We had slept around 2 am and woke up at 10 am today. Samia had a headache so we decided to wait in our room after she took her migraine medicine so that she could get better before we left for sightseeing. We had coffee, got ready leisurely and headed out around 1 pm after storing our bags with the hotel concierge. We decided to walk to the old town area of Warsaw. It was really hot and we were glad that some part of our walk was through a garden with lots of shade from giant trees. We reached the old town area around 2 pm and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. We had two kinds of pasta (penne and ravioli) and then had ice cream to help cool down on a sweltering hot day.
At 3:30 pm, the walking tour of the old town area started next to the 22 meters long Sigismund's column. King Sigismund was the king of Poland from 1587 to 1632 when it was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His main claim to fame is moving the capital from Kraków to Warsaw, after he burned down half of the royal castle in Kraków when conducting an experiment to acquire the philosopher's stone, a mythical stone with alleged properties converting base metals to gold and to help create the elixir of eternal life. The capital was moved in 1595 and the move was meant to be temporary till the castle in Kraków was renovated but the move was made permanent in 1609. He was initially a king of Sweden who decided that he needed to have some influence closer to Western Europe as well so he came to Poland and convinced the aristocrats to choose him as their king. His popularity and importance in Poland's history can be judged by the fact that the column dedicated to him and initially constructed by his son in his honor, was the first building to be reconstructed after about 90% of the city was destroyed in the Second World War. The column is located in the middle of a relatively big square which also houses the reconstructed royal castle of Sigismund, a building with not too many decorations owing to Sigismund's Swedish heritage which emphasizes function over form. The few decorations that are there are characteristically Baroque.
Our next stop of the walking tour was a reconstructed church which didn't look fancy or had any unique history about it. We stopped there to learn about the importance of Catholicism in Polish history and culture. Sweden is predominantly Protestant and so was King Sigismund but to be accepted as the king by the Polish people, he had to convert to Catholicism. Polish people have traditionally been the most catholic European country outside of Vatican City and that continues to be true today. Even when the region was under the communist Soviet Union's control, despite communism's well known aversion/persecution to religion, the Polish people found a way to marry communism with Catholicism and continued to hold their beliefs. It served the country well during the horror years of the 19th Century and helped the people stay strong through that tough time. Poland's most famous Catholic is the late Pope John Paul the second who is not only considered one of Poland's national heroes but was also well loved throughout the world during his years as Pope. Pope John Paul the second was the archbishop of Kraków before he became Pope. He is so popular in Poland that our tour guide told us that if you just say "the Pope" and don't specify the name after that, most people in Poland assume that the reference is to Pope John Paul the second.
Our next stop was the market square of the old town. It was where all buying and selling was done in Warsaw and is also home to the statue of a mermaid known was Sawa. She is wielding a saber/sword and holding a shield in the statue. Legend goes that after she was tired of swimming in the oceans, she started living in villages one at a time to experience life on land. Then she fell in love with a guy name Wars and wanted to stay in that village forever. The women of the village did not like that and captured her and locked her up. Wars rescues her, of course, and they decided to do something for which they will be remembered forever - they built the city that's now named after them, Warsaw. The Polish version of the name is Warszawa (pronounced Warshawa) which is actually even closer to the combination of their names. Our tour guide had her suspicions about the accuracy of the story but she wanted to share it anyway because it's an interesting story. By the way, we totally believed her story since as we all know, mermaids do exist!
The next stop was the old market square that ceased being the market square after it ran out of space. The main significance of stopping there was a story about how Jewish merchants were banned from trading and selling in the city since the Catholic merchants asked the king to ban them. Their logic was simple - the Jewish merchants were better than them and were driving them out of business so instead of having to compete by matching them, they wanted to simply not have any competition. After the ban, most Jews moved to a district to the West of the old market square and remained there till the holocaust.
Our next stop was the old city walls that outlined the boundary of the old town area called Warsaw from the city of New Warsaw. Over time, the whole area became one big city. These city walls gave the Polish people a chance to exhibit their ingenuity. For extra protection, these city walls were actually two walls with a decent gap between them and some Polish people realized that to build a house, all that was needed was two additional walls instead of the customary four. A few houses were constructed between the city walls but all of them were destroyed in the Second World War bombings. When parts of the walls were reconstructed to preserve history, one house was also reconstructed.
Then we stopped by the old house of a girl called Maria Sklodowska or better known by her married name as the renowned scientist Marie Curie. She won the Noble Prize twice, one of only two people to win it in two different fields (the other one being Winston Churchill who won it in Literature and Peace). The first time she won it (with her husband Pierre Curie) in Chemistry for her discovery of an element that she decided to call Polonium, as homage to her country of birth Poland (which was part of the Russian Kingdom at her birth). The second time, she won it in Physics for discovering Radium. Her husband had died by then so she received it by herself this time. Pierre and Mary had two daughters. The first daughter was like her mother and won a Nobel Prize with her husband. The second daughter married a guy who won the Noble Prize by himself. Quite a Noble family indeed! There is a museum dedicated to Marie Curie next to her old house and there are plans to move it to the house itself. There is a very nice mural outside her old house depicting her as a child in her mom's arms and thought bubbles depicting the periodic table representations of Polonium and Radium.
At our next stop, our tour guide told us the story of how statues of all national heroes have them wielding a saber in their hand and also a mustache on their face! If it doesn't have a mustache, it's not a Polish hero's statue, never mind if the hero had a mustache in real life or not (the only exception being Pope John Paul the second). Definitely makes it hard for Polish women to be national heroes! Then we walked a little more and the tour ended where it had started, at the Sigismund's column.
After this energy sapping yet very informative tour, we got a recommendation from our tour guide about a place for dinner. They served baked potatoes with toppings on them and we are glad we took her suggestion. The potatoes were delicious with toppings like jalapeños, tzatziki (pronounced taziki) sauce, garlic sauce, beans, corn and grated cheese. I also had cold coffee which was good too.
Then we started walking and bought a fresh lemonade from a stall by the road. Then we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to the agreed meeting point where we were going to see Samia's friend Milena who lives and works in Warsaw. She had done an exchange semester at the UofC and they had worked on a project for a course together. We walked with her to a cafe and sat there talking to her while enjoying our drinks. We loved learning about the Polish culture and the language and her life working at her bank. After an hour, we decided to head back and Milena was nice enough to walk with us all the way to our hotel. We continued chatting with her till we reached our hotel and then said our goodbyes.
We picked up our bags from the hotel and took a taxi to the Warsaw Central train station. We took the express train to Kraków which will take us there in 2 hours and 45 minutes. I'm writing this update on the train. It's a really nice train, very clean, very spacious and like any other train that we would find in any other European county. Warsaw is a very modern city and if we hadn't took a tour of the old town, we couldn't have imagined that Poland has a rich history, going back to 966 when it first became a country. The people are very friendly and nice. From what we've heard, of all the countries that had some Soviet influence, Poland is ahead of most others in terms of reintegrating with the modern world. The old capital Kraków will probably give us an idea of what the country was like before democracy.
After reaching Kraków, we took a taxi to our hotel and ordered a delicious burger for dinner in our room. We are going to bed now. Till the next update tomorrow, take care and goodbye!
At 3:30 pm, the walking tour of the old town area started next to the 22 meters long Sigismund's column. King Sigismund was the king of Poland from 1587 to 1632 when it was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His main claim to fame is moving the capital from Kraków to Warsaw, after he burned down half of the royal castle in Kraków when conducting an experiment to acquire the philosopher's stone, a mythical stone with alleged properties converting base metals to gold and to help create the elixir of eternal life. The capital was moved in 1595 and the move was meant to be temporary till the castle in Kraków was renovated but the move was made permanent in 1609. He was initially a king of Sweden who decided that he needed to have some influence closer to Western Europe as well so he came to Poland and convinced the aristocrats to choose him as their king. His popularity and importance in Poland's history can be judged by the fact that the column dedicated to him and initially constructed by his son in his honor, was the first building to be reconstructed after about 90% of the city was destroyed in the Second World War. The column is located in the middle of a relatively big square which also houses the reconstructed royal castle of Sigismund, a building with not too many decorations owing to Sigismund's Swedish heritage which emphasizes function over form. The few decorations that are there are characteristically Baroque.
Our next stop of the walking tour was a reconstructed church which didn't look fancy or had any unique history about it. We stopped there to learn about the importance of Catholicism in Polish history and culture. Sweden is predominantly Protestant and so was King Sigismund but to be accepted as the king by the Polish people, he had to convert to Catholicism. Polish people have traditionally been the most catholic European country outside of Vatican City and that continues to be true today. Even when the region was under the communist Soviet Union's control, despite communism's well known aversion/persecution to religion, the Polish people found a way to marry communism with Catholicism and continued to hold their beliefs. It served the country well during the horror years of the 19th Century and helped the people stay strong through that tough time. Poland's most famous Catholic is the late Pope John Paul the second who is not only considered one of Poland's national heroes but was also well loved throughout the world during his years as Pope. Pope John Paul the second was the archbishop of Kraków before he became Pope. He is so popular in Poland that our tour guide told us that if you just say "the Pope" and don't specify the name after that, most people in Poland assume that the reference is to Pope John Paul the second.
Our next stop was the market square of the old town. It was where all buying and selling was done in Warsaw and is also home to the statue of a mermaid known was Sawa. She is wielding a saber/sword and holding a shield in the statue. Legend goes that after she was tired of swimming in the oceans, she started living in villages one at a time to experience life on land. Then she fell in love with a guy name Wars and wanted to stay in that village forever. The women of the village did not like that and captured her and locked her up. Wars rescues her, of course, and they decided to do something for which they will be remembered forever - they built the city that's now named after them, Warsaw. The Polish version of the name is Warszawa (pronounced Warshawa) which is actually even closer to the combination of their names. Our tour guide had her suspicions about the accuracy of the story but she wanted to share it anyway because it's an interesting story. By the way, we totally believed her story since as we all know, mermaids do exist!
The next stop was the old market square that ceased being the market square after it ran out of space. The main significance of stopping there was a story about how Jewish merchants were banned from trading and selling in the city since the Catholic merchants asked the king to ban them. Their logic was simple - the Jewish merchants were better than them and were driving them out of business so instead of having to compete by matching them, they wanted to simply not have any competition. After the ban, most Jews moved to a district to the West of the old market square and remained there till the holocaust.
Our next stop was the old city walls that outlined the boundary of the old town area called Warsaw from the city of New Warsaw. Over time, the whole area became one big city. These city walls gave the Polish people a chance to exhibit their ingenuity. For extra protection, these city walls were actually two walls with a decent gap between them and some Polish people realized that to build a house, all that was needed was two additional walls instead of the customary four. A few houses were constructed between the city walls but all of them were destroyed in the Second World War bombings. When parts of the walls were reconstructed to preserve history, one house was also reconstructed.
Then we stopped by the old house of a girl called Maria Sklodowska or better known by her married name as the renowned scientist Marie Curie. She won the Noble Prize twice, one of only two people to win it in two different fields (the other one being Winston Churchill who won it in Literature and Peace). The first time she won it (with her husband Pierre Curie) in Chemistry for her discovery of an element that she decided to call Polonium, as homage to her country of birth Poland (which was part of the Russian Kingdom at her birth). The second time, she won it in Physics for discovering Radium. Her husband had died by then so she received it by herself this time. Pierre and Mary had two daughters. The first daughter was like her mother and won a Nobel Prize with her husband. The second daughter married a guy who won the Noble Prize by himself. Quite a Noble family indeed! There is a museum dedicated to Marie Curie next to her old house and there are plans to move it to the house itself. There is a very nice mural outside her old house depicting her as a child in her mom's arms and thought bubbles depicting the periodic table representations of Polonium and Radium.
At our next stop, our tour guide told us the story of how statues of all national heroes have them wielding a saber in their hand and also a mustache on their face! If it doesn't have a mustache, it's not a Polish hero's statue, never mind if the hero had a mustache in real life or not (the only exception being Pope John Paul the second). Definitely makes it hard for Polish women to be national heroes! Then we walked a little more and the tour ended where it had started, at the Sigismund's column.
After this energy sapping yet very informative tour, we got a recommendation from our tour guide about a place for dinner. They served baked potatoes with toppings on them and we are glad we took her suggestion. The potatoes were delicious with toppings like jalapeños, tzatziki (pronounced taziki) sauce, garlic sauce, beans, corn and grated cheese. I also had cold coffee which was good too.
Then we started walking and bought a fresh lemonade from a stall by the road. Then we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to the agreed meeting point where we were going to see Samia's friend Milena who lives and works in Warsaw. She had done an exchange semester at the UofC and they had worked on a project for a course together. We walked with her to a cafe and sat there talking to her while enjoying our drinks. We loved learning about the Polish culture and the language and her life working at her bank. After an hour, we decided to head back and Milena was nice enough to walk with us all the way to our hotel. We continued chatting with her till we reached our hotel and then said our goodbyes.
We picked up our bags from the hotel and took a taxi to the Warsaw Central train station. We took the express train to Kraków which will take us there in 2 hours and 45 minutes. I'm writing this update on the train. It's a really nice train, very clean, very spacious and like any other train that we would find in any other European county. Warsaw is a very modern city and if we hadn't took a tour of the old town, we couldn't have imagined that Poland has a rich history, going back to 966 when it first became a country. The people are very friendly and nice. From what we've heard, of all the countries that had some Soviet influence, Poland is ahead of most others in terms of reintegrating with the modern world. The old capital Kraków will probably give us an idea of what the country was like before democracy.
After reaching Kraków, we took a taxi to our hotel and ordered a delicious burger for dinner in our room. We are going to bed now. Till the next update tomorrow, take care and goodbye!
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