Right now, I’m sitting with in a hair salon in Warsaw, watching Karina get her hair colored and cut. It’s raining out and I’m somehow very, very hot. Have me a bit of a cold, and I’m thinking my annoying, odd warmth is due to my body fighting this stupid sickness. I’m pretty sure my abundance of late night vodka tasting in Krakow has led me to this lack of immunity. In any case, I’ve been well taken care of by Karina’s mom in Warsaw, Monika and her husband, Mariusz.
I met Karina’s mom on Sunday in Warsaw without Karina’s presence because we poorly planned coinciding our arrival times into Warsaw. We arrived 4 hours different. It was Monika’s birthday too! So she had to go to the train station twice. What a nice lady. She caught me up on the big plane crash that killed the Polish president and his wife, along with tens of other government heads. It was so refreshing to see a local’s perspective on such a major happening. Monkia is very easy to talk to and tells it like it is. She is also very beautiful and loves to shop, so we had lots to talk about while waiting for Karina’s train. Mariusz, meanwhile, sat with Lola, their black weenie dog. Lola is ADORABLE and loves to kiss.
Lola <3 <3 <3
Mariusz also went for a run with me as we were waiting for Karina. We took Brudis for a jog as well. Brudis lives at the house that Mariusz's and Monika's office is in. It's an ad company. Their office is only a few minutes away from their home.
Brudis, the office dog.
When I saw Karina for the first time as she hopped into the back seat with me, I really had nothing to say. This was a friend I gossiped with many times in numerous high school math classes as well as in my college years. It was that feeling where you could talk about so much, but there’s so much background stories to get through, that you just start with something basic, like “what’s up?” I can’t tell you enough how happy I was to be with a girlfriend from home.
We had some time to pass before dinner, so we headed to the central part of Warsaw. We checked out the Presidential Palace first. There lay tons of flowers and candles alongside a huge amount of posters narrating the events after the major plane crash. Monika showed us a picture of what it looked like around the time the President’s coffin was temporarily in Warsaw at the Palace. She said the wait to view the President was over 18 hours, so sadly, she didn’t get to pay her respects in person.
Apparently, there were also temporarily all the coffins of the vicitims of the crash in Warsaw at the same time. She said you would see tens of them being driven down the street and at one point, they were all lined up next to each other to be seen. It was surreal to imagine her words and seeing it all in person. Just recently, they moved the victims to their respective cemetaries, churches, and hometowns. The President now resides in Krakow at the Castle. During my walking tour of Krakow, we walked by the line, which was enormous, but definitely not 18 hours long. I chose not to go even still.
The current memorial in front of the Presidential Palace.
What it looked like while the President's coffin was at the Palace in Warsaw.
Taking the coffins on tanks.
After this depressing but very enlightening stop, Karina, Monika, Mariusz and I walked around the rest of Warsaw’s city center. I’ve been told Warsaw is a very ugly town compared to Krakow, so I was surprised to see how pretty it was. There were parts where the buildings were that typical colorful European style. It was very lively, dancers were showing off their moves, and people were milling about to restaurants and eating ice cream and taking pictures with friends and family. It was such a nice evening out, I could see why it was so busy.
This is the year of Chopin, so benches around the city were playing his music. This picture has a soundtrack not available to post.
Warsaw city center.
A cute square in Warsaw.
Mariusz, Karina, Muah and Monika.
For Monika’s birthday dinner, we went to one of her favorite restaurants. It’s a Soveit themed restaurant, so all the wall decorations were Soveit-time themed and even the wait staff was dressed up in the garb. The food was amazing. Karina and I shared some Mao’s chicken and Russian style perogies. We started our meal with a great tomoto soup and some German beers that we cheered “Nastrovia!” to.
Old Russian taxi from the Communist times parked in front of our restaurant.
After dinner, I learned more about Poland and Germany than I ever could have by traveling it myself for 2 weeks. Karina has grown up in the US, but her mom was born Polish, so she has often visited relatives in Poland growing up. Five years ago, her mother moved back to Poland. Meanwhile, Karina has had an immense interest in German culture and has not only studied abroad in Germany, but visited numerous times and has very good friends from there. This is why she is moving to Berlin for an internship. She has been reading her German culture book and says that it has completely defined things she’s noticed about the culture, but maybe not quite understood before.
Karina began comparing German and Polish culture to the car. It made each country define it’s personal identity for me, which made me feel 10 times more understanding of people I know from those countries. I felt suddenly very very very enlightened about these people, and even about myself. It was a very lucid moment. From this point on, Karina has been pointing out the Polish and German culture and making comparisons to Americans. I’ve loved it.
For Americans, many just group Central and Eastern European culture together, but after spending time with Megan and Steve in the Czech Republic and with Karina, Monika and Mariusz here in Poland, I feel so much less ignorant, yet still incredibly lost when it comes to giving these countries their proper identity in my own mind. It makes me more motivated to explore more parts of Central and Eastern Europe. I was scared at first to go that direction by myself while backpacking, not knowing the language and all. But in all truth, this is the type of traveling I’ve been craving ever since Semester at Sea. Seeing Western Europe was amazing, but it’s been done by everyone and it was very much Western Culture. It wasn’t as exciting for me. I’ve been spoiled. Here’s the brat in me speaking again, but it didn’t challenge me enough. I’ve been lucky enough to sail to parts of Africa and Asia and South America and even India. Going to these places set the bar so high on the culture that I crave exploring, that nothing else will ever quite come close enough to those drastic changes of culture shock.
As for yesterday, Karina and I went shopping for her Berlin work clothes. We did every day normal stuff, like sleep in a little, eat breakfast around the dinner table, gossip, visit her Mom’s work for internet useage, shop, visit the coffee shop, and run a few other errands. We returned to Maruisz at home, cooking chicken and tomato soup for us. We all ate dinner together and Karina and I had a spa night and did laundry. Normal life, such a relief. Experiencing normal life in a country so different is the kind of life that I like. Just pure bliss.
Playing soccer with Lola. She actually plays kick-back properly by passing it with her nose.
Lola looking at me as I am on my computer in bed.
So today, we are at the hair salon. As I finish this long long blog, Karina is almost finished with her do. I even got a chance to slip in and cure my hair woes with a hairdresser. Next up, Karina and I will head to our train heading to Poznan, Poland, which is on the way to Berlin. Major busy plans for this week, running around Germany to visit friends and get Karina prepared for her new life in Berlin. So happy with life.
It’s almost a bittersweet feeling to know that I will be coming back to the States a week from today…off to NYC.
No comments:
Post a Comment