Today was a lovely day filled with beautiful weather and new experiences for our last Sunday here in Warsaw. For lunch today we had intended to go to a favorite pierogarnia of ours in the Old Town but finding it too busy, we ended up at Stacja Rynek just a block away. What a beautiful place! A walk down into a cellar, the place very much surprised me with its elegance and design. Our meal was fantastic: for Lisa a lovely salad and for myself a very nice zurek soup and beautiful salad that reminded me very much of San Francisco cuisine.
After the meal we did a little shopping and made our way down to the Cafe Bristol at the Hotel Bristol for one last time. Not that we were regulars as it’s a bit expensive, but it was a place we enjoyed taking guests to and rather much enjoyed when we could. Today we had ourselves some coffee and shared a wonderful ice cream sundae (vanilla and strawberry ice cream and peach sorbet, surrounded by black currants and strawberries in a sauce, topped with whip cream, some meringue and a cookie… delicious!). While sitting there a pianist started playing and played one of my favorite tunes, C’est si bon. Just delightful!
After the Cafe we made our way to BUW (Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, the library of the University of Warsaw). Lisa had some photocopying to do so I spent my time at the Coffee Heaven there on my laptop to catch up on a bit of work. Afterwards we went out the back and made our way to the garden on the roof. Now, I had been down to BUW before but never knew that there was such an amazing garden on top of the building. What a surprise it was to wander around above the library, looking off into the distance across the river and around town, walking all around the roof and looking into the library. It was quite nice to have gotten to see all of that and to have such a nice experience in before we leave.
Only a couple of days now here, we’ll pack tomorrow to prepare to leave on Tuesday evening. It’s an amazing chapter of our lives that is coming to a close and I find myself looking back at the time here very fondly. Already I am realizing all of the simple everyday things which I will miss, but I am also beginning to look very forward to returning to California. I’m sure I will be thinking back to life here in Warsaw for some time to come…