Charles De Gaulle to Chopin in two hours!

Life off the boat was moving quickly, we were once again back in the fast lane. We basically retraced our boat trip north at 80 km per hour and found ourselves just outside of Paris about 5 pm. We had booked a Chambre d' Hotes near the airport and it turned out to be a great find.  We had a house all to ourselves with a comfie king size bed and a walk in rain shower with jets. After the "stall" and hard bed on the boat both of these were a welcome luxury. Our breakfast was awesome, warm,  fresh of course,  baguette with home made jams and patisseries, plus a selection of cereal etc... you get the picture.

Terri and Georges flight to Toronto on Air France was one of the chosen forty percent to be cancelled. Luckily, Terri managed to get  re-booked on Air Canada on an earlier flight so it all worked out. We all flew out of Charles De Gaulle at the same time.

Garth and I caught the commuter to Warsaw where we are spending four days here before heading home. We arrived, changed our left over Euros to Zloty, and proceeded to wait for our luggage. There were five of us waiting. At one point I asked this official looking women if she knew what was going on and she pointed to the sign on the carousel saying first bag. When I shrugged my shoulders she said when it says last bag come and see me and said - YOU JUST HAVE TO WAIT! Eventually our bags came - the last ones off. Perhaps the people working at Chopin International do not understand the bright orange tags on the bag that say Priority or they do and were thumbing it at us! Oh well, we got them and it all worked out.

We stopped at the tourist info and along the way were accosted by rogue taxi drivers wanting our business. The prices ranged from 120 PL to 50 PL, after our stop at the tourist information booth an elderly man asked us if we wanted a taxi, I asked how much and it was 50 Pl. He seemed grandfather like and we agreed on a flat rate - off we went. His English was poor but he tried along the way to point out places and things. He had great polka tunes just blaring. At one corner he told us "here you are 600 km to Berlin that way and 1200 km to Moscow that way". We arrived at the hotel got settled in and relaxed for awhile before heading out to dinner.

One of the things we noticed when coming from the airport was the abundance of international restaurants, in particular we spied a Vietnamese one just down the street. Garth did some trip advisor research and found out that another Vietnamese place really close by was rated number 5 out of 1144 restaurants. So off we went. Now, it may seem strange to be in Warsaw and heading for Asian food but keep in mind we have been on the road - so to speak- since August 9th and although the food in Austria and France is wonderful it does lack spice and we both love spice. So, off we went and were looking forward to spice, noodles and stir fry.......but it was not meant to be. Right across the road from the "Spring Roll " was the "Kluska Polska".  The interior caught our eye and we stopped to  look in, as we were starring in the window two men came out and started talking really fast in Polish to us. When he stopped and we looked dumbfounded he reiterated everything in broken English. "There are only a few people here now but in an hour you will not get a seat. I have an English menu  was the gist of the conversation. We looked at each other and new our taste buds would forgive us,  after all we are in Warsaw not Bangkok and this time next week we will be back in multi-cultural Toronto. So, in we went!

The greeter!

The big screen and two other people but....

Game time is approaching and we moved to the back of the room to give the die hard fans a view.

We ordered with the help of the not so English menu, chicken and noodles for me and goulash for Garth. The noodles were delicious, donut shaped with no hole and drizzled with butter and bacon. Not sure what they were called. The waiter brought us some salads that we did not order but he thought we should try, an apple, carrot and lemon shredded concoction and then the typical beet salad - both great. Perogies in a garlic sauce followed and they were good but we were kind of full by the time they arrived . A wonderful evening in a typical Polish restaurant watching the 2014 Volleyball tournament - beats Vietnamese anytime!

The TV crowd.

Volleyball is an important sport here!

He just can't help himself peeping in all the time to see the score.

All eyes on the TV.

Before you knew it we were involved, how could you not be. We were oohing and ahhing along with the crowd and clapping in support of our temporary hosts Polska!

Half time or whatever it is in Volleyball.

Poland won over Brazil 3-2 ! We had been up since 6 and we tired so we retreated to our hotel after the second game. A great introduction to Warsaw.