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I'm dating this earlier to keep things in the proper order. Just a short bit now of some observations of Poland and hopefully more tonight/tomorrow. Not going to lie, Poland is pretty sweet as a country. I'm here with a group from my university studying culture, society and politics for about 3 weeks, and then I have to figure out my last week- need to get to Auschwitz and Zakopane, so I have to figure out how to do that. 😊
I ended up on the same flight as some friends, which was nice. We flew through Frankfurt, and on that flight there were behind them and diagonal from me a couple of Russians. They were talking to each other a lot, so I didn't want to bother them, but I did notice that when the flight attendants passed by with the drink cart the first time, they got a drink from the first one, had her mix it, actually, looked like alcohol and juice, and then asked for another alcoholic beverage from the next one. It was pretty funny and just seemed so typically Russian. There was also a group of people from Tennessee, men mainly, who were on their way to build a home in Ukraine for a family-- the organisation they were with, I believe it is called Hope House, helps orphans. They provide homes for families that adopt three or more children. Yay for them!
In spite of Frankfurt Airport needing to have much clearer signs, we made it to our plane (wrong direction to the end of the terminal, then back, past our starting point, finally to security, then all the way through a long terminal (really long terminal!) to sit for about 10 minutes before the gate showed up on the screens-- we were at 42 and had to go to 24 or something like that, but oh well). I guess I can pass for German, because at security the guy spoke to me in German, but my friends were spoken to in English immediately. It worked out okay, Lufthansa's a pretty good airline. They had a lot of liquor easily available-- I bet they have a high approval rating. They offered us warm (and by warm I mean HOT) towels to refresh our faces, etc. But enough about airplanes.
We were greeted by our professor when we landed and sent off in taxis to the hotel/dorm building. It's nice, I think, and where we will be staying for our Warsaw visits all the time. We walked around some with the professor that afternoon. We're eating most meals out- breakfasts have been in, but we might be changing that next week, so basically, I'm getting spoiled. Polish food is good. But more about that in another post. We took a tour the next day around Warsaw.
There is a beautiful park not far from the hotel, and we walked through a good part of it. There are a lot of statues around, including a very beautiful one of Chopin. There is also a very beautiful palace on the lake-- I don't know if it's actually over it or build down into it, but it's really lovely. There is also a peacock, and lots of little children I saw had picked up stray feathers. We saw the coat of arms of the last king of Poland, under whose reign it was partitioned (boo!).
Chopin Monument
We also saw the Old Town of Warsaw, an absolutely beautiful place. It has had to be rebuilt, as Warsaw suffered a lot of damage during the war, although the Ghetto, after the uprising, got it the worst (leveled). The old town has so much charm that we walked back to it the other day. There are ruins of the original city walls and then New Town (not as new as it once was, but not as old as, say, Novgorod ('new city' since about the 10th century!)). It really is lovely. That is the word we have settled on for the city, even though the tour guide explained it's not as pretty as Prague and Krakow-- we like it just fine. 😊
Old Town Warsaw
We also visted memorials to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising. They are in the process of building some sort of museum about Jews in Warsaw, but it looks like it's going to need more time. The memorial to the Warsaw Uprising (the Polish Home Army + volunteers in August of 1944) is nicer, but hopefully they will have more about the Jews in Warsaw soon- they are working on it. It has been rocky relations-- so many were killed in the Holocaust, and then the survivors who decided to stay in Poland either hid their identities under the communists or, as most were, were kicked out in 1968. :-( Things are on better ground now, though, and I hope they get better. We had a talk from a Polish-Jewish woman who emigrated to Israel with her family in the 1950s as a girl (born to survivors), and she said things were better now, and that Poland has been a voice for Israel in the EU.
The Warsaw Uprising Memorial is really beautiful. I'm posting in a picture below.
Anyway, more soon, hopefully, on classes, really cool lecturers, the fascinating stuff about himself my professor never mentioned before, Poland, communism, Solidarity, John Paul II love, and then on to Krakow!
~Nadja
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nlindabrit
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Lovely to hear from you!
Thank you for the heads up, though I occasionally glance at your blog anyway in case you are off on one of your adventures again:) The pics of Warsaw are a lovely reminder of my own visit to that splendid city in 1973. You mentioned the Royal Palace. They were collecting money to rebuild it when I was there. There were huge glass coffers on the streets. I remember contributing some Zlotys. I would love to see it now it is complete. The Poles are a remarkable people. You will know that, having stood in the old square. It is hard to believe the Nazis razed it to the ground and the Poles have re-built it. Have fun, dear girl and taker good care of yourself.