Poland 2016

There are no straight flights from Prague to Vilnius. Maybe they are in the summer but definitely not in May. So when we had a layover in Warsaw we decided to spend a day there because why not use our time in a more pleasant way than sitting at the airport all night long - yeah the connecting flights are also super crazy. When you arrive in the evening or at night you have to wait till the next day. Sheesh.

There was total chaos when we arrived. Firstly, they didn't give us our bags at the airport because they thought we wouldn't need them and hid them somewhere to wait till the next day when we would return for them. Bummer. So I had to explain how all our stuff was there and how we need it to survive so we waited a looong time but got them back. How come no one asked us if we wanted them if they saw we had two different dates on our tickets?! Anyway, the night had fallen before I managed to get the bags and buy bus tickets so we disembarked at the last stop (the closest to the old town where our hostel lay) and found ourselves in total chaos. People were everywhere. 

They shouted, played some weird instruments and were drunk and happy I guess but swimming against the flow with heavy bags at night when you are looking for something you haven't seen before sucks. 

It took us a very long time to find our hostel but we managed. Usually I'd leave my bag somewhere with the group and would run around looking at buildings and street signs and asking waiters where the heck I was. And I found it. My group found a piece of a tank in a church while I was gone. That was a double win. 

Oh speaking of the church - apart from whatever the Polish people were celebrating that day it was also the night during which entrance fees to museums disappeared so more people in the streets. Lucky us. 

I must say I was famished by the time we settled in our rooms and fortunately there was a baguette place around the corner. I've never had so expensive and delicious tuna/avocado baguette. Yum!

The next day we explored the old town which looks so nice and clean and the buildings are in great condition - then you realise they must be since Warsaw was bombed during the WWII and most of the buildings disappeared for a moment. So basically what you see in the Old Town nowadays is replicas of the original buildings. And some of them (like the church) have a reminder of their tragic past in the facade. They found the tank which destroyed the church and put one of its ... what is it called ... the thing which it uses for motion .. you know, the track thingy ... into the facade as a reminder. It's very interesting to say the least.

This was yet another reminder of the horrors people must have gone through. There was nothing left behind and they had to start anew. The same thing happened in Lithuania so most of the Vilnius's Old Town buildings are fake, too. And in other towns people just didn't bother with replicas and started building totally new structures. Unfortunately it was a Soviet kind of style. The ugly blocks of flats mushroomed everywhere. Not that I don't see those in my own country. But what I saw in Warsaw and Lithuania was more space between those hideous structures. People left enough space for trees so that they kinda obscure the view. I wish someone thought of that in here as well.

We spent a pleasant day in Warsaw - didn't have time to go in any museum so maybe next time around. I definitely plan to go back because I liked it there a lot.