Well, it was all quite dreamlike, I was very very tired for the majority! A mixture of me not sleeping for a lot of last week, on top of me being quite reluctant to sleep due to catching up with friends in Warsaw, meant I was a bit dazed!
I arrived in Warsaw Thursday night, where Richie met me off the train, and we went and made dinner, and drank wine...standard! Although my main reason for Warsaw visits was to see my friends, I also went because Magda, my friend from the summer school I work in, had asked me to do workshops on England in schools in Warsaw. I was super excited\nervous! Luckily, on Thursday evening Richie went through it all with me, and when Friday came it wasn't that scary at all. With the heckling of Richie at the back, I managed to get through my workshops quite well, and learnt a lot! At the end of my last one, the smiling face of Magda appeared, and we all went for lunch together, and caught up on what we'd been up to since the last time we'd been together in Prague!
On Friday evening, Richie, Richie's friend Woytek and I went into the bright city lights of Warsaw, and had a bit of a night out.....it was insane, and our decision to stay out until 6am meant for a very sleepy Saturday! We managed it regardless, and after sleeping in Saturday, we made the decision to look round Warsaw on Sunday instead....silly hangovers. On Saturday evening we had a party, andI met lots of new people, and finally got to put lots of names to faces of the people I always hear about!
On the Saturday, we somehow managed to stay up until 4am chatting....I however was insistent to be a tourist on Sunday, so after making tea and pancakes for everyone, we finally got out into the city to see some sights! Richie's friend Woytek very kindly did a bit of a historical tour, and I fell in love with Warsaw very fast! We did a standard old town tour. I love the main square, it is a huge vast space, with a big light up mermaid in the centre (I swear not as tacky as it sounds!), and all the buildings are really pretty, and built interestingly, if that makes sense? I am not feeling particularly architectually minded today, as you may have already sensed! Obviously the old town isn't really that 'old', due to the absolute devestation it saw by the Germans in WW2, however the reconstruction of the city is magnificent, and I could have wandered for days around the city finding more and more things. Alas, I just didn't have the time!
Woytek then took us to the Jewish Ghetto, and on to the Jewish memorials. They were all quite eery, for obvious reasons, and there were flowers and candles placed around them. It really hit home how much the Polish, and Warsaw, were effected, and still are effected, by WW2, and the Nazis. What the English learn at school to be just historical events, numbers on a timeline, are here very much still events, not a thing of the past but still living, in so far that the memories will never fade.
After our afternoon of wanderings and discoveries, the evening came fast, and Richie, Magda and I had wine, cheese, and catch ups, before an early night...as I had workshops again Monday! Monday's workshops came and went like a thunderbolt they were so fast! I had four in a row, and I really enjoyed exploring what I could do with them, developing my material and making myself into a bit of a character =)
Before dinner, whilst we were waiting for Magda to finish school on the last evening, we found this amazing place in the old town for wine. It's a cafe, but it is all pink inside, with movie stars on the wall, feathers, random assortments of teddy bears, lace, necklaces, and handbags dangling from the roof. It was very bizarre, and felt quite unpolish! My experience of Poland up to this point had been places that were quite dark, smokey and cool. This was the absolute opposite, and even better it sold homemade wine, which made me feel like I was experiencing Warsaw just that bit more =)
And then, after another evening of dinner and chatting with my friends, Tuesday morning came and I lugged myself onto my 10 hour train back to Diepholz! The long weekend of chilling, catching up, drinking and seeing new places was exactly what I needed after a melancholy January! My life is more or less non stop now until I leave on the 27th February, but I am making time in my day to write this posts, so that I don't get behind.
PS. Krowka is the yummiest thing ever. I'm addicted.
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