Roam

So, today I was pretty tired this morning and was very tempted to spend more time sleeping and relaxing, but the sunshine outside my window and the fact that I have Fridays off were encouraging enough to bring me out of bed and into the shower to ready myself for the day. I have so much to see and to do - many of these items jotted down on a list - but I mostly just explored and wandered around today. I saw many monuments and some places I had already seen (a lot of Nowe and Stare Miasto). I went into a church where Chopin used to play music for services. The outside was pretty modest, but the inside? Oh my. It was pretty ornate - chandeliers, rugs, portraits. Roman Catholic Poles know how to make a church. I also saw a violinist by a Metro stop rather than the usual accordian players or the time a guy had some weird machine to make some techno beats. I thought I might go to a museum, but the weather was pretty "warm" for a while... So I ended up just wandering around without using the map much and ended up doing more roaming and observing. I saw the other side of the Krasinski Palace, many church and other building exteriors (University of Warsaw, Zamek Krolewskie, etc.). Just learning about the layout and look of the city in general by foot.

Walked by a French bakery with croissants in the window on a rotating warmer

Mikolaj Kopernik AKA Copernicus

This is near the statue - since it sits in his square. It is also near a KFC, which hurt me.

OK, so I did not want to go all the way down the street, but there is a building in the center where the specific Wedel Chocolate Lounge is that I went to earlier this week (there is more than one); the roof has a man riding a zebra while holding a giant chocolate bar - I pointed it out that night during our walk to the lounge. Yes, weird. ;)

Potato pancake - and other items - stand across from the main post office

Who knows? Maybe he or she can tell me.

I ended up at Goodies after hearing a couple of others from my program had gone before. I checked out the menu beforehand, which has certain cupcakes on certain days, and thought a cinnamon and apple cupcake was something I could be interested in trying (available Monday, Wednesday, Friday).

Display at Goodies

How Goodies looks inside - image from its website

Cinnamon-y cake - with a little filling similar to apple pie filling - and cinnamon-y frosting

Goodies: http://www.goodies.pl/
The experience buying the cupcake was interesting... I said one cinnamon [in Polish] and the guy said something, which I thought was maybe something about wanting more and I said only one and, in English, he said, "I asked if you want a bag." And I replied, "OH, thanks, yes" [in Polish]. Yes, I still feel silly/dumb/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. The only sad excuse I have is the speed at which he asked. Does that mean he was somehow convinced I was Polish or could speak well-enough? :-P Then he told me the price and I attempted to pay in coin, but the cold made my fingers almost unable to bend at that point, so I basically chucked the amount at him and felt bad. I said thank you [in Polish] and left. :-P Later on, I bought some waters at a small store and my fingers were still funny so that giving and taking money was difficult. Plus, bagging was giving me issues. Blah. I hold up lines. :-/ [I actually made that face while typing].

The cake of the cupcake was hearty - similar to a muffin (which Goodies also makes, but more savory styles), which was interesting because I am used to really soft cupcakes, which are not so easy to eat sometimes. So I kind of liked the change. The frosting was very light and fluffy with a cinnamon-y flavor as well, but not too strong and more on the lighter side. It was neat to have my first Polish cupcake. The textures were almost opposite since a lot of cupcakes in the US have soft cake, hard frosting. It also was not very sweet and more about flavor than straight-up sugar.

Polish bakery - for my Mom - since they are all over

Ice cream scoops made of balloons :-P

Too cold for ice cream/sorbet/fro yo today :-/

I usually head out as early as I can - today after lunch - so that I can have the warmest and sunniest part of the day to be outside (plus use public transportation). I then head back inside to the dorms between 3 and 5 PM since being out after dark is easier with other people when you are not the only cold sufferer and there is a specific point to being outside (such as a location or event). I leave wandering for daylight hours. It is the opposite of a vampire schedule. I have been talked at on the street before - I assume about petitions or directions or begging for money/food/etc. - but I tend to say I don't know/understand/speak Polish well. Not knowing the language too strongly helps with avoiding what sometimes should be avoided. :-P

Not sure if I will do anything tonight other than catching up on US TV, homework, reading, and event planning. Right now I know that I may go to the Warsaw Rising Museum with my Polish buddy on Sunday afternoon - when admission is free. I will look over my list some more and decide what else might be fun to do/see the next couple of days. I am glad to see that temperatures should be rising as the week goes along.