Poland Day 5 — Warszawa!

Wow, day five in Poland and I’m already feeling overwhelmed. And at home, too. It is a very amazing feeling.

We started off the day very early, just after 8 AM, when we left the hotel after breakfast and piled into our mini-bus to head to Warsaw. Our main target was a 5:30 PM dinner that was scheduled.

We spent a fair amount of time on the road, but Marek, our tour guide, is an endless font of knowledge, which he was more than willing to share with us. The main story that captivated our attention was that of is parish priest and confessor or years ago, Father Jerzy Popieluszko. This was a Catholic Priest who dared to hold monthly masses for Solidarnosc, the young Catholic priest who became the chaplain to Solidarnosc, and then dared to hold monthly Masses which were attended by thousands of people. But I cannot tell the story that well, I encourage you to look it up on Wikipedia, but have a handful of tissues handy, because the Communists kidnapped, beat and killed him in 1984. But so big was the public outcry that the people who did it were caught and sentenced to prison. It is a sad story, and yet a story of heroism, I encourage you to read all about it. Lets just say that the Communists killed him, but his spirit lived on and emboldened the people of Poland. And he was recently beatified, on his way to becoming a saint. The site of his burial is most impressive and visiting it was a very sobering experience. I cannot say more if I want to continue to type this. Suffice it to say that he embodied the heart and soul of the Polish people with his desire for a Poland that was a proud nation again. He was a true martyr.

After that somber visit, we saw the apartment of our tour director, he lives in a building owned by his family, a building which suffered various degrees of destruction in World War II, but which he is currently fixing up in magnificent fashion.

After that it was a tour of Warsaw, and then we were let of at Lazienki Park. We walked around the park and saw all the old buildings, many very old. We took lots of pictures for sure. But you’ll have to wait until i get back to see them. Somewhere in the midst of this day, I filled the 1 GB card from my small point-and-shoot cameral and exhausted the battery on my digital SLR. Thank god I had a second! All is charging now.

Eventually we made our way to our hotel. I am on the 12th floor. I thought a hotel in the heart of Warsaw would be small and quaint, but I’m on the 12th floor and the other elevator does floors above 17 I believe! Wow a huge hotel, but i sure have a view out of my window.   We had a short time to get all dressed but I put on my best, a nice shirt, tie and sport coat. All the men and women in our group were dressed to the 9s, how nice that was. Then we set out for more of a tour before eventually ending at our Dinner destination, a fine restaurant just off the market square in Warsaw.

We were expecting guests from the embassy for dinner, and indeed we had them. It was a pleasure to dine with three representatives of the US government who each told us a bit about what they do. All had very positive things to say about Poland and the relations of US companies there. And, as it turns out, I went to high school with a girl who is the sister of one of them! What a small  world.

Dinner was very good, though the portions small–not that it was a bad thing! We started with a delicous salad and some bread (after a tall Zywiec, piwo), then a wonderful main course of a nice Bigos, some ziemnaki, and a breaded cutlet, and finally an sweet apple dessert. Oh, and throw another piwo in there. And some kawa.

After dinner a few went back to the hotel but a number of us chose to walk the mile or two (maybe three!) back to our hotel. Some were a bit afraid of getting lost but not me, and i was right, we found our way fine. We stopped a few times for various stuff. At one point we stopped for some piwo in the market square. That was fun. Later on I stopped for some rurka z kremem, yum!! Ask me some time about the guy who called me a bad word in Polish–thinking I did not know Polish, but I did. I told him that was a very bad word and he smiled. I was quite a comical moment to me.

Eventually we made our way back to the hotel, but a few of us were not ready for bed and so we went to the bar and had a few drinks. I had a vodka, and then a  Wodka Zoladkowa Gorzka–to make sure I felt good in the AM. Finally I came up to my room and that’s what I’m up to now.

We leave a t 8 AM, just over 7 hours from now. So it will be a short night of sleep for me. Tomorrow we are on to Sandomierz for a night, so another long day of travel. Well, I can sleep then.

This has been the most excellent trip. I cannot wait to come back here next year. Maybe you are interested in coming here with me? If so, let me know, it would be a great time. The people are friendly, they speak English (the guy sure did laugh earlier when I tried to order in Polish though), and the place is relatively save and very clean. And, for the first time in a long time, my bed is being made up every night by people who speak the language of this country! It’s really a great place to vist.

Oh, and if you are wondering, Pat and Sonja too are having the best time ever. Sonja thought she’d did some things out, but our group is having none of that and wheeling here wherever we are going. She is not going to be a party pooper, we won’t let her. It’s a great time, for sure.