Good morning from Warsaw guys
I'm in Poland
if you haven't figured it out
My decision to come here stems from my background
My parents are Polish, both of them are from Poland
I'm born in the U.S. so I'm an American with Polish parents
or in the U.S. we just say Polish-American
That's easy enough
My parents are both from Poland and they spent a lot of time invested in making sure that I am familiar
with what Poland is
Polish schools on Saturdays, dance groups that were Polish, Polish folk dance that is
Growing up I spent a lot of my summers in Poland
I basically came here every other year until I was thirteen
Every time I came, basically every time, was with my parents
So my view of Poland and my ideas about Poland are very much one sided
sculpted through the eyes of my parents
and the Polish community back in Chicago which was basically
basically it's strongest roots are based in the 80s
The fact that my whole view of Poland is very much one sided isn't something I realized
until I met my Polish friends in Tokyo
Like Marcin, like Kris
And then there are others as well
But Kris of course, was one of the bigger influences here
And it kind of boggled my mind because I had this whole idea set for about 23 years
I"m here for some of my own self- discovery
as corny as that sounds
that's what I'm doing here
So I thought it'd be cool to show you guys Poland from a foreigner's perspective, that's me
There are some things that will be pretty familiar for me, some things that probably will really surprise me
For all the Polish viewers, please help me out as much as you can
Let me know if something awesome is going on
And I would love to meet up with a lot of the viewers here
So send me messages and I'll see what I can organize
Here's a view out my window again
It's very nice
It's the Palace of Culture and Science and it's the tallest building in Poland
but more on that in another vlog
My plan for today, I'm going to workout first, then I have to pop into the Japanese embassy
then I'm going to edit yesterday's vlog and then I'm going to do shopping
Did my workout, weightlifting followed by high-intensity intervals, I'm pretty pumped up
Now I have to go to the Japanese embassy
I just pikced up my new awesome Japanese business visa
Which makes me one of the first, if not the first person from Poland with this type of visa in Japan
It's funny, but there's just not a lot of us in Japan
This is my last day in Insadong
Tomorrow I'll be moving to Gangnam
And I want to say, this place where I'm staying, this is the best hotel I've stayed at
And they're not paying me to say this, I just want you to know
if you get a good price in this hotel, like I did, 80$ per night, this is a steal
There's a gym, there's a swimming pool, everything is included in the price
The standards are very high
And you get a whole apartment as opposed to just a hotel room
So you have a kitchen and everything
And the Insadong area is one of the best areas you can stay in in Seoul
if you're a tourist because you're close to all the palaces
you're close to Myeong-dong, so shopping area
You're close to Jonggak which is like a night entertainment area
You're close to Insadong itself which is also interesting
You can get to Itaewon pretty quick, you can get to Hongdae pretty quick
I just love staying here, this is the best place I've stayed at
With that said, before editing yesterday's episode, I'm going to use the bathhouse
Good stuff
So I found a place to eat, it's not necessarily Polish food
But I'm way too hungry
Freshly squeeze orange juice
Yay!!
Chicken, and a salad, and some potatoes
Important things worth noting about Poland
Water is never free at restaurants, you can get a sim card almost anywhere for as little as like two dollars
And then you gotta load it up
I'm at the Zlote Tarasy which I guess is....
Golden Pavilions?
And it seems like it's basically a big shopping mall
I found a hair straightener
This guy's got nothing on you, Stu
Now I'm seeing Patryk, and we're gonna do some shopping and food
I'm really sad about having to leave this hotel tomorrow
Operation barbecue
Egg, kimchi, garlic
I'm going to miss Korean food so much when I go to Japan, really
This is unreal
This building behind me is the Myeongdong Cathedral
It's one of the biggest Christian churches in Korea
Let's check it out
We incidentally stumbled upon a concert in the cathedral
It's an interesting place to see especially because of the paintings on the wall
You can see saints wearing traditional Korean robes
So I'm guessing Korean saints
It has to be noted that Christianity is the most popular, I think, religion in Korea
Kris, says majority is Protestant
but in Korean terms, religion is more sycretic
So for example, even though you're Catholic or Protestant, you would still do jaesa
Which is you know, pay tribute to your ancestors
So in Korean terms, it's more mixed, I'd say
Hey guys, I'm just here looking at shoes, because shoes finally fit me
And I ran into Wojciech
Hi everyone!!
I guess I'll be getting some of that now
Time for some groceries
Holy crap, the yogurt selection in Poland is huge
Cheese, cheese, more cheese
I got myself a jacket, hair straightener, sim card, and some groceries
I keep trying to walk on the left side
and messing up traffic here
Hmm, a wall of foreign sightseeing spots
Let's see if there's anything from Japan
We got Brazil over there
U.S.
And another U.S.
And I ran into Sebastian
I just wanted to say some thing
I'm really awkward in Polish
So I'm very sorry
I really gotta figure out how to not be awkward in Polish
Sorry to everyone
Halocynthia roretzi spiced (gibberish)
We went for stir-fried eel
So this place is like between a street food and a restaurant, right?
Exactly, this type of place, called pujongmacha
Which is usually basically a type of tent that you can find near the street
And yeah, it's sort of a place with street food and you can drink soju and beer
For me this is like a perfect food experience
I just love street food and the kind of dirty places
This is my type of food
This is exactly what I wanted to do in Korea, you know a place like this, it's like what you see in the movies
Damn, this place
Byeee!!
I'm not over, I'm gonna go to the pool
Got water, water, powerade, pasztet, goat cheese, ham, cheese, bread, lard
that's such an ugly word in English, lard
toiletries, and a coat
Alright, I'm ready for you Poland