Gdansk: Teutonic Adventures

I am not sure why I feel like I’ve been here forever when I really only have been here a couple days. I think it is because I am a the last stop my trip and I am cold all the time. Temperature wise I should be in heaven because I usually thrive in these temperatures but the wind in this port side city makes things much colder. When then the sun is out things are good but it gets awfully cold in the shade. I am trying not to complain because when I get back home it will be unbearably hot. Anyway I am here being Goldilocks lately – when you are uncomfortable you are uncomfortable.

Today I visit the largest brick castle in world. First constructed in the 13th century, Malbork Castle was built by Teutonic order is to spread Christian faith. The Teutonic order was a group of Catholic but mostly German knights. Malbork castle was never actually never captured but only changed hands because it was sold to Polish King Casimir IV during the thirteen years war.

Medieval toliet means higher standards of hygiene

There is a small amber museum in the castle grounds. Amber became very prominent in the Baltic region. It comes from petrified wood. Each piece is distinct and sometimes has bugs, twigs or leaves trapped inside. Amber means burning stone. It is thought that beads have medicinal purposes like protect from sore throat. The Teutonic knights really wanted the amber.

Another part of the museum had different types of weapons collected.

The medieval church reconstruction was completed in 2016

Not wanting to take the slower train (an hour ride) I take the intercity train that is thirty minute ride but wait 45 minutes for it because it only runs once a hour (make it make sense). The intercity train is way more expensive but I decide to be bougie today. During my expensive thirty minute train ride ($26 USD) I get a free snack and two drinks included with my fair. It’s actually embarrassing when the steward comes to me to take my order since I don’t even have enough time to consume them. I order the honey cake which is served on a proper plate. I take the water bottle and unopened soda to hold for later. Others on the train are probably coming from far away like Warsaw or something so perhaps they already got their embarrassing honey cake hours ago. Anyway this is why I carry zip lock bags. After taking a couple bites I shove my cake in the bag and put it in my purse for later. I am on a pierogi mission for lunch.

In Gdansk apparently there is a Pierogi culture. It is not a quick meal. Everywhere I went there were long lines and once seated it can take 45 min to one hour once you sit down for pierogi. Pierogi making is labor intensive thus why many Polish order them out instead of making them at home.

The restaurant I get a table for is Mandu. It is highly rated. I did wait for about 30 minutes but the line got much longer as I waited. Mandu has many interesting combos; these are the times I hate dining alone because I want to try it all. I end up ordering buckwheat & potato boar dumplings, borscht, and a sweet pierogi. With some to-go boxes I snack on leftover pierogi later.

After pierogi belly I walk around town. I end up on Mariacka street once again. I would like to purchase something amber to take home but I have a terrible time picking out something I like, especially when its pricey and I really don’t know how to tell if something is authentic or not.

I finish the night at a circus themed cocktail bar with friendly bartenders who give me good advice about places to visit during the rest of my stay. They serve fun drinks too.

Gdansk all day

This morning I’m walking to the Museum of World War II. This must do for Gdańsk is the most thorough war museum I have ever visited and takes about three hours for the audio tour.

I also schedule a walking tour for this afternoon of the main town.

I arrive the Museum of the Second World War right at opening and have purchased my ticket and audio guide in advance. Arriving at opening is advisable because this museum is huge and covers lots of information. It gets very busy as the morning passes. The museum gives all the reasons for the war, all the players, and the aftermath. Sure you might see a little more information on how the war affected Poland than other similar museums but it also goes into how the way it affected other territories like the Balkans, Baltic countries, and even those effected by Japanese invasions.

I always enjoy propaganda posters.

I learn the ways the Finnish people tried to stop the Soviet Union from invading.

More exhibits

I learn how every Soviet territory has a little red corner for Soviet materials.

The museum also talks about Japan’s role in the war. There is a particularly disturbing exhibit on Japanese brothels during the war.

Gdansk is talked about as well as Poland. After WWI the treaty of Versailles took Gdansk, which was predominately German at the time and made it the Free city of Gdansk (but tied to Poland). All of this makes more sense when I learn about the efforts to defeat communism that has origins in Gdansk later on. During WWII since most in Gdansk were German speaking and Gdansk is also called Danzig in German.

An agreement was made to partition Poland by the Soviet Union and Germany. There is an exhibit to show the divide.

More war related exhibits

There is a whole section on terror, specifically terror by the hands of the German, Soviet, and Japanese.

I learn about how Germans stole polish children during the war. I learn more about Croatian concentration camps. Also am introduced to the Katyn Massacre where there was a mass execution of Polish military officers by the Soviet Union.

I see an example of an Enigma machine. Enigma is the machine used during WWII to break the German codes. There is a whole movie about it called “The Imitation Game”.

There are walls that show how messages can be hidden in plane sight just by looking at them differently.

One of my favorite little exhibits was about the nazi hunters. So many people were killed during WWII but very few people were punished for those crimes (Nuremberg Trials were the ones actually caught and punished). Most guilty officials assumed a different identity and fled to other countries, many in South America. The nazi hunters were really good at tracking these war criminals down.

I thoroughly enjoyed the museum but it requires a good deal of time to fully experience the whole thing. The audio guide is a must to get you more efficiently through, otherwise you could spend an entire day here.

I am very hungry when I leave the museum. I don’t have a ton of time but I should have enough for a lunch. I mistakenly think I could eat at a pierogi place. I wait for thirty minutes to get a table for them to tell me it’s at least an hour wait for any ordered pierogi. I don’t have enough time before my tour starts so I walk out to find another place to get lunch. I am getting hangry and I cannot find any quick service restaurants in the area. Time is running out.

I finally find a place to get a quick pastry and then briskly walk to meet my tour guide for the city tour. I didn’t eat a full lunch but at least I won’t be hangry. No one wants to meet hangry me. I usually carry snacks but today I did not; I will not make this mistake again.

The tour is mostly of main town Gdańsk which actually looks more like old town Gdańsk and old town Gdańsk looks more like modern Gdańsk. Long story short Gdańsk was also bombed pretty bad in World War II. They didn’t completely rebuild it in its original form like they did in Warsaw but instead they built modern interior buildings. In the main town they built facades that make it look like the original Gdańsk. However in old town they have more modern facade with the architecture more modern day or communist style.

Brama Złota or main gate. Lots of town symbolism.

I learn again from the tour guide how Gdańsk has a very different history from the rest of Poland. They were German speakers in 14th-16th century but loyal to Poland.

The tour guide asks if there are any Americans in the group and I seem to be the only one (there is one other American that lives in Ireland but she doesn’t speak up). Apparently the guy who invited the Fahrenheit thermometer is from here (Gabriel Fahrenheit). There is a monument to him. Although not sure how much we can praise him since only a couple countries use his scale, mine one of the few. Fahrenheit makes things so confusing with the large amount of international travel I tend to do since I am forced to do math to communicate to people about the weather.

At one point the Poland was part of largest country in Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath. Gdańsk was a large player in this and became wealthy. Merchants were middlemen in Gdańsk. The island was purposed to hold Polish grain and secured day and night. The 16th-17th century was the golden age in Gdańsk. It all came to an end when a Swedish king began to rule Poland.

We stop at the beautiful Mariacka street and see the fun drain pipes. This is the place to buy amber since there are amber sellers up and down the street.

House under turtle. Look above the house and see a turtle.

By the 18th century Poland no longer exists. It is partitioned and is no longer prosperous again until the 19th century.

We end up in old town (which is new town) at the post office that was home to a spectacular attempt of postal workers attempting to stop a fascist invasion, one of the first spots World War II broke out.

Post office and a piece of the original city wall.

After my tour I am determined to eat at one of the restaurants that turned me away the night before. It wasn’t worth the anticipation. Even though pasta carbonara is one of my favorite dishes, this one is too salty for me to enjoy.

I have a nice evening walk around town and tomorrow I am taking the train out to Malbork Castle.

Gdańsk

I’m on my way to the port city of Gdansk that is a the top of Poland near the Baltic Sea. Many come up to this part of Poland to enjoy the coastal life. Unfortunately even though it is May it is still too cold for beach weather.

My train ride here from Warsaw is only 3 hours but seat reservations in first class is the way to go. The train is busy. On this train there is a rude group of guys in the partition next to us. They unceremoniously kick out an older couple from their seats and because they don’t speak Polish they are endlessly mocked. The guys get louder and louder and soon they play very loud dance music the rest of the ride. They even catcall me at one moment when I am lining up for my stop. Honestly this is the first time I’ve encountered rude and inconsiderate Polish people during my entire travels here. Hopefully it is not a trend.

It is cold and wet again so once I get to my hotel room I don’t want to leave. I think all my travel exhaustion is catching up with me so I spend a couple hours napping. I eventually force myself out for dinner and a walk around town. Luckily the rain is just now a slight drizzle. Most of the surfaces here are stable but there are some slippery spots near my hotel and I am one of those people who can render the most slip-proof shoe useless. I walk carefully this evening. I have contemplated buying more secure shoes because mine are old.

I am excited because I am actually staying in a hotel where my rate includes early breakfast so I don’t have to wait around for coffee shops to open to get my coffee. The hotel room is a bit of a splurge, purchased with credit card points, with a wonderful view of the canals. It does get loud during the day with all the drawbridge alarms and moving sidewalks (for boat passing) but luckily it gets quiet in the evening.

The first night I find it really challenging to eat at places I originally planned due to long lines or being completely full for the night. I have a note to make reservations when I can for other nights. I do finally get an outdoor table at a pizza place because it has stopped raining and no one wants to sit in the cold.

In the morning I have a busy day of sightseeing so I am not feeling too bad about my early bedtime tonight.

Warsaw: Last Day

I canceled another day trip. The commute was too long and I’ve been tired. I want to stay close to my flat in case I want to cut sightseeing short. There is still so much I have yet to see in Warsaw but I am sad about canceling the other things I had planned. I don’t understand why on travel forums people tell you that not much time is needed in Warsaw. I understand that people don’t love the modernism of the city or that the historic parts of it are actually completely rebuilt in the last 50 or so year, but there are still endless museums and parts of town to visit. I feel like I’ve stayed fairly busy these last few days and will still not get to see everything I want to see – this is with mostly 10+ hours of being out and about each day.

My last morning in Warsaw I sit down and have a proper breakfast at a nearby cafe.

I start today at the National Museum in Warsaw, the national art museum. My travel to Poland has been odd since I usually hit all the art museums in town, especially the modern ones. This trip I have been visiting things more historical in nature. I have a “free” day here in Warsaw so finally I visit an art museum.

The National Museum is mostly medieval and older art. The most famous painting here is the Battle of Grunwald. Medieval art isn’t my favorite genre but I always enjoy the expressions on humans and animals.

I love some of the weirder stuff in the museum because as always I am drawn to the weird.

I also like the Polish design temporary exhibit. It takes its inspiration from the communist era where it’s all about getting the most use out of a space.

After the museum I head to the royal way to get a dessert since I am not yet ready for a proper lunch, don’t judge me.

“Palm” tree in Warsaw. Inspired by Israel.

I walk over to Warsaw Fotoplastikon, a historic photo viewing machine that is circular and rotates photos along the viewing spots. As old as the machine is, it is able to make some of the photos appear in 3D. I first saw one of these at the Schindler’s factory in Krakow. This one changes the historic photos out every month. The current exhibition is from Polish tourism to Palestine in the early 1900’s.

The final thing I want to do today is check out the “bohemian” neighborhood of Praga across the river. The red army, or Russians, stayed here during WWII. Visiting Praga is recommended because it is an artsy part of town. I spend hours in this neighborhood and really don’t see much bohemian. I view the large impressive rebuilt church, walk a nice park, and hang out in a newer industrial area. I even join a vodka museum tour last minute to learn more about Polish vodka.

St Florian’s church was destroyed by the Germans in 1944 during the Warsaw uprising. A huge reconstruction effort led to church to reopen in 1972.

Some architecture in the “Bohemian” Praga.

I really enjoyed a peaceful walk in the Park Praski.

I am in the New Praga and it appears there isn’t much going on over here besides a nearby zoo so I hop on a bus to go to the other side of Praga because I am exhausted from walking all day. I am in an old industrial complex that has been converted into a very modern area, including a google lab. It seems like a very good idea to do a tour of the Polish Vodka museum with an upgraded tasting. I book a tasting a then order a very large and relaxing meal while I wait.

The vodka tour takes you into the origins of Polish vodka, how it is made, and how it is produced and distributed today. In the US I don’t typically sip vodka, maybe an occasional shot, but mostly it is an ingredient in a probably sweet cocktail. The vodkas I tried today are good for sipping. I probably won’t drink them this way on the regular but it isn’t the worst thing.

My special tour included a drink upstairs at the attached bar from a special menu. I chose a dessert like drink because its not something I’d normally order.

And just like that its the end of my visit to Warsaw. Loved my time here in this international city. Now I am heading north to the city of Gdansk.

Warsaw: Big museum day

There are no shortage of museums in Warsaw and I plan to see at least 3 of them today.

First stop is at POLIN, the museum of Jewish history. This museum takes you through the history of the Jewish people in Poland from the beginning. What is different about this museum is even though the holocaust is talked about in detail, it isn’t the sole focus .

Polin in Hebrew means Poland and rest here.

Poland was primarily a pagan land until the Duke Mieszko married a wife that made him switch to Christianity in the 900’s. Now Christianity is the prominent religion.

There were Jewish settlers in Poland as early as 13th century according to coins made by Jewish settlers. According to medieval Christian churches usury was forbidden (lending money) so money lending tended to come from the Jewish communities. This is the early origins of associating Jewish people with banking or money.

I am fascinated by the Danse Macabre (dancing with death) painting. It is all about how death is the equalizer of us all. It is a middle-age allegory.

Early in Polish history Poland was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for a long time. During this time there was a battle that led to a large amount of atrocities against Polish, Jewish people and Roman Catholics. The Cossacks uprising in Ukraine was the first large scale violence in the region.

During the 17th century taverns in Poland were prominently run by the Jewish. There are many reasons but one of which is the assumption that they were not drinkers, thus a logical choice to run these establishments.

There is a very beautiful Lithuanian synagogue reproduction. In the middle is an example of a bema or a platform.

I read many examples of Jewish persecution and stereotypes. At some point they say that Jewish people did human sacrifices in order to justify the prejudice.

Three rulers partitioned Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth ceased to exist in the late 1700’s. Under Habsburg, Prussia, and Russian rule polish Jews lost their privileges and freedoms.

I’m reading some additional wall items and the name Betteljuden catches my eye. Betteljuden is a derogatory cartoon caricature of Jewish beggars in the 1700’s. The name and character likeness is very similar to the popular Beetlejuice character. It is almost like the movie character has anti-Semitic undertones. I will never see that movie in the same way again.

I learn about more religious items in the museum.

After war of 1918 Poland was reformed. Also during this time Zionist movement solidified and polish Jews moved to Palestine in 1920-1930. The Bund Jews (Jewish socialist party, mostly secular) opposed Zionism and supported cultural autonomy in Poland, fighting antisemitism at home. I also hear about the origins of Hasidic Judaism.

Between wars there was an explosion of Jewish tourism.

The Last exhibits are on world war two and the holocaust. There is a warning at this section on the sensitive nature in case you want to skip. Warsaw ghetto was the largest of the ghettos of WW2. This museum is in area where the ghetto once was. During the war hundreds of thousand of Jewish residents of Warsaw were sent to a death camp in Treblinka.

I learn a little about the ghetto uprising and the non-response internationally about what was happening in this part of the world around ww2.

There were a few waves of immigration to Palestine. Post war pogrom causes mass exodus to Palestine. Israel formed was 1948 as a result of a desired for a Jewish homeland, the holocaust and other reasons.

There was another Mass immigration out again in 1960. Now the population of Jewish people still remaining in Poland is relatively low.

The museum is vast and took me about three hours but I could have stayed even longer. The audio guide is excellent and I recommend a visit.

For lunch I want to visit a milk bar but everything seems too heavy so I end up at a seafood restaurant where I finally try some potato pancakes with salmon and a side of grilled vegetables. Why do grilled vegetables taste better in other countries???? We make veggies tasteless in the US.

I finally make it to the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum. She may have a French sounding last name but she is 100% Polish being from Warsaw. She studied at the Sorbonne and met her husband Pierre Curie thus making her French by marriage. This two time Nobel prize winner discovered the elements radium and polonium (for Poland). She’s also has a resume of much more accomplishments as does the rest of her family. I think their family has the most Nobel prizes of any family. Marie’s husband died of an accident but she died from complications of extended radiation exposure – it was before it was determined how harmful radiation can be. She’s actually buried in the Pantheon in Paris. The tomb is sealed with lead because of her radioactivity.

During WWI she and her daughter put together a mobile xray which cut down on war amputees considerably thus speeding recovery time for injured soldiers.

Finally I visit the Muzeum Życia w PRL. It’s a museum that tells about life under communism in Poland. PRL is translated to Polish People’s Republic. The idea of living under communism is so foreign to me so whenever I see a museum like this one I am drawn to it. Much of it is pop culture things at the time but it also talks about food rations and tickets and how difficult it is to get even simple things under communism.

My favorite part of the museum is watching the propaganda video on the Colorado beetle. I first learned about this beetle in Krakow at another communist era museum. Apparently the Polish puppet government would put out propaganda posters and videos vilifying the USA and one of them was accusing us of unleashing a beetle meant to destroy their potato crops.

After the museum I get a light dinner nearby of wine and cheese.

Before I sign off for the day I’d like to point out the photo of the flying cotton like things that are constantly in the air. I am not 100% sure where they come from but they might be from dandelions.