Adam and I just returned from an amazing week in Poland. With such a rich and sad history, it was interesting to see how surprisingly "normal" the country looks. For instance, after Warsaw was virtually leveled during World War II, and then was a center for communism, and then finally gained its independence about twenty years ago, and yet it looks rather like many older cities. Additionally, we were impressed at what a good value everything was. Often we would eat
an excellent and extensive dinner including drinks, soup, main courses, and desserts and paid what we would pay for just entrees at the equivalent of the Danish Applebee's in Copenhagen. This made for quite a luxurious vacation, with lots of great food and a good balance between relaxing and sightseeing.
We started our time in Gdansk, a beach town in the north where solidarity against the Communist party was born. We had wondered if traveling in the wintertime would be a bad idea, but we loved having the city virtually to
ourselves. We had lots of time to stroll around the pedestrian streets at night when they were nearly empty and to wander aimlessly into shops and restaurants and never have to wait for service. We also took a day trip to Malbork, the largest brick castle in the world, built as the headquarters of the Teutonic knights for centuries. Normally Adam isn't especially interested in castles, but the amazing history of this one, including secret passageways and excavated bones in the ground were appealing to us both. After two days in the north, we took a Valentine's day train down to Krakow, in the far south of Poland.
Krakow is a beautiful medieval city. We got a great off-season price for a hotel just off the main square. We spent our days wandering around the old town and castle, visiting old Jewish
cemeteries and synagogues, and partaking in the coffee shop culture that doesn't really prevail in Copenhagen. The cemetery had an sobering history, having been ransacked by Nazis during WWII and the grave stones being stolen to pave the ground at Auschwitz close by. After the war, the grave stones still in
tact were returned to their rightful place and the ones that were broken up were used to build a wall around the cemetery. We enjoyed talking with local Poles who were very friendly and eager to suggest their favorite vodkas and sites in the city. We learned that we came at a perfect time, as we got clear skies and a romantic snowfall while the weeks previously had been cold and rainy. We also took a day trip out to Zakopane, a nearby ski town, to see the mountains we had been missing. We took a tram up to the top of a mountain and could see the Tatras mountains in Slovakia across the valley.
Our last day was spent in Warsaw, the capital city. It is quite urban but also has an interesting
old town and the rather dominating Palace of Culture and Science, built by Stalin as a way to combine communist efficiency with Polish architecture and culture. We flew back to Denmark in the midst of a heavy snow to moderate temperatures and our Danish lives waiting for us.
