Zebras in Warsaw

Last weekend, from Saturday until early Monday morning, I was in Warsaw, Poland. Accompanied by one of my favorite travel buddies, Salma, we set out to get a taste for this historically important city. Saturday was awesome, we left the hotel and walked down one of the main streets, Marszalkowska, until we reached a suitable place to have some lunch. Although it was a little on the heavy side compared to the Italian food I'm used to these days, the lunch was amazing. We ate potato and cheese filled pierogi, ground meat wrapped in cabbage leaves (closely resembling the Swedish kåldolmar), and little patties of fried cheese served with lingonberry jam, while sipping mugs of blackcurrant juice. Yum!

After lunch we wandered through a street fair on Nowy Swiat and over to the old town, or Stare Miasto. In a city that was 90 % demolished by the Nazis during WWII and wasn't rebuilt until the 1970s the old town is drastically different than the majority of the city. Walking around the rest of the city, with its wide streets and sidewalks, modern apartment buildings and lack of the cobble-stone streets so abundant in most European cities, you feel like you could be in Ottawa or some other North American metropolis. When you walk down Nowy Swiat towards the old town, however, this sensation melts away as you approach the old, colorful 4-story buildings on the horizon, pass cathedrals dating back to the 13th century, and wave hello to the monument of Copernicus.

We reached a square lined with quirky colorful buildings on all sides just as it started to drizzle and were able to listen to a few songs from an outdoor jazz concert. Just as the rain let up we sat a beautiful rainbow stretch across the sky, which you'll see in the photo to the left..

After the jazz concert we continued exploring the city. Salma and I only see each other for the occasional weekend here and there about every 2 months or so, so most of our time spent together consists of catching up on news and filling each other in on the goings-on in our lives. Wrapped up in one of these types of discussions and oblivious to stoplights Salma and I stepped off of the curb to cross the street when our light was red, just as 2 Polish police officers were biking by (looking very threatening indeed). They stopped cycling across the street from us, waiting for us to approach. As we made it to the other side of the street I knew they were going to comment on our J-walking, but I didn't know the conversation would go something like this:

Cycling police officer #1: (says something in Polish, clearly unhappy with us)

Jasmin: "English?"

The 1st cycling police officer calls over the 2nd, who confidently strides over to us to use his English skills.

Cycling police officer #2: "Did not you see light is red?"

Jasmin: "Ummm, yes. There were no cars coming though."

Cycling police officer #2: "Walk red dangerous. Car, you fly! Watch the zebras! Look zebras. This time you go."

Salma and Jasmin: "Uhh, ok. Thanks officer."

If you had trouble understanding that interaction you're not alone. It left Salma and I laughing for blocks, even if I was pretty paranoid that I'd end up in Polish prison for the weekend (probably the law-abiding Swede in me). After consideration we figured the zebras he was referring to were actually the black and white striped crosswalks.

Anyway, if you go to Warsaw, watch out for the zebras or the police might be on your back. You've been warned.