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| With Odyssey. The caption of the photo is the story itself 😝 |
Nice plan to chill out last Sunday. Adeline and I went for a long run that morning. She did 34 Km's, I surrendered after 22 Km's. First long run for this year after Winter. It was a nice, scenic run along the trails near River Vistula. After the run, I got back, had some food and a nice nap to recover post run. A cold and hot shower in the evening made me feel relaxed and I felt the need to go out and explore and wrote to Odyssey if he'd be interested to hang out. Yes, he wished to!
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| Only 22 Km. Need to keep pushing. Trail running shoes - Xero Shoes Terraflex. For more info, you can ask me in priv! |
Odyssey (His name is Odysseas, but he’s like an Odyssey, the guy you’d like to involve in a conversation) and I took the tram to Hala Mirowska, with a changeover at Dworzec Centralny. It was Landa’s birthday party at Hala Gwardi, where she runs Dervish Kitchen (Syrian Cuisine). We arrived there late around 8pm when almost everyone had left.
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| Akash, Balaram, Odyssey and I! |
Hala Gwardi is a cozy place to spend an evening for a weekend. It's business model sounds cool, they open only during the weekends, from Friday to Sunday, have a lot of small shops inside the big arena.
I like exploring beers. If people prefer the normal beers, I’m the type that wouldn’t mind to explore and try a new one. I ended up finally after looking around at this small shop which sold me the beer titled “Kocham Cie Jak Irlandie(I love you, Ireland)”, in connection with the St. Patrick’s day, hence the beer was green. It was okay.
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| Hala Gwardii, the location. You must check out this cozy place! |
Two guys from my region, Akash and Balaram joined us, they were friends of Odyssey. Interestingly, they did an exchange program in Warsaw, being full-time students at IIT Madras. It seemed weird to me, meeting for the first time two Indians, who came for an exchange program all the way from India. I had a nice time, talking to them in Tamil and Malayalam after a long while.
I wanted to show them Pawilony, the supercool place full of bars in Nowy Swiat. Taking two trams, we arrived there and ended up in a small bar, sipping a small mug of beer and relishing a nice conversation. I boasted about how nice public transportation in Warsaw is. It is true. During this time, the football match between Latvia and Poland was live. Soon I realized it was happening in the national stadium, very close to the place where we were. The match ended, with Poland winning the game.
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| Landa's stall. I love the font, also their food. You'd like it! |
It was 23:30 and we left Pawilony to take the transport back home. I realized, the tramway had been closed because of this match and we had to rely on the bus. We saw people in the typical attire that one would be in while cheering for their national team playing. Since Poland team, their faces were all smiles. A crowd of people was walking towards the Centrum, looking to take a bus or metro. The weather was cold and windy, which makes it always a challenge. I wore only a Sweatshirt, no jacket. I like exploring this weather though, it lets me expose my body and my mind to adapt to different conditions.
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| Kocham Cie Jak Irlandie. First on the list! Alcohol is injurious to health. |
We hopped onto a bus heading towards Centralny (2 stops away from Muzeum Narodowy, where we took the bus). The two guys took the Metro to head to their place near Politechnika. Odyssey was sure about a tram operating from Centrum towards our dormitory, hence we decided to get down at Centrum and head to the tram stop. The display in the entrance showed the next tram would arrive in 3 minutes and we decided to hurry a bit to be able to catch it.
The confusion started from here.
1. We paced to the platform for tram “9” which was on the farther end of Centrum. The personnel from the ZTM (Transport operator) told me something in Polish, which I partly understood. The display at the platform suddenly changed and pointed, that the next tram would arrive only in 35 minutes. Since it was cold, I felt like the need to also pee but also to head home as soon as possible. We decided to leave and look for other possibilities.
2. We headed to the same bus stop where we got down at Centrum and hopped onto a bus to Centralny, hoping we could catch a bus from there. On arriving there, the bus stop was empty. We decided to head towards the other side of Centralny looking the road heading towards our place since we could also opt for buses which don’t enter the main bus stop of Centralny. While walking, we noticed tram “9” was going towards our place. Damn, we should have waited for a few more minutes and taken it.
3. While waiting at the bus stop of Centralny, Google pointed out the next bus was only after 20 minutes. We tried to see if we could take a tram and headed to the tram stop of Centralny. No luck and we returned. My hands started to get cold. I wanted to pee. But,😾🙏!
4. We went back to the bus stop at Centralny again, hoping some bus would arrive and take us. Suddenly at a longer distance, a tram was coming towards our direction and we ran all the way back to the tram stop. Between the tram stop and the bus stop is the underway which connects. It was tiring. On arriving at the tram stop, it was a tram with display “Awaria”, which meant it wouldn’t operate. We felt dejected.
5. We went back to the bus stop. It was 12:15 and the next bus would arrive after 6 minutes. Both of us were laughing about how funny our life was. Both Odyssey and I are used to chaotic modes of traveling in our home cities, hence this little chaos meant to us, only a little adventure not a problem.
6. Finally, N43, our bus arrived. We relished the fact that we could finally pee once we’d arrive in our dorm and we did :D
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| A candid along with Shee :) |
We could have sat down, complaining or taking an Uber to get back soon. But, this little experience allowed us to explore. My thoughts were funny, rethinking if the transportation was the best in Warsaw. It definitely is, but it takes some patience when it doesn’t, we did it!
