John (Poland) An Odd Season Between Winter and Summer (And Other Observations)

Well, when I last left you all I believe I was in Warsawa and not having the greatest of times. I'm happy to say that things did get better, I did enjoy touring the Royal Castle and Old Town, which were destroyed brick by brick by the Nazis in retaliation for the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Which brings me to my favorite part of the trip - The Museum of the Warsaw Uprising. It was a very new and innovative museum that chronicled the Polish Home Army's failed attempt to retake the city in late summer of 1944. The Soviets had told the Poles to rise up, then stopped on the banks of the Vistula and allowed the Germans to destroy the city as well as an Democratic opposition the Soviets might had faced. Over 200,000 people, mostly civilians died. After the Nazis finally left, the USSR didn't fail to try and execute the leaders of the uprising, including concentration camp survivors. The museum was set in a big warehouse-like structure and gave you the feeling of being in the center of a destroyed city, having to peer through broken windows or crawl through claustrophobic pitch black sewers to get see exhibits. It was very moving and my only complaint is the scarce coverage of the Ghetto uprising in 1943 (at least in the part of the museum I saw). But other than those major sites, Warsaw was far less cool that Cracow.

Speaking of Cracow, the city is really starting to come alive with spring! I'm enjoying actual warm weather in March and so are Cracovians. Currently they've brought out the tables for cafes in the Main Square and are opening decorative booths in preparation for Easter festivities, which are huge here. My classes have been (in general) equally inspiring. I'm really enjoying learning intensively about Poland, which, in American is almost impossible to do. Poland has been generally kept out of US curricula due to the fact that for most of our history until 1918, Poland was not on the European maps due to the partitions, then after WWII, it suffered from Cold War politics and was grouped as just "Soviet Bloc" country. Anyway, Poland's history and culture is as rich as any in Europe's and I've been fascinating delving into a world of unknown painters, composers, writers, poets and generals who are as interesting as any from France or Italy. I've especially enjoyed my lit class, as our professor, Pani Ewa, is just so well-spoken and passionate, I can listen to her talk about Polish writers all day, sigh.

I'm also still recovering from this past weekend, where both my parents and the Lexia groups from Berlin and Budapest came to visit. I loved being able to show my parents around the city and play tour guide rather than dumb American. I also enjoyed eating at nice restaurants every night. On their last night in town, we went to a traditional Galacian restaurant which served us free hog pate. I followed the by a meal of wild boar, spicy venison and something called roe buck. After all that, I found out that my side of potatoes Krakow also came with bacon. It was the largest number of different animals I've ever eaten in a single setting! My parents also got to tag along on the activities scheduled for us and the Berlin group including the Wawel Castle and Cathedral, a famous Art Nouveau cafe and Auschwitz. I also enjoyed meeting the Berlin group, which is very large and has guys, which was very exciting. We had many good nights sampling various Polish intoxicants and bonding, which points to a good couple of weeks after Easter when we see Budapest and Transylvania with them.

Although I hate to end on a down note, I do have to say that Auschwitz was a unique experience. I've never been to a place like that. It was almost as if visitors were there to bear witness rather than to learn, or enrich or enjoy themselves. Since I already knew most of the background facts, I focused on the concrete experience, which was indescribable. Seeing a giant room filled with human hair or walking through the actual gas chambers was chilling in a completely unique way. Auschwitz-Birkenhau has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which I makes sense, but goes so completely against the positive connotations that usually surround the word "heritage". It was odd commememorating a part of our human heritage that needs to be remembered and learned from, but also condemned.

Again, sorry to end on such a down note, hope everyone else is enjoying spring! (Or, in Robert and Audrey's cases, fall, again.)