Business trip to Warsaw and training at Deepspot

I like visiting Poland and this time my business trips took me all the way to Warsaw. The first week I trained in the deep pool Deepspot and the second week I stayed directly in Warsaw. In this article I share my experiences and how I rate the Polish capital.

I don't like travelling, and when I do go somewhere, I like to stay for a longer time so that I have enough time for both rest and work. At the same time, I don't like long journeys, so whenever possible I either don't travel at all, or I approach my destination gradually. But my life is packed with activities, so this time I had to do the whole journey in a single day. In total I spent one week near Warsaw and then one week directly in Warsaw. During that time I also had to take care of all my work obligations, so compared to my other trips there wasn't much time left for exploring Warsaw.

If you are interested in my experiences from other Polish cities, read the articles Nomadism in Wroclaw and Visit to Poznan.

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital of Poland. It gained the status of capital in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved his seat here from Kraków. About 1.86 million people live in Warsaw, so it is somewhat bigger than Prague (about 1.38 million people live in Prague). If you count the whole metropolitan area (agglomeration), the population reaches about 3 million.

During World War II, Warsaw was almost completely destroyed. However, its historic centre (the Old Town) was uniquely and faithfully reconstructed after the war and in 1980 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The journey

It was my longest journey by car. But well, running a business requires sacrifices. A journey like this means high costs and, above all, a whole day behind the wheel. The navigation suggested several routes. The motorway in the Czech Republic is still not finished, so I took the traditional route via Trutnov, crossed the border, got on the motorway in Poland and then headed towards Wrocław and Łódź.

It's about 550 km to Warsaw. You will definitely want to stop and stretch along the way, so it's a journey for a whole working day, i.e. about 8 hours. Ideally, you should have enough time, have a proper breakfast in the morning, take food with you and after arrival just eat and go to sleep.

On the way there, I forgot to turn off the motorway towards Wrocław and had to make a detour. On the way back, when getting onto the motorway, I stayed in the wrong lane, ended up going in the opposite direction and again had a detour, this time about 30 km.

Poles don't drive very fast on the motorway. The speed limit is usually 120 km/h and I rarely saw anyone exceeding it. However, when I was driving home in the rush hour and there was a traffic jam, cars were weaving from lane to lane like Praguers in Prague. It even happened that a car cut from the right lane into my left lane, so I had to brake hard. Then this car cut back to the right again. And because there was a traffic jam, absolutely all of us had to slam on the brakes. This kind of behaviour is very risky. In such places along the way I also saw a car being towed away after an accident and police at the scene. Then there was another similar traffic jam. In this respect it can be quite dangerous. However, the congested motorways around Prague are worse and Czech drivers are incomparably more dangerous.

Facilities for travellers on Polish motorways

Polish motorways have rest areas with good facilities for travellers. Seating at a motorway rest area:

Publicly accessible toilets with a shower at a motorway rest area:

Deepspot

The main reason why I visited Warsaw at that time was the opportunity to train in the deep pool Deepspot. The goal was to better prepare for taking a freediving instructor course in the future. That's why I spent the first week at a campsite in a cabin near the Deepspot pool.

Deepspot has ideal conditions for training. However, travelling wears me out, so next time I would go, for example, two days in advance. And because I don't stay up late, I would plan my training sessions so that they are not at the end of the day, when I prefer to have some calm before sleep. In the end, I skipped the second-to-last evening session and on the last day I did my new deepest dive of 41 m.

Moving to Warsaw

Because I like nature, and also to save money, I spent the night at a public campsite when moving to Warsaw. The same when leaving Poland. In the end, it's easier than looking for accommodation under time pressure.

Accommodation

I arranged my accommodation in Warsaw one day in advance. It wasn't ideal, but it met the main requirements: a kitchenette, a big bed, fast internet and a table for work, so I took it. However, since it was an old building on the ground floor, it was quite dark and also cold. I wouldn't want to live there in winter.

The quality of the cabins where I stayed near Deepspot, as well as the quality of the renovated apartment in Warsaw, strongly reminded me of the Asian style: new and done quickly, but not thought through, with low quality of workmanship and low durability.

Infrastructure

Warsaw is beautiful. Although it is a big city, bigger than Prague, it is still a city for people. You can see that the streets live an ordinary civic life. The centre is lively, but there is still space in it, even for a bike ride.

The city is adapted to people, so you commonly see people spending time outside. They don't have to hide in bars and buy drinks in pub gardens. It's enough to sit on a bench in the park.

What caught my attention about Warsaw's infrastructure:

• cycle paths and bike pumps right at intersections
• a waterfront promenade with bars
• lots of parks
• the city is easy to walk through
• benches everywhere
• drinking fountains
• lots of workout playgrounds

I always thought that capital cities had to be ugly and inhospitable to people. But that probably only applies to Prague. As I saw for example in Austria, Vienna has excellent infrastructure, and Warsaw confirms it: even in a capital city it really is possible to make a city for people and build infrastructure for people. It's just that Prague is backward, because Praguers in particular don't want to move forward and improve the situation, but cling to old bad stereotypes, such as the idea that everything in the city is about cars.

Greenery and parks

Warsaw has large parks everywhere, densely overgrown with trees, so even when it is very hot, there are places with pleasant shade. In the centre of Warsaw, the temperature can easily be even lower than in a small village among the fields. Moreover, thanks to this, the city doesn't heat up so much and after sunset the temperature drops even on the roads.

Even in villages and along roads outside the cities there are many trees. Certainly so that the trees serve as windbreaks. Poland is flat, so where there were no trees, the wind blew terribly. At the same time, trees create natural shade in summer and thus prevent the ground from drying out. If they had a drought in summer and the wind was blowing on top of that, then given the sandy and dusty soil, they would have dust or sand storms.

Parks and various public spaces are used a lot in Warsaw. In Prague, when someone has a barbecue in a park, people look at them strangely, as if they should hide somewhere in a pub. Yet a picnic in the park is a social event, affordable too, and in the fresh air. In Poland, in Warsaw and its surroundings, there are lots of places adapted to people, from greenery through benches and tables to fire pits. For example, a public barbecue spot by the Vistula River:

The Vistula embankment

Just as Prague has its náplavka (riverside embankment), Warsaw has the same along the Vistula River. The difference is that it is bigger and you can sit down without buying overpriced drinks, because there are steps to sit on and even public benches and loungers.

Part of the main road that runs through the city centre along the river goes through a tunnel, and above it there is a public space. It is a nice public space, and in this way the city is also smoothly connected with the part on the other bank of the river. In Prague, for example, these main roads divide the city and they are the ugliest places in Prague. Praguers should take an example from this and also redesign these parts of the city so that they are primarily for people.

For cyclists and athletes

You commonly come across a working bike pump on the street, so if you are riding from work and your tyres are half flat, you can easily pump them up:

Everywhere there are lots of workout playgrounds, which are in good, well-maintained condition:

Culture

There is a lot of social life in Warsaw. For example, the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising of 1 August 1944 is commemorated with the participation of the citizens themselves, who take a bike ride to the important places of the uprising.

Places

Even though I didn't have much time for sightseeing, I saw a few interesting places in Warsaw.

The Old Town:

The Warsaw Barbican, part of the city fortifications:

The Royal Castle:

The Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The Krasiński Palace:

The Palace of Culture and Science:

The Saxon Garden:

A bridge over the Vistula River that serves exclusively cyclists and pedestrians and also has seating. It is a nice place during a summer evening sunset:

The town hall in Piaseczno, a small town south of Warsaw:

Cycling

The city of Warsaw is made for active people. Thanks to that, I could ride my bike to all my meetings. And you could see that the locals also use the bike as an ordinary means of transport. By bike you can easily and quickly get anywhere, even from one end of Warsaw to the other. Can you imagine that in Prague?

My GPS records of bike routes in Warsaw and its surroundings:

Food

Because my days were packed, I didn't have time to go around restaurants. At the same time I needed quality food, so I cooked at home. Always a big breakfast and a big dinner. That's why I only tried Polish restaurant food minimally.

Women

There are more girls to be seen here and they are prettier than in Prague. They are not as open as in Wrocław and they wear more make-up. Girls wear a lot of perfume, but that is probably a general trend everywhere.

Unlike Czech girls, Polish women know how to dress. And they also look better. Maybe it's because there are a lot of Ukrainian women in Warsaw. But I think that thanks to riding a bike every day, the locals also get enough exercise, and so the local girls keep healthy, nice figures.

Summary

Warsaw pleasantly surprised me. Even though it is a big city, bigger than Prague, it is a city for people: with lots of greenery, parks, benches, cycle paths and public places by the river. I could imagine living there.