Interlude: Warsaw
July 2, Warsaw
I truly felt that I had come in from the cold upon arriving in Warsaw, a city as modern and Western as any in Europe. The train arrived shortly before 11 pm and I walked to the very nice hostel not too far from the station. Warsaw is a big busy place with lots obviously going on, but there isn’t a whole lot of tourist interest. Warsaw suffered perhaps more than any other city in WWII, with hardly a building left standing after the ’44 Uprising, and the reconstructed Old Town, while nice for a photo op or two, is nothing so outstanding. Its small, about 9 blocks square, and centered on the old Town Square. I toured the Royal Palace, home to Polish royalty from the 16th to 18th centuries and which dates from the mid-1970s, the actual palace reduced to a pile of rubble. It was a bit strange touring this splendid royal palace, decorated to the era of Poland’s last king Stansislaw Augustus, and knowing that really, this Potemkin castle is only a few years older than I am.
From the Old Town I walked to the site of the Jewish Ghetto, now a boring residential area. Across the street from the Peugeot tower is the Jewish Historical Institute, which has exhibitions of Jewish art and of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is a research institution, not a museum per se, but there was a screening of a short documentary about the ghetto which was worthwhile. Lunch at KFC – Poland is cheaper than I thought – I wandered about town for a while, passing the Saxon Gardens and the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, housed in a ruined fragment of a place destroyed during the war. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Warsaw, seeing odd bits and pieces of ruins and wartime destruction that have either been purposely left unrestored or have simply been forgotten. I found myself at the Palace of Culture and Science, a huge Stalinist skyscraper that is still the tallest and largest building in Poland, From the 30th floor observation deck it was possible to see how quickly Warsaw was being developed. The Palace might be the tallest building in Poland, but maybe not for long. I took the afternoon off, so to speak, and got my things together to head to Krakow tomorrow morning.
posted by Andy Schloss @ 10:47 AM
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