After waking, cleaning up, and eating breakfast, the whole bunch of us left the hostel to meet a guide for a tour of Wroclaw that Tamara had arranged for us.\u00a0 As usual, our feet guided us to the market square, and that’s where we met Ella, our tour guide.<\/p>\n
One of the first interesting things Ella taught us about Wroclaw was about the market square.\u00a0 Apparently, a lot of the “ancient” looking buildings around us were actually only a few decades old.\u00a0 They’d been designed and constructed to look old from the outside and to fit in with the historical look, but the insides were supposedly super-modern.\u00a0 Part of me found that fascinating, another part was a little disappointed.\u00a0 Tricked by architecture.<\/p>\n
Ever heard of Max Berg<\/a>?\u00a0 I hadn’t.\u00a0 Max Berg was a German architect who was appointed as the senior building official for Wroclaw in 1909.\u00a0 According to Ella, Berg got caught up in Post WWI “skyscraper fever”, and wanted to\u00a0 modernize the market square of Wroclaw with epic skyscrapers like the ones in New York.<\/p>\n Anyhow, it didn’t go over very well.\u00a0 He got one up, and I saw it, and it just didn’t work.\u00a0 The building itself was alright, but it just didn’t fit in with the surroundings.\u00a0 This is probably why the buildings around it have been constructed to fit into that ancient style – anything else just looks ridiculous.<\/p>\n Oh, and some irony – the address for that New York style skyscraper?\u00a0 #9\/11.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n Here’s a a link to an article about Max Berg, and his attempt at modernizing Wroclaw, if you’re interested.<\/a><\/p>\n [simage=267,288]<\/p>\n See this monument?\u00a0 I’ve been trying to find out more about it.\u00a0 According to what I heard from Ella (which was kind of garbled, since I was hanging out at the back of the group at this point), the monument marks a horrific event that happened sometime in the 17th Century.\u00a0 Apparently, an influential Italian priest told the residents of Wroclaw to put to the fire all of their earthly possessions.\u00a0 So, they built a big fire, and started tossing things in.\u00a0 And then things got out of control, and 41 Jews were apparently burned there as well.<\/em><\/p>\n You’d think I could find some information about this monument somewhere on the Web, but no luck so far.\u00a0 The closest I could get was St. John Capistrano<\/a>, who may have been the alleged priest – though Capistrano lived during the 1400s, which doesn’t fit in at all with the 17th Century time frame.\u00a0 Anyhow, if anyone has some information on this monument, I’d be glad to hear it.<\/p>\n Moving on, we started walking towards the Old Town Hall of Wroclaw.\u00a0 Nearby were some discolored stones on the road which marked a square:<\/p>\n [simage=268,288]<\/p>\n According to Ella, that square marked where the “mad house cage” was originally located.\u00a0 People who didn’t behave according to the social standards of the time (drunkards, trouble-makers during mass, women who wore trousers, etc) were put into that cage for the whole market square to see.\u00a0 Yeesh.<\/p>\n Then we walked into the Old Town Hall.\u00a0 It has been converted into a type of museum, with roped off areas, info placards, etc.\u00a0 According to my journal, the insides smelled “like a fishing tackle box”.\u00a0 Here are a few shots from the inside:<\/p>\n [simage=269,288] Yev remarked that this next room was creepy because this is where people were sentenced to be hanged:<\/p>\n [simage=273,288]<\/p>\n We walked back outside.<\/p>\n The Old Town Hall is more or less in the centre of the market square.\u00a0 Attached to it is a restaurant.\u00a0 According to Ella, this restaurant is currently the oldest restaurant in Europe!<\/em> Wow!\u00a0 And guess what – this was the restaurant we ate at while discussing CLEANSED the other night.\u00a0 And we had no idea that it was so ancient.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n [simage=274,288]<\/p>\n We also saw the “flogging pole” outside of the Old Town Hall.\u00a0 As you can guess, petty criminals used to be roped to this thing, and flogged for the public to see.<\/p>\n [simage=275,288]<\/p>\n After seeing this, we started to leave the market square.\u00a0 We stopped at a little booth and had some barbequed goat cheese (salty and smoky…not bad).\u00a0 We also saw another gnome – this one atop a giant finger:<\/p>\n [simage=276,288]<\/p>\n Ella led us towards a tram stop, where we were soon picked up.\u00a0 It was a really old looking tram – unpadded wooden seats, a wooden floor, and a guy who went up and down the aisles collecting our 3z tickets.<\/p>\n [simage=277,288]<\/p>\n I was lucky – landed one of the few seats!\u00a0 So did Tara, who sat next to me.\u00a0 Here she is, after telling me that the parents in front of us should be slaughtered for the haircuts they gave their children:<\/p>\n [simage=278,288]<\/p>\n So, riding the tram, we exited the downtown core of Wroclaw.<\/p>\n [simage=279,288]<\/p>\n I think I’ve remarked about this several times already (if not on this blog, then to others in person), but Poland is interesting because parts of it look like they’re centuries old;\u00a0 ancient, majestic architecture that just screams history.<\/p>\n And parts of Poland look just like Hamiltion:<\/p>\n [simage=280,288]<\/p>\n Our tram eventually led us to the Centenary Hall.<\/p>\n [simage=281,288]<\/p>\n Centenary Hall serves the same function as the Air Canada Center in Toronto – it hosts sporting events, talks (like from the Dalai Lama), or anything that involves large numbers of people.<\/p>\n Apparently, this building, also designed by Max Berg, got the same welcome that the new ROM got when it was completed in Toronto.\u00a0 The public absolutely hated it, calling it ugly.\u00a0 Despite that judgement, here’s a beautiful shot of the Centenary Hall:<\/p>\n [simage=625,288]<\/p>\n We couldn’t actually go inside the Hall, so the visit was really just an opportunity to see the grounds.\u00a0 Here are a few shots of what we saw:<\/p>\n [simage=282,288] From what I remember, these fountains were shooting up into the air in various patterns.<\/p>\n [simage=283,288]<\/p>\n As we left the grounds, I could hear Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries start to play in the distance.\u00a0 Perhaps we had just left before some kind of water show.\u00a0 We’d never know.<\/p>\n We boarded the tram again, and started heading back down town.<\/p>\n During the ride back, I talked to Linn about web development (she’s a fellow web architect<\/a>) and also established “Mike’s Nose-picking While Driving Law”, which states:<\/p>\n The likelihood of seeing a solo driver pick his or her nose while idling at an intersection increases with every second of observation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We also spotted a woman walking a galloping wiener dog, but I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to capture the moment.<\/p>\n Eventually, Ella led us back to the Wroclaw University that we had briefly visited a few days before<\/a>.\u00a0 A few of our group decided to take a break from the tour, but a couple of us decided to walk around the University to see the sights.<\/p>\n First of all, the University of Wroclaw sports some pretty impressive alumni:<\/p>\n [simage=287,288] Traveling upstairs required a ticket (I think they were only 6z though).\u00a0 The first thing we saw when we went up the stairs was the University of Wroclaw’s equivalent to UofT’s Convocation Hall.\u00a0 It was quite a bit smaller, but what it lacked in size, in more than made up for in ornate-ness:<\/p>\n [simage=294,288] According to Ella, this room was designed with a “counter-reformation” attitude in mind by some Jesuits.\u00a0 So, instead of being reserved, they went all out with gold and sculpture.\u00a0 Nice.<\/p>\n We continued up the stairs to see more exhibits:<\/p>\n [simage=298,288]<\/p>\n We saw the 17th Meridian, marked out along the floor as it passed through the University:<\/p>\n [simage=300,288]<\/p>\n We also saw this sign:<\/p>\n [simage=301,288]<\/p>\n According to Ella, the sign said that the University of Wroclaw houses an extensive set of climate data, going back about 300 years.\u00a0 If any Polish readers out there want to send me an actual translation, I’ll gladly post it. <\/span><\/p>\n (Updated:\u00a0 May 15th, 2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n Piotr Waszkielewicz from Wroc\u0142aw wrote in with the following translation:<\/p>\n \u201cAt this place Collected data makes Thanks Piotr!<\/p>\n Continuing up the stairs eventually led us onto the roof.\u00a0 Once again, a spectacular view from the rooftop of a tower in Wroclaw.\u00a0 This one had statues on each of its corners – with each one representing a particular discipline:<\/p>\n Law:<\/p>\n [simage=302,288]<\/p>\n Theology:<\/p>\n [simage=303,288]<\/p>\n Medicine:<\/p>\n [simage=304,288]<\/p>\n Mathematics:<\/p>\n [simage=305,288]<\/p>\n I could only take photos of their backs though, since they were facing outwards towards the city.<\/p>\n After breathing in the fresh air, we went back down and met up with the rest of our group.\u00a0 We finished the tour by going to a “milk bar”, which is basically a no-frills cafeteria that serves standard meat & potatoes meals.\u00a0 I instantly fell in love with it.\u00a0 I had a plate of pierogies, and some mineral water, and topped it off with some amazing Wroclaw ice cream.<\/p>\n Once we were done eating, Tamara told us that we were free to explore the city until the shows that night.\u00a0 We split up into several groups.\u00a0 I chose to travel with Sonia and Ryan.<\/p>\n We walked back through the market square, and paused to see a busker send some massive bubbles into the sky:<\/p>\n [simage=309,288] Eventually, the three of us wandered over to St. Elizabeth’s Church.\u00a0 A wedding was going on inside, and we didn’t want to intrude, but we did find an entrance way to get up to the top of the tower.<\/p>\n [simage=333,288]<\/p>\n A 5z ticket later, we started our climb.<\/p>\n And what a climb.\u00a0 Something like 300 steps in a dark, spiraling, claustrophobic space.\u00a0 It didn’t help that there were people coming down as we were going up.\u00a0 There was barely enough room for one person to go up, let alone two passing one another.<\/p>\n [simage=328,288]<\/p>\n With aching thighs, we managed to reach the top.\u00a0 And again, what a sight…here are some of the photos I took up there:<\/p>\n [simage=312,288] Remember those statues at the University?\u00a0 Here they are, seen from the church tower:<\/p>\n [simage=321,288] Here’s what it must look like during a fall from the church tower:<\/p>\n [simage=322,288]<\/p>\n And remember the Witches Bridge from this blog post<\/a>?\u00a0 Here it is from the outside:<\/p>\n [simage=323,288]<\/p>\n And to top it off, a few photos of me up there:<\/p>\n [simage=324,288] The walk down the steps was better on our legs, but they were still wobbly once we reached bottom.\u00a0 We stopped at a restaurant, got something to drink, and then headed back to the hostel.<\/p>\n We hung around the hostel for a bit.\u00a0 Ryan introduced me to a YouTube phenomenon called David’s Farm<\/a>. Basically, it’s this guy named David, who does some pretty crazy stuff up at his farm.<\/p>\n Crazy stuff like this:<\/p>\n
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\n[simage=271,288]<\/p>\n12:05PM<\/h2>\n
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\nbehind northern windows
\nof astronomical observatory
\nin February 1791
\nhas been started systematic
\nAIR TEMPERATURE MEASURMENT<\/p>\n
\none of the longest
\nclimatological series in Europe
\nand is a precious informacion source
\nfor climate change research<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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