understanding warszawa

Greetings from Warsaw, capital of Poland! Nikki and I arrived here a couple of days ago. I wish I could be more precise with the date but days and dates and time in general doesn't really mean much anymore after almost 3 weeks on the road. I know that we're going to Gdansk tomorrow morning, and that happy hour at our hostel is between 7-9pm, and the rest i can take or leave! Nikki is napping at the moment and I have set out to explore the Old Town, and on the way found a cheap and cosy internet cafe, which is quite the added bonus. Now, to try and remember what we've been doing -

We stayed for four nights in The Stranger Hostel in Krakow. It was pretty sweet place, with a massive couch and really nice staff. For four consecutive nights a group of lads from Britain were falling down drunk by 8pm, which upped the fun value. But after four days the novelty wore off a bit, especially when the drunken Englishman who was sleeping above me vomited pizza and apple vodka all through his bed.

Krakow was nice town, Poland's backpacker hotspot and probably the best place for us to start our wonderful Polish adventure. We wandered around the old town area a lot. which looked quite similar to the Old Towns in Budapest, Prague, Bratislava AND vienna...it seems every single eastern european city has one! We did a day trip to Auschwitz, which was very chilling and confronting, especially seeing the rooms full of hair of the prisoners, or their suitcases with their names on them. We walked through the Jewish area, through synagogues, saw bits of the ghetto wall, and were the only patrons at an authentic Jewish resturant, where I discovered the joys of Gefilte fish. We climbed up Mound (with a D) Kosiosko and took all the obligatory mountaineer and proud explorer photos.

I completed my first non-travelling, real life activity (apart from buying stamps) of my entire trip - a doctor's appointment in the suburbs of Krakow. Getting there - a nerve-wracking 20 minute drive along the major highways and through the forests - was almost as fun as the actual appointment: an after hours, cash in hand appointment with a carrot-orange doctor who switched between German and English and was dressed entirely in white, except for his tie (pink).

So now we're in Warsaw. It seems that Warsaw isn't a city to be explored or viewed, but rather understood. In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, 9 out of 10 buildings were destroyed by the Nazis. So almost everything is less than 50 years old, the whole city practically reconstructed. There are a lot of communist-style buildings and the skyline is full of ugly housing commission flats. In the centre of town is the Palace of Culture, a personal gift from Stalin that remains the highest and biggest building in Poland. There are developments everywhere and they reckon that Warsaw looked completely different 10 years ago, and in another 10 it will be unrecognisable. It'd be weird to live here and see the city change so rapidly in front of your eyes.

I am having much fun travelling with Nikki. We both like slow starts in the morning and making fun of Polish fashion, so every day is delightful. The weather has been pretty bad these last few days so we've been going to museums or sitting around in cafes. We've been trying to eat out one meal a day, which sometimes works, sometimes not, especially now that we've become hooked on pierogies: vietnamese dumpling-style boiled parcels filled with mushrooms, meat, cabbage or potatoes, and served with - wait for it - bacon or crackling swimming in lard. YUM.