Warsaw, Day 1

As you know, I like to go to places that aren't common tourist spots. (I like common tourist spots, too, but I feel cool going to more out-of-the-way places.) So, for my birthday, Max surprised me with a trip to Warsaw. I recently read The Zookeeper's Wife, about the Warsaw Zoo during WWII, and how they saved about 300 Jews by using the zoo on the escape route out of Warsaw. So, this is an especially meaningful trip for me. We're going to the zoo Thursday, I think.

Anyway, we had to get up waaaaay early to catch our plane. The flight was at 7:30, which means getting up at 3am to get to the airport on time. I, of course, woke up at 2 with gurgles. Blech. But, it all worked out fine. We got packed, parked and on our way. We landed in Warsaw at about 9, got a cab and got to our hotel. The Polish Olympic team (or at least some of them) are staying here. We've seen several in the lobby.

Max & Em were hungry, so we found a cafe not far from the hotel. They had a case of sandwiches, and on one plate was a pile of toasted ham & cheese sandwich quarters. Em wanted two of them. Then, Max decided he wanted two, as well, so we ordered 4. The lady looked at us like we were crazy, but whatever. When she brought them to the table, we saw it was 4 whole sandwiches, not 4 quarters. No wonder she looked at us like that. We got two of them to go.

We came back to the hotel and had a bit of a rest. I was exhausted from being up so long and from not feeling well, so I needed to lay down for a bit.

I felt better after a little while, so we went out to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It's a really great museum. It deals with a completely tragic time in 1944 when the Poles who remained in Warsaw decided to fight back against the Nazis. They did it in the hopes that the Soviets would soon be there to help, and they could finally kick out the Nazis. However, the Soviets decided it would be better to let the Nazis and the Poles just kill each other off, so that they could just come in an take over the city after everybody was dead. Well, the Poles were crushed. They held out for about two months. By the time the Soviets entered Warsaw in January of 1945, 85% of the city had been destroyed.

Anyway, the museum is really well done. It's interactive and very interesting.

They had sounds from the war playing in this memorial wall

The thing that Em liked best was that almost all of the people on whom they had profiles on the wall either were or had been scouts, both girls and boys.

Scouts that became freedom fighters

Freedom Fighter armbands

Em being a freedom fighter

The Boy Scouts set up a post office, and kids as young as 10 (both girls and boys) would risk their lives delivering letters. Girls and boys were both couriers for the Insurgents. They also would paint subversive words and symbols in public places, offenses that were punishable by death. The Polish scouts were bad asses.

Some of the letters sent through the Scout Post

A Scout Post letter

The top of the memorial wall. This symbol is called the Kotwica, and was designed by a former Girl Scout to be the symbol for the Uprising

Prisoners

The warrior mermaid is the symbol of Warsaw

A real German bunker

After the museum, it was time for a few monuments. We first went to the monument for the Ghetto Uprising, which was an uprising in 1943 by the Jews in the Ghetto. The museum isn't open, though, so we just took a picture of the monument.

Ghetto Uprising monument

Then, we went to the Warsaw Uprising monument. It shows two groups of people, Insurgents fighting and another group escaping into the sewers.

Fighters

Escaping into the sewers

We also saw an interesting pegasus display.

We had a nice walk to Old Town from there. We stopped and took some pictures of the Barbican, which was one of the gates to the city. We also saw part of the city wall.

Then it was dinner. We saw a pierogi place and headed in. Max got duck pierogies with cranberry sauce, and Em & I both got the "Ruskie" - cottage cheese and mashed potato pierogies. Em got hers with bacon on top, and I got grilled onions and sour cream. So yummy.

Pierogies!

Old Town is cool, because it was pretty much leveled by the Nazis. But, the Polish people wanted it back. So, they used pictures and paintings, and they built it back exactly as it was. It's amazing. Right in the middle is a statue of a fighting mermaid - the symbol of Warsaw.

Then we wandered back towards the hotel. We saw a wee changing of the guards at the Presidential Palace (It was just new guys coming in and old guys coming out, no ceremony, but it was fun to watch them march).

New guys in

Old guys out

We also popped in the Church of the Holy Cross, where Chopin's heart is in an urn behind a plaque. He always said his heart was in Warsaw, and now, it literally is. He was also afraid of being buried alive, so he wanted his heart removed before burial.

We said hi to Copernicus

I like this street sign

Emma says - We woke up really, really early. I slept the whole time on the plane, though. I was afraid that the Warsaw Uprising Museum was going to be really sad, like the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, but it was really interesting. Girl Scouts rule! Old Town was really pretty. I kept forgetting that it was reconstructed, because it looked so good. It was neato. The pierogies were so delicious but so filling. I was only able to eat two of them. I was kind of afraid of the cottage cheese, but you couldn't even taste it. And, they had black current juice!!