Warsaw Review

I got back from Warsaw yesterday with some stories to tell. Here’s my review of the city:

Statistics

Ahh statistics, it’s always good to start here, mostly because it’s the kind of juicy information everyone is really interested in; there’s nothing more engaging to a Daygamer than comparing their ratios to see who is the bestest.

Approaches: 50

Numbers: 20

Idates: 1

D2: 4

D3: 1

Lays: 2

Of those two lays, one came from a SDL where we didn’t actually go on a date (I walked her straight to mine) and the other came from a D2 (lay reports to follow once I can be bothered to write them).

In terms of ratios: 1:2.5 number close is good, though it is less interesting/important than the approach to first date ratio: 1:10 (if you include idates, otherwise 1:12.5). 1:25 approach to lay is fantastic but let’s not forget that’s the result of an immersion and is of course only two data points.

Daygame and Dating Experience

If I were to sum up my experience of Warsaw with a quick phrase, it would be “shaking the Daygame tree.” I went out and did ten sets each day and saw what fell down. I learned from Prague that on a solo trip it was better to limit myself to ten sets because it reduces my outcome dependence.

While I was there I came up with some rules of thumb to reduce my outcome dependence and increase my general success. My guess is that all of these have been said by other Daygamers before, these are just the rules which stood out to me:

• Maximum 10 sets a day *
• Don’t try to rush into the first set, let it come to you; start as you mean to go on
• Always be looking for IOIs; if you spot a girl coming towards you who you’d like to approach, look into her eyes as you pass and see if she reciprocates. Use that as a gauge of whether to approach
• It’s fine to eject from a set if it feels awkward and is going nowhere
• Don’t assign an outcome to any set, wait for her response to the feeler
• Only try and push past the boyfriend objection when she seems strongly interested
• Close on the offer of coffee and send your date requests for coffee, not a drink, as coffee reduces the chance of raising her ASD and she knows what “coffee” means anyway. Furthermore you can always take her to a place which serves coffee, tea and alcohol and see what she picks; I always did this and went for a beer and she followed my lead. Lastly, a lot of girls don’t drink at all anyway, or only on special occasions **
• Always follow up with a girl you had a strong set with, but who didn’t respond to your feeler. It might be the case that she just didn’t respond because there was no question in your feeler. This was the case with my D2 lay.

* I know I often rage against the ten set mantra, but with all the time in the world plus a lot of viable sets, it’s a good strategy.

** Don’t worry about the signal this gives to the supposedly r-selected girls

In general I was noting, roughly, the following split of reactions from each day’s approaching:

• One blowout (No girls)
• Four initial bursts of energy from the approach followed by sinking energy and a boyfriend objection (weak Maybes and No girls)
• Three decent sets (Maybes)
• Two excitable sets (strong Maybes and Yes girls; though this didn’t mean they were logistically available)

Of course all the girls were polite, even the blowouts, and most girls would stand and listen to my patter before excusing themselves if they weren’t interested.

And what about the dating? Luck conspired in my favour with the SDL set: she hadn’t had sex for two years and was just starting her period when I met her. I brain fried the D2 lay as well and once she asked me, ten minutes into the date, which was my favourite porn category, getting the lay was close to a formality.

But what of the “failed” dates?

One girl refused to kiss on the first date but did come into mine on the second, where she again refused to kiss. Time ran out on this one but I doubt it would have ever ended with a lay unless I pretended to be her boyfriend. When I did try to kiss her, in isolation, on the second date, she said “don’t do that, it is not important,” and tried to make me feel guilty for doing so. It was a good play on her part because it’s trying to set a frame of ‘this is romantic, why would you ruin it?’ Isolation wasn’t the problem either because I tried it back at mine too.

I met one girl for a lunchtime coffee filter date to see how interested she was; she let out that she was going away for the remainder of my stay so I stopped messaging her. To be honest, I have no idea how it would have progressed if we’d got onto a D3.

The last girl came for a coffee and then a drink. She wouldn’t position herself to let me kiss her but she seemed really into me; she had that kind of pupil spasm which shows strong attraction and kept on “accidentally” flicking my arm and knee with her fingertips (although perhaps this was actually good Game on her part). I thought it might just be because of possible prying eyes that she wouldn’t kiss and so I offered her the bounce to mine as we walked past. Unfortunately, she refused, and so I walked her to the metro station and said goodbye. This might have been a third date lay, but then again, she might have just been meeting me for the thrill of meeting me. I’ll never know.

Quality

I’d say that the average 18-24 year old girl in Warsaw was a seven; so a pretty girl who puts a good amount of attention into her diet, fitness regime, make-up and fashion. It’s been said by many people before me that Poland is seven heaven and I agree wholeheartedly. But this isn’t an invitation to spam, in fact you need to be much more careful with your approaching and make the correct set selections, otherwise you’ll go home with a pocketful of flaky phone numbers and later on: timewaster dates. That is a detriment to your vibe and can be easily solved by being more selective in your sets.

Though the quality is practically identical to Prague, Warsaw pulls in less nationalities. In Warsaw you can expect to meet mainly Poles (duhhh) and Ukrainians, with a very, very light seasoning of Russians and Belorussians.

What I found better in Warsaw, compared to Prague, was the fashion. It’s a bit brighter and more interesting in Warsaw and so you’ll find it easier to stack off of it. Having something creative to say at the beginning of the set is a great way to boost your own vibe, as well as the obvious positive impression it gives to the girl herself.

Warsaw has a good mixture of girls there due to the university and so you’ll meet a variety who will lean to both the r and K side of the spectrum. That’s not to say that the r-selected girls are raging sluts, more that they’ll have a rebellious side and are up for the kind of adventure Daygame offers so will be more amenable to the set. This means that you can aim at all ends of the spectrum yourself: from SDLs to third date lays and beyond, and so should be ready for any and all circumstances.

Now let’s hear it for the guys! Polish guys are quite unattractive: they’re overweight – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot – dress like shit and/or dress as their girlfriend’s skater scene dictates to them, they’re overly romantic and they have no Game. You will not feel any competition from the locals.

Warsaw Daygame Area

The Daygame area in Warsaw is of a pretty reasonable size. It begins at the university gates, goes down towards Novy Swiat and turns right on Chmielna. At the end of Chmielna you turn onto Marszalkowska and go up and down. At the southern end of Marszalkowska (left if you came straight off of Chmielna) you take the subway underneath the main road and come back up in the square in front of the Palace of Culture and Science. If it’s raining then you can also take some underground tunnels to cross the square. Across the square is Zlote Tarasy mall. The mall itself has three Daygameable levels (the fourth level is just junk food outlets) and it runs in one big circle; there’s something quite pleasurable and meditative about slowly getting dizzy from walking laps of the mall.

If you walked non-stop from one end of the route to the other, including a lap of each floor of the mall, it would take around 50 minutes. Do that back and forth, plus the sets, and you’ve got yourself a nice two hour Daygame route. I was usually doing one and a half of these routes each day for my ten sets.

There’s also a nice balance of energy between the different areas in the same way that Covent Garden and Oxford Street have different feels to them.

In terms of timing I usually began my day around 12:30 and headed to the university first for the lunchtime rush, before walking all the way to the end of the route, taking coffee breaks if I was feeling a little tired. There’s the usual rush hour(s) between 4/4:30 and 6:30 but I don’t personally like Daygaming such a busy time when I have all day to get my ten sets in elsewhere. However, if you were so inclined, or there with a wing, you could easily hit these times of day. The mall is open late every day except for Sunday as well.

Warsaw Itself

Now, Warsaw itself is a fine place to live. It’s got all the amenities you’d expect in London and comes at a fraction of a price. However, it’s not dirt cheap. As Mr R, a Daygamer who lives in Warsaw pointed out, it’s “cheaper, but not cheap.” A beer in the centre is still £2.50 and a meal with a drink is about £10.

Polish people are polite, conscientious of personal space (something I’m ironically quite grateful for) and people don’t dawdle in the street. It also feels safe, and it was something I appreciated every time I’d hang up my coat and leave there while I bought a coffee or used the toilet.

In terms of touristy things to do, though, it’s quite dull. There’s the Palace which has a viewing deck, but that’s over within an hour including the queues, plus the old town which you can walk around in. I didn’t have time for any museums or to walk along the river though, which I might have done had I had an extra day. Warsaw just doesn’t have the inflow of tourists which Prague does, and so there are a lot fewer things to do.

Would I Go Again?

Probably not for another five years, just to see how it might have changed. The Daygame is good, but it’s not good enough for me to want to come back given I have a lot of other places to visit first. The quality is good, the amenities are good, the pricing is good, but it’s not great. A jaunt to Poland is like the girls: 7/10.

*****

Before signing off, I’d like to give a word of thanks to Mr R, who showed me around the city initially and winged with me even though he wasn’t doing his own sets (he has a girlfriend). I’d also like to thank Daygame Runner who linked up with me while we were there. We winged a little and had dinner and drinks on quite a few nights. It was great to have someone once the dates were over and the dust was settled to sit down and analyse events with.

Yours unfaithfully,

Thomas Crown