Experience in Warsaw, Poland by Azim

What is it like to live in Warsaw? Would you recommend it? What is the city like?

   The city is rather in a modern style. Comparing cities like Vienna, Prague or the like, here you can see highrise buildings and A LOT OF huge huge advertisements and depends on where you are, there are also a lot of old and beautiful buildings with and some outstanding ones like the main building of Politechnika. Just google images for "politechnika warszawska" and take a look at inside the building. Although there are some cities in Poland that still you feel the communism spirit like boxes of buildings all look like the same, you rarely can see them in Warsaw.
   Usually you don't see heavy traffic jam. Transportation system is not that crowded ,except a few hours in a day. There is only one line of metro, however it is so useful and the rest of the city is all covered by buses and trams. The best point about transportation system is that having the application of Jakdojade on your cellphone literally means you know the whole city like you have been there for some years. It's more than handy.

What is the student lifestyle like in Warsaw?

   The first sentence that I saw in a billboard in Warsaw was like "STUDY HARD PARTY HARDER!" Now I see what HARDER means! They mean that! Believe me!
   Native students always say YES to drinking. And as an international student, it's hard to say no to them. Don't try to convince them. Usually it's impossible. And good to know that their reason for having a drinking party is "drinking" itself. they don't need any reason to get drunk.
   Their life style is mostly divided into 2 parts. Studying and drinking.
   There are a huge variety of them from the racists group to the nicest students you may have ever seen. Usually students from the second group behave very friendly when they know you are a foreigner. If it happens that you feel disrespected by any of them, it's mostly because they don't know English very well and thus they don't feel good to join you and talk to you. So take it easy! It's good to know that the first group are in minority. So since you are living among students, you rarely see any raacist one.

How much does it cost to live in Warsaw?

   Answer to such questions always starts with "It depends!". If you are ok with living in a dormitory it would cost max 450PLN (everything included) per month. You should know that dormitories in Warsaw, or at least the one that I am living in and it is one of the bests, is like 3 guys in a room which shares a kitchen and shower with another room. These 2 rooms is called a segment.) Sharing a flat costs about 900PLN(+-300) for a room. (As usual, it's up to how far you may live or how close a metro station is.) You also can rent a flat or a studio which really differs from one to another. You can think about 1800 to 2500 (charges not included) for a student living. Of course there are more expensive accommodations but I think I am writing for students not families! Right? :)

Is it difficult to find accommodation in Warsaw? Is there any advice you can give?

It is not difficult at all. It's true that there are some months in which you have to pay more. I can say, one or two months before each new semester is the best time for finding a flat. In general, you need, let's say, 2 weeks to find what you want. The best website that I can advice is Gumtree . If you visited that and saw a lot of advertisments in Polish don't get dissapointed. I think by Google-translate you can handle that. However you might need someone to call them. Ask any Polish guy you know. they will do that for you :)

What places would you recommend visiting in Warsaw?

Old town. As far as I know, it's the best place for tourists and anyone who has some interests in history. You should read about them before or take a Polish friend who can explain what is what. It's not just about sightseeing. It's much deeper.
Of course there are a lot of places for exciting activities like paintball, carting, etc. but I don't know much about them.