On Monday morning, we parted ways with our hosts to head on to the city of Wroclaw. It’s pronounced as Vrotswaf in Polish, which of course sounds crazy to us but the Polish l and w letters have different sounds. We had a conversation on Saturday night about the train system and airlines being nationalized and how the service was terrible on them because of it. We were asked to be patient with the train people because some of the old communistic systems didn’t go away so easily. The train system didn’t fail to disappoint.
Trying to figure out the train station in Warsaw is like trying to figure out a game of cricket, it just doesn’t make sense and yet everyone around you knows what the hell is going on. We tried to find a train that kind of matched ours in stops but couldn’t. We went to one ticket window, two ticket windows, and finally a third one before we found someone who could explain to us that the ticket we had didn't match up with any trains that existed. We were asked where we bought the tickets that they had sold to us as if to suggest they didn’t sell them to us. We finally got a girl who put us on a train to Wroclaw but appeared to be sucking on a lemon the entire time she helped us. She wasn't the friendliest person we had met but a free upgrade and a heated train when its twenty degrees outside, we didn’t complain.
The ride was long and full of interesting characters that sat in our cabin for a short ride and then got off. We finally arrived around five thirty in the afternoon. We had found a local Polish girl to stay with that lived near the train station. We chose her due to her proximity to the station and the likelihood of an early departure to Krakow. She was a little younger than us and had a job at the local HP branch in Wroclaw. She took us to her house, where we hiked up six stories of stairs to her apartment on the top floor. After we settled a bit, she took us up to the roof of her building to show us a really nice view of the city. Unfortunately, it was covered in snow and quite foggy but what we could see promised to be nice. We spent the evening at home, cooked some dinner, and chatted for a while.
On Tuesday morning, we slept in a bit. I was feeling like my body was trying to get sick so some extra rest seemed to be in order. We left around eleven with our host’s roommate, Kamila. She was also a bit younger but worked at a local hostel and as an English teacher in her free time. She took us to her hostel to get some maps and use the internet before we set out to see the city. We wound our way past theaters and other important buildings to the town square. The town square was established as such after the Germans took over the town after the Mongol invasion destroyed it in 13th century. Our friends in Warsaw told us that the city had a more Germanic feel to it and its true. There was a feel as if we’d stepped out of Poland and into Germany. Lining the areas around the square are tons of Christmas market. They were all covered snow and provided a small bit of respite for the people working them. We even saw one food stand with a girl behind the counter in short sleeves. In a quite intelligent move, they had covered the whole front open area with a plastic that had one small opening to exchange food and money.
The central building of this square is of course the City Hall. It was built in the 14th century in a style called brick gothic, which is directly from the German influence. Kamila told us that they had contracted someone to paint the building but after he had painted a quarter of it and taken away the rustic look, the people started complaining and called for the renovation to stop. She assured us that the job reeked of government corruption and has kind of ruined the landmark. We wandered around the square a bit, looking at the different shops set up with Christmas stuff and all of the gnome statues, something popular here. We walked into St. Elizabeth’s Church at the edge of the square. It was refreshing to see a different style of church building than the gothic look of everything in Spain and France.
We decided to bear the cold a little longer and walked around towards the islands area of the city. There are several islands in the northern part of the city and are popular hang out and drinking spots. They also have concerts on them in the summer months. We were told that it never fails that some idiot gets drunk and falls into the river during concerts. We walked through the university area to have a cheap lunch. We passed this statue of a naked man holding a sword. We were told that the story goes that he is naked and dead but will come back to life when a virgin woman graduates from the school. Since he’s still a statue, it obviously has not come to pass. Our lunch was at a popular local spot for cheap food. A relic of the old communist ways of overly subsidizing, the food was good and cost us around $3. We tried some pierogis and cabbage stuffed with meat.
After lunch, we headed for the church island. It's called Ostrów Tumski and has the cathedral of Wroclaw. It's the oldest part of the city, dating back to the 9th century. In 1315, it was sold to the clergy. They proceeded to set up lots of churches and seminaries. To this day, no one not part of the church lives on the island. The bridge to the island is aptly named Tumski Bridge. It has an interesting collection of locks marked with the names of couples and the date of their marriage. The placing of a lock on the bridge is a symbol of their love and supposed to bring good luck to their relationship. So what happens when they run out of space and have to take some off?
We then went to visit the Panorama Raclawicka. The park outside of it was covered in snow. We took some pictures with the snowmen that someone had built and the dark angel statue. Since Kamila didn’t have a lot of time to visit the Panorama, we decided to walk back to a brewery called Spiz on the local square to try some of the local beer and warm up. The beer had some honey and ginger spices added to it and was served with some dark bread and a type of animal fat spread on top. We didn’t eat too much because we were still full from lunch but drank up the beer. It wasn't exactly a favorite of mine but it was tasty. We passed the rest of the evening wandering around the city, in and out of warm shops to thaw a bit. The only thing of real interest we saw was the bridge dedicated to Pope John Paul II, one of the many landmarks dedicated to Poland’s famous pope. We spent the evening in, had some dinner, and prepared to head on to Krakow.
No comments:
Post a Comment