Day 23-24 Warsaw, Poland

Day 23 Back to my Roots! Germany, Sweden, and now Poland... Check! Complete!

          I arrived around 5:30am Polish time at the bus station. The bus ride was about eight hours from Vilnius. I didn't enjoy the ride because it was impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep. I kept trying to position my body between two seat but ahhhh I'm too tall. My mother's side of the family is Swedish and Polish. I don't know have too much information about my ancestors or what city they were from in Poland. Its still nice to be able to come back to the homeland and check out the culture.
          When I got to the bus station it was freezing. I walked around to try and find the bus my cs host told me to take towards his house. I couldn't find bus 127 so I took bus 172 thinking maybe he messaged me in error. Either way I knew I could find his place by taking the Metro. While on the bus I asked some people if they spoke English to get directions to the Metro. The majority of the people don't or won't speak English but I was lucky enough to speak in words they would know like "Metro" then they showed me which stop to get off at. I arrived at my host Pawel's place and he had a couple of other couchsurfers staying with him. There were two girls from Barcelona and I joined them for some sightseeing. Warsaw is a city that 80 percent was destroyed from WWII. The old town was rebuilt pretty well to model what it looked like previously.
         We met our host for lunch at a "Soviet style" Restaurant in old town. If you don't speak Polish or Russian you're not able to order food because nobody in the place spoke english. Pawel translated the menu for us. The choices were pretty simple and the staff didn't change anything. Pawel said in those type of Restaurants its not the customer is always right but the other way around.

Costs- Polish 3 day transit card- 8 Polish Zlotych(3 US)

Day 24 Male bonding

               Today the weather was like a nice Spring day. I actually got a little too hot from walking that I had to take off my jacket for awhile. Pawel and I walked around the city and did some male bonding. We talked about traveling, life, and Love.....Its nice to be able to relate to someone about your past and see how things are similar or different... Stopped by a place for a nice Kebab...hmmmm I love em! Pawel had some of his friends come over at night. We played some music and enjoyed each others company. Most of the people I have been meeting are very polite about the language barrier. Usually when I walk out the room and come back everyone will be speaking in there native tongue. Then my host will say okay lets speak english now. I really appreciate it because its very challenging if youre at a party and everyone is connecting with each other in another language you dont know. Although many Swedes speak great english I found myself in awkward stages when I would be at parties. I would try and continue conversations with people in english but they would generally talk to someone else and then go back to speaking Swedish. I would like to learn another language one day...

Day 21-22 Vilnius, Lithuania

Day 21 Confusion

            I got on the early bus from Riga to Vilnius(8:30). I was set to arrive four hours later. I texted my CS Host the night before about my plans and we had agreed before then to meet at the bus station. I felt troubled because I didn't recieve any text message back from him. I was trying to think postive that maybe something happened with his phone. I wrote a message to him online just trying to make sure he got the info about the bus times. Its been about two and half hours on the bus ride and I'm starting to think hmmmm maybe this is the first CS experience where it just doesn't work out. You make plans with someone and whos to know whether there going to follow with there plans until it happens. It felt like something wasn't right because through my interaction with this Host I didn't get the vibe he would do something like that. I arrive about an half hour early and at this point I'm thinking something isn't right and maybe he messaged me through the CS website. I had tried to call him but got a weird message that was said in Lithuanian so I couldn't tell what they were saying.
            I decided to go find a Biblotek(Libary) to check my mail. I went to the Tourist Office got a map and directions on where the closest one was. I found the place and I goto the front office to ask where I can use the internet. I walk up to the Secretary and ask do you speak English? she replies back in Lithuanian... tried it again and nothing... so another person who works there hands me a paper and says second floor. I walk upstairs and can't find the place so I ask another person in the building and he was nice enough to take me and show me to the room. I check my CS profile to see if theres any mail and Yup there is... He writes to me that he made a mistake and theres one number missing for his mobile number. Phhhewwwww that was a close call... almost left CS stranded haha... either way it would of been fine... It would of just been sad because the guy seemed to be pretty cool. His name was Valdas and had actually went to the bus station looking for me and when he couldn't find me he tried to make a few calls to find out what happened with the bus. Just like most customer service he had to talk to them three times in order for them to find the accurate information that my bus had came early.
       We went back to his place and enjoyed some nice hot tea. We were talking about History and how if you are part Polish then most likely you have a percentage of Lithuanian in you. Later Valdas drove me around and talked about the city. At night we met up with some of his friends at a bar in the city center. I introduced him to a couple new shots. First we had Milli-Milkas at least thats what the people in Tallinn called it. Its Vodka, Tequila, and Tabasco sauce... Then came the Kamikazees!!! I had him talk to the bartenders to explain how they made theres... Maybe they do it different or she was just wrong but the Kamikazee made in America is Vodka, Triple Sec, White Rum, and Lime Juice. It was funfilled night of laughter, singing, and Goodtimes :).... I remembered most of the night. I don't think Liqour is my friend anymore... I think I'm gonna delete him from my facebook. Goodbye Liqour you are Un-Friended! Hello social drinking with beer and wine :)

Costs- Bus ticket Riga-Vilnius 11 Lativan Lats(22 US)

Day 22 Chill mode

        I slept in and was pretty tired from the night before. Thats another issue with night Josh sometimes he has too much fun and makes thing rough on day Josh... I walked around Vilnius and did my own tour of checking out buildings and the things that made the place stand out. It was International Womens day and I watched tons of men hand out flowers to women they didn't even know. I'm not sure how many places in Europe does this but I also heard Poland does it too. Valdas took me to a nice Lithuanian restaurant that was designed country style. It has nice furniture... couches as your dinning seats. We ate some traditional food and it was yummy!! Then we went out to an area near Vilnius where there was an old Castle. Beautiful views :) ....I went with Valdas to a Pancake Party. Marija another couchsurfer was hosting it and the Pancakes were delicious! I stayed around until I had to catch my night bus. It was scheduled to leave Vilnius at 22:30 and arrive the next day at 6:30(1 hour time difference from Vilnius to Poland).

Costs- Bus ticket Vilnius-Warsaw 29 Lithuanian Litas(12 US)