Day 1: Landing at F. Chopin Airport

The flight was a pleasant one and pretty fast. Within one hour and 30 minutes, the plane (at 3:20pm) landed on F. Chopin Airport. The taxiing took some 10 minutes, before we stopped near the gate. I got off the plane and onto the bus that took me to the arrival hall. Then I headed to the baggage area to collect my suitcase. Since I had to wait, I exchanged euros for zlotych. Eventually my suitcase came and I went through customs. Since Poland is also a 'Schengen' country, I didn't had to view my passport, but it also meant I got no stamps.

I took a taxi to Warsaw, which is under 10 kilometers from the airport. But the ride took well over 40 minutes, because of the traffic going into the city.

Eventually I got to my hotel, the Metropol Hotel. I paid for the ride and went into the hotel. I got my room key and took the elevator to the 7th floor for room 716. The room was nice, with a view on the busiest intersection of Warsaw, or so it seemed.

I went to the toilet, freshened up and studied the map of what to see and do and more importantly, where to eat! I decided to go for a japanese dinner, as I really was hungry for that. So, I wrote the address down, went out of the hotel and begin searching for the restaurant. I checked for the numbers on the buildings, but they were either too small to see from a distance, hidden behind something or not ont he building. So, I took a gamble if I would go left or right and of course when I choose to go left, I gambled wrong.

So, I had to turn around and walked into the right direction.

But the more I walked, the further the restaurant seemed to be. Eventually I gave up and decided to have a chinese meal instead. The meal was really good and also very fast cooked. It was a wok style restaurant, the only difference was that the food was cooked and then brought to your table. And the food was already cooked it seems, as only 1 minute after I had ordered everything, the waiter came back with my meal.

After the dinner, I walked around the area of my hotel a bit, before I returned to my room. I was pretty tired from a long day and watched some tv on the bed, before I closed the door of my french balcony to block most traffic noises from outside and fell asleep on a very soft bed.