabriel sings: "My body is a cage, which keeps me from dancing with the one I love." - I sing: "My mind is a cage, which keeps me from dancing with the one I like."
I'm not a shy guy, it's just that my mind created a loop which tells me if I dare to dance with a girl, she will reject me for sure and in a bad way. My night will be ruined altogether. I know it's irrational and I should work on it, but is it really worth to ask my therapist to fix this? I think we have more important aspects to work on with her...
Regardless of the place you choose to rock your night, most people choose to start from the Palace of Culture and Science. This building will always be your lighthouse in the Warsaw ocean. In the square you can get a drink from Bar Studio and sit with other people at the long public tables you find in the square, right in front of the palace entrance. Here, you have another cool club called Teatr Dramatyczny, where I spent my first night out, with wonderful Couchsurfing buddies. We came here after we spent a whole afternoon at PiwPaw Beer Heaven. They have a great selection of local draught beers, from sooth blonde IPA to extravagant beers flavoured with orange. I think I tried at least 5 different pints over the day... I must thank Stefano for this day. In the morning, I was afraid I was going to spend another lonely, boring day in Warsaw, a painful perspective if you consider that the weekend was going to start. What? No, Tinder doesn't work much there, at least if you are picky as I am. If you are not picky then, you may find some desperate over 40 lady who may even invite you over right away, but that's not what I was looking for. So, I insisted on Couchsurfing Hangouts and I got into a conversation with 3 other people. Elia proposed to meet at The Alchemist for lunch. Stefano and I agreed on that, but Elia stopped replying as soon as a girl joined the chat. I suppose they hooked up... Nevermind, Stefano and I met at the restaurant anyway. We spoke English for a good 30 minutes before he realized I was Italian like him. Yet, we enjoyed speaking English. It's rare to find Italians with such level of English. Stefano's secret is that his girlfriend is from Canada, so he's well trained, but still smart. How many Italian people have a native-speaker partner and still utter a broken English? Cheers to Stefano! It's him who got me into a Telegram and a WhatsApp group where other travellers and expats wanted to meet in Warsaw. Over lunch, we directed these people to PiwPaw and the circus kick-started. We arrived at PiwPaw at 14.00. We were just two. By 20.00 we were about 15 people willing to party! We did a great job to be proud of!
If you're on a solo travel and you still want to enjoy the social life at its best, I suggest you to join the Telegram group "Weekly Warsaw Meetup". Telegram is like WhatsApp, just 10 times better! And it doesn't belong to Facebook.... On Telegram, you'll find many young people up to the most diverse activities, including clubbing, going to bars, playing board games, even playing beach volley on the big shores the Vistula created! The beaches there offer even free chairs and BBQ grills! I felt as if I was in Malta. Spending a day with other young expats in Warsaw was one of the most delightful moments during my stay! These wonderful people make me eager to come back! Special thanks to Alina for making such a lovely day happen!
The Vistula river is very lively even during the night. If you walk along the riverbed, starting from the Multimedia Fountain Park (to see especially during the night!), you will come across cool bars and clubs which are actually... boats! Yes, these boats are parked on the river serving as restaurants and when the sun goes down, they turn into nightlife hubs! Some of them host even concerts and DJ sets, making people on the shore dance like crazy. Don't worry, by the river you will find even live music, but if you want to experience the night in a very alternative way, you can stop under the Śląsko-Dąbrowski Bridge and exercise at the outdoor gym placed there. Yes, some people party by doing crazy stunts at the gym tools. There was even a man who was collecting bets on how many pull-ups you could do or how long you could hang! I didn't participate, but my date asked me to do some pull-ups on a bar away from the crowd. I did 4. I challenged her to try as well and she managed to do 1 even when she didn't believe in herself! Always try before giving up!
If you're older and you wish to mingle with your age, I strongly recommend you InterNations. This network is fantastic. You go in a new city, where you don't know anyone and bam! You have some event ready for you. You show up there, a nice ambassador will welcome you and will introduce you to the other members. InterNations is the biggest expats network on the planet. They are in every big city in every continent. They organize dinners, nights out, but also cultural events, like evenings at the theatre, at the opera or activities like group visits to museums and landmark sites, classes, group cooking, BBQs and so on.
I was surprised how many Americans I met at the InterNations events I attended in Warsaw. The most hilarious was Ann, a girl who worked for AstraZeneca! Even more hilarious, the fact that she got the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine! Then I met Randy, a man who works into the waste industry, helping Polish companies to trade or get rid of their industrial waste. He is strongly Republican, loyal Trump's supporter. He was proud to have worked for the American delegation during Trump's visit to Poland. Listening to his point of view was very interesting for me. I liked how I listened in a detached, non-judgmental manner. Listening with the intent to understand, not to reply.
Another interesting American I met was Simone, who was in Warsaw to work at the US Embassy for 6 months, to replace a maternity leave. She was sent directly from Washington DC! Then I met, Tamara, who has the craziest background. Tamara was born in Panama, moved to Alaska when she was a kid and then lived in Sicily for some years, teaching English. Recently, she moved to Warsaw, just to change and scaling up her teaching business.
Not only Americans of course; InterNations bring together many people with incredible backstories, that's why I love their events so much. I even met two interesting locals. One was Patrycja, she is a native Warsavian for generations. Adam is a Polish who became almost Brazilian after spending 4 years in Sao Paulo. He is a digital nomad and wants to experience a bit of life in Warsaw. His fully remote job paid in Euro allowed him to buy a luxury apartment with pool in Sao Paulo. That's the life I want! I hope this journey will lead me there.
The cost of living in Warsaw is still low, but it increased exponentially in the last 10 years. Chris, a German engineer who teaches German too as a side job, has been living in the Polish capital for 15 years. He told me that when he arrived, a pint of beer would cost 5 Zloty, aka less than 1 Euro! Today a beer costs on average 16 Zloty... Imagine if you bought a house back then...
One of the InterNations events was at Rzeźnik Steakhouse, which is situated in Nowy Świat. This is a street full of restaurants and bars. It's perfect to kick off the night if you don't know where to go. For sure you will find the right place for you. Of course, avoid those spots where the staff tries to drag you in. Some of them may well be strip clubs, which will drain your card...
Impressions
Would I ever live in Warsaw? Yes, I would! I'm seriously considering it. Warsaw went beyond my expectations and even the expats I met who live there are very happy with the city. Some Polish friends told me that the city is highly polluted, chaotic, stressful, grey, but I experienced the opposite. I didn't feel this pollution, while instead I saw green parks and trees literally everywhere. I even bumped into wild plumb trees with fresh plumbs ready to eat! Even in the city center! The roads are all built with cycling tracks. The bicycle looks like the best mean of transport in Warsaw. Consider to buy one if you want to enjoy the city at the fullest. Bicycle please, not those damn electric scooters! Use your legs, for your own good sake!
Now that you have uninstalled Bolt scooter, let's wrap up Warsaw according to my senses!
Weather: It's Central Europe, so expect a lot of rain. The good news is that it's not that cold. When the sun shines, you will be able to relax with good beach volley on the river bed!
People: Friendly! And they all speak English!
Food: Like in every big city, you have endless options. Whatever you want to eat is there and the quality is always excellent.
Cost of living: Of course it's more expensive than Krakow or Gdansk, but for now living in Warsaw is still reasonable. Eating out rarely costs more than 20 EUR per person. With 50 EUR, you can fill 2-3 bags at the supermarket worth of one week of food. Living alone in a good area can cost around 600 EUR a month of rent. As you can see, we are still far from the London levels, but hurry, because it won't last...
Safety: Amazing! Never seen a big city which looks so safe, even in the suburbs. No gangs, no junkies, not even drunk dudes. Only a crazy couple who harassed me at a bus stop during heavy rain, but I think they had some mental disorder, so they don't count and anyway they didn't do any harm.
Landmarks: The Palace of Culture and Science stands out of course, but Warsaw offers many other interesting landmarks. I was impressed how they managed to rebuild the Old Town! Chapeau!
Transport: It's probably the best public transport I've ever experienced. It's well spread, fast, easy to use and extremely cheap. With a 8.60 Zloty ticket, you can travel for 72 hours on every platform (bus, tram, metro). Just the metro could be more capillary, there are only 3 lines for now.
Nightlife: Whatever you desire...
*No grammarly used