Warsaw Tour Guide, Ela Rudniak

22/02/2026

Sunday afternoon… I was too late for bread at the renowned “Rano” bakery - sold out by midday. But Praga had a consolation prize for me: a new mural nearby!
“Every street holds a story.”
“Every cat can find its way.”
So… can you spot the cat?

12/02/2026

12/02/2026

Did you know that on 100 milion dognuts are sold in Poland? Here is a little preview of the madness.

01/02/2026

Warsaw is experiencing temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius. Sharing a short clip with the initiative of a warmth tent.

27/01/2026

27 January - the day of the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

Warsaw remembers!
Today, as every year an empty 1940s tram with David's star on the roof ran across the streets of Warsaw.

23/01/2026

At 1 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, Pierre and Maria (Skłodowska-)Curie had their laboratory.

Maria was born in Warsaw and spent over 20 years of her life there before moving to Paris.
Very soon, I’d love to follow in the footsteps of Mania (as her sister Bronia used to call her) around Paris. 👉🗣️ And here comes my question: can you recommend any affordable but clean and pleasant places to stay in Paris? It obviously doesn’t have to be near this exact address - just not on the far outskirts of the city. Merci 😉🇫🇷

13/01/2026

In case you have doubts, Warsaw is number 2 for places to visit in 2026 according to The New York Times:

Our list for the new year features an eclipse, a revolution and a tiger reserve. What’s on yours?

11/01/2026

This weekend I went on a sightseeing trip to... Kraków, Poland’s former capital and a city I thought I already knew. But winter has its own magic. ❄️✨

At 10 a.m. on freezing Saturday (-10 Celsius), the Old Town still had a rare moment of calm - a calm that would soon disappear as visitors filled the streets. I had just enough time to see the city before it gets full of tourists.

But my main purpose of the visit was to see the Wawel Castle I'd never been to before. It's just that the walk from the train station to the castle goes through the Old Town, nice!

This winter visit made me see Krakow in a different... light. It made me also realise why Kraków keeps stealing hearts. Beautiful, I'll be back (esp. that I purchased a year-ticket to the Castle 😊).

06/01/2026

Warsaw On Foot - I’m launching a new series of posts here on Facebook, accompanied by Shorts on YouTube.
The idea is simple: to explore all of Warsaw - step by step, on foot.
The first area I’d like to share with you is Szmulki (Szmulowizna), in Warsaw’s Praga district.
Why start here? Because once again I was drawn in by handmade, yarn-covered figures. The local community decorated Kawęczyńska Street for the Christmas and New Year season - and yes, it’s impossible to just walk past.
Szmulki is a compelling mix of old and new: abandoned 19th-century factory buildings alongside carefully restored ones - such as the former vodka factory Koneser, now a lively residential and cultural complex.
Street plaques tell deeply human stories, among them:
- Irena Rokicińska, a shop manager shot in 1955 while trying to stop a robbery on Grodzieńska Street;
- Karol Wójcik, a factory worker and antifascist activist connected with the Drucianka factory, murdered in Auschwitz in 1940;
- the founder of the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, who found shelter on Radzymińska Street in 1943.
At Kawęczyńska 12, a lower secondary school operated until 1939 - its physics and chemistry teachers, Smorawińska and Ramona, were former assistants of Marie Skłodowska-Curie.

The photos add a few more layers: historical murals, football pride, a street book-sharing box, and something sweet to finish the walk.

To see the yarn-covered figures, go to my YouTube channel and watch this Short 👇
https://youtube.com/shorts/IePuCFrK75o

01/01/2026

It’s 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day and I’m off to Białystok, where my guiding assignment starts today. It’s only a 1.5-hour train ride, but the temperature drops by about 7 degrees - from -3°C in Warsaw to -10°C in Białystok. Back to Warsaw in the afternoon… do you think the tourists will be impressed by Warsaw’s Christmas illuminations?