The Blaus - South America and Europe

27th of October - Warsaw, Poland

We made a quick journey through Warsaw on our way up towards Moscow. The people in Krakow told us that Warsaw was no fun, too big, too expensive, and basically nothing compared to Krakow, so why bother going at all? It seems that there is quite a rivalry between the two cities, which we are learning is typical for two cities like Krakow and Warsaw. Krakow was the seat of royalty and the medieval capital of Poland until 1596, and now Warsaw is the political and economic heart of Poland. People in Krakow make less money and have all the fun, while people in Warsaw work harder and live more cosmopolitan lives. After dissuading words from the local Krakowians, we did not expect much from Warsaw, except for an overpopulated city with little to do. Something we have learned on our trip, and continue to learn, is that expectations can be everything when traveling. Whenever we are told something is fantastic, we are often a little disappointed, and when something is said to be totally avoidable, we usually like something about it and are glad we went. Warsaw falls into the category of glad we went, we did not expect much, but liked what we saw during our brief stay.

We were able to have the Tourist Info booth at the train station call around town and find us a good deal on an apartment to rent. They gave us perfect directions on how to take the bus and then which little alleys in the old town to wind down and find the apartment rental office. We ended up with a great place looking over the old walled city, a fantastic view in a fully equipped apartment. We got in at night, and went shopping for food and could not find any good markets in the old town. We were then sent out by some locals to Carrefour, which is a European supermarket mega store (a lot like Wal Mart). We were totally overwhelmed trying to shop there, and it took us almost 2 hours trying to get food for 4 meals. After we finally found where the food was, a map was required to find the wine section and then the check out counter. It was way more than we signed up for when we went to get some groceries. We then walked home with all of our groceries, freezing cold, and exhausted from the effort of Wal Mart style shopping. It occurred to us that part of the shock of going back to the States will be reintroduction to huge retail stores like Costco and other shopping centers, as we have not been conventional consumers at places like these very frequently over the past 10 months.

That night we made the specialties that Agi taught us to cook in Budapest, and we made hot spiced wine, another trick we have picked up along the way. The next morning we explored almost all of Warsaw. It has a very nice old town, which just about every European city has, but this one is different because it was completely devastated during WWII, so it has been almost totally restored from rubble to look exactly the way it did before the war. Warsaw was under siege for much of WWII, and the Jewish ghetto was the largest and worst in Europe. There are monuments and statues to the Polish resistance efforts and the Jewish Ghetto, but not much more than that. There are few museums, because they were all totally destroyed, with the exception of the Pawiak Prison Museum. A small portion of the prison still stands where the Gestapo killed tens of thousands of Polish people, and it is now a museum. After the Jewish ghetto uprising, the entire place was bombed and burnt down, literally leveled. It once was the most beautiful old city in Europe, and that is what they have recreated in Warsaw today, from memory.

At the location of the Warsaw Resistance Monument, there were some very interesting facts and different takes on the eventual liberation of Warsaw at the end of the war. All the writings they have posted at this monument tell how the Red Army advanced to sit just 1 mile outside of Warsaw, but they waited for 4 critical nights before they came to the rescue of the quickly diminishing number of Polish resistance fighters. It was not said, but very strongly implied, that the Red Army sat out the final days of the resistance so that when they finally came to liberate Warsaw, they would have a much easier time occupying the land because the Nazis would have killed off the Polish resistance fighters, so there were less people able to resist their occupation. That made the subsequent years of Soviet occupation much easier, and the Poles are clearly still very disillusioned about it. It is hard to say who they hate more, the Nazis or the Russians.

We also found some beautiful parks that were covered in bright yellows and reds with the fallen leaves of the changing colors of the trees. Although it was chilly, the colors created a warm feeling, and the parks and squares were beautiful with all the fall colors on the trees and on the ground. We made a bus journey to the Poster Museum, which was in the former royal stables in Wilanow Park to see some of Poland's famous poster art. The country's graphic designers have made a name for themselves with edgy and creative concepts for advertising posters for French theater and Japanese art.

Our journey in Poland ended the next day at the bus/train station where we were taking an overnight bus to Lithuania. The train/bus station was very seedy, and not a place we felt comfortable for very long. Our safest bet was to spend our last Zlotys on one hour of internet away from the strange characters lurking in the station, but next to the strange vodka drenched characters perusing porn sites next to us. We made the bus and slept all the way to Lithuania.

posted by The Blaus @ 10:50 AM