Snowy days in Warsaw

After our stop at Łódź, we continued onto Warsaw which was a 1h30 drive in the dark, arriving at 20:00. We were staying at Oki Dokie Old Town, our first hostel. We had been communicating back and forth and they did have some parking themselves which cost 120 zł per day (£23) but it sounded a little hard to find. We went around in circles a few times but we did find street parking on Jana Kilińskiego. The parking is only chargeable from 08:00 to 20:00 so we only had to pay for 16.5 hours parking which was 77zł (£15.40) and our spot was right next to the supermarket come cafe Żabka Prosto z pieca which came in handy!

The Okie Dokie Hostel has all kinds of accommodation from dorms to private rooms but we had booked for two nights into a 'deluxe' double room with a private shower at 476zl (£95) paid. One thing to note was that you need to allow to have a keycard deposit in cash at check in (20zł / 5 euros) which I had made a note to allow for but one of the few places I actually needed cash. The hostel itself was a brilliant location, had its own (upstairs) cafe, a downstairs bar and lots of activities for those staying there: comedy night, games night, bingo, cooking class, 'speed friending', karaoke and drinking games. Not really our thing but it does illustrate how much was going on here and I'd definitely recommend it!

On Tuesday 18th February, we met with our first photographer - Anna - booked on Airbnb for £106.99. I had actually managed to make a mistake and we had not one but two Warsaw photographers, but both took quite different photos. We were with Anna from 11:00 – 14:00, meeting at the front gate of University of Warsaw which was just over 20 minutes walk from the hostel. We had a really friendly walk around town with her, so in the end we felt more like friends! Anna's lovely photos are below.

After we were finished with Anna, we walked to the the World of Illusion Museum which was at Rynek Starego Miasta overlooking where there was an ice skating rink. I had booked this on GetYourGuide and for one adult and one child this was £11.37.

After the World of Illusion Museum, we tried to get onto the ice, but it had closed so we headed straight to dinner at an amazing Polish restaurant called Gospoda Kwiaty Polskie which I had found on Tripadvisor. We spent £50 here with a tip and it was so good even though Tiger turned her nose up at the traditional Polish sausage so I basically ended up having two meals myself whilst she ate chips!

Back at the hostel which was just 5 minutes walk away, Tiger settled herself into a den and actually slept in it until 2am before creeping back into bed with me!

The next day, Wednesday 19th February, we met our second photographer, Vitalii Osiichuk, who I had booked on Tripadvisor. With this shoot, I only had to pay for one adult (I had checked this by email with Vitalii before booking) so the one hour shoot was only £92.23. We met Vitalii at the Sigismund's Column at 10:00 and, whilst we did see some of the places we had been to with Anna, it was also quite different. He managed to take some fabulous photos of us despite 6 year old tantrums part way through. We had less of a personal connection with Vitalii though and I feel he would be better for romantic couple photoshoots that family shoots, but recommend both of them for different reasons.

And after the photographer, we finally managed to get on the ice before heading back to the car and onwards to Lublin!