more about Warsaw
At this point, I’m probably just writing for my own benefit, to remember what I did in Poland. Of course, to a certain extent, that’s been one of the primary reasons I started the blog. So I plan to detail my final weekend in Warsaw, add a few “parting comments,” some pictures, and put this baby to bed, so to speak.
The trip to Warsaw was enhanced by the presence of Bridget. Had she not accompanied me, I probably would have stayed in the dorm from Hell and I probably would not have wasted, oops, spent money on “Monster in Law,” the new Jane Fonda movie. To remind me of our age difference, I had to explain some of Jane Fonda’s history to my 18-year old companion. So be it.
We arrived in Warsaw and I was filled with dread that it would be impossible to find our way out of the train station, find the bus, find the stop for the dorm, find someone who spoke English so we could register there, etc. Silly me to have worried so much; the logistics turned out to be simple. The only reason for dread was seeing our room in the dorm. Cheap, it was, which was a primary concern for me. But the place was just too depressing. And I didn’t even tell B about the bathrooms. Nothing was particularly dirty, it was just all so run-down. The concept of having seen better days doesn’t even apply. I don’t think there ever were better days for this place. To gladden ourselves, we went for lunch, to a very nice place, where the waitress ran out of the restaurant after we had left to return B’s credit card. How nice is that, eh?
I haven’t mentioned the rain, but a serious downpour began when we were on the bus, traveling aimlessly. It was just luck that made us get off where we did, where that nice restaurant materialized out of nowhere. But not til we waited under the little bus depot for about 10 minutes during the worst of the rain.
After lunch, another place materialized, an Internet café. B jumped onto Expedia and we found a decent price at the local Holiday Inn, which we reserved posthaste. After being ripped off mightily at the Internet café, we devised our strategy for checking out of the dorm –okay- we devised our lie. They were very nice, and returned all our money, a total of about 20$, to us.
We took the bus, yet again, -the rain had cleared- to the HI, and it felt like paradise. For about 60$ a night total, we had beds with mattresses and box springs, a shower and bathtub at arms reach (instead of down the hall), a direct-dial phone and cable TV, complete with English language stations and a huge breakfast buffet included. We could barely believe our good fortune.
So then we went exploring. B had this crazy idea that she wanted to see a movie. I wasn’t against the idea, the only problem was that there were only two English-language movies showing and one of them was War of the Worlds. We got tickets for the Jane Fonda vehicle and then split up for awhile to explore on our own. Talk about good fortune, the Cow Parade (cowparade.com) was in Warsaw! Unfortunately, I didn’t have a map, but I just wandered around and took photos of about 6 or 7 Polish cows. What a treat.
Had a potato pancake for dinner, went to the movie, and then went back to our palatial hotel. I wanted to make an early night of it since my trip to Pultusk began fairly early the next day.
Sunday, July 10: B decided to go with me and we took a local bus to Pultusk, arriving a little after 9am. Krystyna, my guide, met us at the station and the oddysey began. We drove to what K referred to as the Jewish section of Pultusk, which was made up of two old buildings and a monument. While Pultusk is a nice small town, the tour of it was a little underwhelming. I think it’s because what I was looking for (more traces of the Jewish community) no longer exists there. She did mention that the local history museum has in its collection some headstones from the local, no-longer existing Jewish cemetery, but unfortunately the museum was closed. While in Pultusk, K made us at home at her apartment, which was very cute. She served us a delicious blueberry pastry. Later, we drove to Ciechanow, another town that my ancestors lived in. While Pultusk had a lot of charm, Ciechanow was a bigger city, with a lot of large apartment block buildings, and a generally run-down appearance. K showed us a large open area in the center of several apartment buildings. She told us that it’s likely that the open area has stayed open because it is the former site of a Jewish cemetery. Near the edge of the area is a monument, but other than that, the area is unmarked. Our final destination was the town of Makow, which before the war was almost entirely a Jewish town. Three buildings survive, but you wouldn’t know it to look at them. One was probably a synagogue, and is on a street that translates, from Polish to Hebrew into a word similar to “synagogue.” At least I think that’s what K was telling us. In Makow, we also looked at a monument to the Jewish population that is built of headstones. It’s a very impressive site.
On our return to Warsaw, we had dinner in the old part of the city, which is lovely, but not real. Warsaw was leveled during World War II, and the old town was reconstructed, It appears to be very realistic, with lots of narrow, windy streets. The oddest thing we saw was a street performer dressed in the unmistakable sheet of a KKK member. That was a little jarring, to say the least. This is not my lasting impression of Warsaw; I’m just mentioning it for effect.
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