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.

Krakow: Food Tour and Nowa Huta

I wake up early today grab a coffee and head down to Plac Nowy in Kazimierz to start my food tour. There’s a market here today but vendors are just setting up for the day.

Our guide is a polish native, spent some years in Chicago but decided she missed living in Poland. There is only me and another woman on this tour today. My companion is very nice and in town for a couple weeks volunteering her time in Auschwitz.

We start in Plac Nowy in order to try Zapiekanka which I had tried yesterday. Today I try it with different toppings, more vegetables. So far I have not found a bad combination. I’ll have to just keep trying to see if there is one I don’t like 😀.

From here we go to the first stop at pub called Singer. Singer, a lively pub in the evenings, is only closed for about 3 hours in the morning. This historic bar of over 30 years is distinct because it is decorated with the theme of Singer sewing machines. The bar is filled with cute bistro tables with sewing machines on them. It is here that I try two vodkas: honey vodka and wormwood vodka. I admit that wormwood vodka is probably not most people’s favorite since it is kind of medicinal tasting but I quite like it.

The next stop is the “secret” stop of our secret food tour. We try a local take on shaksuka. The flavors of the sauce are perfect. Instead of a full egg it is the yolk only. It is all topped with sour cream (sour cream is what makes it polish). I also try a mulled beer. People know me well know that I never drink beer anymore because it tends to make me feel sick . I take a chance with this mulled beer, so far so good. With ginger and other spices it is very flavorful – something perfect for the cold holidays.

We walk toward old town to digest some food and our guide points out some things along the way.

The next stop is an official milk bar (Bar Mleczny) where I try some official pork pierogis and kompot fruit drink that sounds very easy to make at home.

Next we go to another shop where I get to try again the highland smoky sheep cheese but in the proper form warm grilled served with fruit sauce. It is salty but I enjoy it. I must go back to try some of the other cheeses. Apparently they travel well but I am too early in my travels to carry a bunch of cheese around with me.

Next we stop at another older pub called BaniaLuka, which was also recommended by another tour guide yesterday. Here I get to try bigos which is a sort of cabbage stew with meats like chicken and sausages. It is said to be an excellent hangover cure. Luckily so far I haven’t had enough alcohol to cause a hangover but now I know where to go if I do. I also try drinking a traditional lager to test my luck. I had ginger syrup added to it, apparently a thing people do, and I only drank about half because I didn’t want to press my luck with the beer issue.

Next we stop for a pączki, a polish doughnut. Trying the popular flavor of the yeast doughnuts, filled with wild rose jam topped with candied orange bits, is on my list so I am lucky to try one right out of the oven. The thing is you have to eat these things fresh. I’m notorious for taking a couple bites and squirreling away the rest for later and with pączki it’s just not the same.

Finally we stop at one more bar where I try another drink, this time a shot. The shot is a mix of polish limoncello and ginger syrup with pepper on top. When you drink it quickly it is said to taste like coca-cola and it does.

I say goodbye to tour guide and the other attendee because I am heading across town to check the planned community of Nowa Huta.

Nowa Huta was started in the 1950s when Poland was under the Soviet Union communist rule. It was set up as an ideal town with a steel mill with a neatly formed city to house the workers and families. The architecture is a mix of what you might see in Paris or London but some of it just looks brutalist to me. There is a lack of color and life you might see as you do in other parts of town but apparently these days it is a very popular place to live, especially since communism is long gone in Poland.

I especially enjoyed touring some of the underground in the Nowa Huta museum. Many emergency bunkers were built under the city in case of bombing because you have to remember this was all constructed during the Cold War. The museum also has exhibits on World War II and the Korean War and even the USA’s role in those wars. They definitely had a different propaganda machine going than we did.

The guide from the museum points out other things around town like underground air vents, an interesting church, and different types of architecture.

I visit a second museum that is associated with the Nowa Huta museum but is optional. It is not as extensive but worth a quick visit if time allows. It talks more about bunkers in general and other examples around the world.

Exhausted I catch the bus back to my part of town. Even after all the food I have had today I still feel like I need dinner so I grab something quick and head back to the hotel. I should be out enjoying the evening on a weekend but I am exhausted and I have another tour booked tomorrow.

A Good night.

Krakow: Kazimierz

Next morning as I am getting ready I hear the bugle in the distance since I am not too far. It’s nice to have my windows open even though it’s wet air outside.

Today is expected to rain all day. I am not looking forward to it but I think I am prepared (Update – I am not!).

Usually my goal is to find a coffee shop when I wake up in the wee hours like I tend to do but like most European towns coffee shops open too late for my liking except for Starbucks which I try to avoid. Today I actually slept in a bit and believe it or not coffee wasn’t first on my mind. Today I am hungry and need to find breakfast somewhere near by. I decide to try the milk bar around the corner that I have on my radar to visit. A milk bar is a polish specific type of restaurant that offers affordable local dishes cafeteria style at times. I think the origin is from the communist era where they would provide government subsidized meals (many dairy items). The one around the corner from me is small but popular and often has a line outside. This morning I am able to walk in and get a table.

I order a traditional breakfast of egg, bacon and toast. I also order a latte since you can’t expect me to totally forgo the coffee – I am addicted. I especially liked that they had Depeche Mode playing the entire time I was there.

After breakfast I walk down to Kazimierz, about a 20 minute walk. I am early for my tour so I wander around the area. It has already been sprinkling which is annoying but it’s not too bad yet. I meet up with the local tour guide who starts us on a tour of the former Jewish area of Krakow. This is not the ghetto, which we will see later, but it was home to a Jewish community at different points in history. Apparently there is a history of expelling Jews from Krakow that did not start with WWII. The area is called Kazimierz because he is the king who originally made an agreement with Jewish people to let them live there and be provided protection. Once he was gone the agreement wasn’t always upheld and the community went varying degrees of persecution but the worst happened when the nazis invaded Poland. Over that period of time the population went from 65,000 to less than 5000. They were sent to concentration camps, or forced into labor to live in the Jewish ghetto. Eventually most in the ghetto came to and end during the liquidation of the ghetto, including many kids in the most horrific ways that I don’t even want to document here but you can google it if you want to know what had happened.

We stop by the Remuh Synagogue and cemetery. I will return later to visit this 16th century synagogue. My guide tells us this historic cemetery was used as a garbage dump by the nazis during WWII and it took a heck of an excavation to restore it. They aren’t even sure they placed the headstones correctly. It is very sad to hear a that place like this was disrespected so badly.

Schindlers Passage, not a real historical spot but was used in movie

We walk across the bridge to the Jewish Ghetto where the Jewish people that did remain in town lived during the war. They were not allowed to leave the walled area except for work. The food rations they were given were just enough to keep them from starving.

We end the tour at Plac Bohaterów Getta (Ghetto Hero’s Square), a place where they would select people to send to the camps. It is a solemn place, they have 65 chairs to represent the 65 thousand Jews that used to live in town. Most chairs point in the direction of the ghetto but there is one that faces Oscar Schindler’s factory.

After the tour I head back to Plac Nowy to have a quick lunch. I try the Zapiekanka which is basically a French bread pizza. It hits the spot.

I am soaked since my raincoat is useless and I am cold but St Marys tower is only open for the weekend and this might be the only day I can go so I rush back down to St Marys to buy tickets for the tower and church. The goal is to catch the bugle player while I am up there but unfortunately I am assigned a time that has me totally missing the bugle playing. Apparently you are only allowed to stay up there 30 minutes. It is very overcast so not the greatest picture taking but at least I warmed up and got one heck of a workout climbing the steps.

Before the tower I did visit the church where I got to see the Veit Stoss Altarpiece, a very ornate and distinct wooden altar piece. It is only opened for viewing limited hours a day.

After the church I walk over to Rynek underground museum that was way more impressive than I expected. I ended up spending about two hours there. In the early 2000’s there was a huge effort to excavate the town square because below existed a historic market place underneath the existing square. This museum showcases what was discovered during that excavation.