When I was (much) younger, Poland to me meant a random combination of Holocaust, Pope John Paul II, Solidarność, and Zbigniew Boniek.
And Polish was that unpronounceable language with strange tails and slashes across letters, and an ‘l’ (technically, ł) sounding like the English ‘w’.

Over the years, it never felt these were good enough reasons to push the country to the top of my travel wishlist.
But things were about to change.

With a sport race scheduled in Warsaw on a winter Saturday evening, it was time to give this country a proper chance. And a long weekend in the Polish capital was added to my diary.

Cheap airline flight booked, bag packed, GBP turned into złoty (even though Poland is a member state of the European Union, it has its own currency) – Poland, you are about to become my country nr. 45!

Modlin airport in Warsaw – one of the two airports in the capital – is well served by public transport (bus and train) as well as taxis. Modlin Bus takes you to the city centre in just under an hour and for 35 złoty. From the stop at the Palace of Culture you can then reach your final destination on foot or by catching the city metro (two lines, M1 and M2) or another bus or a tram (info here).

I opted for the bus. Walking 2.5Km with my carry-on suitcase in a freezing -2C didn’t sound too appealing.
A couple of hours later I warmed myself up with my first taste of Polish traditional food: barszcz and pierogi! And I started drafting my itinerary on a map.

More to come on this trip :-)