Kinda like the Taste of Polonia

I have about 14 hours left in Warsaw before I head home.  Since I'm pretty much toured and museumed out, I haven't done much today except go for a run this morning and check out the town square.  Yesterday, after Brian left, I took a walk around the area and found a small grocery store and a pharmacy -- Warsaw's version of a Osco and a Walgreens -- and was able to purchase some items at a very reasonable price.  I also had a good dinner nearby that was half the cost and twice the food of the hotel soup I had for lunch.

When I left my hotel this afternoon, I passed a bank that was running a promotion.  If you apply to open an account, you get to spin the wheel and win a prize.  The lady dressed as a clown brought me in even though I told her that I wasn't "from around here."  They still had me fill out a form and let me spin the wheel.  I won a pen but convinced the manager that giving me a T-Shirt would make more sense since my wearing it back home would promote it to hundreds of thousands of Polish-Americans. 

Next I ran into two American missionaries from the Church of Latter Day Saints.  Since I was starving for some conversation in English, I chatted with them for about 5-10 minutes and then politely dismissed them.  Nice enough fellows but obviously brainwashed into a life that doesn't mess with mine.

Then I walked through the town square, which is smaller than Prague or Krakow's, but still fits the template: some fountain or monument in the center and beer gardens around it.  I walked a little more and found a display of Bears with their arms up, as if surrendering.  A quick Google reviews that these are the Buddy Bears  that represent the 138 countries acknowledged by the United Nations.   My camera ran out of battery power at the Mines or else I would have taken some photos. 

Near the Buddy Bears, was a stage that had some choir singing some songs in Polish.  I decided to take a seat in a nearby garden and nurse a couple of beers to enjoy the performance.  Sitting there and watching the crowd walking back and forth, I realized it wasn't very different from sitting at the Taste of Polonia back home and watching the mix of Polish-Americans, newly arrived Poles and non-poles who were there to see the fest.  You have the same mix of good and bad fashion.  Same mix of good looking ladies with guys who somehow traded up.  And the requesite amount of smokers.  The only difference is that there seemed to be more young people on their own.