Warszawa

I had no idea what to expect coming to Warsaw. Everyone who heard I was going to Warsaw usually gave me a response along the lines of “Why? Krakow is a lot better, don’t go to Warsaw.” Forget that. I’ve had an excellent time!

Anatole and I got in, and hung out for a little while before getting to where we were staying. After we got settled in we went out with Michal, a Polish guy, and Marija, a German girl, and Vega, a Spanish girl, all of who live in Warsaw, to this really cheap bar. Being in Poland I had to have some wodka. Normally I’m not a huge fan, but it wasn’t too bad. On the way to the bar we walked through the university campus which was pretty nice, and walked along the royal way. One thing we noticed was how there are so many different styles of buildings in one area. You have some soviet style block buildings, some classic looking buildings (a lot of which were rebuilt after the war), and now huge skyscrapers. It’s a weird mix. After the bar we wandered around the city and saw the sights at night. We walked through the Old Town then hung out on one of the old city walls for a little while. The night was pretty low-key – we went to a couple of places then hung out with Michal and Marija until we went to sleep.

The next day Anatole and I grabbed some Polish lunch, and wandered through the city during the day. There aren’t too many sights, so we wandered around and saw all we wanted in just a few hours. This was our last day traveling together since Anatole was headed back to Berlin in the afternoon. After he left I wandered through the New Town and saw some churches, of which there is no shortage. Speaking of religious things, I have to say that I have never seen so many nuns or things dedicated to the Pope. I know he’s Polish, and I know this is a really Catholic country, but I think it’s going a little overboard. That’s just me, and I just won’t get into my issues with it. At any rate, I enjoyed my walk, and saw plenty of things including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It’s a cool little monument, but I feel bad for the two guards that have to stand completely still next to it all day. What a boring job. The weather was nice, so I spent a little bit of time in a park. In the evening I met up with Michal and we went to a concert of traditional Indian music at the Ethnographic museum. Parts of it were not really enjoyable, but other parts were amazing. The performers had their roots in the Rajasthan region of India and they played their traditional gypsy music and did some dances. One of my favorite bits was when one of the guys had a heavy pot of water on top of a cup on top of his head. He eventually stacked it up to 4 cups and danced around, it was unbelievable. There was a woman dancer as well, and her coolest trick was bending over backwards and picking up a folded 20€ note with her eye. After the concert we went to another cool bar, then to a park with Christiana (I think that’s how it’s spelled) from the Ukraine and Dinah from Germany, both of whom have been living in Warsaw as well. After the park, Dinah left, so Michal, Christiana, and I went exploring in an abandoned Jewish ghetto building. It was so cool; I absolutely love exploring abandoned buildings. We eventually went to the Praga district of Warsaw, which wasn’t destroyed during the war and has a lot of places for alternative culture. We went to a club that had an awesome electro DJ spinning, but it was kind of dead. It was crazy going in when it was really dark out, and coming out when the sun was up. It was a great night full of good conversation and good times. We met up with Marija and Vega at the bar, and another Polish guy from Warsaw named Adam. The people I’ve met in Warsaw have really made my time. After the club we decided to stop at a shop and pick up some food to have a breakfast picnic. I didn’t go to bed until about 6:30am, which is normal for me when I’m not traveling, but it’s the first time I’ve done that in a while.

Today Michal showed me an awesome park. We went and just chilled out there for a few hours by a lake. It was a nice lazy day, and we had some good chat. I love that – going to new cities and meeting people that you know you could have a friendship with and just chatting about n’importe quoi for a while. After the park, Michal showed me a beach called “La Playa” which was also in the Praga district. It was a cool little place, but the music changed to something terrible soon after we got there so we left.

And that brings me up to the present. I had some things to check and do online before I get on my overnight bus to Vilnius, Lithuania. I’ll update again when I can!

Krakow

When we got into Krakow, alive, I was so happy to be greeted by the sun and warm weather. Much better than my streak of going to a new city and being rained on, meanwhile the city I was leaving had beautiful weather. At any rate, we got in later than planned and then wandered around trying to find the tram we needed without using a map. That sent us in circles a bit, but we made it to our destination eventually and relaxed with some coffee. We met Pawel, a Polish guy who lives in Krakow, and he showed us around the whole city. I felt a little bit bad because we were so exhausted and I wasn’t as talkative as I could’ve been, but he was so nice and took our exhaustion in stride.
First he showed us the Jewish quarter of the city. We checked out the synagogue, then made our way to Wawel Castle. We didn’t pay to go inside the castle and see the exhibits (we were way too exhausted and probably wouldn’t have retained anything) but we did walk around the grounds, which were really nice. After the castle we walked to the main square in the middle of town. In the center of the square there is a big market set up, so we walked through that. We took a look at some of the churches in the city, saw the 14th century city gate that was still standing, and then checked out the Jewish Cemetery. The cemetery was huge, and it was crazy to see headstones that are now like little walls because the Nazis tore them down and used them for other things during the war.
Oh! We also ate at an awesome vegetarian restaurant. You could get 4 portions for less than $5! Eventually Pawel left us in the center, and Anatole and I just kind of hung out and people watched for a little while since we were so exhausted. Later we met up with Pawel and Kasia, who also lives in Krakow, but it ended up being an early night, which was exactly what I needed. It was so nice to finally get some sleep.

The next day, our last full day in Krakow, Anatole and I went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. I was excited to go, but not in a “HOORAY” sort of way. It was an intense day – there was a lot of information to take in and it was weird being at a site known for being one of the worst places that ever existed. Each country that had people deported to Auschwitz had their own display block, some of which were set up better than others. Of course I have always learned about World War II and the Holocaust and Nazi-ism in history classes, but being there makes it so much heavier. The most intense exhibits were the found objects and the human hair. There was a display case taking up an entire wall that had so much human hair that was found there afterwards. My jaw just dropped; it was unbelievably intense. There were also displays with piles of eyeglass frames all jumbled up, and shoes, children’s shoes, brushes, pots and bowls…it was definitely moving. It was also weird to see Auschwitz now, as a museum and tourist destination, with really nice landscaping and people taking group photos and “toursity” shots.

Birkenau is still set up like how I imagined Auschwitz to look. Cabins everywhere, fences, the railway lines going through the center. It’s huge. The extermination chambers were destroyed, but the piles of rubble are still there. The whole day was intense and moving.

After we got back to Krakow, we had another low-key evening, cooked some food, then went up a mound overlooking the city near where Pawel and Kasia live and had a bottle of wine. It was nice, and the view was great.

Now (at the time of writing this) Anatole and I are sitting on the train on our way to Warsaw, which will be our last stop together before we head our separate ways. It was excellent traveling with someone from home for a few days. It made me realize how long I’ve actually been gone and how long it’s been since I’ve seen anyone in real life. It was similar when Nicole came to visit in December and when Caitlyn came in January; I thought it was a long time then but now this is 6 months later. I’m having a great time, but it will be great to see everyone again.

Okay, that’s all for now! I’ll update again when I can.

Berlin and the Worst Train Ever

After I updated the blog last in Berlin, Anatoe and I did end up going to check out Kunsthaus Tacheles. It was a pretty cool space with tons of graffiti all over, several bars and stands serving drinks and food, cafés, galleries, a cinema, a DJ spinning out back on one of the little stages…in short everything one could want at a gathering place for alternative culture. We hung out there for a bit and watched a guy juggle fire for a little while but there weren’t many people so we decided to go to a hookah bar and just chill out for a little while there. It was a low-key evening, but that’s exactly what we needed as you’ll soon see.

The next day we left Mary’s flat (by the way, did I mention that her flat is incredible and has an amazing view of the city?) with all our stuff and walked down to Checkpoint Charlie. The museum was a bit expensive but definitely worth it. There was so much to see and take in, although it did repeat itself from time to time. I was really excited to see the models of the wall built by the woman who married the Eiffel Tower (Erika Eiffel – if you haven’t watched that documentary you should because it is really interesting. It’s about women who only fall in love with inanimate objects like walls, buildings, archery bows, and carnival rides, among other things). After the museum we went to check out parts of the Berlin Wall that were still in tact, which was definitely an interesting thing to see. On the streets in Berlin there are bricks in the ground to mark out where the wall used to stand, so after we saw the part still standing near the Checkpoint Charlie museum we decided to follow the bricks for a little while to see other pieces. We had the intention of walking down to the river, but with our stuff it was a little much.

On our way to the museum we ran into Étienne, a guy I know from Canada who was studying in Poitiers this past semester, on the street. That was cool and unexpected, so we met up with him after walking around for a little while and hung out by the Gendarmenmarkt until we had to part ways. We then made our way to the worst train I’ve ever been on in my life.

When we got to the train station we saw a massive group of Irish students hanging around near our platform. We were hoping that not all of them were going on our train, but luck was not on our side. There were actually 100 of them and most of them did not have a reservation (I found this out from one of the girls who was in our compartment on the train) and the train was already completely booked. It was so uncomfortably hot on that train and the number of people just made it worse. Most of them were loud and obnoxious and would walk back and forth in front of our compartment all the time. Then they started drinking, which didn’t make things any better. It was going to be a long twelve hours. After a while I realized that with the noise and the heat there was no possible way for me to get to sleep. (And I thought Americans had the reputation of being the obnoxious travelers.) I did eventually start to doze off, but whenever I did something woke me up. It wouldn’t have been so bad, not being able to sleep, if I was able to move around the cars a bit and stretch my legs. Well, since there were so many Irish students without reservations they resorted to sleeping two-by-two down the corridors making it impossible to move. Now, you might think that’s the worst of it, but no. At around 3:00am, when a lot of the people had fallen asleep or packed into other cars with their friends to try and sleep on the floor, the train shook so violently that I instinctively yelled “JESUS CHRIST” (probably prompting a glance from the nun in my compartment) and I thought we derailed. No joke, I thought we derailed, and so did most of the other people, because what else would you think happened when your train shakes super violently and then stops moving. At that point everyone piled into the corridor and started trying to guess what happened. I started talking to an Irish girl who was not only woken up by the shaking, but by a suitcase falling and hitting her on the nose. It was not a fun situation, and after that no one was really sleeping, so the noise started back up again. We were stationary for about a half an hour or so before we finally started moving, which I guess proves we didn’t derail. I have no idea what happened. But we made into Krakow alive and were greeted by beautiful weather!

Check out the next update to find out about our adventures in Krakow.