Warsaw Day Five

Today is our last day in Warsaw. Helen is now feeling better after having a cold/flu.

I was googling interesting things to do, and found there is a gun range in Warsaw that offers an opportunity similar to what I did recently in Prague. I signed up for a midday session, 

We had to catch a train then walk about 10 minutes to the gun range. This was a completely different experience to Prague. A much larger operation, more staff, more customers. The shooting range was more like you see in the movies, with individual shooting booths, and the target paper moves up and down the range on a motorised mechanism.

I had a dedicated instructor who gave me a safety briefing and explained how to handle each gun. I started with four different hand guns, each progressively bigger than the last. I actually did very well hitting the target and the instructor was quite impressed and couldn't believe this only my second time doing this.

I then got to try a number of larger guns. The two that impressed me this time were a fully automatic, even trying a quick trigger pull would fire 2-3 bullets. My last gun was a shotgun, which I did well aiming, but made a serious mess of the target. 

I'm glad I did this, very different to the Prague experience. It felt less touristy, more authentic. In Prague, all the guns were laid out on the table together, there was photo opportunity, like they made it fun! Here each gun went back into a back room before the next one came out, no photo opportunity, much more serious. Also in Prague the room was sound proofed and Helen and I remember thinking the guns don't sound like in the movies. Here in Warsaw, the guns were loud! Also the shells from the gun were bouncing off the wall next to me, onto my shoulder. A bit disconcerting for a beginner,

Shooting over, we caught a bus to a shopping mall where Helen wanted to visit a clothing store. This was about 40 minutes away, a good chance to see another side of Warsaw. We passed miles of huge housing buildings, many old and plain, others more modern, but no a scale much larger than anything we see in New Zealand.

After clothes shopping we returned to the hotel for a pit stop.

We hopped a bus back down to Old Town. The restaurant where we had lunch the other day seemed like the perfect place to do for dinner. They had Schnitzel on the menu that sounded appealing.

Old Town was lit up like a Christmas Tree (no pun intended) and much more beautiful and lively at night. People everywhere taking in the Christmas spirit.

The restaurant was fully booked but thankfully they could squeeze us into a corner table. The schnitzel was divine, I had the pork (Wiener style) and Helen had chicken. 

Afterwards we walked around two sets of Christmas Markets, not tempted by their wares, then decided to get a bus home. followed our nose along past the University of Warsaw and other grand old buildings.

Tomorrow we catch a train to Berlin which will take most of the day,