Escaping Warsaw by bus to Gdańsk, Poland

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Our two days in Warsaw, Poland have been frustrating and disappointing. Things didn’t work, didn’t make sense, and weren’t open like they promised to be. Masayo and I were looking forward to leaving, hoping that the rest of Poland was run better. But first, we wanted to give ol’ Warszawa one last chance.

Our bus (we couldn’t find a good train route) to Gdańsk wasn’t leaving until 1:30 pm so we decided to stick our big bags in storage and take a local bus down to the Warsaw Uprising Mound. Our trip to the Rising Museum yesterday was disastrous and I ended up learning far more from a single page in a tourist map afterwards than I did from the impeccably styled but jumbled museum.

The mound however would be simple: you take a local bus there, you climb up 400 steps, and you see a large monument on top. An interesting, instructional, and very Varsovian way to spend our last morning here.

And I had the bus route all planned, drawing up two plans:

1. If the closest Metro station to our hotel, Polytechnika, had storage lockers, we could put our big bags there and take bus #187 to the Bartycka stop.
2. If not, we’d put our luggage in a locker in Centralna and take Bus #159 from Koszykowa instead.

Multiple contingencies. Aren’t I smart! I thought. Maybe – but it wasn’t going to work out like I hoped.

My blood sugar at 8:30 was 182 — hey, not over 200! We ate yogurt, doughnuts, and coffee, and I had a banana with some Humalog. We checked out of the apartment guest room and went to Polytechnika station. No lockers.

We rode up to Centralna.

Surprisingly, that Metro stop didn’t have any lockers either; we had to walk way across the plaza to the big bus station to the lockers there. Today was November 11 – the Polish Independence Day – and we knew a lot of stuff would be closed. We were surprised, however, to see large groups of armed people in riot gear standing around, but also regular people milling about as usual, many carrying big Polish flags.

Why the riot police?

We left our luggage at the office downstairs and went to find the Koszykowa bus stop, my contingency plan #2. It’s about 1 km from Centralna and we walked to it without too much hassle.

Making things easier, the sign at the stop said that only bus #159 serviced this stop — and it did indeed lead right to Bartycka, like I’d researched. And, on holidays like today, a bus came every 20 minutes — the next one was due in 5 minutes! Excellent.

It didn’t come though. Buses are often late of course, thanks to traffic, so we kept waiting. Nobody else was waiting and the streets were pretty quiet. About 15 minutes went by and no bus came, in either direction. An older woman came up and started waiting for the bus, lighting up a cigarette. She tried to talk to us in Polish then finally said in English, “Day of Freedom for Poland”. I said, “No bus” and she smiled bitterly.

We kept waiting — no bus — and started doing some math in our heads: even if a bus came right now, we’d get to the Uprising Mound in about 20-25 minutes. Would we have enough time to climb the stairs, then catch the bus back here and go to Gdańsk? I thought if nothing else, we could go look at the stairs on the Mound.

But! What if we also had to wait 30-40 minutes for a return bus? If our bus was late now, the return one might be too. Time seemed to be getting tight. The morning’s plans were breaking apart, it was clear.

Weighing all this, we decided to give up on the Mound altogether. Stymied by Warsaw yet again.

We walked down the sidewalk in the direction the bus would have taken us; I wanted a picture of it when it finally drove by us anyway. We walked about 20 minutes but saw no bus, in either direction. Local people were waiting at the other bus stops we passed. But no buses. Other trams and buses were running on other streets.

What the hell, Warsaw? This was the final disappointment. Miffed, I was glad to be leaving.

We went to a restaurant in Centralna. Masayo figured out the system: you select food which the staff hands over and then pay for it. Duh. She got a plate of pancakes and some tea.

I went to the counter and asked for the meatballs/soup/salad set meal for 18.50 złoty. They gave me the soup first and that was that; I assumed I’d pay once all the food came so I went and sat down. At the table I checked: 150. Not bad!

I went back to get the meatballs, and a guy who spoke some English handed me a sparkling water when I asked for it. He said the water was 7 złoty. I started to hand him a 50 zł note — to pay for the water and the food, which I was holding in my hand — but he shook his head and started rooting through the coins in my hand. He picked out 7 zł in coins and gave me a receipt.

I was confused. When do I pay for the food, not just the water? Anyway, I ate the food and then we had to go catch our bus to Gdańsk. I went back to the counter, but nobody paid any attention to us. The guy wasn’t there. We walked slowly out, waiting for someone to stop us and make us pay. But nobody did. Like the trams and buses, this meal was free even though I was trying to pay.

Warsaw, I don’t get you.

We got our bags from the left luggage place and walked back across the plaza, getting the Metro to the last stop, Młociny. Our PolskiBus was leaving soon. We’d made it!

Unfortunately there is no assigned seating on the PolskiBus, and not being natural pushers and shovers we ended up getting on after almost everyone else and had to sit in the very back on the top level of the double-decker. I was in the seat that looked directly down the center of the aisle to the front of the bus. No foot rest for me.

The bus ride was boring and uncomfortable as usual, but not too bad. A lady came around to give us snacks — bread, some crackers, ice cream, and juice. I only took the bread and crackers, but didn’t eat anything. At 4 pm — it was already dark outside — my BG was 126. I was very pleased!

We got to Gdańsk and walked into town in the dark evening. Instantly we liked it. Although it was a holiday things were open and the town had a nice vibe and some amazing buildings. We found Happy Seven Hostel, where I’d booked a room with booking.com, without problem. The staff was super friendly.

We set our bags inside our private room (with shared bathrooms) and went out for dinner. We ended up at Kebab Star. I ordered vegatarian moussaka with sparkling water. It was affordable and great — though it came with a large amount of rice that I ate out of hunger. Makes a diabetic say, “Gulp!”

We stopped at a market on the way back and got a big bottle of water to split, and some cookies. Back in the room I took another large Humalog shot because I wanted to eat a bunch of cookies. I feared what that would do to my BG — two high-carb events and two shots on top of each other — but hey, you gotta eat, ‘betic or not.

At midnight my BG was not the 400 I feared — it was 174. Bulls’ eye (close enough)! Gdańsk seemed great, and all day my BG was right near where I wanted it to be (all under 200 for one thing). We both felt glad to be out of Warsaw, where nothing had worked right and very little was enjoyed, and in Gdańsk, where we had enjoyed everything so far.

I don’t know why we got along so badly with Warsaw. I wanted to like it but the relationship just didn’t bloom. Oh well – give it a shot and move on if it doesn’t work out. My BG was terrible in Warsaw and much better when we left. If you believe in omens, that’s a big one for a diabetic. Bye Warsaw; hello Gdańsk!

Have you ever not gotten along with a destination?

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