7 | Old Town and Warsaw Rising Museum

Besides that really exciting trip to IKEA, I did some fun things this weekend!

On Saturday, I explored the Old Town after refilling my cellular data, which was an adventure in itself but whatever. Warsaw's Old Town was completely destroyed in the Second World War mostly during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944 (more on this later), but you would never know that after seeing the photos below. The city meticulously rebuilt the area to look exactly like it had before the war using paintings of a court painter from the 18th century, Canaletto. Reconstruction began in 1950 ,and mostly went through 1955 with some added during the 1980s. If you would like to read more about the reconstruction (and, more importantly, the spirit of a people that made it happen), I would suggest this article. Leopold Tyrmand is quoted in the article saying that Varsovians inhaled about four bricks a year before and during this period of reconstruction.

But I know you're not here for a history lesson, so check out some p nice photos below. 

Two sides of the main Old Town Square

View from one side of the remains of the medieval city wall

Royal Castle on the right with the last King of Poland on the pillar

The Old Town also fed me quite well. I stopped at Zapiecek, a Polish restaurant frequented by both locals and tourists, for some spinach and cheese pierogi with cranberry jam/sauce and mulled wine.

Yes, the mulled wine has its own candle to keep it warm

I walked around a bit more hunting for the best street sweet treat. I found a log of sweet bread covered in cinnamon that subsequently went on a sightseeing tour with me. Also, I would like to point out this is not a doughnut. Eli and I saw them in Budapest, but unfortunately never had one there. So, naturally he argued with me that these were doughnuts. They are not. Poland has their own beloved doughnuts that forced Dunkin' Donuts out of business when they came to Poland. I just don't know the Polish word for these God sent treats. 

Me and my sweet friend walking around the Old Town:

On Sunday, I had a some schoolwork to do and just about everything was closed, because President Duda is trying to phase out shopping on Sundays. That's right. Take that foreign firms that want to operate in Poland but are now losing a day of profits! BUT it was a really nice day, so I took a walk around Mokotów, the neighborhood where I live. I found a liquor store near my apartment that I bought a bottle of Bulgarian white wine from on Monday. So, the walk was a success. 

On Monday businesses and museums were back open, and I don't have class on Monday, so it is still considered part of my weekend. I made my way to the Warsaw Rising Museum (sidenote: I have seen it as both Warsaw Rising Museum and Warsaw Uprising Museum - I'm going with the shorter one), which is located in an old tram power station. It documents the events leading up to, of, and after the Warsaw Uprising, which began on August 1st 1944. This museum is arguably one of the largest and most well known in the city, so I was pretty excited to go. Once you walk into the main museum area, you immediately are overwhelmed. You can hear the heartbeat of the city, and it is oddly dark, which sometimes made it difficult to read the information. You begin on the ground floor and then take an elevator to the second floor and then work your way down. However, it is at times difficult to know which way you're supposed to be walking through the museum. Despite all of this, I had a really great time and definitely learned a lot about this period. 

Recreation of the sewer pipes used by the insurgents to move throughout the city

I'm pretty small, but even I felt really claustrophobic in the recreation (which is significantly cleaner than the actual pipes used)

Even though it was dark and confusing, I think this museum is a must for anyone visiting Warsaw. I have been to a lot of museums that track the happenings of World War II, but this was the first time I had gone to one in a country that was a real victim of the war. Of course, I've been to the museums in the Jewish Quarter of Prague, but many of those sites are just preserved meeting halls, synagogues, or cemeteries, which are important to tell the story of Jewish life and the Holocaust in the Czech Republic, but they do not display the stories of the victims or the perpetrators. Eli and I went to the Dohany Street Synagogue, which has some horrors to tell the world, but it was still a different experience than what I had yesterday. And, of course, going to Holocaust museums or sites in Germany are devastating and tell the stories of the victims well, but they are still trying to respect and uphold the Germany identity to a certain extent. Sure, they may have interviews with the victims, but I have never seen an interview with a German soldier in a German museum, which you would think would be the easiest place to set up an interview with a German soldier. And that's what really moved me about this museum. In a tiny, dark room in the basement of the museum, there was an interview playing of a German soldier, who was in Warsaw during the Uprising and very openly shared what he  had experienced. Oddly, I was the only person in this room, so naturally I wept. So ya, I cried alone in a museum yesterday. After having watched other interviews and videos about the Poles fighting in the Uprising earlier in the museum, I really just needed a place to process and feel it all. And that's what that little room was for me. I cried for the medical professionals that were hung for having aided Polish and German fighters, the Catholic priests and nuns that were killed to break the Polish spirit, and the children leaving their school that were beaten by the Germans so as to not waste bullets. 

If there's one thing I've learned during my short time in Poland is that the Polish spirit is unbreakable. These people have been through so much, but they still manage to always fight for their freedom and rebuild. I am so proud and honored to be able to spend time here and learn and experience as much as I possibly can during these next few months.