Bittersweet Symphony

Not my picture, but the entrance to the store

Today I was feeling tired this morning, so I thought the best time to head out would be after a quick lunch around noon. I headed towards city center, with an intent to go to the National Museum and a multimedia store, Traffic Club, as two of the main places to visit. I ended up passing by Traffic first, so I headed inside.
http://www.traffic-club.pl/



 The store is really cool; the outside I wanted to take pictures of (but did not) because the side I came from had a lot of paintings of people along the wall. The inside has several levels and it is really pretty (colored Church-window-like glass, staircases, lights, music playing, chairs) with tons of books, music, DVDs (I saw Dexter on DVD), and even a cafe. I am pretty sure I heard a Star Wars birthday party on the top floor with a moving R2D2. I found a Warsaw travel book that Gosia has and I thought was neat, so now I have my own copy. :) I REALLY like this store, Empik, and American Bookstore. I am glad books in English are easy to find. This one is in English and Polish and I will be looking at it more in-depth soon:

Looked through it at the store, but decided to just buy it and take it with me instead :-P

I decided to go to the National Museum today (student discount price that will be reimbursed eventually), which was great. It is something I would more recommend for people with longer stays in Warsaw, such as local residents and people who come to the city a lot, or people who really enjoy museums. The reason for this is that it takes some time to see everything inside - which is fairly easy to navigate through, but not an amazing layout since I was always wondering if I missed something or was retracing my steps. All-in-all, there were a lot of amazing artworks and artifacts. I loved the mix of ancient pieces from Egypt with very Christian pieces from Poland and Italy with the more modern works of the 20th Century. It was a great museum and just made me wonder how it would be to live in different time periods. I also saw progress in terms of skill and quality of the pieces. There were paintings that I wish I could climb into or know more about. Several were religious and so many would be amazing to buy and put up somewhere important in your home to look at whenever. It was nice how much care goes into the upkeep of all of the pieces. There was a person in every room to look over the works - probably in case someone tried to steal or damage something. There was a temporary exhibit that had really neat pieces (including not just art, but furniture, silverware, and other items) of mod-art from the 1950s to 1980s. I even saw some classic E. Wedel candy boxes and wrappers. I saw a lot of porcelain China, Polish stoneware and other pottery, gold, silver, elaborate wood pieces and furniture, marble, glass, sculptures/busts, and other items from various time periods. There was a lot themed around Jesus' crucifixion, which I am not sure would be that appropriate for the several young children I saw at the museum. :-/ (I saw a LOT of pregnant women today as well. :-P) It was very quiet and respectful inside the museum, so it did not seem as though photography would be allowed and I chose to simply walk, look, and admire instead. It made me wish I could be a muse, haha. Or hire someone to do a portrait of someone I know as a gift, the way people might have before. A lot of the art was done by Polish artists, which was cool. I saw some 18th century clothes and furniture that were beautiful. I really enjoyed all of the great artwork, some as big as the wall of a room or bigger. The museum also has a cute shop with a lot of art books, both Polish and other artists. I especially liked a painting of Nowy Swiat street and another showing near the Zamek, both from centuries ago. There was a neat section with a mummy and mummy tombs/coffins and hieroglyphics.
Museum: http://www.mnw.art.pl/index.php/en/
The current modern-art exhibit: http://www.mnw.art.pl/index.php/en/temporary_exhibitions/exhibitions/art58.html

After the museum I headed towards the Wisla (Vistula) River and took a picture of the stadium being built for the 2012 Euro Cup: http://www.eurocup.org/en/euro-2012-poland/euro-2012-warsaw/

Reminds me of the Beijing Olympics

After that, I was not sure where to go since it was later in the afternoon. I ended up going to the Arkadia Mall for a bit (saw it when it was dark enough for the lights to come on and it was VERY pretty). I bought some water at Carrefour - it is "lekko gazowana," which means it is lighly carbonated. I headed back after that (since it was darkening out I could see some of the lights on, such as the ones shining on the Palace of Culture & Science - more pretty views ;) ) and now I am resting a bit since I am a quite tired and now that it is dark out, I am sure it is not too warm anymore, but luckily it was warmer than yesterday. The sun was even out. :) Tomorrow will include the Warsaw Rising Museum and other fun. :) Now it is time for relaxing and Polish homework.