A Wander around Warsaw

I recently got back from a lovely layover in the beautiful city of Warsaw. Poland was never somewhere that was necessarily somewhere on my top ten list of places to visit, however it certainly is now!

The city is absolutely stunning, full of gorgeous buildings and architecture. Although it was absolutely freezing, we still managed a little walk around.

The flight over was a little less than 6 hours, and incredibly busy! With a full cabin and a breakfast and lunch service, we barely had time to sit down, let alone eat!

Once we arrived it was still early, so myself and Aoife, another business class crew from Ireland, set out to explore a little bit. When I said it was absolutely freezing, I meant it… -12 degrees!!

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We arrived in the old town, which is surrounded by the castle wall.

We spotted the last few stands left over from the Christmas Market, and had a little wander along.

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Since we were in need of warming up (even after only having been outside a few minutes!) we stopped for a mulled wine. That certainly helped!

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We continued our walk past the market stalls and through the centre of the Old Town. Our next stop was to try some “Pierogi” – Polish dumplings! They come filled with all sorts of different fillings, anything from cabbage and meat, cheese and potato, to sweet fillings such as plum or blueberries.

We tried one each with meat, and cheese and potatoes. Yum! After that however, my fingers were absolutely frozen! There was in ice skating rink in the centre of the square, which had some fire stands next to it, which warmed our hands up nicely! We had to go into a magnet shop for about 20 minutes to thaw them out completely!

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We continued our walk through the old town, admiring the lovely buildings and peace and quiet. We couldn’t manage much longer or our toes would have fallen off as well as our fingers!

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We hailed down a taxi and got dropped off back at our hotel.

A few of us had arranged to meet for dinner a bit later on, so I had a quick snooze beforehand.

One of the Polish girls recommended a restaurant just across from our hotel called “Ale Gloria”. We had to go underground to the entrance, and it was decorated beautifully and felt very homely.

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They brought round some freshly baked bread with a delicious smoked salmon spread, which none of us could resist. Next one of the waiters came over with a little jar, which he shook up – turns out he was making butter for us! He then strained it through a sieve and there we had it, freshly made butter right at our table!

I ordered a dish which sounded delicious, goose leg confit with potato dumplings and red cabbage. It was hearty and perfectly cooked, just as delicious as it sounded!

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The others all tried some traditional Polish dishes, and everything looked great. Once we’d finished eating, the waiter (who had been extremely attentive the whole evening) brought round a tray full of different Polish liqueurs for us to try. There were a few different flavours including hazelnut, plum and quince. Really tasty and a great end to a lovely dinner!

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The next morning I woke up to a blanket of snow outside! I was so excited, as I haven’t seen any snow yet this winter. After breakfast I just had time to head outside for a quick picture in the snow before it was time for the wake-up call.

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The flight back was an absolute delight, only 5 passengers in business class so we spent our time drinking tea and chatting away!

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Warsaw, and I really hope to visit again, hopefully when the weather has warmed up a little bit!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! πŸ™‚

29 Comments

  1. elaa
    July 24, 2018 / 1:56 pm

    hello:)
    i would like to ask you – is Warsaw always a layover? I am joining emirates soon and since its my hometowm I would hate it if it was just a turnaround…
    Thank you!
    Ps. love the blog, pics and your smile!

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      July 26, 2018 / 3:43 pm

      Thanks for reading! πŸ™‚ Yes, as far as I know Warsaw is always a layover! Congrats on joining πŸ™‚

  2. Kalina
    February 14, 2016 / 8:17 pm

    Hey Rachel! Your blog is really super:)) Its really great, that you saw Warsaw. Greetings from cold Poland! πŸ˜€ PS Come to Poland again. In April we have spring πŸ˜‰ It will be really nice weather, I promise πŸ˜› You must to see PoznaΕ„, Cracow and GdaΕ„sk.

    • February 16, 2016 / 10:49 pm

      Hi there, thanks for reading! πŸ™‚ I hope I get the chance to visit Poland again when it’s a bit warmer, I really enjoyed it πŸ™‚

  3. Mahfoud
    January 27, 2016 / 7:05 pm

    HI Rachel, its been an amazing coincedwncw to come through your website and read some of your experience, i will be joining emirates in 5 weeks time πŸ™‚ im doing the last pre-flight procedures righy now. I woud really like to hear from you and talk a bit about your experience im so so so nervous right now, if you can add me to facebook and be friends i will be really gratefkll for your help especially knowing tbat you ve been in the company more than 3 yeats now ;). If you can add me on face, its : mahfoud habadi. Thank you very much and waiting to hear from you.

    • February 2, 2016 / 8:04 pm

      Hi there, so glad you found my blog! πŸ™‚ Just let me know any questions you have here, I keep my Facebook private! Otherwise you can always check out my instagram (@rachelwwilson) to see a little bit of what it’s like πŸ™‚

  4. Anonymous
    January 27, 2016 / 9:29 am

    Are crewing allowed to remove you from your rostered flights at the last minute and put you on a different flight? If so, under what circumstances can they this?
    Also, can you pretty please do a blog about what a turn around flight is like? It’s crazy to think some of your flights are like an hour long only but you still do a meal service haha how do you manage to do that in such a short time

    • February 2, 2016 / 8:02 pm

      Yeah it happens quite often, always due to “operational requirements” – could be language requirements or aircraft changes etc. Sure I’ll keep that post in mind, thanks for the suggestion πŸ™‚

  5. Lucy
    January 26, 2016 / 12:23 am

    Hi Rachel,

    I’ve just discovered your amazing blog and I am hoping to apply for Emirates Cabin Crew too. I Just have a few questions which I would love it if you could answer! I was wondering how much time you get off typically, and how demanding you find the job? From what I can tell the Emirates roster seems to be quite intense compared to what a friend of mine working for British Airways has, but I could be wrong. Is there a set or usual number of hours/days you work a month? I was also wondering whether you find the salary sufficient in terms of living costs and so on?

    Thank you so much!

    Lucy πŸ™‚

    • February 2, 2016 / 8:01 pm

      Hi Lucy! Glad you found my blog πŸ™‚ I’d say we probably get around 10 days off a month, but you also get 24 hr layovers so that’s some downtime in-between flights. The job ranges from so demanding that you don’t stop for 7 hours (e.g. LHR flight in the daytime!) to 8 hours of sitting doing nothing (e.g. my PEK flight that I just got back from which was half empty and overnight!). So you have a lot of variation. I also found quite often it was more demanding working in economy but again that depends on the flight. Your usual roster is around 80-100 hours a month so I’m not sure how that compares to other airlines but I find it a good balance of days off and flying. The salary is great, the first year was a struggle as you don’t get paid much during training and you also get more deductions but after that I found it easy to save each month and also enjoy myself and days off in Dubai! Hope this helps and good luck πŸ™‚

      • Lucy
        February 8, 2016 / 3:06 am

        Thanks so much this was so helpful!!

  6. phoebe
    January 25, 2016 / 11:36 pm

    hello Rachel!

    IΒ΄ve got 2 questions:
    How many crew members are there on A380 and 777 flight? could you please divide them into classes?

    What happens when a flight attendant gets ill or food poisoned (or sth similar) during a layover? Travels then back to dubai as a passanger and the work is divided among the others?

    thank you bye

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:57 pm

      Hi there! Sorry I don’t know the numbers, I literally have no idea what percentage of the crew is 380/777 and what percentage is mainfleet (330/340/777). If you get sick on a layover we have a thing called “SOS” which you call and a doctor will be sent to your hotel room. Then you either stay on a few days (if it’s your ears for example) or you deadhead (fly as a passenger, usually in business) back to Dubai. I got sick in Toronto a couple of years ago and had to deadhead back, the work just gets divided among the rest of the crew!

  7. margherita
    January 25, 2016 / 8:19 pm

    hi rachel,

    do you know a pilot who had worked as a steward before? do you also talk to the pilots during your layovers or is it rather rare?

    thanks for your reply

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:53 pm

      Yes there are a few but it’t not very common. We do, usually a group of us will meet for dinner etc and often the pilots join us! πŸ™‚

  8. Dionne
    January 24, 2016 / 2:12 pm

    Hi,

    I LOVE your blog I am from England and really interested in joining Emirates the open day is is in two weeks but I don’t finish studying till end of September if you were to be offered a job could it be delayed for that amount of time? Also do you make friends? Or just the people you fly with and finally sorry for all the questions I used to have a tattoo which has been lazered off only can be seen if you look very very close (it’s on my foot) could this prevent me getting a job?

    Thanks : ) X X

  9. fatima
    January 22, 2016 / 1:35 pm

    hello rachel

    iΒ΄ve heard emirates crew gets the layover allowance paid in cash is that true? who gives you the money, purser or someone else??

    bye

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:51 pm

      Yes we do get cash, it’s given to us at the hotel when we check in along with our room key.

  10. Quin
    January 20, 2016 / 6:50 pm

    Ola, Rachel what a lovely post Warsaw looks like a winter wonder land, especially with the snow everywhere. I would like to give you suggestions on future posts: A) If you can interview a male cabin crew to give a male perspective on how it is to work for EK. B) For you to upload your glamour routine, like what cosmetics you use to keep your skin and hair looking fresh & radiant at all times.

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:50 pm

      It was lovely, I was so happy to wake up to snow even if we had to leave that morning! I’ll definitely keep those posts in mind, thanks for your suggestions! πŸ™‚

  11. Anonymous
    January 16, 2016 / 5:26 am

    Okay I really want to know what you guys as crew do to keep yourself entertained through like a 14-16 hour flight? I know some of the time is taken up with service or having a sleep but what do you do the rest of the time while passengers are sleeping and other crew are in the bunk beds? I would love to know, perhaps you can do a post about it? Or what a typical 14-16 hour flight involves with services and rest times etc? Thank you!! x

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:46 pm

      Honestly we get so bored, haha! I just came back from Beijing which was a 8,5 hr flight on the way back and since we weren’t full we had about 6 hours downtime (that was with 2 full services, dinner and breakfast!) so I guess we just chat in the galley, visit the flight deck, drink lots of tea and coffee! We’re not allowed to read (not even books) which is a shame but somehow you find ways to keep yourself entertained!

  12. Gosia
    January 14, 2016 / 3:00 pm

    Happy to see that you enjoyed your layover in Warsaw! πŸ™‚ and that you ate pierogi, they’re the best! Greetings from Poland πŸ™‚ and I hope I see you one day if I be lucky enough to join emirates πŸ™‚ unfortunately I’ve to lose some weight first to even try xD do you think that 26 is a little bit too old to join? Have a great day!!!

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:44 pm

      I loved it, hopefully I’ll be able to go back when it’s a bit warmer! πŸ™‚ 26 is a perfect age to join, most definitely not too old! Good luck πŸ™‚

  13. Marketa
    January 12, 2016 / 3:29 pm

    Hi Rachel! Love your post – Living just next to Poland and never been there, must visit one day

    Diary of M

    Have a nice day
    M. β™₯

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:43 pm

      Thanks so much for reading! I checked out your blog but unfortunately I can’t understand it! πŸ™

  14. ildikΓ³
    January 11, 2016 / 7:40 pm

    hi rachel, what a great post again!

    im wondering it must be honour for that waiter when emirates cabin crew member says he was attentive πŸ˜€

    tschus

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