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And the last couple of days in Poland: Warsaw, Poznań
Irene's family were nice enough after our trip together to drop us off in Lublin, where we took the bus (thanks to a strong suggestion from a friendly Polish lady we didn't take the train) to Warsaw.
The journey took another 3 1/2 hours out of my life, and the nois of the airco, set for arctic, was only surpassed by the radio which spewed out an endless potpourri of shitty songs by Dion, Streisand and Spears.
Upon arrival, and because we were there for just a day, we decided to treat ourselves to an apartment right in the old centre's heart with Old Town Apartments, a small company we never heard of, but which turns out to rent out a number of this kind of apartments on ideal spots in a number of old cities.
After a short walk through the old city centre we visited the torture museum (or: a lazy Polak had a bunch of copies of old plaques, texts and replica's of torture instruments on display in a shade basement) we went for dinner in one the best (though very affordable) restaurants in Warsaw, Dom Restauracyjny Gessler.
The ambiance literally feels medieval and royal when you walk past the heavy oak tables and sit down in a century-old chair. One waiter makes sure no empty glasses and plates remain on the table for to long and always keeps the glasses of water filled. The second was in charge of drinks, and then there was the main waiter who took our orders, came to apologize when you ordered something which of course wasn't available or because the credit card terminal broke down (he was pretty ashamed of that one, and very glad we could take it to a cash machine and handle things that way).
All of this with a beautiful view from the first floor of the old central square.
When the food arrived our mouthes dropped open: The entire kitchen staff (or it seemed like it at least) came to us! We got empty plates, after that two carts were pulled up and right in front of us our plates were filled and beautified, and 30 seconds of hard labour later we suddenly had 2 wonderful smelling and looking plates of food in front of us! Really cuhl.
The menu warns explicitly that they don't sell alcohol, but instead all alcohol is "an integrated part of the menu"
Consequently, the menu looks like this:
1. Roasted duck with fried apples in blueberry sauce
2. Roasted duck with fried apples in blueberry sauce with wine
3. Roasted duck with fried apples in blueberry sauce with whiskey
4. Roasted duck with fried apples in blueberry sauce with vódka
5. Backed goose ...
6. Backed goose ... with wine
Etcera :-D
The next day we went to the Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego (museum of the Warsaw Rising of 1944). The Warsaw Rising is one the saddest pages in Polish history, and one the most tragic episodes of WWII.
Early summer 1994 saw the Red Army just a few kilometers away from Warsaw and the Nazis on the run. The Nazis had decided, withouth the Poles knowing, to defend Warsaw to the last man, so troop numbers and armaments were quickly on the rise as the Nazis dug in and fortified.
The Polish government in exile in the meantime was promised Allied aid in a nationwide revolt, which would be supported by the Red Army's near liberation of Poland. Warsaw was included in the plans and the citizens were asked to rise up to the Nazi invaders.
Many thousands joined the uprising, and for more than 90 days the city was armageddon. The rebels were short on everything and badly outnumbered but they held their ground valiantly.
However, the Red Army didn't lift a finger during those three months. Stalin had decided this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of any rebellious elements that might disrupt the communist revolution in Poland, and the Nazis were doing it for him.
The Allies never got access to the Sovjet airfields, making the promised air droppings a very difficult and dangerous operation, although a number were carried out. Eventually even the Sovjets performed droppings, but they did so without parachutes, leaving most of the dropped materials, supplies and weapons unusable.
After three long months the last resistance was crushed by the Nazi's. Hitler was furious when he heard about the rising, and ordered the city and everything and everybody in it, down to the last building and child, wiped off the face of the earth. During the remaining couple of months the Nazis held on to Warsaw this is exactly what they did, and as always, they were thorough in it. The city was burnt down and blown up systematically and every citizen was killed on sight. They succeeded pretty much, leaving more than 85% of the city destroyed.
Although the Polaks worked very hard to rebuild their city and even did so good a job of the old centre that it was included on the Unesco World Heritage List this sad fact of history is visible throughout the entire city, which feels rather soulless and which is working on a number of hypermodern office towers around the 7th Stalin pie, a "present" from the communists.
Due to the fact we had only one night in Warsaw we saw little else than the city centre an the museum, for the next day it was time to journey onwards to Poznań.
Poznań is the residence of Irena and Jasz. They are old familyfriends of Irene's parents and take a wild guess who she's named after. We arrived late in the evening, only be highly disappointed by a closed door and an empty house. We looked around for a bit and decided to wait for the duration of a few card games which turned out to be a great idea. We weren't even done with the first hand when their car pulled up the streets.
Again the generous Polish hospitability we had so much enjoyed earlier on befell us. We were barely inside when the table (and hence we too) was stuffed with all kinds of sausages, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh bread, cheese, ham and so much more (and don't even dare not to eat!).
We had a good time, and Irena and Irene talked for hours about everything there is to talk about. After that we were assigned our own bedroom ànd bathroom! The house they're living in has grown over the years to a huge villa, with 4 bathrooms, 3 kitchens, 5 living rooms and a bunch of sleeping rooms and miscellaneous rooms.
The next day we were picked up by Jasz's secretary, who drove us to his office. This legal counselors' office was right near the old center. One of "his" lawyers was assigned to us to give us a city tour. Piotr was a young bloke, fresh from college and very nervous about his assignment of being a city guide to the house friends of his boss, partly because it turned out he didn't know much about the history of the city himself.
Poznań was the first capital of the then very mighty Kingdom of Poland, and it remains by far the most important city in the Wielkopolska region, or "small Poland". Poland's borders have been all over the European map throughout history and it has even completely disappeared for almost 3 centuries, during which time the city was known as Posen. However, Wielkopolska is the only region which has always been inside those borders, and will always be the birthplace and the core of the nation, a fact the citizens are very proud of.
Again a beautiful old city centre, this time obviously even older and less (or perhaps more) planned. The main attraction of the city is without a doubt the two goats who reside in the bell tower, and who come out everyday at noon to bonk their heads together 12 times. The story goes that during the opening ceremony for the bell tower two real goats got lost up there in a fight, and this was so funny they decided to let the joke endure in this mechanism.
My big question is: Why on earth does the city hall feature the heads of people of the likes of Crassus, Brutus, Vergilius, Tyrannus and a couple more!?
I dunno. In the city hall's museum they claim there is a Polish workshop in the region which was the first in Europe to be able to recreate true china, and that they were so good at it that its craftmanship and artistry has never been surpassed or even equalled by everybody's copies. Their collection was rather limited, thus not very convincing though, and neither was the English on the signs. The 15th-century depictions of all kinds of wild animals in the ceiling however, were hilarious.
After a short visit to a pipe organ concert (which was pretty lame, aside from an interpretation of Ennio Moricone's "Once Upon A Time In The West", the baroque church however is a really unique gem for Poland) we thought it was time to let poor Piotr calm down a bit. After he kindly directed us to some leaflets and maps we went out on our own city tour to the many monumental buildings, amongst them the beautiful 18th century university and the monument to the 1956 strike.
We ended up in a cozy little steam train ("the oldest in Europe") which drove around the nearby artificial lake. After that we were picked up by Irena and Jasz to have dinner (and vódka) with their friends. The next day we went for a quick visit of a small castle not far outside Poznań, where some rich guy had a large collection of just about everything. There even was some old Dutch and Flemish woodcutting to admire, and an almost intact Hussar armor.
And then... That evening it was time to return home... <snif><snif>... And Irene was forced to stay <snif><snif>
