Day 12 - Almost Palais

Tonight we go to Paris, but I decided to spend the afternoon in one of the park-palace complexes in Warsaw. (Cz was busy getting his first English-language bookstore fix since leaving the states) The Palace wasn't Willanow- that's the main one a little way outside of the city - this one was closer to the city center, and therefore ran less risk of causing the missing of plane to Paris. Unfortunately the camera that we use for the blog was in Cz's pocket in the bookstore, so you have trust me when I say this park and palace rival anything France or Germany has to offer. The main palace was built across a lake. Literally, the palace sat in the water with arched bridges connecting it to either shore. Every now and the then something would disturb the surface of the water - perhaps Poland's answer to the Loch Ness? No, the biggest Koi I have ever seen. Even the ducks gave them wide berth. On land, the park was mix of formal gardens and carfully planned wooded areas. Each garden was bordered by wonderful smelling yellow roses. The best part though were the peacocks. All over the grounds were peacocks roaming free. If one came prepared with bread or crackers, one could even feed them! (Not me, every peacock I've ever met bit, so I'm a little afraid of them, but one could) A little boy was eating some crackers, and being a little boy, was leaving a trail of crumbs. Behind him, in perfect procession according to size, were a Peacock, a peahen, a magpie, two ducks, and flock of pidgeons. It was likie something out of Grimm.

Even with going to the closer park I had to dash...or rather fume in traffic...in order to catch the bus to catch the plane.

We needn't have worried. Even with mad traffic, and the longest, slowest-moving line imaginable, we made it to our gate with time to spare. And that was before finding out that our plane was delayed almost 2 hours. On the plane we met a lovely Post-doc in robotic engineering. We decided to share a cab, which was a total help for us. Not only did the fare get split, but he spoke French, which was a huge help, as our hotel was on a little side street that required some explaining. We did finally make it to Paris at around 1AM, and check into our lovely little hotel, where we promptly collapsed in a snoring heap!

Day 11 - Yet More Uprising

Today is our only full day in Warsaw - Tomorrow we fly to Paris in the evening. Because we were so jet-lagged our first day in Warsaw, we decided to make up for lost time by doing two of the suggested walks through the city.

One of our first stop was a fragment of the original ghetto wall. Warsaw too, had an active Jewish Population, fourth in the world after New York, Moscow, and I forget the Third - Israel, I would assume. The wall was build between houses, and the homes themselves became part of the baricade. In order to keep people from just going in one door and out another on the Aryan side of the wall, first floor windows and doors were boarded up. Typhoid and TB were rampant, but often unreported because any home with even one case of the disease was immediately quarrantined, and all of the inhabitants were almost certainly doomed to the disease or starvation.

After the wall, we visited sites honoring the various resistance fighters, both from the Ghetto, and larger Warsaw population. One monument to the Ghetto uprising was carved in 1948 from a piece of stone originally designated to be used for a monument to the victory of the Third reich. Another was a bunker in which all of the uprisers perished fighting, or commited mass suicide rather than be taken. In this case, as many, they remained where they fell, the bunker becoming a mass grave. This particulare monument is the actual bunker, mounded with the rubble from Silas Street, once the most active street in the Jewish quarter.

Our next stop was a deportation point for many Poles, Jew and Gentile alike. Agin, the wall was inscribed with the names of some of the poeple who had passed through there.

An unusual Monument, of a broken wagon bearing crosses, honours the murdered and fallen in the east.

The parks around Warsaw are dotted with various statues comemmorating the soldiers of WWII. This one tries to look dignified as it becomes an impromptu jungle gym for several small boys. (the direction of the sun prevented us from getting a good picture showing the kids crawling all over him).

It was a lot of walking, but with the exception of the occasional school group, we did not run into any other tourists. That may not be a good marker, but I felt as if I was seeing a part of Warsaw that the Poles themselves are quietly proud of, not a part put intentionally on display for the western crowd (such as the castles and parks are, which we will visit tomorrow).

Day 2 - Does Life Imitate Art Or...

In Poland art imitates life. We spent nearly all of day 2 at the National Museum. Poland has a history of near constant war and/or occupation. As a result, it seems that the art is much more political, and much more anti-war or pro-peace than the art in any other country I have visited. One is much more likely to find a painting of a grieving mother, or a dark poster reading "never more" than the pompous battlefield scenes in our own National Gallery.

Our main focus at the museum, however, was a special exhibit on the works of Mucha, the Czech poster artist. Of cours we could have just waited until we got to Prague, but hey, we're impatient Americans, and the exhibit was beautiful. There were also examples of sketchbooks and studies on display that were really exciting. Mucha's draftsmanship is enough to make the most detail-oriented swoon. We took a few pictures of the sketchbooks for reference and of the posters, more as a testiment to our own silliness than the quality of the work. We won't bore you with the research pictures, but please have a laugh at our expense.

After the art gallery, we signed the guestbook, and packed up for our train ride to Budapest. The guestbook proves that it may be a freakishly small world. I think two of my students from were guests at the Hostel a month before we were. The handwriting, writing style, and address all match up. I think I will go on believing it was them, if only because it makes for a good story!














We found the platform, but had no idea from which track we were to depart. Luckily, each platform came equipped with a classic flipboard, which right on cue clattered its way to "Budapest, Keleti" , and away we went!

Bonus round. The art museum in Warsaw had a good collection of still-lifes. Can you find the not-so-still kitty in this painting? Hint: Kitties are sneaky food thieves...

Day 1 - Bloc party...

...eastern Bloc that is. We arrived safely in Poland with nary a hitch. I am feeling quite pleased with myself for navigating to the city center via the public bus system.

Warsaw is a surprisingly beautiful city with a great public transportation system with buses, trams and an underground metro. We really haven't had to use it much though because our hostel is so centrally located - across the street from the national symphony, and just a short walk from the Palace of Art and Science. Literally a palace (see the photos) housing three theatres and multiple museums.

I was too much in sensory overload already to venture into a museum, so we spent the afternoon on the plaza just sketching and napping in the sunshine. One of the theatres had giant red arrows pointing to the door. Not subtle, but pretty neat.





















Dinner was at a milk bar, a holdover from Poland's days as part of the Eastern Bloc. The restaurant is still government subsidised, so the food is super cheap - 14 Zloty or about5 dollars for a big dinner for 2! The menu is in, and all the staff speak only Polish, so we chose at random, and very carefully wrote down our choices. A tiny grandma saw me looking confused and steered me to the counter where I handed over my list, had my bill tallied, and slip printed. She then pointed out the window where I was to pass the slip through to women in smocks who were preparing the food. Five minutes later, we were rewarded with potatoes, pirogi, tea, mineral water and the best honey I have ever tasted!


After dinner we opted for a little stroll, and discovered... Theatre IV! We thought we might have taken a wrong turn and wound up back in Richmond!

In other theatre news, we did go to see a play tonight at Teatr Studio. Six, maybe seven flights up in an attic space, we were presented with a stunning set and the best lighting design ever which totally reminded us of projects presented by our friends Jeremy and Andy (really it did). The actors were entirely compelling, and we had a thorough story running in our heads. Whether it was the same story as the one being told on stage...eh...it was good anyway. Oh. Did I mention the ticket-buying process, the ushers, the rest of the audience, and the play were speaking ENTIRELY in Polish? I recognised exactly one phrase the entire evening. Djeng-ku-yay or "thank-you" (phonetic and very wrong spelling of it here).

Finally. One of the best things I've seen. Posters with Bush as the devil. Rock on Warsaw!