“Why are you trying to kill us?” Jeremy asked, incredulously, staring at the jam-packed itinerary I had drawn up for our brief stay in Warsaw.
After more than six months on the road, we were both feeling a bit burned out.
Nevertheless, because I can’t help myself, I had planned for us to do 4-6 things every day for the one short week we were in Warsaw. Which is absurd because I hate that kind of travel (harsh reality: sometimes travel blogging can ruin travel for you).
Luckily, two things prevented my ridiculous schedule from becoming a reality. The first one was Easter. I don’t know if you’ve ever spent Easter in Poland, but I’ve done it twice – both times by accident. It can be a great cultural experience since the churches go all out. Some of their decorations are quite over the top, but it’s well worth popping into a few. However, Easter isn’t the best time to try and cram in all the tourism, because everything is closed.
The second thing was pinball.
Completely by chance I found out that there was an ‘Interactive Pinball Museum’ in Warsaw. In case you’re wondering, the museum, known as Pinball Station, is less of a museum and more of an amazing arcade. Still, while I had my suspicions this was the case, we figured at the very least it would be an unusual spot to check out in Warsaw.
And yes, yes it was.
Pinball Station: The Interactive Museum of Pinball
First, let’s address the elephant in the room: although it is definitely more of an arcade, Pinball Station is technically a museum.
Each machine has a little information card attached to it giving a brief overview (manufacturer, production year, slogan, etc). Another small placard tells you about the gameplay specifics.
The museum even boasts a machine from 1933! And yes, you can play it. Although admittedly that one wasn’t much fun, it was really there for the novelty.
Despite being a museum, the interactive part of the title is apt as every single machine is available to be played – except for those that are currently being worked on.
This pinball machine is from 1933! 
… this one is from 1993.
NB: Don’t panic if a pinball machine breaks while you are playing it. This is totally normal; just let the staff know so they can try giving it a shake or a reset. If that doesn’t work, they will turn it off so someone can come look at it. Remember: the machines are old, but they are designed to be easily fixable.
If you speak Polish, it is also possible to arrange a guided tour as well. We don’t speak Polish, so didn’t take a tour. But in our experience, the staff at Pinball Station were lovely and knowledgeable, answered all our questions and spoke perfect English (as is so often the case in Poland).
Recharging Required
I was making myself ill dragging us all over everywhere and I wasn’t even enjoying it. Travel burnout sounds like a non-problem to most people: You mean you travel so much you just can’t do it anymore?
It’s a semi-fair assessment, but it doesn’t take in the full reality of long-term travel, especially for those with chronic illness. As someone who has always been fairly on-the-go, I’m no stranger to travel burnout. In the past I have always pushed through, knowing that on the other end there will eventually be some semblance of routine and normalcy.
But being constantly on the road, I wasn’t getting that. Instead, I would take a week – or even a month – to recover and then do it all over again. You know when you pull a muscle and rather than let it heal all the way, you rest it until it’s almost better – better enough to do the thing that strained it in the first place – so you start using it again and wind up exacerbating the problem? No? Just me?
Well that’s what I was doing with travel blogging. I hated it. But I couldn’t stop. The workaholic in me, the one that no longer had a set schedule with rules and regulations, needed to do all the things. Never mind that it meant I wasn’t actually writing as much as I should be for the blog, or that we already had over 6 months worth of material that had piled up to the point that I was too overwhelmed to want to write any of it; workaholic me had picked a facet of full time travel to obsess over and she was all-in.
The Final Straw
After an incredibly disappointing morning at the POLIN, I had finally had enough.
I met Jeremy for lunch at Tel Aviv Urban Food, our favourite vegan spot in Warsaw. Unlike me, he had enjoyed his morning, which consisted of touring the street art in the Praga district. Even though we’d already written a post on the street art in Warsaw, Jeremy was hoping a tour might be enlightening. Although it was nothing like our London street art tour, he happily reported that he definitely learned some new things and it was worth it.
“How was the POLIN?” he asked after showing me photos of all the street art he had seen.
“Hated it,” I said, unapologetically shoveling pitta bread and tapenade into my mouth.
“Oh.”
The POLIN, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, is considered not only one of the top museums in Poland, but in Europe. I had wanted to visit since my first trip to Poland in 2013 (which very inconveniently happened to end a mere week before it first opened its doors).
It took three trips to Warsaw, but I finally made it.
My dislike of the POLIN is something I’ll need to unpack in another post, but suffice it say: it wasn’t for me. It happens; sometimes we just don’t love a place. But after six years of built up anticipation, I was left feeling weirdly hollow by the whole experience.
“More museums this afternoon?” Jeremy asked, trying to sound excited.
“No,” I mumbled through my chia pudding. “This afternoon we pinball!”
An Afternoon at Pinball Station
An afternoon at the Pinball Station turned out to be exactly what we needed. For 40 zł (≈ $10/£8), we were granted all-day, unlimited access to the machines. (You can even leave for food and come back later.)
It was love at first sight. To call Pinball Station a paradise probably sounds hyperbolic to most, but for us it was as accurate a use of the word as we could imagine.
For an hour, the only other person there was a staff member. He smiled warmly at us as we entered before giving us a quick history and rundown of the rules. We bought drinks then gleefully ran towards the machines.
Like kids in a candy store, Jeremy and I greedily devoured each pinball machine. At first we played against each other, but soon grew tired of having to wait our turn when it was completely unnecessary – we had the place to ourselves, after all! It’s miraculous how easily playing a game from your childhood can make you feel like a kid again.
All that stress, all the travel fatigue, it just melted further into the background the longer we stayed. I quickly developed an affinity for a pinball machine called Magic Theatre, while Jeremy favoured Dracula, conveniently right next to it.
I reveled in how different the gameplay was for each game. In Magic Theatre, there are a handful of goals, such as spelling ‘theatre’ and ‘magic.’ At one point a metal ball floats across the play area. Whereas in the Addams Family pinball game – the best selling pinball machine of all time – the objective is to explore the mansion. Each machine has its own tricks, its own nooks and crannies, its own scoring system; a score of 500,000 might be extraordinary on one game and worthless on another.
Saved By the Pinball
It should probably be noted that I suck at pinball. But it didn’t matter as the hours disappeared amidst a cacophony of pinball machine dings, rings and whooshes.
Maniacally hitting pinball buttons was the happiest I had been on the road in a while. That may seem an obvious correlation to many because we mostly just go to horribly depressing dark tourism sites. But dark tourism wasn’t causing my travel fatigue or exacerbating my depression; if anything, it was keeping me motivated.
Something I’ve always loved about travel is how similar everywhere is. Don’t get me wrong, I love to learn about new cultures, meet new people, and try new foods. But I’ve always been struck by how similar we all are: how many cultures love to kick back over a cup of tea – be it mint, chai or earl grey. There are sports fanatics and bookworms everywhere, and who doesn’t love to pop on a film or some good music in their free time?
One of my favourite things about my first trip to Morocco was spending most days reading or playing cards over a soothing mint tea. On my second trip, I still liked Morocco, but some of that magic was gone. The thing is, though, I brought it on myself; rather than travelling slower, I tried to fit more and more and more in and fatigued myself.
To be fair, we actually tried to travel slower at one point in Morocco, and it didn’t work out. But that, too, is a story for another post.
By the time we arrived in Warsaw, I was in desperate need of a reminder of why I even liked travelling to begin with. And I was fortunate enough to find that in an afternoon of pinballing.
Takeaway
We went back the next day.
After a late breakfast (brunch, if you will), we decided to completely cross out our plans and head back. Despite the fact that six straight hours of standing is actually hella hard on your feet – something we hadn’t really experienced since our days working in the cinema – we couldn’t wait to go back. We arrived as it opened and played for a few hours before grabbing pizza nearby and meeting our friends at the Invisible Exhibition. Afterwards, we returned.
There are places you will always remember fondly, and those less so. Sometimes this doesn’t have anything to do with the place, but just where you’re at mentally, or who you’re with. Sometimes a place just doesn’t mesh with you as a person, and that’s fine too.
Warsaw is full of good memories for me, from devouring pierogis and mulled wine to making snow angels outside an abandoned factory to recovering from travel fatigue over a couple of afternoons of pinball.
What I relearned that day in Warsaw is that travel isn’t about seeing places, but about the experiences along the way.
Practical Information About Pinball Station
LOCATION
Kolejowa 8A, 01-210 Warszawa, Poland
It might look a bit like you are in the middle of nowhere initially.
COST
General – 40zł
Student – 35zł (with valid student ID)
Junior (for kids under 12 y.o.) – 25zł (only available if accompanied by an adult)
*Check their website to make sure the prices have not increased.
OPENING HOURS
Sunday – Thursday: 1:00pm – 10:00pm
Friday – Saturday: 1:00pm – 12:00am
Looking for more things to do in Poland?
– Street Art in Krakow
– Dark Tourism Memorial Sites and Museums in Warsaw
– The Katyn Museum: Remembering a Forgotten Massacre
– Exploring WWII in Krakow: Museums & Memorials You Shouldn’t Miss
– 7 Cool and Unusual Things to do in Krakow
Want more travel stories?
– Learning How to Relax Through Coffee Culture in Zagreb
– Encountering Culture Shock in India
– Exploring the Hill of Witches
– 30 Struggles No One Tells You About Travelling While Short
Are you a pinball wizard? Have you ever experienced profound travel fatigue? How did you overcome it? Let us know in the comments below!
