Warsaw is Wonderful!

It was a lovely day in Warsaw! I went for a run this morning before breakfast. The shower is wonderful, hot and I used it for an extended session! Breakfast in the hotel is buffet, but filled with veggies, cheeses, meats and other mystery things. They did have yogurt, and bread, and hard-boiled eggs that made it pretty good! Something like orange juice (like tang +) was availble and then I found the tea station which was in a different place than the coffee. All in all a good breakfast.

We spent about an hour and a half this morning getting Monika(Polish Coordinator of Civic Voices) to review just what she had planned at the conference. We hammered out all four days and it sounds like it will be a dynamic conference. She has already translated the guide (107 pages) and is very familiar with all of its parts. So as soon as we discussed the schedule it was easy to make sure that she include important parts that were important to me. She is very organized and I will fill you in as it happens.

We took the bus downtown (like I did in Russia in 07 - nicer busses, less people crammed on them). We walked in the main park in Warsaw where a sculpture of Chopin sitting under a willow tree is a central point of interest. The kings of Poland lived in the palaces and buildings on these grounds. We tried to catch a concert in one of the halls, but we were too late.

We visited the museum dedicated to the Warsaw uprising during WW II in August of 1944. It is a wonderful museum with excellent displays and English descriptions of everything. Propaganda films made by the Poles during the uprising were shown - very helpful in understanding just what happened and where it happened exactly. Of course, the Germans finally cracked down and then a year later, the Russians defeated the Germans and took over Warsaw and Poland. Sad history. We had coffee, soup, and apple cake at the cafe in the museum. I just partook of a mocha coffee.

After the museum, we once again headed to the Christmas Market in the old square. I exchanged some money and bought some Christmas presents! We sampled some baked goodies being cooked. I took a video of a musical group playing Polish folk tunes- they reminded me of the pictures of my dad in the Ooompah band with Austrian garb. We caught dinner at a restaurant away from the square - too crowded near the square. I had beef steak, french fries, and a salad. Red wine and water was good. After dinner we went back to our favorite little cafe for hot drinks and desserts. This time I ordered Cinnamon flavored black tea and a dessert called Chocolate Temptation - chocolate, vanilla, and coffee-whiskey flavored ice creams with various toppings and whipped cream - luscious!

The same cab driver as the night before took us to a lot of points of interest. So much to see, so little time. When I arrived back to my room at the hotel, my room key would not work again. So we had to go back to the desk and have them re-scan it.

Tomorrow, we head to the train station at noon and head to Gadinia, a suburb of Gdansk. The train ride will take 6 hours to get to Gadinia. Monika lives there and her father is cooking dinner for us. Her mother makes homemade vodka and we look forward to that! I think we will be staying at her home for the night.

At 52 degrees latitude, Warsaw gets light around 7:00 am. By 4:00 in the afternoon it is already getting dark. We will be traveling north which means that there will be even less light. It is dark in Poland, but not because of previous invaders and Soviet communist ways. Warsaw is a hustling, bustling, positive place! A lot of energy is seen everyhwere you look!