Witamy w Polska! Part 3

Day 5 ~ Łódź

Łódź is the third-largest city in Poland. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting: depicting a boat, it alludes to the city's name which translates literally as “boat.” 

Mariusz joined us this day, because he wanted to show off his wonderful city. It started with them driving around showing me the buildings of their campus: Uniwersytet Łódzki (University of Łódź). Then he showed is the Fountain at Jan Henryk Dąbrowski Square, and then walked around seeing all the murals painted on sides of buildings. 

Piotrkowska Avenue is the main artery and attraction stretching north to south for a little over five kilometers, making it (one of) the longest commercial streets in the world. We saw it during the day, but Mariusz said we should come back at night when it would be all lit up. It was beautiful.

Sculpture of Artur Rubinstein on Piotrkowska Street in Łódź
 where Rubinstein was born and raised

From here we decided to head over to the Manufaktura for some shopping.

The largest 19th Century textile factory complex which was built by Izrael Poznanski has been turned into a shopping center called "Manufaktura" which is an example of a modern business which operates in restored nineteenth century buildings.

Right before I left for Poland, I was riding on the back of my friend Arsam's bike and he took off again while I was still getting situated and my boot got stuck in his spokes. The sole ripped off so I lost my good pair of boots. I was told "Poland is cheap, you should buy stuff there." So needless to say I bought some new boots there, in fact I bought two pairs. :) 

While we were shopping Mariusz asked if we still wanted to go see The Hobbit, like we had discussed earlier that day. We said yes, so we went to reserve our tickets. We had an hour or so to kill so he took us to his favorite cheap "fast" food place, and then we headed to a bar to have a few shots of Polish vodka before coming back to see the movie. Yup, you read right...some shots before a 2.5+ hour movie.

The movies are not usually dubbed, but just have the subtitles of their language. So I got to see it in English, but with Polish subtitles and the only downside would be when they spoke in non-English languages like elfish and I had to have Iza translate. The movie was also 3D IMAX, which for once was worth it...3D has improved a lot since it was originally introduced to the big screen.

During the previews...just to show the Polish haha

It was after 2am when we got out of the movie, so we made our way back to Mariusz's house because once again we had to be up early for another long sightseeing day.

Day 6 ~ Warszawa / Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and the largest city of Poland. It is known as the "phoenix city" because it has survived many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered from World War II, during which 85% of its buildings were destroyed. Among the most notable landmarks of the Old Town are the Royal Castle, King Zygmunt's Column, Market Square, and the Barbican.

Immediately after the Warsaw Uprising, it was systematically blown up by the German Army. After World War II, the Old Town Market Place was restored to its prewar appearance. The current buildings were reconstructed between 1948–1953 to look as they did in the 17th century when it was mostly inhabited by rich merchant families. The Warsaw Mermaid, a bronze sculpture by Konstanty Hegel, has stood as the symbol of Warsaw since 1855. 

 I loved all the colors

Market Square

Royal Castle

Sigismund Column

Mariusz kept trying to be "that guy" in the back of every photo...

The Royal Castle was the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town. The personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Poland were located there from the 16th century until the Partitions of Poland. In its long history the Royal Castle was repeatedly devastated and plundered by Swedish, Brandenburgian, German, and Russian armies.

Throne Room

It was hard to imagine this whole area was completely destroyed during the second World War and was rebuilt to look as though it had made it through the War almost untouched.






The Warsaw Mermaid The origin of the legendary figure is not fully known. The best-known legend, by Artur Oppman, is that long ago two of Triton's daughters set out on a journey through the depths of the oceans and seas. One of them decided to stay on the coast of Denmark and can be seen sitting at the entrance to the port of Copenhagen. The second mermaid reached the mouth of the Vistula River and plunged into its waters. She stopped to rest on a sandy beach by the village of Warszowa, where fishermen came to admire her beauty and listen to her beautiful voice. A greedy merchant also heard her songs; he followed the fishermen and captured the mermaid.

After the castle, we walked south of the square down a long street looking at all the large Christmas decorations.

We even saw a changing of the guard at a the palace.

 Us just messing around.

Soon it was time to head over to the airport so I could make my flight back to Amsterdam. (Iza and Mariusz were driving back in two days). It was a nice relaxing flight back, and soon I was back in my apartment talking to Charla and her boyfriend who was in town for a week.





Now here are some pictures from my flight from Zurich to Warsaw. We flew over the Swiss Alps at sunrise. It was breathtakingly beautiful.