Greg and Mandy's Travels

Didn’t know that much about Warsaw actually. My first memory was reading a Spike Milligan book where the running gag throughout was him having to listen to ‘The Bl*$dy Awful Warsaw Concerto’. I listened all day, but didn’t hear it once. Was rather disappointed, though to compensate, at one stage there were three buskers next to each other in the main castle square, all trying to outdo each other. Two flutes and one squeezebox, and not one of them in tune. At one stage Mandy thought that one was playing a song from Aladdin. I derived enormous satisfaction from not being able to recognise it.

Amused ourselves instead by trying to name the five most famous Poles. Subjective I realise, but who would you have chosen? We named Chopin, Pope JP II, Lech Walenza and Emil Zatopec. Couldn’t think of a fifth. Forgot about Marie Curie. Oops.

Our body clocks are gradually adjusting, but with no curtains on our penthouse skylight (ok, it’s more like a roof attic broom closet), we woke with the sun, and went for a long walk before anybody in the town was stirring. Well, at least that was the theory. It didn’t turn out that way. We found throngs of catholic pilgrims all converging on the two main Catholic cathedrals in the city with backpacks, water bottles and foam mats. Obviously going to be a long sermon. They all celebrated 6am mass, then left en masse (notice the pun) to march some sort of pilgrimage trail that nobody could explain. Flags, banners, loudspeakers, matching merchandise, and police escort. Very impressive.

Wandered around the lanes and squares enjoying the city, before the convenience stores opened and we could buy supplies for breakfast. Back to checkout and cloak our bags, then down to the Castle Square to join the morning free walking tour. Had already done 6000 steps before the walking tour commenced. Given that we did both the morning and the afternoon walking tours, as well as walks to and from the stations, our total of 25,000 steps for the day was reasonably impressive.

The morning tour was around the Old City. As more than 90% of Warsaw was reduced to rubble in WWII, you have to realise the ‘Old’ is a relative term. Almost everything has been reconstructed in the last 50 years. We were sitting outside the King’s Castle in the Old City when our guide remarked that the castle was only rebuilt about the time she was born, to which Mandy exclaimed that she was older than the castle. Much tittering. However my response that she had kids older than the castle didn’t seem to be appreciated.

The afternoon free walking tour had the same guide, and concentrated on the impact of the Germans during WWII, visiting significant sights along the way. Explained a lot of background about the Jewish Ghetto uprising and the Warsaw uprising which gets a bit of a mention in our history books, but are rather central to Poland’s history.

So, did you know, because I didn’t, that:
– up until the monarchy was abolished about 100 years ago, Poland elected its king who didn’t have to be Polish. They were expected to sign a contract and could be removed if they didn’t adhere to it.
– there were 1 million residents of Warsaw prior to WWII, but only 1,000 were left when the Soviets ‘liberated’ then subjugated the city in 1945
– of the 300,000 jews living in Warsaw at the start of WWII, only a handful were alive at the end
– for about 200 years up until the first world war, Poland didn’t actually exist. It had been carved up by the Russians, the Prussians, and the Austro-Hungarians.
– that the Yalta agreement after WWII significantly changed Poland’s borders. About 30% of the east of the country was given to Russia as a prize for their efforts, and it was replaced with about the same area in the west taken from Germany as compensation.

After climbing to the top of the city viewing tower, we returned to the hostel, picked up our bags, and hoofed it down to the bus station to catch the bus back to Centralia station were chaos seemed to be reigning. All trains were delayed by about an hour, so the platforms and concourses were full of people all trying to work out where their train was. We joined the fun, and headed to the designated platform to wait patiently as earlier trains came and went. About twenty minutes before our rescheduled time I went and rechecked the departure board to find that our train had arrived early, was on another platform, and about to depart. There went our cheery composure. Made it on board with a couple of minutes to spare, and enjoyed a lovely, smooth, roomy trip on a new train 2 hours south to party central – Krakow.

Holy Day Procession

Holy Day Gathering

Pilgrims Trucks

Kings Palace, Sigismund’s Column and Palace Square

Presidents Palace

Beata and the Walking Tour

Old Town From Viewing Platform

Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier

Warsaw National Bank

Warsaw Uprising Monument