A few days in Poland

In early September I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Poland (Warsaw and Krakow) and I had a really great time there. As someone that every time he's preparing a new trip devours astonishing amounts of information about the place, I feel compelled to put my 2 cents in and share my impressions here.

Krakow was probably the most clear miss in my list of "fairy tale Central European cities", and same for Warsaw with regards to my list of "European metropolis", so, an obvious question is, why did it take me so long to set foot there (and more when I've already been several times in places like Vienna, Prague, Bratislava...)?

Well, I had certain reservations with regards to Poland since many years ago. I had heard and read quite awful things about how ultra conservative the country was, about the mass spread of far right scum (though common to most of Central-Eastern Europe, the Polish case seemed to be worse), crazy ultra-violent football hooligans, and a general "unkindness" towards foreigners (at least if they are not pale blonde well dressed people). All this had made me discard Poland as a target in many occasions, but in the last times I'd read quite different things that seemed to indicate that the whole country was moving in a new direction (church losing influence among younger generations, new punk bands, Blu murals in several cities) so it was about time to see for myself (even when documentaries like this by Ross Kemp and Stadiums of Hate made me doubt again).

As usual, don't expect a travel guide here, you have wikitravel and thousands of other resources for that (by the way, geolover is an excellent one I've come across recently), I'll write here about things that somehow I found interesting, but for many other human beings they'll probably be meaningless.

Warsaw

On the one hand this is a modern metropolis. You find large, wide avenues like Jerozolimski and Marzalkowska flanked by average buildings mainly from the second half of the last century (a few buildings seemed like a more modest version of the Socialist Realism masterpieces in Berlin's Karl Marx Allee). There's a good bunch of sky scrappers, some of them really nice (like ) and above all you have the omnipresent Palace of Culture of Science. Sure Stalin was a mother fucker, but it's undeniable that he had a taste for architecture (or convincing posters). The building is even more stunning than I expected and the views from the 30th floor are more than worth the price (around 5 EUR I think to remember). The high speed elevator that takes you up there also adds to the experience (it takes just seconds to lift you there). It seems like the population has managed to reconcile herself with this present from the man responsible for the murder of millions of Polish people, and now the building is nicely lighted in a beautiful blue light at night. Another remarkable feature of this sky scrapper is that the tower that crowns it somehow reminds me of the baroque church towers all-pervasive to Central and Eastern Europe

On the other hand, Warsaw boasts a cozy, delightful old town (completely destroyed during the WWII it was wisely rebuilt in the fifties, which is quite amazing if you compare it to Berlín, where only selected buildings were restored along with the later rebuilding of the tiny (but cute) Nikolaiviertel). I got to the Old town proper after a pleasant walk along Nowy Swiat. This street reminds me a lot of the so nice Gediminas Avenue in Vilnius (indeed, many things on this trip brought to my mind memories of last year's trip to Latvia and Lithuania). An interesting feeling while being around this area was that it didn't seem like being in the Old Town of a big European capital, it was more like being in the Old Town of a middle size city (I wouldn't know to explain the reason, it's just how I perceived it, I guess the fact of not having too many tourists around played its part). Warsaw's old town does not have any element that particularly stands out and is not too impressive if compared to other European jewels, but it's charming and harmonious and well worth your visit.

As the urban explorer that I am I didn't want to miss the chance to cross the Vistula to the Praga neighbourhood (and that way enjoy the views of this wide river). Unfortunately this is one of those cities with its back turned to the river, or at least not leveraging it too much. Same as with Vienna or Zagreb, the main part of the city developed on one side, so even when now it expands almost equally on both sides, you don't have its banks lined with historic buildings reflecting on it. To the point, Praga is well worth a couple of hours that most tourists tend to deny it. Old pre-war buildings with their facades entirely flaking expose its orange bricks. Many small businesses give it character and helps you get a grasp of the normal city. By the way, little after you cross the bridge you run into a nice Orthodox Church.

I should also mention that entering the West bank when coming by bus from Modlin Airport was rather pleasant, as first you get a fast glimpse of the old town right before entering the tunnel that crosses under it. Then, once in Aleja Jana Paula II you'll see to your left an impressive mural by Blu

Krakow

This cute city really lived up to my huge expectations. I got to Krakow by train from Warsaw in one of those hyper-hot central European summer days. Unfortunately it seems like I've got a tendency to bring along with me heat waves to this part of the world (I've been above 30 degrees in Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Zagreb...). So when I stepped out of the train I guess we were verging 30 degrees, and the sun really burned. Anyway, the beautiful classic covered corridor painted in green that leads to the outside of the station was more than enough to predict a more than interesting stay there. I had my hostel in Kazimierz, the old Jewish neighborhood, that is currently the bohemian heart of the city. This means I started my exploration in a really nice, lively and authentic zone, but please, don't be fooled by some guides comparing it to Kreuzberg or Montmartre... that's senseless. After getting a fast grasp of the area I headed off to the city centre.

I firstly explored Wawle Hill, wow, it's stunning, a really gorgeous architectonic mix, with beautiful views of the Vistula (though the river does not go through the city centre properly, Krakow seems to leverage this water flow quite better than Warsaw). From there I continued my walk to downtown along Grodzka. There I came across the beautiful St. Andrew church with imposing sculptures of the apostles lined next to it. Go on and you reach the gorgeous Main Square. Based on my previous readings I could imagine how beautiful this square was, but what amazed me the most is how much it reminds me of Prague's central square.

The following days I took care of checking out all the other essential tourist spots, and of all that I want to highlight the Museum in Schlinder's Factory. First, it's a pretty new one, so if you've not read pretty up to date information, you could miss it. Second, the Museum of Wartime Krakow hosted there is probably the best WWII related museum I've been to (and I've been to some pretty good ones like: the information center of the Holocaust Memorial, the Topography of Terror or the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. I think I spent more than 2 hours there, and I could have stayed event longer if I hadn't been that hungry. There are tons of information about those 5 so hard years for Krakow and Poland in general, and everything seems to have been laid out with great precision and detail. Well, in fact, there are a couple of rooms there that I would say are too realistic, one room with huge nazi flags and another one with its floor tiles with swastikas motifs, to my taste it's like a bit revolting.

I always like to take a glimpse out of the tourist areas, and bearing in mind my interest for Socialist Realism, the Nowa Huta district seemed like the obvious bet. I took tram 22 out of Jozefa Dietta and alighted at the Central Square of Nowa Huta. Well, the place is less interesting than I expected, thought it's astonishing to think that these new and beautiful buildings were built for the proletariat masses working in the gigantic steel works, they are not that impressive as the similar buildings in Berlin's Karl Marx Allee (nevertheless, it's important to realize that these Berlin buildings were intended for the party elites, not for ordinary workers). It's a bit depressive to see how the old communist street names and monuments have been taken over by the pope or Ronal Reagan. Sure the pseudo-communist experiment in Eastern Europe did not work well and population there prefers to forget it, but that should not mean throwing yourself into the arms of alternative opresors

General Notes.

Most likely is that when one thinks about Vegetarian food Poland would not be the first place to come to mind, but indeed it's been one of the places where I've enjoyed the most with food in all my trips. Green Way is a restaurant chain with units in most Polish cities. I kept visiting the one in Krakow (2 minutes away from the Main Square) daily, to be delighted by enormous, delicious ultra cheap dishes. The soups/creams are excellent, same as the soja and tomato beans stew or the Mexican Stew. In Warsaw, I regularly headed to Green. Outstanding place, again with tasty, healthy, enormous, hyper-cheap portions. One day I got a soup of the day that seemed to contain as many mushrooms as I usually have in 6 months :-)

Something that rather caught my eye, particularly in Warsaw, were the enormous fabric advertisements covering almost whole facades of many buildings in the main streets. Wherever you looked there seemed to be one of those signs inciting you to pursue happiness through consumerism. One guy explains it neatly in this interesting essay

Advertisers in Poland seem to be addicted to ‘building wraps’, i.e. mammoth fabric advertisements covering entire buildings. Entire façades of hotels, high-rise blocks and even historic buildings are cloaked in massive fabric screens promoting Coca-cola or ice cream. Behind these temporary and changing surfaces, many of the communist-era structures continue, of course, to yield slowly to the processes of time.

It was also interesting to see how (at least at a street level) the Polish economy seems to have kept more independence than the economy of other ex-Soviet Block countries. I mean, in the Baltic countries, Swedish banks, Coffee chains and supermarkets seem to be everywhere. In Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia... I noticed a huge presence of Austrian and German banks and supermarkets. These countries have been drawn into the sphere of influence of their Western neighbours (in fact, creating back these old spheres of influence was one of the hidden motivations for Western Europe to push the collapse of the Soviet block and the bloody break up of Yugoslavia).
So far, most banks and supermarkets in Poland seem to be local brands, so it appears as if a big piece of the cake were still there to be taken over...

I shouln't conclude this write up without saying that hopefully my prospect was correct, and Poland seems to have walked a long path these last years towards a much more open, modern and tolerant society. I hardly saw any neonazi shithead, and I could see black people on the streets, left wing slogans on some walls and even a gay pub, and in general I felt a good attitude towards foreigners (at least for tourists).

You can also check this and this galleries that I've uploaded into Picasa