The O.S. Addict

Wednesday, August 16th

We had a late start to the day, after slugishly pulling ourselves out of bed we went to see the Palace at Willanow in the south outskirts of Warszawa. We are feeling more tired even though we are cutting down on some of the museums and sites. The palace has an amazing collection of paintings with the rooms kept the same way the Royal Family Sobieski kept it when they lived there in the late 1600’s. What was most touching was that at the time when royal and noble families married to gain land, allies, and power; King Jan the 3rd Sobieski was trully in love with his wife and would write romantic letters to her when he was away, or so our English speaking guide told us. The letters are considered classic romance and studied by Poles to this day. She was a small delicate woman who’s spoke slowly with a thick Polish accent. We are guessing that she was in her late 70’s, and we were very happy to have her explain the history of the Sobieski family and move us along the large palace for over and hour and a half. By ourselves we would have been there 3 hours and very grouchy at the end, I can honestly say that we were sleepy and hungry after just an hour. We went back to Old Town to roam and watch the Warszawians in their native habitat and when we tried to get back to our hostel our adventures started. Apparently, when we got back the previous night to our hotel we were not paying attention to which bus took us there because the one that theoritically should have, went every where but to our hotel. And so, by accident we saw most of Warszawa’s monuments to victoms, soldiers, and the Resistance fighter of World War 2, as well as the Jewish Ghetto. Eventualy we got fed up and walked back to the hotel. That was a long, long day and a very long walk.

–Marzena

Tuesday, August 15th

It turns out that this day has two holidays in Poland, which means all the musuems are closed, but we still managed to find a lot to do. The “Feast of the Assumption” meant that it was a bank holiday, the museums were closed and there were a lot of church services in the name of Mary. The “Day of the Polish Army” meant that it was a bank holiday, the museums were closed, and the army was showing off the wares: helicopters were flying around the city, army men were showing of their gear: tanks, hummers, rocket launchers, tents with information desks and computers, privates in camaflage and officers in formal uniforms. We went to the Wazienki Park, a huge park with a summer palace where Polish kings and noblemen took holiday. In one of the smaller buildings coverted into a museum there was a piano concert. The room was packed with people in their Sunday best and in formal military uniforms, as well as rhe media. We stood outside and listened to a piece by Chopin as the bored Peacocks strolled through the grounds. There is this understanding between the birds (ducks, swans, peackocks) and the park visitors; the birds ignore all visitors and the visitors get to look at them and take pictures, if a visitor attempts to touch a bird they take a chance of not only being re-buffed by the other visitors but also by the birds themselves. We walked through the whole park, glimpse a popular music concert in honor of the army at the island ampitheater, and made our way to the rose garden with the Chopin monument where army and airforce orchestras were playing classical Polish pieces from the early 1900’s of “the young Poland” era to the popular military orchestra sound of Benny Miller. Next we made our way to the “Old Town”. It had cobblestone streets, red roofs, accordion players on the streets and vendors of all kinds from amber, paintings and imaginatove nicknacks to total tacky ridiculous junk, well technically its all junk that collect dust but some of it significantly prettier than other stuff. We strolled around the streets and enjoyed the evening. It was a great day with beautiful weather.

–Marzena