On the flight back, we also had a whole day in Warsaw. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough sleep on the plane (unlike the flight there), and I hadn't planned in advance what I would do there, but it didn't turn out too bad.
We arrived at around 6 in the morning. We hung around Chopin Airport for a bit, which is bad because it's almost impossible to find power outlets there - I saw three in the whole airport, and they're far from the seats. I plugged my iPhone charger into one of them - a security guard came up and asked if it was my device. Upon getting a positive answer, he said that everything was fine. Respect — he didn't stir up any prohibitive bureaucracy for no reason, but he did his job.
While riding the bus, we got to talking a bit with a Belarusian girl who lives in Warsaw with her husband. She kind of talked to us rather reluctantly (maybe it just seemed that way to me after the endless Vietnamese friendliness), but she tipped us off that we needed to get off at the "center" stop, which is not far from the old town. Near this stop, there is an excellent shopping mall with a large selection of eateries (which was relevant for us). The soup at the eatery was excellent, and everyone liked it very much, unlike the cafeteria from last time.
Looks wonderful, I could just admire it endlessly
From the inside it's not as cool, but not bad either
The hallway to the crapper is psychedelic
Having eaten, I rushed to the old town to drop by the Marie Curie museum, since that's what my server is called, and overall she was a kick-ass lady. In case anyone accidentally doesn't know, Marie Curie discovered Radium and Polonium, received two Nobel prizes: in physics and chemistry (I think no one else managed to do that), and generally is the most famous example of a female scientist. Her biography is quite entertaining, in short.
The museum is small and dusty, but cheap
Unfortunately, they didn't take cards, and I had to withdraw money from an ATM, again paying 2.5 percent or whatever it was.
A radiation meter, as I understand
The elephant was a gift from the US president
UNESCO issued a medal, the first with a woman's face
After the Curie museum, I didn't waste any time, I went to an organ concert in the nearby St. John's church at ul. Swietojanska 8. I honestly slept through almost the entire concert, but afterwards we were taken downstairs to gawk at the tombs of the celebrities buried there. I might have recognized only one name, but it's still curious to look at granite coffins.
A stylish lantern
Then I walked around the central streets of the old town and nearby for a bit more, ate something
Honestly, the long bun with cheese didn't impress me, but it's cheap - only 1 lats ($2). Usually, everything is more expensive in Warsaw - it's Europe after all, and the capital of a huge country (40 million in Poland, in case anyone didn't know).
There are pedestrian bridges and graffiti
Fountains
Actually, I wanted to go to some palace, but couldn't find it, so I went to the Chopin museum after seeing a sign. I thought it would be boring, but boy was I wrong! The museum turned out to be an incredibly high-tech and stylish piece of modern "hi-tech" design, almost bordering on kitsch. It incredibly resembles the game "Portal" which I adore. Even though the museum cost over 5 lats ($10, which is a bit steep), it totally paid off. Background music and noises play everywhere, touch screens, visual projections on the walls, everything is black or shiny, and sometimes both at once. When buying a ticket they give you an RFID card (wireless) that you have to tap everywhere to interact with different objects (at the same time they'll count you, and check where you've been).
Chopin was quite the hypochondriac. And a womanizer, judging by the reading material on the monitors
This is his favorite woman, who was also a detective writer
There is a mysterious black cube in the room (channeling Kubrick)
And it takes up the whole room, too
Chairs and the instrument
These shadow projections move, mimicking the playing — great stuff, albeit not a new trick
Make sure to go to the basement (you should start there), and not like me, going the wrong way first - to the second floor.
Video cameras, projectors, alarms, and wires everywhere
Everything is transparent, except the ancient bricks
Interactive in places
At the terminal you can record a video of yourself, and they'll show you on the wall
In this place, everything is overflowing with schizophrenic polyphonic whispering
All this setup requires some serious wiring
This brings Half-Life 2 to mind
And here - any game about the future
Even the restroom is stylized - super heavy metal doors
No cell service inside - immediate associations with Portal, where you're a test subject and have no right to contact the outside world
Even the water dispenser is futuristic, Masonic-looking, and on top of that, hidden behind a pillar
To pass through, you need to tap your keycard to the sensor
Even the toilet bowl is like a UFO!
Even the faucet has an unusual design, I couldn't figure out how to turn it on right away
All in all, I really liked the Chopin museum. I am, of course, a fan of hi-tech, and the game Portal, and my imagination is pretty good, but still, I recommend it to everyone, if you don't mind spending the money. If you do mind - I recommend it only to gadget geeks. You shouldn't expect any epiphanies, but the atmosphere is top-notch.
When I was already leaving, I stopped by to grab a kebab
I say in English - the third one from the bottom of the menu, the Caucasian-looking dude says "ok". Then I add in Russian - "to go", and he replies in Russian - "you got it". Funny that for 1.80 Ls (about 3.5 bucks) they gave me two whole huge kebabs, I only ate the second one the next morning in Riga.
By the way, I spoke English in Warsaw, nobody really thought I was Polish or Slavic. And that's fine, I hardly know any Polish anyway, and the cafe and shop workers don't know Russian.
So here, actually, is the result of the trip - 86 kg. I flew out weighing 89.