Warsaw rules
In my oral German exam in May 1987, one of forty previously known topics was drawn, which I had to then present to the committee in a monologue lasting a dozen or so minutes. Since preparing for all the stories would border on a miracle, I decided to hammer out one of them, about the life and work of Wolfgang Borchert, and then hope for a stroke of luck or improvise if luck didn't want to smile on me.
I drew a topic titled "what would you show a German tourist in Warsaw" and I started something like this: first we would go to the Palace of Culture, and then to a bookstore, where I would show my tourist books by Wolfgang Borchert. Wolfgang Borchert is a young and talented poet, playwright and lyricist who was fighting in the Middle Ages with an antifascist philosophy.
More than three decades after my high school graduation, yesterday I hosted a friend from Germany in Warsaw and at the beginning of our meeting I acquainted him extensively with the history of the life and work of Wolgang Borchert.
We started with a meal at the city tavern “U Rysia”. They have excellent trout tartare, fisherman’s soup with large pieces of fish and garlic mussels in white wine with crispy baguette. The Czech pils on tap went perfectly with all of this.
After a hearty meal, I wanted to show my guest how Warsaw was having fun on a Friday evening in October, so we went to Mazowiecka. It turned out that this, once bustling with party life until the morning, a hub of pubs, bars and discos is now completely deserted. Probably COVID has done its job and there is no trace of "Tygmont", "Enklawa", "Organza", "Papparazi" today.
In this situation, we had no choice but to drop in for a small glass at the “Max” bar on Nowy Świat. Neither in Scotland, nor in the States, Ireland or Japan, will you find any whiskey that you couldn’t taste in this Warsaw temple of this drink.
Our next stop was a small bar at the back of Nowy Świat, where we enjoyed Leżajsk with foam. This place is full of bars, and around the mural of Kora Jackowska, it is particularly popular with students, who relieve themselves here of their most important needs related to thirst and hunger.
We stayed for a while at Dom Parti. This is where things really happen in the evening and it's hard to decide whether to sit down at "Cuda na Kiju", "Zamieszanie – cocktailbar", "newonce.bar", "Freedom longue", "Rakieta Klub" or "Zagrywki". We chose "Zamieszanie", where they serve pre-prepared drinks in small bottles, which they call taps, baubles or bottles. I tried Mango Mai Tai (bacardi carta blanca, bacardi spiced, mango, orange liqueur, lime, orgeat) and La Farfalla (tequila jose, cuervo, extra dry martini, rose, strawberry and rhubarb), and I fell in love with the vegan, sweet and sour Whisky Sour with algae foam.
We had an afterparty in the atmosphere of the late PRL, and nowhere else, but in the “Pijalnia wódki i Piwa” on Nowy Świat. I tasted Porucznik Borewicz (cherry soplica and banana syrup), and my companion Wściekłego Psa (white bison grass vodka, raspberry syrup, tabasco) – all at the captivating price of 5.50 per shot. It was impossible not to order cold trotters and bread with lard and cucumber.
After this evening's pub crawl, I must admit that Warsaw did not bring me shame in front of the Germans, and Professor Kiszkurno, my very nice German teacher, who gave my final exams a grade of four, would certainly give me a grade of six today.
