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| Classic Warsaw: both old/rebuilt and modern with some Stalinism in there |
I should have written this post earlier, before the memories get weaker, but this week was surprisingly busy, including having school today (a Saturday) to make up for a Monday holiday that I wasn't even in town for. Registering the 2 students to participate in the US speech & debate tournament was also a time-killer.
But this trip was certainly one for the memory books. My mom has always wanted to visit Poland, and I'm sure she would've spent a month there going to different towns and historical sites. With that said, she did a lot of planning and we were never at a loss for things to do.
Warsaw
Our trip started with 3 days in Warsaw. Per usual, my mom elected to stay in an airbnb instead of a hotel, which allowed us to be far closer to the city center and have more amenities than a regular hotel. Unfortunately, what is advertised online isn't always true in real life. Example one: a sofa bed that doesn't actually turn into a bed. Just a sofa, and a small one at that. My mom was kind enough to let me sleep in the "real bed" downstairs. I promise it wasn't my choice!
Warsaw was...a lot of museums. Our first full day there, we hit up more museums than I can even remember. We first stumbled into the Katyn memorial inside of a chapel. It commemorates the killing of several thousand Poles by the Soviets in 1939 (when they also invaded Poland). The Soviets denied it, blaming the Nazis, but later on admitted fault for the killings. It was a tiny little museum tucked underneath a church. As my mom and I later came to learn, small museums are often better because...crowds.
After going to a small Jewish museum, we went to THE Jewish Museum (officially Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews), but it covered the entire history of the Jewish people. And it was busy. It was not easy to find your way around the crowds, but my mom and I developed a system of sighting one another and catching up every few minutes. I think my height helped that. The space given to the Holocaust was surprisingly small, given the impact of World War 2 on Warsaw, but I suspect the museum wanted to highlight that the Holocaust is only one part of Jewish history.
Finally, we went to the Museum of the Pawiak Prison, a former Soviet prison which became a Gestapo prison upon the Nazi invasion. It later became a stopover point in the "Final Solution", i.e. a place to store people before deciding where to send them. We ended the day with a nice meal and by watching The Pianist which covers Warsaw during the war and the uprising(s). I love watching movies when they are extra relevant.
The second day involved a bit fewer museums and more walking to different sights.
The exception to that was our first stop, the Warsaw Uprising Museum. In reality, this was more of a museum dedicated to Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. Like the Jewish museum, it was packed and complex. We came during a national holiday, so it seemed like everyone and their brother was there. In a TSA-esque line to watch a 3D movie of the destruction of Warsaw, I swear I almost got into a fight with a group of ladies who broke into the line ahead of me. But all in all, it was an interesting museum with an almost overwhelming amount of information.
After that, we walked around and found a part of the actual wall cordoning off the Warsaw Ghetto. That's the kind of thing we both like to see: history that still stands there. Much of Warsaw (as in about 85%) was leveled during the end of the Nazi occupation, so it was nice to find a part of the old Warsaw still standing.
We'd read that there were great views of the city from the top of the Hilton Hotel, so we tried to get to the top of it. Perhaps the person who wrote that was staying at the Hilton, because we quickly found out a card was required to use the elevator. We managed to get up to floor 33 out of 40 (thanks, random guy) and climbed to the top...only to reach a locked door. And a ladder. But there was a security camera, so we said no thanks and headed back down (which did not require a card).
I love my aerial views of cities, so instead of the Hilton we walked across the street to the Palace of Culture and Science. If you couldn't tell from the name alone, this was one of Stalin's creations. Upon entering the elevator area, my mom was happy to learn that the elevators have since been modernized (she doesn't like heights). The view from the top was incredible, only made better by a rainbow that formed before we headed down.
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| Rainbow = rain, which we should've known... |
We tried in vain to stay dry but realized we were already soaking. And once you're wet, you're not gonna get more wet. So we took off running down the middle of the pedestrian street. Now picture this: a completely deserted pedestrian street. People waiting under arches and inside restaurants and along the side of the road to stay dry. But then here come running Susan and Alex, soaked and splashing up water all around them. I think there may have been some shrieking involved on my part. But we made it back alive. And really, really wet. There was no dryer in the apartment, so we strategically hung our clothes around the radiator because we had to pack for the next day's train to Krakow.
Krakow
We took the super-fast, non-stop train to Krakow from Warsaw. I was blown away. If you've ridden trains in Bulgaria, you know why I was shocked. This was one of those super-modern trains where you can barely hear a sound as you watch the landscape fly past in a blur. So it was an easy trip, to say the least.
Krakow is much smaller than Warsaw and, like Prague, was largely spared from any bombing during the war, so it felt a bit more authentic than the modern Warsaw. To get to our airbnb (again located in the city center), we walked straight through the hectic Old Market, essentially the hub of the city. That was fun, walking along cobblestone streets with rolling bags and barely any space to breathe. But Krakow was beautiful. We didn't get to spend enough time in Krakow itself because our main goal was to get to Auschwitz, which given the number of "Auschwitz-Birkenau" tour kiosks, we were not alone in that goal.
The first night we did walk up to the Wawel Royal Castle which was closed but the grounds were still open. That meant fewer people (thank God!). We walked around, took silly pictures, and enjoyed an incredible sunset.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
This, to me, was the highlight of the trip. There was some initial panic, as we realized we were there the day before the March of the Living, when young Jewish people from all over the world come to Auschwitz to commemorate the Holocaust. It was also a Polish holiday. So tickets were incredibly hard to find. Luckily, thanks to some suggestions from our Airbnb host and some intense Googling, we found a tour guide. Auschwitz largely requires tour guides (Birkenau excluded - explained below). My mom probably ended up paying more than either of us wanted for a private tour, including door to door service, but we'd come this far.
Our tour guide spoke great English (emphasis on spoke - she spoke a lot). Auschwitz is actually broken down into 2 main parts: Auschwitz I, which is much smaller and contains the actual museum, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, which is the huge death camp that you see in all the pictures titled "Auschwitz."
We started by going to Birkenau because our tour at Auschwitz I didn't start until 11:30. As it turned out, this was the best part of the day because we had it largely to ourselves. It was misty/rainy and a bit chilly. As I told my mom, it wouldn't feel right to be here if it were warm and sunny. We walked around the barracks, the railway into camp, and the unloading dock where the victims were selected to go left or right. It was quiet, eerie, and painful to see.
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| Entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau |
The museum itself was also painful. A lot of money has gone into preserving Auschwitz and the museum, most of it coming from Poland and Germany. The result of such preservation includes rooms full of human hair, piles of childrens' shoes and toys that they brought (thinking they would be allowed to keep them), and a walk through the gas chamber and crematorium. The hardest thing for me to see all day were the scratches along the walls of the gas chambers. It felt like such a short walk. You entered into the unclothing area and immediately into the gas chamber, where you could look up and see the hatches through which the Zyklon-B was released. You then turned left and were at the crematorium. The crematoria at Birkenau were larger because that's where most of the killing happened, but it was still not easy to stomach.
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| Entrance to Auschwitz I |
After Auschwitz I, we went back to Birkenau to walk around the entire thing. It was much busier this time, so we were glad we spent some time there earlier in the day. This time we walked back to the remains of the crematoria. The Nazis destroyed most of the camp when they fled the Soviets, so everything was mostly in ruins. But that didn't keep it from being just as powerful as the preserved Auschwitz I.
One thing my mom and I both remarked on was how peaceful Birkenau seemed. The trees surrounding the camp were huge and peaceful. The weather was (at this point) nice, although the rain was always on the horizon. My mom and I walked down a beautiful and green path that could have been in Overton Park or Shelby Farms. Except when you looked left and saw the barbed wire. And then noticed a pond that was used to dump human ashes.
The last thing we saw before heading out was a bit more uplifting (as uplifting as Auschwitz can be). It was the site of the Sonderkommando uprising. The Sonderkommando were Jews who were forced to do the dirty work in the gas chambers and crematoria. After a few months, they were killed and replaced with a new team. The 12th Sonderkommando planned and fought back against the Nazis. Not surprisingly, they lost but they did destroy I believe 2 crematoriums and certainly didn't go down without a fight.
On the drive back, the tour guide talked...a lot. I was too exhausted to keep up. My mom valiantly held up the conversation. I just wanted silence. She did go out of her way to drive us to the Jewish Quarter and to see Oskar Schindler's factory.
Krakow -> Warsaw -> Sofia -> Blagoevgrad
For our final day in Krakow, we had a bit of time between having to leave our apartment and catching our train. My mom wanted to walk back through the Jewish Quarter, and I wanted to stay nearer the Old Town, so we split up for a while.
When we reunited, we got tickets to climb the St. Mary's Basilica which offered an incredible view over Krakow. And lucky us, it was pouring rain while we were in the tower but stopped when we left. It was like Krakow was saying sorry on Warsaw's behalf.
We then meandered our way back to the train station, got back on the fast train, and made it to Warsaw by sunset. We stayed at an airport hotel where I got approximately 4 hours of sleep because we had to take the 4am shuttle to the airport. Due to flight changes, my mom and I were on different flights to Sofia (she went through Berlin; I went through Munich). So we parted ways and met back up in Sofia.
We had a ton of luggage, so taking the Metro to the bus station wasn't an option. We walked outside the airport, looking for an OK Taxi. There weren't many around. One man approached us, and I asked him how much it would cost to get to the central bus station. 50 euros was his response. Keep in mind I have taken this taxi ride before and it cost me the equivalent of 4-5 euro. So I was not impressed and let him know that (in Bulgarian!) while walking away. He chased us down and dramatically lowered the price (15 leva or about 7 euro). I wasn't thrilled, but we took the cab anyway. And we did not tip, thank you very much.
Now the fun part...the bus ride to Blagoevgrad. It is really hit or miss. I've been on nice buses with free Wifi and I've been on buses straight out of 1950. This bus was out of 1950. Actually, calling it a bus is an insult to buses. It was a minibus, at best. We had to sit with our luggage in our laps (there was no compartment or trunk). The driver blasted the heat like it was 0 degrees outside (it was about 70). And of course the road out of Sofia is as bumpy as a somewhat major earthquake. Damn cobblestones. But we made it.
Blagoevgrad
My mom did not have much time in Blagoevgrad, so we didn't get to do very much. But that's one of the things I love about traveling with my mom: we don't have to be going full-speed ahead the entire time.
We spent time playing with Smokey, who of course acted like he didn't remember my mom, even though she was there the night we got him inside (and she was the first lap he sat in). But when I'm home this summer, I'm sure he'll realize that she's lap-worthy. Once she feeds him at least. The first night, we did dinner alone and then watched "The Grey Zone" which is about the Sonderkommando uprising at Auschwitz that I mentioned above. Interestingly, a lot of the movie was actually filmed in Bulgaria!
We also got to see a lot of students at a few different meals. My mom met many of them back when she visited in October, so it was good for them to reunite. She's been following their speech & debate journeys along with me.
I did take my mom to my favorite little hiking spot overlooking Blagoevgrad. It's more like a "walk through the winding streets until you get to the top" kind of hike. Once you get to the top, it's a short walk around some chicken fence to a spot where you have a beautiful view of Blagoevgrad on one side and towards Bachinovo and the Rila mountains on the other side.
Saying goodbye wasn't easy; it never is. But my time in Bulgaria is quickly drawing to a close. I've started looking at flights back home, which is unreal because in a way it feels like I just got here. But that's a post for another day.
All in all, this was one of the most memorable trips I've had here. Thank you, mom!
