Since using my T-Mobile account in Poland is prohibitively expensive, I got a pay as you go simcard from a local provider called Play. Their logo is this crazy white and purple blob and they have the craziest adds with it all over Warsaw. Other adds feature the blob as a burger paddy or a cape - it's really nondescript. So I payed 30 PLN and got my card. Of course not knowing how little I actually paid, I was surprised to find my phone out of funds after a week. Theoretically you can replenish your account online, but not having a national ID card (and a credit card or a bank associated with it) that avenue of recourse is closed to me. So, I take a walk to the closes Play store to let cash do the talking. The store is in this super modern mall with a crazy organic room it took them two years to build (or something like that). Even on the way to the bathroom one has to walk down a provocative corridor. I would be pretty impressed, if it wasn't the 50th mall I've been in...
On the way back I found a contrasting example of the old with the new. The metal frame is used for beating dust out of carpets (and gossiping by the maids during the insuing noise). In the old days all the neighborhood kids would hang on these - sometimes even 10 or 15 at a time. No kids today, but now that I know where it is...