Red Bull could only sustain my driving for so long so I pulled over around 4am to kip at a trucker's stop outside Warsaw. In the morning I made my way to a great little campsite south of the city called Wok Camping. Great facilities and a bar with free wifi - jackpot! It is a long cycle ride up the river to the city centre though.
The guy running it looks a lot like Hulk Hogan and when I asked him if there were any areas of the city which might be dangerous to travel around at night he paused before taking his finger and drawing a ring around what appeared to be the whole city. I laughed, he didn't.
Warsaw has the vibe of a beaten and bloodied old boxer who just keeps on getting up. The city has been bombed, battled and fought over for centuries but they just keep rebuilding it. As a result, the Old Town area was still only rebuilt after World War 2. This is also the nicest area to start exploring on the edge of the Wisla River.
The Castle is fairly modern looking (because it is) with a tower at the rear which backs out onto the main square. On the other side of the square is St Anne's Church which has a neat little viewing tower over the old town and above the door has a big banner of the Pope's face!
As you head inside the old city walls, you come to the Cathedral and the Market Square with the sword-wielding mermaid at the centre - one of many in the city but certainly the most famous. It is a bit of a shame that the square is full of various restraunts jossling their gazebos for position though.
As you continue to the city wall, you reach the Barbican Tower and there is a nice little shop, the oldest shop in the city, right next door - still selling old antiques and paraphernalia.
Slightly west lies the beautiful Saxon Gardens with the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier and a changing of the guard in the centre of the park which has crowds of tourists reaching for their cameras. Up to the north west is the former Jewish region and there is a vast cemetary crammed with grave stones from WW2 and a monument has been built in dedication to their plight.
If you head south from the old town to the city centre you can't miss the Goliath of Soviet buildings named the Palace Of Science And Culture. It is one of the biggest buildings in Europe and looks so out of place among the stylish glass towers and shopping centres which have grown up around it.
The building itself was built by Stalinist Russia as a kind of "we're-cool-now-right?" good-will gesture but it gives a great view out over the whole city. From the top, the city centre and old town look okay but outside of the main centre, identical grey concrete tower-blocks stretch off into the distance in every direction.
Warsaw's most famous inhabitant has to be composer Frederic Chopin and he has a very interactive (if not really very inspiring) museum set in an unfinished palace which later became the Institute For Music. He said that when he died, aged only 39 and living in Paris, he wanted his heart buried in a free Poland and it can be viewed in one of the pillars inside the Church Of The Holy Cross.
To the south of the city is the Palace Upon The Water, I think the name says it all really. Built on a lake in Lazienki Park, the building has a great setting while peacocks, ducks and red squirrels scurry around the park. The Botanical Gardens are just north while the reconstructed Ujazdow Castle in the middle is nice but nothing special. Elsewhere, the huge Narodowy Stadium is currently going up for Euro 2012, joint hosted with the Ukraine, and has kick-started further development on the east side of the river.
Maybe Poland's time is not too far away.
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