Warsaw

We have had just this one evening in Warsaw, and we leaving tomorrow morning to fly back to the States. But I'm so glad we had at least this short visit. Coming out of the main train station we were greeted by a VERY IMPOSING building, Stalin's "Palace of Culture and Science," which was quite a sight and introduction to Warsaw.

But our Airbnb was on the edge of the "Old Town" of the city, so we spent the rest of our time there. I put Old Town in quotes because it (along with 80% of the city in general--unlike Krakow, which came through relatively unscathed in terms of buildings and infrastructure) was totally obliterated by the Germans during WWII, most of it in the last year of the war (1944) when there was a local uprising against the Nazi occupation...which was temporarily successful (for a couple of months) until Hitler sent reinforcements. Which demolished most of the city in retaliation for the uprising. So pretty much everything you see in these pictures has been reconstructed to look like it did pre-war. (Look for my adorable mom in this picture.)

The Old Town Main Square, with a mermaid statue that legend says is a sister mermaid to the Little Mermaid you can see in Copenhagen.

Then there's the Castle Square, where there was a flaming baton troupe doing its thing.

And then my mom and I had our last dinner of the trip, delicious crepes. Not very Polish (or were they?...I mean, there WERE pickles on the plate...), but dang they were good.

As this whole trip has been, from beginning to end. Now that all that's left is to get an Uber to the airport in the morning, it's also safe now to say it out loud: We have had basically perfect weather. It was pouring rain when we arrived in Budapest 2+ weeks ago, we got to our Airbnb and laid down to take a nap after our overnight on the plane, and when we woke up, the rain has stopped and it hasn't rained since. We've had an unblemished streak of beautiful, sunny days, which doubtless made this trip even more lovely than it already was with great company in some really special cities.

I'm sad to see it end!

But I will be back here almost without break. Next week I'll already be on a new adventure, via southern Chile back to Antarctica. So bye just for now, and see you very soon....

Krakow

I'd heard from several people that Krakow is great and worth visiting...but WHOA. I was not expecting this. It's a BEAUTIFUL city.

Like any self-respecting European city, Krakow has an obligatory castle-on-a-hill. A lovely one.

I particularly enjoyed exploring outside the city center, in the former Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz, now a very hip area of young people and restaurants, along with lots of attempts to preserve the Jewish culture that once genuinely flourished here.

I ate pierogi until I was in danger of becoming a potato dumpling.

And I really liked the grittier side of the city we saw in Kazimierz. Because while the city center is very painted over, the things that have been metaphorically painted over in Poland are significant, and not something the country has moved past: the almost total obliteration of its Jewish population during WWII; 40 years of communist occupation; and even the general adoration of the late Pope John Paul II, who was Polish and lived and worked in Krakow for years before going to the Vatican...even as more and more is revealed about JPII's complicity in covering up the sexual abuse rampant in the church, and with 98% of Poland now Catholic.

We didn't have enough time to visit Auschwitz-Birchenau, but we did go to the former Jewish ghetto on the other side of the river, where the Schindler enamel factory is located. Now the factory (made famous by the movie Schindler's List) is a Holocaust museum, and Oskar Schindler's office space is preserved there.

We also made a trip just outside the city to the town of Wieliczka for a visit to its TOTALLY AMAZING salt mines. I should really do a completely separate post on this...but long story short, due to a shallow lake leaving extensive salt deposits here 13 million years ago, and the harvesting of this salt by humans for at least the past 6,000 years, and that evolving into more and more elaborate excavation deeper and deeper. Over the years, the mine was always a tourist destination and was a part of the culture and life of people here. This underground chapel--the walls, carvings, floors, chandelier crystals...EVERYTHING is rock salt!--has hosted concerts in addition to weekly services.

Horses lived their entire lives down in the mine, turning a mill day in and day out to operate the pulley system that moved things up and down within the mine, which had gotten to be 9 levels (and something like 450 feet) deep by the time (in the early 90's) when the bottom level flooded permanently and commercial operations largely wound down. I could go on about the salt mine forever; it was really mind-blowing. Suffice it to say, if you come to Krakow you should definitely visit the salt mines.

And you should DEFINITELY visit Krakow. I am definitely planning on coming back here someday again...