Chopin's fingers

The following day we decided to head over the river to Praga, the only district of Warsaw not completely destroyed post the Uprising. It was apparently the area used in the filming of The Pianist and it certainly seems much more crumbly than the Old Town; you can still see bullet holes in buildings and everything looks much more run down. It is cool primarily because there are absolutely no tourists there (the nudist we passed we assume was a local) and so you get to see a bit of Warsaw life by just wandering round without bumping into someone else taking a picture.

After a coffee in a local cafe, we headed back to the Old Town to find somewhere nice to eat and found a lovely restaurant overlooking the Main Square. Lucy and I have found that it is a distinct advantage having people come out to see us, because we can justify having a beer or eating out far more than we would otherwise! After a very lazy lunch, we walked along the Royal Way and found an English bookshop to restore Lucy's ever-depleting supply of reading material. A quick pop into two churches, one of which is the resting place for Chopin's heart*, before heading to meet Damian.

Damian is Lucy's Aunt's friend (I think I got the connection right), who agreed to show us round the Lazienkowski Park, and absolutely stunning park with a beautiful Palace on the lake, lots of peacocks and a beautiful open air Chopin theatre. We spent a lovely few hours chatting about everything from politics to Warsaw before heading back to Weronika's for pasta and pesto. It was more successful than the veggie stirfry, but this might have more to do with the delicious Moravian red rather than any improved cooking ability. Another enjoyable evening spent chatting to Weronika, before we packed up and got ready for yet another early start.

A massive thanks at this point to Weronika and her grandmother who made us feel so incredibly welcome. It was lovely to actually stay in a home rather than in yet another hostel and to be able to get some real local insight, so hope Weronika sees this and that the red wine is helping with the exams xxx

*Given the ongoing fight between France and Poland about who can claim Chopin, we've come to the decision that the deciding factor should be who owns his fingers...does anyone know which country does?