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Warsaw: Night At Stare Miasto (Old Town), Polish Food & Polish McDonald’s

Eastern Europe Trip // Warsaw: Night At Stare Miasto (Old Town), Polish Food & Polish McDonald’s – Stare Miasto means ‘Old Town’ in Polish, don’t be surprise if you see similar word like Stare Mesto in Prague, Slovakia and beyond, they all mean the same – Old Town. It’s not like the Ipoh Old Town White Coffee’s Old Town, it’s just one thing that most European cities have in common, a historic center of a city.

It’s quite funny that we go at night. Actually it was still daytime when we reached Warsaw, but we were slacking the the hostel room and only started the exploration when night falls at about 3pm. Nevertheless, we made in to the Old Town and it’s pretty quiet as not what I’ve expected. Is it because it’s night time?

Nevermind, we still walked around and went in to a Polish restaurant – Zapiecek to try some Polish food. We kept on seeing the name of ‘Zapiecek’ in the Old Town and there’s like a few outlets of it. No idea what Polish food was like and we were just tempted by an old Polish lady who keep on waving at us. She successfully lured us into the restaurant. Luckily, there’s English menu, it’s not surprise that their restaurant do not have an English menu because tourist does not frequent the place. Polish food is about dumpling, cheese, dumpling and cheese! In fact, most of the Eastern European food are about dumpling! Don’t mistaken their dumpling with Chinese dumpling, they are totally different thing. There’s another vegetable dish that we ordered taste almost like a Hainaese Bangkuang-Char, except it’s more sourish. Overall, a thumbs up for this meal as it’s something very new and I kinda like it.

Later then, we just navigate around freely to find the exit because we were lost in the Old Town! HAHA. Not that bad after all as the town is quite small and we ended taking a tram back to our hostel place. Reluctant to go back to hostel as there’s no wifi (never know that there’s hostel that doesn’t offers free wifi! – Jump Inn Warsaw), and we headed to McDonald’s for supper and wifi. Well, finally I can have McDonald’s that is cheaper than the UK. Chicken Box rocks.

Here’s me, a dark me.

Rocking Christmas tree at Warsaw’s Old Town.

The Old Town Square.

This is the restaurant that I’ve mentioned – Zapiecek. Not bad, you can give it a try.

The dumplings that I’ve mentioned, not shui gao, or wan tan, but their dumpling. There’s cheese in it.

The BangKuang-Char thing.

Some statue of soldiers outside the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Accidentally passed by this place while finding our way home. No GPS, no data, but found new place.

The quiet and unknown street.

A Polish road.

A patch of shity ice, again.

On the tram! Exciting.

Chicken Box for the supper, the Chicken Wings were just so awesome.

February 21, 2014
Warsaw: Ulica Nowy Świat – The High Street Of The City

Eastern Europe Trip // Warsaw: Ulica Nowy Świat – The High Street Of The City – After checking into the hostel (Jump Inn), the not-that-friendly receptionist ad pointed a few attractions in the city, and it seems that there’s really not much things to do. Warsaw is the capital of Poland but it’s not a famous tourist destination as there’s not much attractions. Could it be the influence of communist that I felt a bit like in China when I was in Warsaw.

Night falls early during winter and we had not eat anything since the last meal at London’s Stansted! Hungry and cold, and being alien to the place, we didn’t know what to eat. The name ‘Kebab King’ gave a familiar impression, and there’s just plenty of ‘Kebab King’ along the street, I guess it’s one of their local fast food chain that serves kebab. Interestingly, the kebab was good, finished everything in less than 15 minutes for four of us. Bravo.

Without any target destination, four of us just spend the night walking along Ul. Nowy Świat – a street that I consider it equivalent to standard European’s High St., like Oxford Street of London. Brands were boring and not much of food neither. The road stretch all the way to Stare Miasto (Old Town) and did has quite some nice Christmas lighting along the road, which I find it more interesting than London! The Ul. Nowy Świat is of course, one of the attraction in Warsaw. I did ask the reception about Christmas Market in Warsaw, but she said, no. Hmm?

In a foreign city out of Asia, and you are craving to see Chinese/Asian, there’s two place you can find them, one – Louis Vuitton and other branded label, two – the casino.

Oh tram, a public transport that hardly make sure everyone pays their ticket.

Working in a manhole.

This is Kebab King, the McDonald’s of Kebab.

University of Warsaw with a grand entrance. Moreover located on such a nice location.

Presidential Palace of Warsaw. Lovely!

A patch of shity ice. Guess I missed the snow falls.

February 20, 2014
Warsaw: Heading To City From Modlin Airport

Eastern Europe Trip // Warsaw: Heading To City From Modlin Airport – Being a very careful Asian tourist, and trying to save as much bucks as we can (or just trying to be super selfish), I wandered around the airport for a bit of time, trying to scout for the cheapest way to head to the city.

A bunch of cab driver swarmed to us and offer us a ride to the city for about 40Euro for all of us. It’s pretty obvious it’s very expensive, I cannot say they are scamming us, but they were offering us in Euro instead of Polish Zloty, so I guess it’s quite a rip-off. The information lady was very kind to show us the cheapest way, that is a about 15 Zloty per person by bus then via train to the city (Warsaw Central) and I guess the ticket include the public transport in the city Zone 1 for 60 minutes after validation as well. (But actually right, it can be cheaper! Forget about buying the bus ticket and just buy the train ticket because the bus driver didn’t even check the ticket also. Of course it’s illegal. :P)

The journey took about an hour and a half and we have to listen closely to the station announcement because there’s no English and Polish was like so new to me. The scenery along the was quite boring, it’s just like the other side of the world, definitely out of the ‘typical Europe’s expectation’, but it’s just cool getting away to somewhere different from Britain.

Waiting at the train station near the airport.

What a foggy day, just like Genting Highland and we couldn’t even see the short building of the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science!

Woot, there’s a casino here in Warsaw.

February 18, 2014
London Stansted To Warsaw Modlin Via RyanAir

Eastern Europe Trip // London Stansted To Warsaw Modlin Via RyanAir – Last Winter, I’ve been on a trip to Eastern Europe, starting at Warsaw, then to Krakow, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, ended at Prague then back to London. It’s quite funny that how we actually planned the trip were that the 4 of us went on to Ryan Air website (airline like AirAsia of Europe), then search every destination that is listed on the website, checking that which one returns the cheapest air fare. Warsaw and Oslo were the cheapest place to fly to, at £12 for Warsaw and £6 for Oslo and ended picking Warsaw because travelling to Eastern Europe is a lot more cheaper than the Scandinavian.

After buying the air ticket, only then we started to look at Google Maps and plan our trip on how the journey goes. London > fly to Warsaw > bus to Krakow > bus to (Zakopane) > bus to (Poprad) > train to Bratislava > bus to Budapest > bus to Vienna > bus to London. It’s quite a budget trip we didn’t even think about a return air ticket, or look for train, it’s just bus all the way and guess what, the bus ticket back to London was the most expensive of all at about 50Euro!

Being in the UK, a part of Europe for a year is an opportunity for me to travel around since the transportation are so convenient and cheap. Moreover, there’s no problem for my Malaysian passport to travel around as no Visa is needed in the European Union countries, and you just never know that Europe is actually very small if to compare to other continent.

So the journey started in London, on the cheap airport transfer van (easyBus) that brought us to London Stansted Airport, it was night time already and we had to spend the night at Stansted Airport. Feeling excited and hungry, I had a burger at Burger King then tried to just find a spot, lie down and sleep; however, once I almost fall into my lovely dreamland, the airport security guard came and kick my leg and ask me to wake up, saying the airport is now open and no sleeping is allowed. ‘WTH?!”, nothing I can do but just wait until 6 something in the morning when the screen shows calling for our Ryan Air flight. London Stansted is the airport where most of the budget airlines are, but then it’s so much better than Kuala Lumpur’s AirAsia LCCT!

One thing that RyanAir is similar with AirAsia is that there’s no aerobridge that connects the plane, and you have to walk up to the plane. Yeah. Slept all the way to Warsaw and landed at Warsaw Modlin airport, I guess that’s not the main airport as it’s very small and located remotely from the city. Alien language started to appear everywhere, but luckily, not much of currency conversion was need as the Polish Zloty is almost equivalent to Ringgit Malaysia. Remember, use Poland Zloty instead of Euro is better.

Super foggy night at London Stansted.

Waiting terminal. Time to fly.

Lovely twilight from the plane, but I missed the sunrise as I was sitting on the west side.

Oh my god, foggy at Warsaw too! What a bad first day weather.

The small Warsaw Modlin airport.

February 13, 2014
Newcastle: Za Za Bazaar – World Buffet With An Asian Street Food Theme

Newcastle: Za Za Bazaar, World Food Banquet – Are you a fan of buffet? No, I am not, but then I still head to buffet some times, especially during any festivity, like friend’s birthday, or just a celebration of some events, like the very most recent one at Za Za Bazaar in Newcastle, sort of a little Chinese New Year meal with a few friends from Malaysia and Hong Kong.

A little bit on why I am not a fan of buffet is I don’t enjoy the bloated feeling every time after a buffet meal. HAHA. Buffet is fun of course, with a plentiful choices of food to choose, but then some times it’s hard to try everything, moreover the heart is always thinking that, ‘I must eat the most out of the money I’ve paid’, which is a typical ‘kiam-siap (stingy)’ Malaysian attitude. That’s why, I rather pay the same amount for a decent few-course meals with people serving me. I am quite lazy.

Talking back about this Za Za Bazaar that I’ve just visited recently, at The Gate, Newcastle, I was quite amazed with the interior setup which have an Asian street food concept that feels very graphical, food stalls and Chinese. In compare with another buffet restaurant in Newcastle – Kingdom Buffet, I find Za Za has a better interior setup which somehow psychologically made my meal better (hey, I study interior design, so it’s the decor is very important to me). =D

Food type ranges from oriental, Asian, Indian to British, American, Mexian, Italian and beyond. It’s not surprised though that most of the food served are oriental > western (local) as most buffet restaurants in the UK are operated/founded by Asians. Well, forgive me for not taking any photos of food as I was busy eating and enjoying the interior space, but I can share with you some food that I like. Japanese sushi, American and British section did not capture my taste buds, whereas Indian curry gave me the best sensation of all; Italian, Chinese on the other hand leaved an OK-good impression in my mouth and some of the fried noodles were rather salty. I encountered a few weird food too, but I think some would like it. For £13.99/person (dinner, weekday), I find it quite reasonable, but if really-really-really would like to compare, Momiji in Singapore and Jogoya in Kuala Lumpur are so much better.

For pricing, contact details and opening hours, please visit Za Za Bazaar’s website for more.

February 13, 2014
Citymapper App Helps You To Travel Around London Easily

Citymapper App Helps You To Travel Around London Easily – London is a huge metropolitan city and with around 11 underground lines and hundreds over of bus route, travelling around is not an easy task. I have a friend who has been residing in London for over 2 years still couldn’t not master travelling on complicated transportation system and in the city, he still need to relies on the Legible London wayfinding system and Google Maps.

I have been visiting London very frequently and travelling around without a local Londoner guiding is quite difficult. The Legible London, a wayfinding board that erects at almost every street corner gives you quite a lot of information of where you are and what’s around. So how do I travel around London like a pro? I use an app to guide me around and that’s Citymapper.

Citymapper can shows you the best way, configures the fastest route and lists the costs of different travelling mode when you want to travel to your destination. So it helps you to save costs, and time. It just made travelling in London so much easier. Yeah. At the moment, the app serves New York, Paris & Berlin. I don’t think it will reach Malaysia in any near future as the public transportation system in Malaysia is lacking very far behind.

You can download from Apple AppStore or Google PlayStore for free. Have fun!

February 12, 2014
London: Breakfast At Le Pain Quotidien

London: Breakfast At Le Pain Quotidien – A London friend had brought me to this very nice breakfast place calls the Le Pain Quotidien (French pronounciation as luh pan koh-ti-dyan), or literally means The Daily Bread at Tottenham Court Road. There’s actually quite a number of outlets in London, in fact it’s an international chain cafe, having outlets around the world. A little bit of research found out that Le Pain Quotidien was not originated from French, but Brussels, Belgium in 1990.

It was about an hour to noon and the place was half full. 3 of us, were sat on a long communal table at the far end and later filled up as time went on. The cafe is setup in a warm and cosy atmosphere, with lovely industrial light that bring a twist into the warm design. Food is mainly about breads, sandwiches, omelet and their set of breakfasts. The very friendly staff had made a bit of recommendation to me as a newcomer.

I’ve ordered myself a Organic Scrambled Eggs with bread, side with Sauteed Mushrooms @ £6. The succulent mushroom was very good to me whereas I couldn’t identify the goodness of the scramble egg, pretty standard. There’s a variety of jams and spreads that you can use freely for the bread which is quite a new experience for me. Everything was quite fine, only that I find that it doesn’t really fill up my huge hungry stomach.

Head over to Le Pain Quotidien’s website for the list of location.

February 12, 2014
Meeting Up Friends At M&M & Piccadilly Circus

Meeting Up Friends At M&M & Piccadilly Circus – Last holiday in London was like a little gathering, meeting up with him and her and they and them. The world is really small, London being in the middle of the Earth was like a meeting point for me and friends from Malaysia. Although they did not come directly from Malaysia to meet up, but from all over United Kingdom and Europe, it was a good meet up. Don’t you feel it’s amazing that you can still meet the you know well at a very foreign land, but not your hometown? And right, there’s really many Malaysian in the UK. Hmmmm.

Inside M&M, one of the famous attractions in London at Leicester Square. It’s like a retail + attractions, always that crowded.

At Piccadilly Circus, something like New York’s Times Square, but with so much less LED and sign boards.

Friends of Malaysia & Hong Kong from Newcastle.

Embracing 1Malaysia.

February 11, 2014
London: Burger & Lobster

London: Burger & Lobster – Most people (I would say, Asian mainly) will not miss the opportunity to visit Burger & Lobster, a restaurant that sells only, burger, or lobster in London. It’s like becoming one of the must-eat food in London. ‘Have you been to Burger & Lobster?’ ‘You must really try the Burger & Lobster!’ Most Asian friend will recommend this food outlet in London when you ask them what’s good in London. It’s more like a hipster place, where eating at Burger & Lobster is cool and must-do.

The place must be good, because 5 of their outlets are always full and have a queue all time. It’s not that you can just walk-in to eat anytime, you just have to wait, from as little as 15 minutes to an hour or more. Reservation only available for 6 or more, yet you still have to wait despite having a reservation. We had about 10 of us, and we still waited for like 15 minutes to get our table ready. The one I went to was at SOHO, and there’s 4 more at Mayfair, Farringdon, Knightsbrige and London City.

Eating at Burger & Lobster will let your mind have a break because you do not need to think that much on which and what to eat. There’s only, burger, or lobster! Burger, is a succulent huge beef burger serves with fries and salad; whereas lobster has the choices of lobster roll, or full lobster steamed, or grilled, or mix, or you can pay more for larger lobster. A standard burger, or lobster cost £20/each. Most newcomer will of course, go for lobster because at this hefty price tag, a lobster would be more worthwhile than a beef burger. I did not try the beef burger, but Foursquare has good review on it. My lobster was a grilled one, served with salad, and fries.

The aroma of grilled lobster was so good, and the lobster meat was very juicy and fresh. Not to mention, the fries was good too! However, I find that steamed lobster could be a better choice as the steamed one still have the lobster red roe intact (eggs), I’ve no idea where’s mine had gone. Dipping the lobster with the garlic butter sauce were just superb. You know what, the whole meal took about 1.5 hours to finish everything up, it’s like the longest meal I’ve ever had for one main course. I was just trying to clean everything up inside out of the lobster, no wastage. =D Thumbs up!

Friends from the same high school, Chung Ling High School, Penang! Interesting that we met not back in Penang, but in London. // Photo by Oohjii.

Head over to Burger & Lobster’s website for their list of locations and details.

February 11, 2014
Chinese New Year’s Celebration At Newcastle’s Chinatown

Chinese New Year’s Celebration At Newcastle’s Chinatown – Following up the Chinese New Year’s celebration in London, the Chinatown in Newcastle also had its own Chinese New Year celebration on last Sunday. The Chinatown in Newcastle covers the stretch of Stowell Street that filled up with Chinese restaurant mostly, and a few Chinese retails and hair salons.

Unlike London’s CNY celebration where you can find a series of performance at a main stage and a small CNY parade, the celebration at Newcastle’s Chinatown was actually just the performances of Lion Dance & Dragon Dance. Local, Geordies and students, all flocked into the street of Chinatown – Stowell Street early on Sunday morning to experience the sound of live firecrackers and ‘dong dong qiang’ of lion & dragon dances. Me and friends went at noon to join the fun and feel the Chinese New Year’s atmosphere as it was the 10th day of Chinese New Year.

Chinatown in Newcastle has been quiet all the while, and finally, the only day of the year that it’s very happenings. Lion dance went to each restaurants and retails on the street to perform a short dance to bring luck to their business. Funny is that most of the crowds followed the lion dance team all the way from beginning to the end. There’s also a very small fun fair at the end of the street which I think that day was the most crowded day of the year. Well, the celebration was quite interesting, with lion dance, fun fair, some Chinese performance that I’ve missed it and a sea of people. This gave me a different perception of the Chinatown in Newcastle instead of being a quiet street with no Chinatown’s feeling. Anyway, the food price at all restaurants remained the same on that day, which was a very good thing!

The crowds in front of the Chinese arch near St. James Park.

People watching the lion dance ‘performance’.

Live fire crackers. This just spiced up everything to make the day more festive.

A very small merry-go-round.

Inflatable slides that made the kids went crazy. This reminds me when I was small that loved to get on these inflatable slides!

Some little fun CNY thingy or souvenirs or toys for the locals, not for the Asian though.

Genting, a very familiar name for Malaysian.

Cute little girl with a small lion head.

February 10, 2014

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