Category Archives: Musings

Poland – Part 6: A Taste of Total Freedom

June 19th – 10:00AM

This day started out amazingly.  First, Tamara handed us our second 200z installment of cash.  Second, she told us that besides seeing the festival show that evening, the rest of how we wanted to spend our day was up to each of us.

Total freedom in Wroclaw.  Excellent.

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So, while chewing on some bread with jam, and playing with the Wrotswog the Hostel Dog, I mentally went over my to-do list:

  1. Get an international phone card, and call home
  2. Get some postcards to send home
  3. Find some souvenirs
  4. Do laundry!

So, I slammed down my toast, got cleaned up, walked out into the warm and humid Wroclaw air, and hit the streets with a few others.

As usual, our feet eventually led us to the market square.  On one street, with large stone spheres as dividers, some booths were set up where people were hocking their wares.

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There were lots of little knick-knacks, but I actually didn’t see much that I hadn’t seen at other similar markets in Toronto.  I was looking for gifts that were unique to the area, and it took me a while to eventually find them.

Here’s a shot of us checking out some wares:

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One highlight was a booth where a German man was selling hand-made wooden puzzles.  He was a good salesman (though I’m pretty sure he was hitting on Linn the whole time), so I bought one of his puzzles.  If you’re interested, and you read German, here is his website.

Here we are trying to solve some of his puzzles:

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Very perplexing.

After a bit more shopping about, we decided to get some lunch.

1:10PM

I was about to get my first plate of pierogi since landing in Poland, and I was starving.  After glacing at the menu,  I ordered “pierogi ruskie” (basic potato, cheese, and onion pierogi), and a Sprite.  Linn was upset because the waiter told us that they were out of the meat pierogies, and didn’t have any without cheese (Linn is lactose intolerant).  So, she ordered fries instead.

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Her fries showed up.  Our pierogies didn’t.

Something like 30 minutes passed.  Eventually, the waiter came back and told us that they were fresh out of pierogies.   Devestated, and famished for real Polish pierogi, I finished the rest of my Sprite, and we decided to try someplace else.

Ironically, Linn was the only one who ended up getting a meal there.

2:00PM

We found another restaurant that looked good, and sat down.  Unfortunately, there were no pierogies on the menu (was there a pierogi shortage?  In Poland?  Impossible!), so I ordered “penne spinaci”.  It was relaxing, sitting out there in the market square under the tent.  A couple of musicians with guitars and accordions played for us.  We got into a conversation with a local.  It was heavenly.  And it felt good to know that there was no rush to do anything – we could play the day however we liked.

And that’s pretty much how the afternoon went – we’d go to some restaurant, sit down, eat and drink for an hour, and then wander around until we got hungry and found another restaurant.  It was awesome.

It was also during that trip that Ryan and Jiv found what we would eventually name “Wizard Hat” – a bar near the Wroclaw University that sold 5z pints of beer.  This would eventually become one of the main watering holes for our group while we were in Wroclaw.

Here’s why it’s called Wizard Hat:

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See it?

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After chewing on some of the gummy candies that Tara had bought at some booth in the market, I decided to head back to the hostel on my own to see if I could find a way to call home.

Outside of our hostel was a convenience store, and somebody in our group had told me earlier that I could get a phone card from there.  So, I walked inside, and (after a lot of gesturing) was able to purchase a 20z “card” (really, just a receipt with a code on it).

So, I walked back up into the hostel, borrowed the hostel phone, and after some trial, error, and help from Tamara (the instructions were all in Polish!), I managed to phone home.

And nobody was there.  Nobody was at my girlfriend Em’s place either.  So, I put it on my “to do” list to try calling again that night after the show.

Putting back the phone, I walked into the common room, where the BBC was reporting on events in Iran.  Riots on the streets, total news blackout (except for social media)…our group watched the news in Iran carefully, especially Tara, who had planned on visiting there after Poland.  It wasn’t looking good.

6:13PM

A few hours passed.  There’s a gap in my journal, so I don’t really know what I did.  All I know, is that at 6:13PM, I was in a theater about to see TEBEK-JARAN (“The Stabbing of the Horse”) by the Gambuh Desa Batuan Ensemble; a Balinese troupe.

So how was The Stabbing of the Horse?

Hypnotic.  I found a YouTube clip posted by someone who was recording the show.  Check it out:

It’s really quite fantastic what she’s doing with her body – very precise, very controlled.  It was impressive.  The whole company moved like this.  It was really other-worldly…I felt like some kind of scientist watching an alien ritual.  Quite incredible.

But, at the time, I have to admit my eyes got pretty heavy after about 20 minutes of that music and movement.  I didn’t understand the language at all, and had no idea what was going on even though they’d handed out a piece of paper explaining the story.  Plus, it was super warm in the theatre.  I won’t lie, I had to struggle to stay conscious.

And then they brought out the horse!  Which was awesome – it was clearly just some actor in a horse costume – but it was freaking hilarious.  The horse came out, played with the audience for a bit, and that perked me right back up.

And then they killed it. They stabbed the horse, my favourite character, just as it was getting good.  But I shouldn’t have been surprised – the title of the show was The Stabbing of the Horse.  What did I expect?

Hrmph.  Maybe if I knew more about the culture, I would have gotten more out of the performance.  Oh well,  I gave it my best shot.

After the show, Tamara gave us the option to see a performance of Macbeth.  Personally, I was completely drained from the last show, and decided to head back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, I successfully called both my parents and my girlfriend Em.  It was good to hear their voices, and totally crazy to think that it was only 3PM back home.  It was like time travel.  My mind boggled.

Eventually, we met up with the people who saw Macbeth – and apparently, it was incredible.  I’d write more about it, except that I didn’t see it.  But according to them,  it was awesome.

After we met up with them, a few of us stopped by a Greek restaurant for some gyros.  We discussed the shows a bit, and I heard more impressions about Macbeth.  After our discussion, we left, and started heading back to the hostel.

We were just walking through the middle of the market square, when all of a sudden, it hit me:  I didn’t have my camera on me.  I’d forgotten it at the gyro restaurant!  I peeled out, and flew back to the restaurant.

The restaurant was empty – it looked like they were about to close.  And my camera was nowhere to be seen.  Finally, the European thieves and pick-pockets that I’d been warned about had struck.

And then the manager came out and gave me my camera back.  I felt like quite a shmuck.

11:52PM

After thanking the manager, I left the restaurant, and ran smack dab into another group of my fellow travelers who had taken a different route back from Macbeth.  They were hungry, and I was up for hanging out, so we stopped at another restaurant.  This one was a fancy Italian place.

Have you been keeping track?  Let’s count how many times I sat down to eat that day:

  1. Breakfast at the hostel
  2. Failed pierogi mission
  3. Penne spinaci, with accordian music
  4. Wizard Hat
  5. Gyros at the Greek restaurant
  6. Fancy Italian restaurant

Holy smokes!

So there we were:  Jiv, Ryan, Una, Linn, and Sonia, sitting at this fancy Italian restaurant, being loud and obnoxious, as per usual.  It took us about 20 minutes to finally realize that we were sitting in a restaurant geared towards romance, and that many of the couples around us weren’t appreciating how much noise we were making.

So we paid our bill and left.

And we went home.  And slept.  I hadn’t bought any postcards, and I still had laundry to do.

Oh well.  Plenty of time for that.

Click here to go to Part 7:  An Official Tour of Wroclaw

Click here to go back to Part 5:  Exploring Wroclaw

Poland – Part 5: Exploring Wroclaw

June 18 – 10:19 AM

It had been an easy sleep.  At this point in my journey, my jet lag appeared to have mostly worn off.  I woke up, and had two bowls of Cocoa Puffs.

Fun fact:  Cocoa Puffs seem to be very popular as a hostel breakfast cereal.  Almost every hostel we went to invariably had Cocoa Puffs.  It was nice knowing that no matter what kind of situation I got into in Poland, I’d always have Cocoa Puffs there to bail me out.

Dry Cocoa Puffs though.  Because frankly, the milk I tasted in Poland was too strange for me.  It was thick, and tasted…bleh.  Apparently, I’m not the only one to notice differences between North American milk and European milk.

Anyhow, after breakfast, Chantelle, Reid and myself decided to go grocery shopping to see what the local produce was like.

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Food in the grocery store was remarkably cheap after conversion to Canadian dollars.  Reid and Chantelle loaded up on local fruits, vegetables, and dairy.

During our exploration, I learned how often I feel the compulsion to say “sorry”, and how frustrating it is to not be able to do so.  So, I learned how to say it in Polish:  przepraszam (psheh-prasham).  I kept practicing it, ready to whip it out next time I accidentally bumped somebody or something.  Unfortunately, when my opportunity arose (I think I accidentally cut off some old lady in the supermarket), I said dziekuje (thank you) instead.  Awkward moment.

Another awkward moment was when I bought a jug of orange juice.  Check out the expiry date:

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Holy smokes – this unrefridgerated OJ expires in 2010.  Sounds like a boatload of preservatives to me.

I opened the jug, and took a swig.

It took a few swigs to realize that something was bugging me…I’d missed a step in the process.

And then it hit me.  The seal had been broken.  The seal had been broken off of some strange unrefridgerated 2010-expring OJ that I had just bought in Poland.

I hate waste, but I hate getting sick more.  I threw the jug out.  Poland: 1, Mike: 0.

1:10PM

After we got back, the whole group decided to go exploring all together.  We streamed out en masse onto the streets of Wroclaw.

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The first place we went to was St. Mary Magdalene’s Church.

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According to my guide book:

During the Reformation it was taken over by the Protestants and was not returned to the Catholic church until after WWII.  It’s most striking feature is a 12th-century Romanesque portal that was moved here from the Benedictine abbey.  It is considered to be Wroclaw’s most valuable relic from this era.

We didn’t manage to see the portal, though.  I imagine they wouldn’t just have that out and about for tourists to gawk at.

I was starting to get used to the majesty of the high, arched ceilings.  I had seen so many churches that they were beginning to blend together in my memory.

But this church had something else to offer:  The Witches Bridge.  The Witches Bridge connects the two tall towers of the church.

We paid the 2z, and started our climb.  And it was quite a climb – it must have been something like 200 steps.  And there were spooky landings on the way up:

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But the view was worth it:

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We spent a good chunk of time up there, taking snapshots, and enjoying the cool breeze.  Eventually, on shaky, tired legs, we walked back down.  Some of us poked around other parts of the church.  A bunch of us eventually went back outside and talked some more about UR-HAMLET.

And then (it was inevitable), somebody got hungry.  We left Mary Magdalene’s, and went to the market square to hunt down some food.

The group was divided on diets, so we split up.  I decided to go with the vegetarians to the same place as the day before.  The soy chops were delicious:

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If you go to Poland, try the ice cream.  There are vendors everywhere, and it’s delicious.  In Poland, it’s called “lody”, and it’s b”lody” awesome.  I eventually had one almost every day that I was in Wroclaw.  Mmmmm….

Anyhow, slowly but surely, the group reassembled.

It was at this point that I got hit by a reality check:  a tiny Romanian girl (couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5) came up to us to beg for change.  Absolutely heart-breaking.  I gave her 50z, and then watched her run over to 2 older boys (brothers?) and walk away.

There were a variety of opinions on what happened.  Some felt that by giving her change, we’re just making the problem worse.  Others argued that if she didn’t go back with some change, she might get beat up by the people she was with.  Personally, I was happy to give her the 50z.  I hope things work out for her.

2:45PM

My friends back in Toronto are really into this hobby called Geocaching.  Without going into to much detail, it’s essentially GPS-based global treasure hunting.  It’s a cool idea.

Anyhow, the reason I brought it up was because there are probably some AWESOME geocaching sites here in Wroclaw.  Nooks, crannies, and history,  is strewn about everywhere.

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Click here to read the Wikipedia article on Geocaching.

While we were walking, we saw what might be the world’s ugliest car:  a Fiat 1st generation Multipla.  Check this monster out:

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Holy smokes.  Barf.

We kept exploring Wroclaw.  Our next stop was the University of Wroclaw.

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Funny story about this last guy:  according to Tamara, legend goes that this man was playing cards, and lost everything.  Everything.  Everything except his sword.  I guess the University is showing us what can happen if you gamble…?

We kept moving.

Photo Shoot

While we were walking, we saw this killer piece of wall graffiti.  It looked like something BLU might do.

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We decided to do a photo shoot in front of it.  I didn’t get any shots of the guys, but here are the ladies:

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Our photoshoot over, I finally figured out where Tamara was leading us:  Cathedral Island, Wroclaw.  Not surprisingly, the “island” was festooned with tall church towers and monuments.

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This statue is of John of Nepomuk, the national saint of the Czech Republic who refused to divulge to his king details of the queen’s confession.  You can read more about John of Nepomuk here.

Our main stop was at Wroclaw Cathedral.

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The inside was nice, but I was more interested in the view from the towers.  It was a pretty steep climb, and even then we had to take an elevator part way.  But the view was worth it:

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Oh, and here’s me:

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5:17PM

The show that night was OCZYSZCZENI (CLEANSED): a Sarah Kane play directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, and it was starting at 8PM.  So, after climbing down the steps of the tower, and a short stop for a drink at a local cafe, we decided to split up for dinner before we met up at the theatre.

I’m not sure what I did – there’s a big blank spot in my journal.  I probably went back to the hostel to get my ticket for the show and had some food.

CLEANSED Directed by Warlikowski

I knew going in that this show was going to be dark:  it’s Sarah Kane, what did you expect?  It’s also 2.5 hours with no intermission, so prepare to get rocked.

And, well, I found it underwhelming.  Maybe the sadistic violence of this brutal love story blew all my circuits and I went passive – it happens.  Either way, I didn’t feel much of a reaction from myself.  To be completely honest, I wasn’t entirely certain what this show was trying to communicate to me (or if it was communicating to me), so in that regard, the experience was a bit of a failure.  There were some interesting lighting choices, however…

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This is a shot of the CLEANSED curtain call.  Notice how some people are standing up, and some are sitting down?  Says a lot about this show, because this was one that a lot of people disagreed about.  The whole load of us discussed it and hashed it out while we slowly walked to the market square.

And we sat down at a restaurant, ordered some drinks, and hashed it out even more.  Some people got nightmares from it.  Some people got angry by it.  Some people found it hilarious at points.  Some people thought it was genius.  I neither liked it nor disliked it – I was indifferent.

But I liked sitting down and talking about it with everybody, hearing what they got out of it (if anything).

Here are a few shots of us discussing CLEANSED:

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And then we walked back through the market square, went back to our hostel, and eventually turned in for the night.

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Click here to go to Part 5:  A Taste of Total Freedom

Click here to go back to Part 4:  To Wroclaw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching

Poland – Part 4: To Wroclaw

Here’s your Polish lesson for today – how to say “thank you”:

dziękuję – pronounced, “djienh-COO-yay”

It’s probably the word I ended up using the most over there.

Anyhow, where was I?

June 17 – 9:08AM Local

Nobody really had trouble getting up (especially poor jet-lagged Yev, who had gotten up around 4AM, and started exploring Warsaw on her own).  After breakfast, we tossed all of our stuff into the green bus, and got on our way.

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The original plan was to pick up Sonia, another UCDP student who was coming a day late from Toronto due to prior commitments.  However, it turned out that her seat had been double-booked in Toronto, and that she’d have to come later.  It was a bummer, but it also meant we could start our journey to Wroclaw right away.

Wroclaw.  Look at that word.  Looks like it should be pronounced “RO-claw”, right?  Totally wrong.  It’s actually pronounced “VROT-suave”.  I never would have guessed.

It was a long bus ride – about 7 hours journey from Warsaw to Wroclaw.  We were able to stretch out on the seats, and relax.

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There were about 15 of us in the huge coach bus, so we weren’t afraid to spread out a bit.  I shared some of my journal notes with Chantelle, who is also keeping a record of our journey.  I think Alex is too.  I’m really glad I took this notebook along – I think I’ll do this on all of my big trips.

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11:50AM Local

Our first rest stop.  A lot of us are feeling restless and cramped – we’ve been doing a lot of sitting for the last few days.  We all pour out of the bus, and run around.

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The weather was great!  Nice and sunny, but with a cool breeze.

Rural Poland looks a lot like rural Ontario.  I guess farmland is farmland.

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After some supplies (I grabbed some orange Fanta, and some kind of Lindt chili pepper chocolate), we got back onto the bus, and kept going.

We get about half an hour at the rest stop, and then we get back on the bus and keep going.

1:10PM Local

We stopped again to walk around and get some lunch.

But not at a gas station.  We stopped at a very interesting, and historically important monastery that once withstood assault from the entire Swedish army.

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According to Tamara, we were in Czestochowa, and the monastery was the Jasna Góra Monastery. According to Tamara, there’s a very special picture of the Virgin Mary at that monastery. She also told us that during WWII, the painting had been hidden inside a secret compartment in a large table in the monastery, to keep it from falling into the hands of the Nazi’s. It sounded very Indiana Jones.

I was intrigued.

Unfortunately, we had less than an hour to tour the grounds. I snapped as many photos as I could.

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While I snapped my photos, I thought to myself: “It really can’t be easy to worship here while surrounded by the inane buzz of tourists.”

And with that thought, we left.

6:10PM

By this time, we had reached our second hostel.  We would be staying at this one for about 5 days, so we made ourselves comfortable.

It was a pretty nice place – it was called Cinnamon Hostel.  Not as good as the previous hostel, but I was totally happy with it.

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We had an hour or so to settle in and freshen up.  During that time, I also read some interesting things about Wroclaw in one of the free guidebooks that was lying around.

Ever heard of Project Riese?  I’ll quote my guidebook:

It was here in 1943…Hitler ordered the undertaking of a massive, top-secret underground complex known as Project ‘Reise’ (Giant).  One of the Fuhrer’s most ambitious and maniacal schemes, the exact nature of which remains unclear, Riese remains one of World War II’s greatest mysteries, about which suspiciously little is known over sixty years since.

It sounds like Hitler started a mystery mole hill near Wroclaw, and never got it finished.  We didn’t visit it, but it was interesting to hear about.  Another Indiana Jones moment.

You can read more about Project Riese here.

7:15PM

Eventually, we left our hostel, and started to explore Wroclaw.  We were going to be in the city for a few days, so we wanted to get our bearings straight.

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Squinting into the sun, we headed towards the market square.

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It turns out that the market square seemed very similar to the one in Warsaw:  large open space for walking around.  Outdoor patios.  Buskers.  Pigeons.  Churches.

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Oh, and gnomes.  Did I mention the gnomes?

Let me back up.

Warsaw had it’s particular symbol – the mermaid.  Well, for Wroclaw, it was all about the gnomes.

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Anj took it upon herself to start a gnome count.  I think I stopped at one.

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Festival Guests!  And then food.

While we were in Wroclaw, we would be seeing shows as part of the “The World as a Place of Truth Theatre Festival“, which was being put together (I believe) by the Grotowski Institute.

Somehow, word had gotten through to the people running the festival that we were coming, and that we were rabid students who were eager to devour good theatre.

So wouldn’t you know it, they gave us free tickets for pretty much everything.  We were given “festival guest” status.

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Here we are, getting our free swag.  God, we were spoiled rotten.

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BIG thank you to the people running the festival.  Dziękuję!

After getting our tickets, we headed to a nearby vegetarian restaurant to fuel up.  I had some kind of samosa perogi.  Not bad.

Waiting for UR-HAMLET

Our first show for the festival was happening that night – UR-HAMLET, directed by Eugenio Barba.  We killed time until the show by hanging out in the market square.  Some of us smoked.  Some of us shopped.  Some drank coffee.  I had strawberry gelato, and watched the sun set.

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UR-HAMLET

And then we saw UR-HAMLET.

I’m not going to go into a big, deep analysis of the play.  I’m no theatre critic, but I know what I like.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed it:  where else could I watch an African Hamlet in tiger-stripe pants wipe out his Balinese family with the help of a Samurai sidekick?  And do it with the seriousness of an ancient ritual?  Despite the chilly weather (it was an outdoor show), I dug it.  I had never seen Balinese theatre before, nor heard the music, and this was my first taste of it.  A very interesting, intricate style.

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There was also a Balinese commedia-dell’arte-like dumb show for the first 20 minutes, that had the audience roaring.  Hamlet Sr.’s ghost had more stage time than Hamlet himself, and ended up hooking up with Ophelia in heaven.  It was awesome.

There was also a moment where bodies were being loaded onto wooden skids.  Then a forklift came on stage, hoisted a skid with 5 bodies on it about 6 or 7 feet up in the air, and peeled out on to the bumpy stone walkway to take them out of the playing space.  I was sure somebody was going to fall and break a wrist.  Luckily, it didn’t happen.

Funny story:  so it’s (what I believe to be) the climax of the show, with Hamlet wiping out his family with his Samurai sidekick.  Balinese men are being stabbed.  They’re going down.  The music crescendos.  The last man falls.  The music stops.  All silent.  My stomach chose that moment to release the loudest growl in my life.  Like…monstrous growl.  I got a few dirty looks from the international audience sitting around me.  It really killed the moment.  It was awkward.

Anyhow, we hurried back to the hostel to get our jackets (it was freezing out!).  And wouldn’t you know it, but Sonia was there waiting for us!  She’d taken a later flight over, and trekked all the way to our hostel to meet us!  Our travel group was finally complete.  After a round of hugs, we headed to the “U.S. Artist Initiative mixer party” that we had been invited to earlier in the day.

It was also Alex’s birthday, so we had no excuse but to have a good time.

Much dancing was done.  It was fantastic.

And then I went back to the hostel.  I had a shower.  And then I went to bed.

Click here to go to Part 5:  Exploring Wroclaw

Click here to go back to Part 3:  Our Day in Warsaw

Poland – Part 3: Our Day in Warsaw

Note:  Like my last few posts, I’m not yet done processing my photos, and so these posts will probably have more and more photos attached to them over time.

We had arrived in Warsaw around noon, and only had this day to really do any sight-seeing.  So, while some of us may have wanted to clock out and sleep our way into jet-lagged paradise, instead, we made a quick clean-up stop at the hostel, and then hit the pavement and started walking around.

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3:55PM Local

One of the first things we saw was a statue of Copernicus outside of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

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According to Tamara, there’s a copy of this statue in Montreal as well.  Neat.

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Embedded into a pedestal was also a copy of Bernardo Bellotto (known here as Canaletto)’s painting, entitled “The Church of the Holy Cross“.

Here’s the painting:

Canaletto_Krakowskie_Przedmieście

Not a bad likeness of current Warsaw, either.  Just remove the horse and buggies, add some pavement, and update the clothing.  Smack a coat of paint, and boom: present day Warsaw.

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The Info Boxes

Walking down the streets of Warsaw, we kept running into these boxes on the sidewalk.  Not small, dinky boxes – but large boxes for walking into.  We’d go inside, and they’d be like small museum exhibits.

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All you Poland history buffs out there, feel free to correct the next few paragraphs if I’m wrong – I’m going on what I read, and haven’t done any independent research on this stuff.

Poland seems to be celebrating 20 years since the fall of communist rule, and that’s what these info boxes seemed to talk about.  They’d talk about significant events, like the Lenin Shipyard strike of 1980 in Gdansk, which seemed to birth/galvanize the Solidarity movement.

Other info boxes had titles/themes, like “Imposing Martial Law” (happened in 1981, thanks to one communist General Wojciech Jaruzelski, which squashed the Solidarity movement).

These boxes were followed by “Help From the West”, and “Giving Back Power”, but we didn’t stay too long to read into them.  We had lots of other things to see on this day.

Embedded in The History of Poland

One thing that Poland seems to have a lot of, is history.  You don’t even have to open a book, or Google it to know that.  Just land in the city, and take a look around: some of the buildings are pretty ancient, and reek history.  Warsaw was devestated during bombing and raids by the Germans during WWII, but the city has done a pretty good job of bringing itself back together.

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What else to say about Warsaw…. the style of the buildings, according to Una Ruud, is “Neo-Classical”.  There are also a plethora of churches in the city – every time we’d turn a corner, there’d be another big church.  Lots of devotional history here.

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We also saw a monument for Adam Mickiewicz, a Polish Romantic-era poet/playwrite.  According to Tamara, he was a pioneer of Polish Romantic-Nationalism.  You can read up about him here.

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Every now and then, while walking along some wall or another, we’d see these white signs, covered in Polish scrawl.  Tamara told us that these signs are indicators that some tragic event took place on that spot.  For example, one of the signs we stopped at was apparently on a site where some huge shooting took place in WWII.  I didn’t really catch much of that particular history lesson – I was dragging behind at that point snapping photos.

Here’s a shot of the sign:

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Other Impressions of Warsaw (5:35PM Local)

The whole day, the rain had been on and off.  It’s like it couldn’t decide.  It’d spritz a little here, and then back off…and then spritz a little there, etc.  There were some storm clouds threatening us the entire time we were out, but we didn’t get caught in any torrential downpour.  It was humid out, and the sun would come out of the clouds sporadically.

Two things that suprised a few of us about Warsaw:  the low density (I expected more cramped quarters), and consequently, the massive spaces.  There was a really huge square hidden away in the recesses of Warsaw where we stopped for some coffee/tea.  I tried capturing the size of it with my camera, but no luck.  Peter, a more experienced traveller, told me that he had seen even bigger squares throughout Europe.  I can tell you I haven’t really seen anything like that in Toronto.

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Warsaw’s square seemed oriented around this mermaid statue:

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According to Tamara, the mermaid is Warsaw’s symbol.

Jiv’s Massive Cat, and Ryan Leaves a Bad Impression

Eventually, we found ourselves at what I believe was the outer wall of the old city.

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The wall had various ports for viewing, and perhaps aiming a weapon through.  While glancing through one of these posts, a cat caught Jiv’s eye.

“That cat is MASSIVE.  It’s huge!  It’s like the size of a tiger!  Get a load of this!”

We all gathered into the small alcove to see what Jiv had spotted.

“Jiv…that’s just a normal sized house cat.”

“Are you kidding me?  No way.  That thing is OUT OF CONTROL!”

“Jiv…I could carry that thing in my arms.”

“You guys must be blind.  Look at that thing!”

I didn’t happen to take any photos of the cat, but the general consensus was that this was without a doubt a normal house cat, and Jiv may have started hallucinating.  I don’t blame him.  I think he’d been awake for something like 30 hours at this point.

Still, it was good for a laugh.

Also, while walking past a wall, some lady banged a stick against her window, and pointed at Ryan.  Maybe she was a Degrassi fan.  Or maybe she didn’t like the gait of his walk.  Either way, she seemed upset.

Here’s a video of Alex describing the incident immediately after:

We hurried along.

6:12PM Local Time

The exhaustion was really starting to get to me.

Half-dazed, I followed the group into an absolutely massive theatre in Warsaw (it’s called Teatr Narodowy).

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This is a state theatre, and hosts shows from groups like the National Opera and National Ballet companies.  We didn’t get much farther than the lobby (I believe there was a show that night, which we didn’t have tickets for), but I snapped some photos of the interior.

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The Monument of Warsaw’s Ghetto Uprising (6:58PM Local Time)

Poland was in bad shape for WWII.  I’m no buff on WWII/Polish history, but it seems pretty clear that things here were really rough back then.  This monument was for an uprising in a ghetto in Warsaw – and eventually I figured out that we were more or less in the location where the ghetto had originally been.

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According to Tamara, 500,000 Jews in Poland were forced into this ghetto, and routed here or there – some sent to death camps, some kept here to govern over other Jews, etc.

Here’s a Wikipedia article on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

It was a pretty somber moment, anyhow.  Alex, who is proudly Jewish, took it particularly close to the heart, and lit a candle at the monument while the rain started to pour.

The Rainbow

After seeing the Ghetto Monument, we started heading back to the hostel.  We took a subway ride on the Polish metro (which was, to me, very similar to the TTC).

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Chatter had been stifled since our stop at the Ghetto Monument, but was starting to pick up again.  By the time we got out of the metro system, we were back in high (yet exhausted) spirits.

And wouldn’t you know it, a pair of huge rainbows came out to greet us when we emerged:

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Along with a pretty cool brass band:

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Not a bad end to our only day for touring around Warsaw.

I liked Warsaw.  I wish we had more time here.  But it was time to go back to the hostel, get some food, clean up, and go to sleep.

8:43PM Local

The showers in the hostel were clean, but the temperature was really random.  Alex and I were in separate adjacent stalls, and the whole hostel got to hear us alternately wail, scream, laugh, and curse at the water.  It was apparently pretty funny.  It was also the shortest shower of my life.

The shower got my travel grime off, and also woke me up.  At this point, I began to feel somewhat adjusted to being in that time zone.

We also met Yev back at the hostel, who had gotten chills during the walking tour, and headed back by herself.  Some of us started worrying about getting sick.

10:52PM Local

You’d think we would have gone to bed.

Instead, we went out to a local pizzeria.

At first, we had some difficulty getting in – we’re a large group, with a variety of dietary preferences, and I think we freak out restaurants when we show up all together.

Eventually (thanks to some no-nonsense British lady who translated for us), we were able to squeeze ourselves into a restaurant and order some pizza.

We clinked our glasses together:  first night in Poland.  Pretty good.  The effect of the shower had begun to wear off though, and exhaustion was starting to creep back.  After paying the cheque, we got out of there, and headed back to the hostel.

And conked out.  Hard.  Falling asleep was easy.

June 17 – 4:30AM Local

They told me this would happen.

4AM rolled around, and for some reason, I woke up.  Fully rested.  Bleh.

Luckily, the hostel had free internet access and a PC.  I checked my email.  I wrote some email.  I wrote a blog post.

Then I went back to bed.

It’s a familiar feeling…as I write this, it’s June 20 at 5:25AM, and I’m wide awake.

Oh well.  Something to pass the time.

Click here to go to Part 4:  To Wroclaw

Click here to go back to Part 2: Dazed in Warsaw

Poland – Part 2: Dazed in Warsaw

Note:  More photos will be added to this post over time, so keep checking back.

June 16 – 6:51AMEST, 12:51PM Local

We had just arrived in Poland (Warsaw, to be exact) from our connecting flight from Frankfurt.  After we landed, we walked out of the plane onto the tarmac, and caught a bus to the airport terminal.

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Once we got inside, we had to somehow find our checked luggage.  There was some concern that our luggage may have been lost in the shuffle when our original flight from Frankfurt was moved forward, so we were a bit worried.  If all of our luggage magically showed up, with no fuss, or missing bits, then we were in business.

So we went down to the carousel…and waited…and waited…nothing was moving, no luggage had arrived.  We waited…and then, finally, the wheels started moving.  Bags started pouring out of a chute built into the floor.

Would any of our bags be on the carousel?

It took a few rounds, and some people lost hope – but then the first bag was sighted.  After that, one after another they poured onto the carousel.  There was much rejoicing.

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Now that we had our luggage, we had to find Tamara.  And here was the tricky part: as far as I know, nobody had contacted her to tell us that we had taken a later flight.  So, she may have been waiting around for an hour, and then left when we didn’t arrive.  So, we started patrolling the arrivals area…

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And immediately found Tamara.  Bless her heart, she hadn’t left, and had been waiting there the whole time for us.  She’d even brought a big green bus with her to take us to our first hostel.

It’s amazing how weary us travellers can get – especially since we don’t do much, physically, while we’re being transported.  All it is, is an exercise in sitting still.  Still, somehow it’s exhausting.  Also factor in that at this point, I’d probably been up for almost 24 hours.

While we were riding the bus, Tamara informed us that the original train trips that had been scheduled into our itinerary had been too difficult to set up, and that she had arranged for the green bus to transport us to where we needed to go.  We officially had a tour bus!  Awesome!

We flew down the streets of Warsaw.  My first impression?  The license plates sure look different.  And most of the advertisements were, understandably, in Polish.  The Stop signs were still in English though, which I found interesting.

It was rainy and gray out.  Traffic flew by.  We were all exhausted.  To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t paying too much attention to the road.  I was really tired.

When we got to the hostel, we all piled out of the bus and unloaded our luggage.  Tamara apologized because we had to walk up 3 flights of stairs with our luggage – but it wasn’t that bad.  At first, the smell of the stairwell discouraged me…it smelled funky and musty.  I was prepared for the worst.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The hostel was awesome.  Freakin’ awesome.  If you’re about my age, think about your ideal apartment.  Now add lots of free food just lying around.  Now add the awesome reunions with Una Ruud and Linn Farley, two other UCDP students that had come from elsewhere around Europe to meet us.  Like I said:  awesome.

If you’re ever interested in staying in Warsaw, I recommend the place that we stayed at: New World St. Hostel.  Very clean, friendly staff, great bunks, great location.  Here is the hostel’s website.

And here are a few photos:

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We didn’t have access to the rooms at first – we had to wait about half an hour. But that was OK, seeing as how there was awesome free food just lying around for us to eat:  cakes, freshly picked strawberries (very common at this time of year here, apparently), crackers, bread, etc.  After our long trip, it was heavenly.

While we were chowing down, Tara Gerami and Tom Davis walked through the door, which whipped us into another hyper frenzy.  Tom and Tara are two other UCDP students who had been in Berlin, and were meeting up with us like Linn and Una.  We were exhausted, hyper, dazed, and kinda grungy. I won’t lie – even though I hadn’t done anything physical, I really needed a shower.  I wasn’t alone.

Ever played Monopoly?  Sure you have.  You know how when you pass GO, you get $200?  That’s basically what happened to us.  By coming to this hostel, we had apparently passed GO, and so Tamara dished out 200 z (zloty, Polish currency) for each of us.  Nothing wrong with that.

Finally, our rooms were ready.  I looked inside our rooms – grey bunk beds, foot lockers for personal storage, and nice big windows.  The bunk beds were nice, and were the exact same type that I have at my own apartment. A very comfortable room.

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2:52PM Local

After we had settled, we realized that (despite all of the free food) we were hungry for a full-sized meal.  We all trooped out of the hostel, and went to a restaurant just down the street.

Good food.  I had a macaroni, chicken, broccoli, and cheese casarole.  I also took this opportunity to send very short emails to my parents and my girlfriend Em with Una’s iPhone (the restaurant, despite looking like the Three Bears’ cottage, had wi-fi).

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The effects of sleep deprevation were really taking their toll.  The jokes were non-sensical.  I couldn’t tell if I was hungry, but I ate anyways.  In my opinion, we were all (understandably) burnt out.

While it would have been nice to just curl up and go to bed (awake for over 24 hours at this point), Tamara advised us that it would be wisest for us to stay up as late as possible so as to not completely screw over our sleep cycle.

So, instead of going back to the hostel, the lot of us hit the pavement, and we started checking out Warsaw.

Click here to go to Part 3:  Our Day in Warsaw

Click here to go back to Part 1: Departures and Arrivals