Besides living in Macedonia over the last two years, I've spent more time in Poland in the last four years than any other European country. My most recent trip, and the last stop after 9 days in Ukraine, was my third visit, but the first time I've been back since May 2010. In my previous two visits, I was a bit...in love with Krakow. The only other places I saw in Poland were the city of Wroclaw and the mountain/ski area of Zakopane south of Krakow. My love for Krakow is validated by the fact I've visited 18 different European countries since 2009, and yet Krakow is still my favorite city in Europe. Nevertheless, on this particular trip, I wanted to see the 'non-Krakow' part of Poland. Which, surprisingly enough, is a pretty big part of the country. I only had four more nights after leaving Kyiv, so I split my trip between the capital city of Warsaw and the Baltic Sea port city of Gdansk.
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| A rough map of non-Krakow Poland. As you can see, there are other places in Poland to visit. |
Before I managed to leave Kyiv though, I learned that sometimes when you reach your backpack during airport security screening, it's possible to cut off a nice chunk of skin from your finger. This would have been a little more humorous had I not been bleeding all over the place as the Ukrainian security guy checked and re-packed my bag for me, as I was busy trying to stop the bleeding with a dirty sock. I had no idea how deep the 'cut' was, nor did I know what actually caused this injury. As far as I was aware, there was nothing in my bag capable delivering this rather malicious freak wound. Thankfully I cleared security in time to go to the bathroom and managed to just cover the finger with extra bandaids and hoped it didn't bleed through all of them before I got off the plane in Warsaw. I got through the quick flight and made my way to the hostel I was staying at, just a short walk from the central train station. Of course, my concern for my finger was overridden by the Starbucks awaiting across the street from the station. It's a Peace Corps thing, I think.
Enjoying a nice frappuccino, I sampled some of the modern landscape that makes up the 'business-side' of Warsaw today.
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| You could almost fly a helicopter through that opening. |
Eventually I got to the hostel and the first order of business was finding a pharmacy to get more bandaids, and then check out the damage. Well, taking off those bandaids was a little bit like that scene in Die Hard where John McClane is picking glass out of his feet. I felt sorry for the other hostel people who had to walk by that scene in the bathroom as I yelped and cursed. Anyway, it was a nice chunk missing from the finger. Luckily, it was just shallow enough that I probably didn't need a doctor (actually based on the advice of the med student who was working part-time at the hostel). She said, "It will probably stop bleeding." Ha! I was also relieved because if it was serious, I might have to take time off from running! At least I have my priorities straight. And I didn't want to have to call Peace Corps medical either.
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| Yummy. This was taken 3 days later. |
So with my finger sorted out, I brought some extra bandaids and set out to eat something for lunch because it was like 2:30pm at that point. My intentions were clear when I asked, "where's the nearest cheap pierogi place?"
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| A glorious, glorious sight. So good. |
After pierogi heaven, I walked down the main thoroughfare of Novy Swiat in the direction of the main square and the hub of tourist activity in the city. Warsaw is a much different city than Krakow. I believe a lot of that has to do with the fact it was almost completely destroyed during World War II after the Warsaw Uprising. Of all the horrific and tragic stories from the war, the Uprising and its aftermath rank pretty high up there. It was actually one of the big reasons I wanted to visit Warsaw. Not only to see what the 'restored' Warsaw looks like after close to 70 years, but also to go to the Warsaw Uprising Museum and learn more about what happened in 1944. So in walking down Novy Swiat, it felt as if something were missing, despite the incredible restoration work. Maybe the contrast is that before the war, the area around the main square was truly a hub of activity in the city for all people, whereas now it just seemed like more of a tourist trap. In Krakow, it felt like everyone used the square as 'their place', whether you were just visiting or lived in the city itself. Regardless, it was still enjoyable, and here are some photos I took in the vicinity:
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| Statue of Adam Mickiewicz (also found in L'viv if you recall) |
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| Warsaw's Castle Square |
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| Market Square |
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| Old city fortifications |
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| The Vistula River, the longest river in Poland |
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| This could have been added to one of the BBC 'hot weather' photo albums that they do occasionally. It was definitely hot. |
The following morning, I went out to explore more of Warsaw with my running shoes, crossing the Vistula into the 'Praga' part of town. I saw the brand-new stadium built before the 2012 European Football Championships, as well as parts of Praga that weren't destroyed during WWII. Warsaw took 2nd place on my trip for running routes. It has an extensive network of bike/walking paths, particularly along the river, and it offered some nice views. It was difficult to turn around and go home because I was enjoying it so much, and consequently it ended up as the longest run on my trip.
When I got back to the hostel, I met up with a fellow American traveler and we set out for the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It was as powerful as I expected, and fascinating to learn the stories of some of the fighters and other aspects about the conflict I didn't know about. While it was clearly a betrayal that the Soviets left the insurgents out to dry after encouraging the uprising and having a large military force in striking distance, I also learned they probably should have seen it coming given that the Soviets consistently disarmed and arrested the Polish Home Army insurgents who fought with them in other parts of Poland before the Warsaw Uprising. Stalin recognized that Warsaw was the hub of the Polish resistance and it was in his interest to see its leadership decimated and the city of Warsaw itself destroyed, so in the post-war 'new order' he would be free to shape Communist Poland the way he liked. Stalin was no idiot. Just one of the most ruthless people in human history.
After a few hours at the museum, we walked all the way to the beautiful Lazienki Park to try to catch part of the free outdoor Chopin concert held on Sundays in the summer. Of course, this did not disappoint, as the pianist was magnificent (you better be if you're playing Chopin in Poland), and the picnic-like atmosphere in the park by the Chopin monument was quite nice. Most people just sat on the grass or on blankets. I sat on my Warsaw map.
After spending the whole day walking after a long morning run, I was totally exhausted by the time we returned to the hostel, and I had just enough motivation to order a pizza for dinner before calling it a day. The next morning I left for the port city of Gdansk, my final stop before returning to Macedonia. I didn't know what to expect from the 6 hour train from Warsaw, but I didn't think it would be so packed. All the passageways were packed with people because there were no available seats in the kupes, and it was really hot. At least there was a cafe/restaurant car, so I was able to get some lunch there and enjoy a little bit more personal space. Whereas Warsaw was relatively quiet in the vicinity of the central train station, Gdansk was completely the opposite. I recognized quickly it was tourist season and there were just thousands of people walking around everywhere. I think I would have appreciated the city more if it weren't for the sheer volume of traffic on the streets. It's also not a particularly big city, so it makes the impact of all these people more dramatic. You could see why people would want to visit, though. It was another city largely destroyed during the war, but I'd have to say the restoration was even more impressive at first glance in Gdansk (also not to forget reconstructing a city of 1.5 million is much more difficult than one with 400,000). Gdansk is a city that changed hands numerous times over the course of history, at one point part of the Prussian partition of Poland (known then as Danzig). Gdansk is also famous for its role in the fall of Communism. The Polish Solidarity movement, starting in the Gdansk shipyards, heroically stood up to the Communist Party and inspired similar movements across all the Warsaw Pact countries in the 1980s.
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| Fish restaurant on a boat |
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| St. Mary's Church, the largest brick church in the world |
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| View from inside the city nautical museum |
Later in the evening, several people from the hostel went out to a bar with 4 zloty beers (a little over a dollar) and traditional 'drinking food' like Polish white sausage, bigos (sauerkraut and meat), and smalec (lard spread). We all had a good time, though one of the people we were with decided to go on his own to a club (not so bright) and woke up the next morning with people going through his wallet. He also apparently was planning to go to eastern Ukraine on his own and couldn't speak a lick of Russian. Godspeed to that one.
One of my last full day in Poland, a Scottish friend from the hostel and I went by boat to Westerplatte, where the first shots of WWII were fired. Westerplatte is a man-made peninsula and at the outbreak of war in 1939 was lightly defended by a Polish garrison. Facing overwhelming enemy superiority in firepower, the Polish forces still held out for 7 days before surrendering. Today it is a park/memorial with the remnants of some of the fortifications, a memorial, and one bombed-out barracks. It also faces the Baltic Sea, which was a unique experience for me in my travels. I didn't get a chance to go swimming, though the water looked nice.
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| Gdansk Shipyards |
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| the beach at Westerplatte |
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| The Baltic Sea |
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| Boardwalk along the Baltic |
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| Cemetery for those who died in the battle |
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| Inside the bombed out army barracks |
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| Monument to the defenders at Westerplatte |
At this point, I was pretty much done with traveling. It had been two weeks since I left, and it wasn't a leisurely two weeks. I was constantly on the go, with long trips between destinations, and there wasn't a single city where I just sat around and relaxed for long. In my first 48 hours of travel, I got around 3 hours of sleep. Since I tried to run every morning that I didn't have an early train or plane, I wouldn't be surprised if I lost weight (well if that's even possible at this point), which generally doesn't happen on vacations. So I was ready to head back home, even if the idea of being 'at home' was not particularly appealing. I'm also at close to my 2-year mark in the Peace Corps, and I feel like I've pretty much exhausted the possibilities with that too. With my 'big trip' out of the way, all I hope to do in these few months is train for the Valencia marathon (and plan that big 'post-PC' trip to Spain/Morocco) and avoid offending too many people with my impatience to move on to something else in my life. Thankfully, I don't have much longer to wait. This exhausting but incredibly rewarding trip through Ukraine and Poland definitely confirmed that I'm ready for a change of scenery.
So with no big trips to talk about for a while, I'm going to start writing about running. There are just too many random and funny stories to be told that I have no choice. Hope you've enjoyed reading about my trip and there will be more to come soon!
