Poland & Berlin: Part 5 - Day 5: Walking tour, Warsaw to Zakopane

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 5.

25/7 Day 5: Guided walking tour followed by bus trip to Beach Wieliszewo (actually a river that has sand). Night train from Warsaw (10.58pm) to Zakopane (arrived the next day 6.55am). 

Costs

(A) Food

(1) Breakfast at Vincent Boulangerie Patisserie - Warsaw breakfast set including a medium coffee (baguette, jam, omelette and salad) PLN34,90, Cappucino PLN5 (included in the breakfast set otherwise it costs PLN17,90). Total PLN39,90 / SEK104,32

(2) Lunch at Nova Karafka - Spaghetti carbonara - PLN39, apple juice PLN9. Total PLN48 / SEK125,50

(3) Drink at small shop by the beach - Kompot PLN5 / SEK13,07

(4) Chocolate ice-cream at McDonalds Cafe - PLN9,50 / SEK24,84

(5) Dinner at Trattoria Murano restaurant - Salad with salmon pieces PLN53, Tonic 200ml PLN9, Cappucino PLN13, Cannoli with vanilla cream PLN27. Total PLN102 / SEK266,62

(B) Transport and miscellaneous

(6) Tips to walking tour guide - Shared PLN50. PLN17 per person / SEK46,27

(7) Locker fee to store backpacks - Shared PLN22 / SEK57,52 for 24 hours. SEK19,17 per person.

(8) 1 tram ticket from Airbnb to main train station - PLN3,40 / SEK8,89

(9) Return ticket (train and bus) from town to the beach - PLN7 x 2. Total PLN14  / SEK36,60

(10) Overnight train ticket from Warsaw to Zakopane (3 persons in a sleeping compartment) - PLN135.70 / SEK381,22 per person

The Story

25072023: We checked out from our Airbnb early at 8am so that we had time to store our backpacks and have our breakfast before our walking tour that starts at 10.30am. We took the tram to the central train station where the lockers are located. So convenient and affordable too! Now, we can walk free around town. 

We made our way to town. We passed by the brown building that I saw yesterday and I wanted to take a photo with it again, and this time with the giant fountain in front of it. 

We looked for a cafe near our gathering spot for the walking tour. It is a tourist area so breakfast is not Polish and price is expensive. My travel companions' breakfast looked better than mine with fried eggs, bacon and toasted sourdough bread for PLN32,90 but cappucino was not included in the breakfast set so they paid PLN17,90 for their coffee. 

After breakfast, we went to the gathering spot at Nicolaus Copernicus Statue to start our Walking Tour! I booked Warsaw Historic Centre walk with Walkative (the guide is holding a yellow umbrella). As you can see in the photo below, it was a large crowd with the walking tour! It was a 2.5 hour walk from 10.30am to 1pm. A very informative tour where I learnt the timeline from when Poland was formed to its revolution. I learnt of some famous figures that had Polish connection. The musician Chopin's heart is kept in an alcohol-filled jar in a box in a church, as his mum is Polish. During the World War 2, Warsaw lost 60% of its population and the whole town was destroyed. There were 17000 people left and Warsaw decided to give up. That is where the guide ended the story. My travel companion explained to me that the Red Army (from Soviet Union) came and rescued Warsaw. 

After the walking tour, we had lunch at a random restaurant because we were so hungry. I had pasta carbonara as I need to cut down on the Polish meal set. Just a simple pasta with apple juice. 

During lunch, we discussed what we should do for the rest of the day. My travel companions were adamant on going to the beach because it was hot and they needed to take a dip. I was annoyed because I did not think it was worth going to the beach as it was quite a distance to the beach (actually, a river). We needed to take a train and a bus and it took about 1 hour. I went ahead anyway, disgruntled. 

I think the grass was dirty as it was filled with swan poop. Plus, there were swans swimming in the waters too. 

There was a small shop nearby where my travel companions needed a beer after the dip and I had kompot. We wanted to get an ice-cream in an ice-cream shop but the attending staff did not want to sell to us. I have no idea why. She was busy counting the coins and my travel companion asked if we could get ice-cream and she said no. We were very confused. So, we got ice-creams at McCafe. Back in town, we collected our backpacks from the main train station and had Italian food for dinner. The return ticket that we bought when we got back from the 'beach' was valid for 90 minutes so we could use the same ticket to travel from the main train station to Warsaw Gdanska train station, where we will take the overnight train to Zakopane. 

We walked to the train station and waited with the crowd. The train arrived 10 minutes later than the departure time. It was not too bad. Our 3-persons sleeping compartment was neat and fresh. How lucky that I managed to book a 3-person compartment! We got a disposable towel and a piece of cake. Lovely welcome present! It was warm at night and I woke up three times to use the toilet. Well, the overnight train is not cheaper than our accommodations in Warsaw (SEK291,58 per night) and Gdansk (SEK373,38 per night) but it does allow us to be in a new place the next day, so we save the travelling hours during the day if we were to stay the night in Warsaw. 

Very secured door! We did not need to worry about unwanted guests. 

The buttons by my bed. I slept on the top bed.