Warsaw

After leaving the Baltics, you know you're really back in the west, or closer to it anyway, by the sudden appearence of american chain/fast food besides Mcdonalds'(Mcdonalds' is everywhere, even the south pole of inaccessability).

Next, if you thought Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were flat, then you didn't truly understand the meaning of the word until Poland and the North European Plain came into you're path. It's flat as a, well, plain-cake. Gone are the stretches of coniferous acreage, gone are the ferns and low growth greenery. Fields and fields, decidious finite woodland and an endless amount of flatness that precipitate bad jokes like plain-cake.

Then finally, Warsaw...

A sprawling mess of brilliantlly restored war destroyed buildings. It's filled with Neo-Georgian streets in the centre and a miniscule Old Town. Surrounding this is a real hodge-podge of the modern, concrete communist, classical, and ramshackle architecture all thrown in in the hopes that something will be good.

Bakeries are everywhere, bringing with them, as they do, their refreshing and pleasurable aromas of fresh bread, cakes, and pastries. Filling the Old Town square are innumerable Carlsberg umbrellas, shielding from sun or rain the patrons below as they drink to your health and theirs. And why not? This is a revitalised Warsaw, enjoy, but go easy on the pastry.