Europe Trip 2025 - Poland - First Impressions

Alcoholism, graffiti and dirt.

Landed at Chopin airport in Warsaw. Went to a toilet. A row of small empty vodka bottles (małpka -  little monkey, 100ml bottle) welcomed me to Poland. Got on a train to the city.

Got off at Rakowiec. Ugly graffiti welcomed me to Warsaw. 

Walked from the platform under Grójecka street. Vodka bottles, trash, dirt, drunks. That place looked like it had no owner, not PKP, not the city. It happens in Poland. There are buildings, plots, or sometimes just bits of squares or streets that have unresolved ownership. Still, that underpass is a shame for the Warsaw government, regardless of who owns it.

Looking at the city through a bus or tram window shows what many rose-eyed YouTube videos don't.

The red-white-green flag on the abandoned building above is Legia football club. Their graffiti is not too bad. 

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Since my first impressions were negative, let me add one more negative impression that I was left with after about 4 weeks of taking public transport in Warsaw: many drivers are bad. The management is not doing a good job training the drivers and monitoring them. I know there is a shortage, there are job ads for bus drivers running on the buses, but come on. Ok, here are the problems with some bus (and to an extent tram) drivers: 

1. They drive as if they were transporting bags of potatoes, not people: accelerating and breaking too hard, taking corners at too high speed, changing lanes too abruptly. I wonder how many people fall and get hurt every year on buses and trams in Warsaw.

2. They depart too early. Departing two minutes early is a big deal, when the next bus is in 20 minutes.

3. They don't wait for passengers. The driver that left the stop two minutes early, did not wait for me running up to the stop, but closed the doors, and then stopped after 20 meters waiting to do a left turn. The back of the bus was still practically at the bus stop, and the driver ignored me standing at the last door and frantically pressing the button.

4. They don't care if passengers lose connections. That bus driver was running a shorter route, which I did not notice (it was called the same as the longer route Z-9 I think - that's something the management messed up - it should have had a different designation). At the last regular stop, the driver did not make any announcement, but moved on, changed lanes, did a u-turn, stopped, and turned off the lights. That stop was so far from the last regular stop, that by the time I walked back, I missed my follow-on bus. Since it was a Sunday night, the next one was 60 minutes later.