Traveling Pak: Pierogies are Better in Poland: Warsaw, Krakow (Days 37-40)

Warsaw

We woke up in Poland to the cold morning breeze. Warsaw is the capitol of Poland, but like Lisbon, it felt like a small town. However, when visiting “historical” sites we were always reminded that most of the original parts had been bombed and destroyed in the World War and the subsequent U.S.S.R reign over Poland. As such, most of the sites weren’t especially interesting but nonetheless they were aesthetically pleasing. We also went to the Warsaw Rising museum, which was a very interactive museum about troops in Warsaw resisting the Nazi army near the end of WWII. With a plane in the middle of the museum, it was definitely worth the price of admission.

We only stayed in Warsaw for a night, but we’d seen pretty much most of the tourist sites. At night, we went out to a bar full of locals, and as we had expected in Eastern Europe, it was full of smoke – but it was definitely fun to people watch. Polish beer is alright, but really nothing special. Vodka’s definitely the specialty.

We were hungry when we got off the train, so we instantly went to the atm, pulled out some cash and went hunting for food. My first pierogies in Poland – with sweet cheese filling. I had always thought that pierogies are only filled with potatoes, but they can really be filled with just about anything from chicken liver to spinach. Cheap and amazing in Poland.

Everything in this picture had to be reconstructed. Sadly lots of the original historical sites were destroyed.

Polish people like their zupy (soup) and will just eat soup and bread for a meal. Sounds like my kind of thing – well at least the bread part.

This plane was in the Warsaw Uprising museum, which was definitely cool, and well at times gruesome with videos of lots of dead bodies.

Krakow

Krakow is an amazing city. It was certainly cold and rainy when we were there, but I could tell that it would be a great city to be in during the summer. It has tons of restaurants and bars all in the vicinity of its old town, and it gives off a pleasant laid back feel. Even though while we were there it was rainy and foggy, I really liked the city. Apart from exploring the city, we also took day trips to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

We took a minibus to Auschwitz from the bus station, which dropped us off right at the front of the camp. From then on, we spent 4 hours walking around the camp, with a tour guide. Auschwitz, was well, what you would expect from a concentration camp – extremely sad and depressing. However, I couldn’t help but feel surprised and awed (in a bad way) by the size of the concentration camps. These were large and vast camps made JUST to kill people. Nathan and I talked about it – despite what it was meant for, the concentration camps were really quite an engineering feat. The Nazis were just that good at killing people. I was awestricken and appalled simultaneously.

Talking to the tour guide, she told us that she had to take half a year off after giving tours there for 6 months – it was too depressing for her. Even I, who am usually indifferent to things like death, immediately felt saddened and depressed by the camp only by being there for 4 hours. I couldn’t imagine being there for 6 months- having to walk by horrifying things such as hair being used to make carpet, gas chambers, and pictures of scrawny children. (I’m already censoring it guys…)

On the other hand, the Wieliczka Salt Mine was pretty cool. First time I’ve been to a salt mine, and as you would expect, there was salt everywhere…