Warsaw 2008 - The Place!

Cost of living

While I was there the exchange rate would vary enormously. It was, in principle, because of this crisis, and some others, that Russia cut its gas supply and Poland suffered a bit. When I arrived €1 was 3 zlotys and when I left it was worth 5 zlotys.

How I see it is that what you pay here in euros, you pay there in zlotys. That's to say, in a good night club a vodka is €8/10 here and 8/10 zlotys there. It's the same with food from supermarkets (it's best to go to a Tesco at the end of one of the metro lines).

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Places to see

Warsaw is nice but there aren't many things to see. You can walk around the centre or the "old" town. But in general, if you're not in the centre, everything has a communist air, with big buildings that are all the same (you get the type). Those who go there can't forget that the war affected them a lot and destroyed around 90% of the city, and the other 10% probably wasn't even in use. However, everything was reconstructed by the communists, even the old part where they tried to build everything exactly how it was before the war. It's the same with the other cities you should visit: Poznan is a student city which I loved to visit. Gdansk (in the north) is great for seeing their "beaches" and is also a city worth visiting. But Cracow is without doubt the best place to go. The concentration camps are chilling (but a must-see) and the city resisted the war quite a bit, and so hasn't changed too much. It has a good night life and is also quite touristy.

In terms of trips it's best to go to all the surrounding countries. It's best to go by bus or train because the public transport is cheap and good. You can feel safe sleeping in the trains. There are people who've travelled by car but their experience wasn't the best. Their roads are terrible and the GPS or Satnav don't adapt easily.

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The countries worth visiting (and which I visited) are the following: Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. I wouldn't recommend the Ukraine because, although the alcohol is cheaper there, it's not really adapted for tourism, you'll spend hours on the border and you'll probably have to pay a fee to get in. People who I know who went here said it's not worth it. Good luck getting into Belarus, they've managed to be more closed off than Russia, although still not as much as North Korea.

Area for renting houses/hostels

For those who are coming to study I would recommend student halls of residence. In my case at least I stayed in the hall of residence of the Warsaw School of Economics, in Helsinki. It's worth going on YouTube and putting in its name to have a look at some of the crazy videos they've put together. I think that in general the residences in Warsaw are well organised and have good conditions, beyond the fact that they are cheap and have everything you need in them (even a disco room).

To rent a house or get a hostel you should definitely go to the "tower" (ministry of culture I think) of the city. It's where everything happens, and those who stay far away are going to have problems and waste lots of time on transport.

Nightlife

The nightlife is really good. You're not allowed to drink in the road, but it's too cold to do that anyway. I would recommend buying a bottle of vodka (forget the whiskey) in supermarkets or corner shops. It's cheap, you can mix it with juice and drink it at home. Afterwards you can go to a nightclub and have a little dance.

The best nightclubs are in the tower area. I don't remember the best days to go for each one but you can always ask someone and you'll soon find out. Cinnamon, Underground, and some others with strange names I can't remember...

For those on an Erasmus exchange you don't have to worry. There's always the ESN which organises nights and tells you what to do and where. They were very friendly to me and my friends and they explained everything to me.

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Climate

Cold, without doubt, but they're prepared for it and you get used to it quickly. It not worth buying coats here (Portugal) they're better there and cheaper. When you get to the mid-November there (basically when it gets too cold for just a jacket) buy yourself a coat so that you can walk around with just a coat and a T-shirt underneath. When you get into the buildings the heat is unbearable and there were some afternoons when I would be in shorts, no shirt and barely 2 metres from an open window with minus 7 outside. That's to say, the heaters there work too well! Also get some warm shoes that you'd never get e chance to wear in Portugal, some gloves for heavy snow snow (so that you'll actually be able to feel things that you're picking up) and you have to buy a scarf when you get there or at least when it starts to snow. Don't think that the shoes you use here will be good enough for the streets there, your feet will get frozen in an instant!

Modes of transport

Within the city, it's the best bus system I've ever seen. You can go almost anywhere by bus, it's cheap, at least for students (100 zlots for 5 months for everything! ) and the metro, which is being built at the moment, travels from one point to another in the city (because it's literally one line that goes straight ahead).

At night, there is a bus from the main station every half hour, as far as I remember, (more once you're in the tower square), to every part of the city. In this station you can buy a kebab while you wait and it's definitely the best way to get home after a night out.

To travel to other cities or countries: train!

Safety

In general it's a safe city. You have to be careful with drunk people who like to talk to strangers or even with people who look at you in a strange way. But they've never done anything to me and the only story I know is of a friend of mine who engaged with some young girls and the young man who was behind them didn't like it. He head butted him. That's what can easily happen here...

Elsewhere be careful with the police, that's to say: Don't drink in the street; don't cross the street without the green signal; respect them. They have no fear, have no problem with going through a crowd, they're big and don't speak English.

Gastronomy

In the first place I stayed I was surprised because they didn't eat. They might eat something in the middle of the afternoon or whenever.

The food is a bit different from ours. The majority of people ate things with a vegetable base or stuffed pasta. It's a little different from what we eat but nothing scandalous, it's worth experimenting.

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Documents/visas

I didn't need anything. They're in the European Union and there wasn't a single problem.

Only a few more things that I haven't mentioned:

Careful when you talk about the war with older people, they might have suffered a lot in their life and don't like it. With young people who don't remember it and haven't experienced it there isn't a problem. You can ask whatever questions you like without disrespecting them. Warsaw's resistance to the German invasion is something in which they have lots of pride.

For boys in particular: All or almost all of the girls want to go to Mediterranean countries. Watch out!