Written by Kim
Dominika made us a fantastic breakfast prior to heading out for the day.
We visited the Uprising Museum in Warsaw on our last day. It was a very moving museum that depicted the Polish uprising. The uprising began on August 1, 1944 and lasted 63 days drive the Germans out of Poland. Casualties during the Warsaw Uprising were catastrophic. Although the exact number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. It was unsuccessful.
After the museum we walked up to a local market with fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers and a flea market of retail vendors
Next we walked back to Old Town to meet our afternoon walking tour of the highlights of Warsaw. On our walk we heard lots of chanting in an Irish pub and learned that there was a soccer match between Aston Villa from the English premiere league and a Warsaw team. Police presence was heavy as the men get rowdy especially the English over futball.
The walking tour took us down 2 of the major streets that are the most difficult to pronounce in Warsaw offering highlights.
The first highlight of the tour took us to Madam Marie Curie’s first laboratory. Marie spent her first 23 years in Warsaw. She had her first reactions to radioactivity in this lab. She was quite a trend setter as she was the first woman Nobel prize winner and presented her science when she was in her 30s to a largely all male older audience. She gained respect for women during the Russian oppression in Poland. She was very smart when she discovered her first chemical entity, polonium, she named it after her native country. At the time of Russian oppression where Poland didn’t exist as a country and the name was banned by the Russians and Germans. Naming the entity this meant they were forced to say the banned name of Poland. She lived to be 67 despite all her exposure in labs to radioactivity.
The second highlight was a statue of the most famous Polish writer, Adam Mickiewicz. During the German occupation of Poland after WW2 most statues were destroyed including the one of Mickiewicz. After Poland regained control they wanted to rebuild the statue of their famous writer. As they were planning the rebuild they received a package from the American troops in Northern Germany. They found several artifacts in a basement and wanted to return them so they sent the head of Mickiewicz from the original statue as well as the head of Goebbels, minister of propaganda for the Nazis. The recreated statue used the head of Mickiewicz but the melted the head of Goebbels and made it part of the body
Next stop was the Presidential Palace which was never destroyed after WW2 because it was in the German occupied part of the city and was used by the German military as a cultural center for parties, weddings and other banquets. The current Polish president lives there. The Palace and Hotel Bristol next door are 2 of the few original buildings in Warsaw still standing. The black awning and stage near the front are probably for a political event since elections will occur in 3 weeks
Before heading to the area which was rebuilt during Communist rule, we stopped at Holy Cross Church (sorry forgot to take a picture). Chopin’s heart is entombed in this church. Chopin was a native of Poland but died and Paris. His wish was to be buried in Poland which couldn’t happen because of Russian oppression at the time so his sister had his heart removed and put in a jar of cognac to be buried here. Chopin is the most popular Polish artist on You Tube
One of the areas of the city was rebuilt under Communist rule. The communists wanted it to be geometrically aligned but wanted to get input from the people so had a newspaper contest to name a street. The Polish people knew they couldn’t rebel but did not want to comply either so they had their children vote and the street they chose was Winnie The Pooh street. The Finance ministry was on this street so the communist now we’re stuck because they didn’t want the finance ministry to have an address called Winnie the Pooh. So….the named the street Ulica Kubusia Puchatka (Polish translation fluffy little Jacob). No homes have this address. They all have addresses of side streets so Winnie the Pooh street is considered a ghost street.
Adam recommended that we try this local restaurant for traditional Polish food for lunch but we didn’t have time with our tours so he took us there for dinner. Our entire dinner of 2 soups, chicken, blueberry pierogis, cheesecake and sodas was $17 usd. Our sodas were the most expensive item we purchased. Lol
We were up in the wee hours of the morning to catch our train at Warsaw Central station to Prague. Of course, Adam was up to drive us and sent us with a bag of snacks and drinks. He even walked us right down to the train’s platform insisting to carry my bag for me. I am so lucky to have him for a friend. We started as colleagues yet our relationship grew to a beautiful friendship. I talked with Adam many times on the phone prior to meeting him. He joked last night (I hope he was joking) showing me where he sat in his previous home for his first call with me and said he was shaking. Lol. The first time we met in person I ran up to him and gave him a huge hug. He is Polish – the Polish don’t smile or even acknowledge each other on the street so you could imagine he was stiff as a board in my embrace with a look of horror on his face. After several years of working together Adam would greet me when we saw each other with a big hug. I told him I converted him. I appreciate our friendship and was very grateful to spend this time with him and meet Dominika. They were fabulous hosts providing us a comfortable room to sleep, endless meals, snacks, fresh items from the garden, wine and beer. Adam was our personal Uber driver to get into town but also gave us great instructions to explore on our own. We will be back to visit and can’t wait for the Bakala’s to visit us in Myrtle.
We will be in Prague the next few days then we head to Vienna. Until then….
