Bedtime of Day 1 in Warsaw

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I fell into bed about 6:30 pm. One concern I had before embarking on this trip had to do with pillows. I usually sleep with…well….quite a pile of them, and lately I’ve spoiled myself by bringing them all with me when I travel by car. So….would I actually be able to sleep in Poland once I hit the beds?

As it turned out, they do have good pillows in Poland but, instead of a top sheet, I was told that the new European thing to have is a comforter type blanket that can be slipped into it’s own casing. Before I realized what it was, I slept on top of it while leaving it folded in half, assuming it was some kind of bed pad! Either way, I slept quite well. And the windows…ah the windows! Most of the buildings had new windows that open both at the top, tilting inward, AND casement style, depending on the position you put the handle in, and no screens. I LOVED the no screens protocol! About 3 am that first night I woke up for a while and hung out the window taking photos!! “Didn’t we get bugs?” you ask. The windows had netted curtains, what we would call sheers, that kept most of the bugs at bay. As a bonus, they blew beautifully in the breeze.

I’ll also briefly mention bathrooms and water in this post. I have to confess, I was prepared for some scary bathrooms, because that’s always what Americans talk about when they travel. Well, yes, in Poland there are some pay toilets with slightly scary, stern looking women taking your zlotys, but other than that, the bathrooms were very nice thank you! Showers tended to be small with removable shower sprays and all the toilets had two options for low flow flushing: a half flush and a full flush….very green! For some reason, no one in Poland seems to drink the water out of the tap though. If you are at home, you boil and then filter your drinking water. On the road, you buy water and carry it with you. You also have the choice of water with gas and water bez (without) gas, that is, bubbly or not! So here is my first Polish bathroom and a 3 am view from our window at the Castle Inn.