Wild Women in Warsaw

It finally came!
Noooooo, not the new phone books, but...

The weekend I've been waiting for since February! Orest reminded me back at the beginning of the year to check my Lufthansa frequent flyer miles as he thought they may be expiring soon. Sure enough, I had enough to fly anywhere warm in Europe, but in the end, decided to go back to my old stomping ground (where does that phrase come from anyway?) in Poland. I booked the flights and soon afterward 3 varying plates and bowls from my Polish pottery broke, so it looked like I had divine approval for this trip.
Then, when we went to visit the Whitesides in Lausanne at the end of February half-term, it seemed that other people were interested in making the trip as well and the ball starting rolling.

Next thing I knew, we had 12 of us flying in from all over the UK and Europe for the weekend. The excitement mounted as Sara booked the hotel for us (thanks Sara) and Deby & Mariola in Warsaw helped booked the evening entertainments.

We arrived a bit late only to find that the traffic had come to a standstill... a rare occurance in the Warsaw that I knew and loved. But we got to the hotel with only minor delays due to the ingenuity of our taxi driver. Lisa and I dumped our bags quickly and were off for some 'bole' shopping just a one block's walk from the hotel. Little did we know we had brought the crappy English weather with us and by the time we had multiple bags of shopping to carry, the thunder, lightning and rain were coming at us in earnest. We decided to get dried off and ready for the evening out rather than risk another soaking - good thing we did, Lynne, Sara and Vivienne were stuck in traffic for ages coming back from the Galeria. The Galeria could wait for another day...

That evening we were at Madame Gessler's newest restaurant called 'Ale Gloria', which seems to be a paean to the Madame herself. The interior was a study in extreme white and red colours, with white feathers, white fake fur, red strawberries and ribbons. I kept expecting Prince (or the artist formerly known as...) to come prancing out singing: "Strawberry beret, you know I love you..." Very over the top as only Gessler can achieve. As it was a mostly traditional Polish menu, I chose the venison pate followed by the duck, which were fabulous as we know how well the Poles make their duck. (I've never had a complaint about Madame's food or service, you just have to keep your head down to not drown in the over-indulgence of the decor!)


We came back to the hotel late and we all started drifting upstairs in dribs and drabs except Lisa, who ended chatting with a local from Finchley (on a stag weekend) of all places and then a Norwegian, who seemed to keep his cards close to his chest on what he was doing there in Warsaw, which leads me to believe he might be an assassin. Do Norwegians have assassins?
Anyway, I had falled asleep around 2 am and woke up abruptly at 5 am, just to check that Lisa was in her bed, but no one was there. In my sleep-deprived stupor, I sort of felt like Kevin's Mom in Home Alone when she realizes she's left a child behind. Just as I was trying to decide who to call: Lisa, the local morgue, the local lap-dance club in that order...Lisa came in. Pheeew! Imagine me having to explain to Lisa's family that I lost her on the first night there?!

Next day, started with a walk to the Stare Miasto to see what had changed (obviously not much - it's the Old Town for goodness sake!) and then my former regular taxi driver collected us to do the rest of the Bole shops of Warsaw. We ended by meeting everyone at a new mall Arkadia, then home to get dressed for dinner at 'Sense'. An excellent Thai meal ensued with 24 of us playing musical chairs all night, in order to have the chance to speak to everyone. The wait-staff deserved an extra tip for having to follow all of us around with our orders!

Next morning we were off to the Galeria to meet up with Deby and shop some more. (Lisa was able to go to the Russian market with Barbara M - but I just couldn't face it that morning.)
After lunch, we started saying goodbye to everyone and Lisa and I went back to the hotel to relax before our evening flight.
At the airport, it was amazing to bump into people we knew: Jenny and Jacquie. But that just goes to show you what a small place Warsaw is...

Sue, Barbara, Sara, Lisa, Louise, Christine & Debbie in the Radisson bar.