So, where I left off, I had gone to Auschwitz. A very sobering experience, but that's all I will say in this entry because I want this to be positive! For due sadness, please see previous entry.
On the bus between the two sites at Auschwitz I happened to get talking with a girl there from New York, who came along with us (Me and the UK Army Girls) to our hostel where we found Liam. The three of us (Masha, Liam, and I) went and found us a milk bar to get the full Polish experience. A milk bar in short, is a cafeteria subsidized by the government, a sort of a holdover from Communist times, where you can get your fill of traditional Polish food for dirt cheap prices, as long as you can deal with people that only speak Polish, and some poor people asking if they can have your food (yes, this actually happened to us). The food was, as expected, mediocre, but it was so cheap and we left feeling satisfied, so we were not too worried about it. After that, we wandered around for a bit and stopped in for a drink at a cool little chill techno-bar thingy, but ultimately Liam and I ended up going home early, because Liam was getting sick and I was very tired from having gone out late then gotten up early to spend all day at Auschwitz. The next day, though, we all met up at Wawel Castle, a sort of quaint but ridiculously, eclectically styled castle. It's sort of a mishmash and very interesting for a morning. The best part, though, was a cave underneath the castle that opens up onto a ridiculously ugly dragon-insect statue-thing that is all sharp angles and has about 8 legs.
We wandered around Old Town for a bit after grabbing a bite to eat, until Masha went on her tour to the Krakow salt mines. By the time that came around, Liam was feeling like junk, so I tagged along with her, which I cannot say that I regretted at all. Not only were the salt mines interesting and a good way to spend an afternoon, but we also met some more people. I went out with Masha and three students studying in Sweden (but who were actually from North Carolina, Jamaica, and Australia) to supper at a quaint, cheap little place serving more traditional Polish food, at which I had more pierogies and shared some of Masha's smoked and deep fried camembert cheese with cranberry sauce. Now, that may sound odd, but it was actually delicious. Afterward, we went back and found Liam so that we could go for a drink, after which everyone headed back to their respective hostels, except for Masha and I, who were unwilling to call it a night. After a fair bit of wandering we managed to find a little house club tucked into a building south of Old Town, where we actually ran into a Kiwi fellow I met at our last hostel in Wroclaw. We all talked and had a few drinks and generally jovial good time until we were abruptly asked to leave at the stroke of 3AM.
The next day, Liam and I met Masha in the Old Town, which we hadn't actually given a proper go-round to. We went in the church there, whose name escapes me but which was beautifully gilded in a landslide of gold. We then met up with the group of girls from Sweden and explored the tower attached to the church... partially because Liam was convinced that there had to be a wizard at the top, or if not, that he should take up the post. We all got some good pictures up there. After that, we were all very tired, and made a half-baked effort to explore the city walls before the Sweden students had to go catch their flight. After that, the remaining three of us did manage to motivate ourselves to check out the Barbican, a fortification built to defend against assaults after the introduction of guns to the region. We were feeling very tired, though, and soon after split up along our merry ways, Liam and I to Warsaw, while Masha went to Berlin.
Unlike our last train ride, the way to Warsaw was very uneventful, but when we got there, we had quite a time finding the proper bus. We eventually figured out we were about 100m from the bus mall, where practically every bus in Warsaw goes, but I maintain that this was not well-signed at all. Somewhere in the 5 minutes it took to take the bus I managed to leave my coat on it. We then arrived at our hostel, which was OK but not the best, and we went to sleep slightly frustrated.
The next morning, we were of course perfectly content (because this is just the way you have to approach travelling I have discovered). Liam wanted to check out a vintage clothing shop, so we walked there, catching a few of the sights along the way, such as the Unknown Soldier monument. The vintage shop was super neat, and I actually got an old Puma shirt with stripes on it for pretty cheap. Not feeling very energetic, we got some supper from the grocery store, ate, and spent some time on the internet before going to bed.
The next day Liam was feeling quite sick. We had moved hostels though, because we didn't like the one we were in. We walked over to our new hostel, which was thankfully very close, and because we couldn't check in yet, we left our bags with them while Liam sat in the common room for the day and I went to check out Warsaw. I mosied down to the Old Town of Warsaw, which contains a mermaid statue way cooler then Copenhagen's, the Pope (John Paul II) on a large pole, and other small charming things. I also had the privilege to see many exhibits devoted to Poland's 20th anniversary of democracy (because this was that day) and an exhibit devoted to the idea of coexistence (among religions, races, etc). I then caught a few random buses and trams until I found my way to the Palace of Culture and Science, a huge building built by the communists that apparently matches some other ones in Russia. It towers over most of Warsaw and offers a great view of the whole city. After that, I went back to the hostel to find Liam, and we went out for some KFC. Upon our return, we convened in the common room with other travellers to have a few shots of vodka with raspberry syrup and strawberries dipped in white chocolate, and other things, all to celebrate the anniversary of democracy with the owners/operators of the hostel. After that, we all socialized for a while, until some travellers went to sleep and some went out. Liam went to bed, as he wasn't feeling 100%, and I went out with a gaggle of travellers from various places such as Spain, France, England, and Iran. As soon as we left the hostel, we were offered free drinks at a small bar nearby, so we did and found out it was another karaoke bar. We all gathered around one microphone and sang Yesterday by the Beatles then went on our merry way!
The next day, Liam was feeling even worse, so we tried to find him a Polish doctor. Our first try, the hostel receptionist phoned for us and asked ahead, confirming there was an English speaking doctor there. However, when we got there it seemed that the English doctor (and indeed, all the English speakers) were no where to be found. We went back and talked to the hostel receptionist again, who called another place who set us an appointment with an English doctor. Liam waited around for the appointment, which was right by the hostel, while I went and checked out the Warsaw Uprising museum. The Warsaw Uprising was the Polish resistance to the Nazi occupation during the Second World War. The museum had a lot of information, but I did not know a lot about the Warsaw Uprising, and I found the events laid out in the museum to be a bit confusing in chronology. That afternoon, it was a bit rainy, so I went back to the hostel to wait it out and hung out with other people who felt the same as I did. That night, I went out with another Canadian we had met, as well as an Englishman and two Aussie girls, just to a nearby pub to have a few drinks.
The next day, Liam and I were off to Bialystok! But that is another tale.
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