Arriving at Warszawa Chopin Airport

With apologies for the poor quality of the pictures (I had to take them in a hurry), here is a guide to the Warszawa Chopin Airport arrival areas that you will enter from the baggage claims.  There are two baggage claim areas in the airport, connected to each other. The one that you go to will depend in part on whether you are flying in from an EU / Shengen Agreement country or from outside the EU. If your flight comes from inside the EU, you will probably end up at the large baggage claim area. If you are arriving on an international flight, you will probably end up at the smaller baggage claim area. To get to the smaller baggage claim area, as you come off the escalator / stairs, etc. in baggage claim, go right.

After you get your baggage, you’ll exit the baggage claim area. If you exit from the large baggage claim that you encountered first and look to your right, it will look something like this:

 If you go through the smaller baggage claim area for international arrivals / customs, when you exit you will see this:

And this little coffee shop / diner:

I believe it’s called the Flying Circus, but I’ll check again next Thursday when I’m back in the airport. The easy way to tell if you are in the main arrival area or the smaller arrival area is that the doors out of the airport have blue signs in the main arrival area and reddish signs in the smaller arrival area. It is not a large airport, so if you find yourself in the main arrival area, walk in the direction I’m looking in the first photo, keeping the convenience stores on your right. You’ll come to this sign at the beginning of the corridor connecting the two arrival areas:

Walk through the doors and stay right. You will see this corridor, hopefully slightly less blurry:

At the end of the corridor, it will look like this:

Where that guy is sitting  is one end of a row of truly uncomfortable metal benches/seats. Walk along it to the right and you’ll see the Flying Circus or whatever it is coffee shop.

We will plan to meet you right outside the Flying whatever restaurant / coffee shop pictured above. If no one is there (highly unlikely, but possible), just go in, order a cappucino, and hang out for a little bit. We will find you. If you’re getting really desperate, my cell phone is 48 514 692 188 (dialed in Poland), Dr. Krasnicka’s cell phone is: 48 606 556 228 (dialed from inside Poland), and you can contact our two liasons at: Ewelina Gruszewska:  +48 508 456 368 (dialed in Poland) / Magda Majewska:  +48 692 526 611 (dialed in Poland).

There are two ways to get to Bialystok – bus from the airport and train from downtown. Taxi fares from the airport to downtown run about $25 USD, less if there’s no traffic. The train station is a monstrosity of communist central architectural planning, and the customer service handbook was probably written by Benito Musolini. The train station itself is far more difficult and confusing to navigate than Spain, England, Austria, and even the United States. One of our adjunct professors who just taught in Lodz with me last week described it as a post-apocalyptic vision of Penn Central Station in NYC. Getting on the train involves a mob-rush to extraordinarily narrow doors, a fight for seating and luggage space, and no certainty that you will have a seat at the end of the day. We plan to send you by bus.

Again, you should not need this information at all. Unless you are arriving at an hour when we literally cannot get anyone from Bialystok out to Warsaw or you failed to provide us with your itinerary on this handy form: http://studyabroad.law.msu.edu/poland/contact.php , someone will be at the arrival area to meet you. They will have a sign with your name on it.

DO NOT TALK TO TAXI DRIVERS INSIDE THE AIRPORT TERMINAL. There is a regular taxi stand outside the doors with legitimate taxis or you may go to the taxi kiosk that you can see from the international arrivals baggage claim gate. The policja are very good at keeping the unlicensed cab drivers out of the airport but some inevitably get through.

If you really really need it, the way to get from the international arrival lobby to the bus terminal is to first stop at the ATMs (“bankomats”) that are behind the row of metal chairs at the international arrival baggage claim gate and get some cash. I don’t know what their exchange rate is. I do know that the further you get from the airport, the better the exchange rate – in the airport the Kantors will give you 230 zloty for $100 USD. In Krakow, my wife is getting 275 zloty per $100USD. You will need cash for the bus.

Next, stop at the information kiosk immediately in front of the international arrivals baggage claim gate. They speak English. Ask them to confirm how to get to the bus terminal and to explain to you how to buy a bus ticket to Bialystok. (I will do this myself next Thursday and give you a complete explanation).

To get to the bus terminal, exit by this door:

Looking right immediately, it will look like this:

 Walk down to where the woman is in the picture, turn left and it will look like this:

Walk past the construction that you see there and you will see the bus terminal:

The bus schedule is posted on a stand at the end of the fence.

You want the Podlasie Express bus to Bialystok. We’ll also make arrangements to meet you in Bialystok.