We visited Warsaw in 2005 as a family. We spent time with our first exchange, Dorota, and she showed us the sites. The city centre has changed a lot -- with the addition of more taller, modern buildings, biking and walking trails and sidewalks, and reconstruction of communist buildings. I slept in today as I am not yet on Poland time. After breakfast, we walked to the central train station to get our tickets for Berlin; the next leg of our journey after we complete Angloville. We walked a bit and then headed back to the apartment to get our things together for the 2 kilometer walk to Old Town Warsaw. On our way back to the apartment from the train station, we came across an open air exhibit on the Jewish Uprising of 1944. This was a display of the graphic novel, Ghetto Burning, looks at the lives of three Jewish girls that decide to fight with the resistance. Many of the young people that fought in the uprising had already lost family members and they realized that this might be their last chance to take a stand as they might soon be dead themselves at the hands of the Germans. They fought using guns smuggled to them by Polish non-Jews and hid in underground tunnels. Although, they lost the battle, they fought hard and took out a few Germans along the way.
After getting our things together, we started walking towards Old Town. On the way, we walked through Saxon Gardens to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Pilsudki Square. The tomb was founded in 1925 after World War I and is under constant guard with an eternal flame. Each hour there is a changing of the guard. After the tomb, we found a lunch spot called the Spynx for some falafel, where we could view Old Town and the Royal Castle. It rained a little as we ate lunch under an large umbrella. The it was off for a walk through Old Town.
The interesting thing about Old Town is that it is actually fairly new. During WWII, the Germans destroyed 80 to 90% of the Old Town and it was reconstructed to look much as it did before the war. Much of the barbican and outer wall have been reconstructed since we were here in 2005. We walked around a bit and then headed back to the main square and the column of King Sigismund III Vasa. He was a 16th century king who moved the capital of Poland from Krakow to Warsaw.
As our group started showing up, we met Rose from Australia first and our guide Tom and his dog. Other members of our group include a girl from Madagascar, Quinn from Vietnam, Ruby from Canada (aye), and Karly from the UK. Our group was much larger and I did not catch everyone's name. Tom took us on a tour and told us about Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Ghetto. We stopped for Polish soup and then continued on. He was very proud of the Polish people and said that the Polish have always fallen on the side of the good as they have never committed genocide or colonized another country.
After the tour, we walked to the Presidential Palace and then a group of us stopped for beer, water, or soda. Then we headed down to the river where we talked for a bit. We walked back to the city centre with Ruby, who is staying in a hotel near us.
Tomorrow, we meet at 8:45 am for the bus ride to our Angloville location at Osada Dankow.
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