Dzien Dobry!

Warsaw Graffiti

Although I was so congested that I could barely breathe, the bus ride to Warsaw was better than expected! I ended up next to this jovial suspender-sporting Latvian man who got me speaking Russian again. When I was sneezing, he offered me hot coffee from his thermos to help and he later pressed an apple into my hands saying it would also help. I dropped my contact lens on the floor at one point and he got down on all fours to help me look. Did I mention he was probably in his 60s? Really nice guy :)

Warsaw: Old and New

Warsaw: I liked it here! It wasn’t so much the city and its sights, but more loving being in Poland. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t remember too much about Warsaw. There wasn’t anything too exciting in the old town and I couldn’t get to the fragment of the Warsaw Ghetto wall because of massive construction in the Jewish Quarter. I really enjoyed the Lazienki Park though with its famous statue of Chopin and piano keyboard-benches playing his music. The best part of Warsaw (and perhaps all of Poland) were the milk bars (mleczny bars). These super-simple cafeteria-like places have a long list of traditional Polish foods to choose from. You pay at the cash register, hand your receipt to the ladies at the counter, and see if you can’t force a smile from one of their stern faces while you wait for your food. The crowds at the milk bar vary from high-powered business execs wanting a quick lunch to homeless people looking to turn their zlotys (Polish currency) into a good meal.

Polish Cuisine: Hit and miss. In terms of street food, you could find kielbasa, zapiekanka (baguette with cheese and other toppings), and gelato everywhere! These were great! But I have to say I was pretty disappointed by the soups in Poland: The barszcz czerwony (borsht) was a watery beet soup that was about as tasty as the juice that comes from canned beets and the popular zurek, a fermented rye soup with sausage, was just sour and rather unpleasant. Main dishes were also hit and miss. Bigos, a meat and cabbage "Hunter's stew" is hearty, and considered the national dish of Poland..every time I had it though it was too salty:

Their famous pierogi, savory dumplings, are like the Russian version and best eaten with sour cream and butter – delicious! 

Kurczak is a stuffed chicken steak that was sold to me as the best thing ever… it’s pretty tasty, but I much preferred zrazy – stuffed sirloin. The zrazy I tried was a pork sirloin stuffed with a pickle and draped in gravy! So good!!

I ate the zrazy too quickly so here's a picture of kurczak instead :)

Krakow: The Polish have an amazing company – Polskibus – that has leather seats, individual outlets, free wifi, and a steward to serve you a free tea or coffee. Polskibus also happened to offer the cheapest tickets available for my five hour journey from Warsaw to Krakow. It's awesome! Most tourists would say they prefer Krakow to Warsaw, but I think I actually prefer the latter. It felt more real in Warsaw I guess? Krakow reminded me a bit of Prague with its old town and heavily concentrated tourist areas. I was happiest avoiding the crowds, trying delicious Polish foods at Bar Grodsky 6, and catching The Hunger Games at a nearby movie theater. :)

Scenes from Krakow (and the only picture I have of me in Poland...)

Auschwitz: I think a visit to Auschwitz is basically a must for any visitor to Southern Poland – something like 1.3 million people visit the site each year. Having seen Israel’s memorial to the holocaust, I didn’t have as strong an emotional response as I thought I’d have at Auschwitz. I think it’s because the way you learn about Auschwitz on the tour is very fact-based. They give you numbers that are, for me at least, beyond comprehension. Roughly 1 million people died at Auschwitz…. (the official number is debated) and I can’t seem to wrap my head around that figure. In that way, for me, the horrors of Auschwitz are literally unimaginable. 

"Work sets you free..."

Inside Auschwitz I

Inside one of the bunkers was an exhibit that really humanized the victims of Auschwitz. There were massive collections of things like kitchenware, shoes, prosthetics, glasses, and even 1,950 kilos (~4300 pounds) of human hair. Women's heads were shaved before going into the gas chambers - the hair was later sold as raw material for the textile industry. 

Prostheses and eyeglasses collected from the victims

Once muddy and grimy areas are now green, grassy, and spurting flowers...

Auschwitz II (Birkenau)

Leaving Poland: I had to skip the High Tatras (mountain range on the border of Poland and Slovakia) in the interest of time and I’m a bit bummed about it. The national park looks absolutely amazing in pictures and the Morskie Oko Lake especially is on my future travels list. I skipped Zakopane (gateway to the lake) and ended up leaving Krakow on a bus bound for Vienna. I meant to stay a day, but ended up spending the rest of my time there before meeting up with the family in Venice. Staying in Vienna also meant skipping Slovenia unfortunately… I had gotten a strong recommendation for Bled and the Triglav National Park - someone told me it was their favorite place in the whole world!.  So I'm passing the recommendation on in case any of you are headed to Slovenia! I hope I'll get there one day too :)

Up Next: Vienna & Venezia!