Discovering an off-the-beaten-track Warsaw with fellow travel blogger Jonny Blair.
We also backpacked Pałac na Wyspie and the Frédéric Chopin Monument, but they are too popular, too mainstream, so they didn’t get included.
We’d already backpacked and later blog-packed Osiedle Przyjazn, the Cool Globes and the Elektrownia Powiśle, Centrum Praskie Koneser. And alone, I had backpacked the standard tourist sights, the Warsaw Old Town and Nowe Miasto.
1. E.Wedel Chocolate Cafe:
We drank a ‘milk chocolate with blackcurrant purée, caramel with sea salt and whipped cream’, at the E. Wedel Chocolate Shop/Cafe, which is the oldest brand of chocolate in Poland.
There are many E.Wedel Chocolate Shops across Poland, but we went to the one on Zamoyskiego Street in Praga, which is next to the Fabryka Czekolady and the museum, which will be opening very soon.
2. The Longest Housing Block In Warsaw:
Przyczółek Grochowski is a housing estate in the Praga-Południe district of Warsaw on the east side of the Vistula River. And goes down on record for being The Longest Housing Block In Warszawa
It was built between 1969 and 1974 and consists of 23 residential blocks connected by galleries, bringing the total length to 1.5 km.
3. Legia Warsaw Stadium:
The Józef Piłsudski Municipal Stadium is home to Legia Warsaw, the most successful football club in Poland.
The first football match at the stadium was between Legia Warsaw and CF Europa Barcelona took place on August 9, 1930 and was a bizarre stroke of randomness that we were backpacking the stadium on August 9, 2024. Similar to when I backpacked the Mestalla Stadium in Valencia when I had toured the ground on the 101st anniversary:
4. British Telephone Box in Warsaw:
Across the street from the Legia Warsaw Stadium is Polskie Radio, and fenced off in the parking lot is a stand-alone, iconic red telephone box. If this is not random, I don’t know what is.
5. The Piaseczyński Canal
The Piaseczyński Canal is a 820 metre-long, 25 metre-wide and 2 metre-deep canal that doesn’t go anywhere. It was dug between 1717 and 1726 on the orders of Augustus II the Strong.
6. Freddie Mercury Street
The Aleja Freddiego Mercury’ego is a 97-metre-long street near the above-mentioned The Piaseczyński Canal/Piaseczno Canal. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and like Samborska Street in the Nowe Miasto, it doesn’t have any buildings associated with it. The postman never has reason to go down there.
But it was the 1st street in a European capital city to be named after Freddie Mercury, and Jonny and I were the first travel bloggers to backpack it, then write about it: Freddie Mercury Street in Warsaw, Poland.
7. Ronald Reagan Monument:
Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States of America from 1981 to 1989, and this statue on Ujazdów Avenue was unveiled on November 21st, 2011, by Lech Wałęsa, the President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.
It shows Reagan giving his “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech on June 12, 1987, in West Berlin.
8. Rondo Tybetu:
The Tibet Roundabout is the official name. It’s not really a roundabout. Hey, I am from Milton Keynes. I know what a roundabout looks like; we have over 500 of them. It’s an area under a flyover. They wanted to call it the Free Tibet Roundabout, but the idea was rejected.
The Rondo Tybetu features a series of murals from what is known as the Tibetan Gallery, where the predominant theme is about the Tibetan Liberation Movement.
Here are some of the murals:
9. Skwer Nelsona Mandeli:
The last two stops of this random day are right next to each other. They are just small, nondescript ‘parks’ which aren’t even Skwer (square) at all.
10. Skwer Martina Luthera Kinga
Did you get the meaning of the word ‘random’? We drank hot chocolate at cafe belonging to the most famous chocolate producer in Poland, then we toured a soviet housing estate, then the stadium of the most successful football club in Poland. A British telephone box, a canal, a couple of squares that weren’t squares and a street with no houses named after the late Freddie Mercury.
That is a random day! That is randomity!
Then we headed to Nowy Świat for a few beers (I was continuing my no-beer challenge, so I just drank tonic water and a 0%).
Here we are at the Pijalnia Wódki i Piwa, one of the many cheap bars in Warsaw:
I dig the quirky stuff to see. My favorite travel activity is walking in as many directions as possible over a week without a set plan. I just go for hours to experience the city. Typically I find neat stuff by exploring with no specific agenda.
Sometimes I seek out unusual sights listed online but under the radar. I hiked hours to see a fully preserved blue whale skeleton by a lagoon on a military base a few days ago here. Not your typical activity. About 100 feet in length and probably weighed around 200 tons when swimming around the Pacific Ocean.
Yeah, I just love to wander as there is 98% of the time always something to see…