Weekend #2

Saturday I spent almost the entire day at the Poland Museum of Jewish History. The main exhibit displayed 1,000 years of history of Polish Jewry in over 40,000 sq ft of exhibition space. I was told that there was significantly more covered in the exhibition than just the period of Ghettos, the Holocaust, and post-war era, but I was still surprised at the vast range in exhibition content. I’m starting to feel that the problem with the museums in Poland are there is simply TOO much material that it’s just not possible to absorb in one visit. I was there for over four hours and I didn’t read every word of explanation on all the material shown. If you’re a history buff with an interest in Judaic studies and European Jews, then this would be a museum for you. I would also suggest purchasing the audioguides. I didn’t do this, and I was ok because almost every plaque was written in Polish, English, and Hebrew; however, almost all of the audio interactive displays contained only Polish audio. It would also be less exhausting I think if you could sometimes just listed to the history (in English) and explanation of what you’re seeing vs. having to read it all. 

Even the Jews care about their beer back in the day 

Because all Jews know knowledge will open more doors than just about anything else

A replica of a "Jewish street"

Read carefully, the irony is still sometimes too true. 

Went to the temporary exhibit and found yet ANOTHER guard "on duty"... Well, it was the day of rest (Saturday) ;) 

My personal favorite part of the temporary exhibit...

The Jewish museum is actually not too far from where my dorm is, so since by the afternoon the sun had popped out, I enjoyed a nice walk home. Along the way I saw many statues/monuments and ornate looking building, some even patrolled by guards (I think this one had some government ties). Either way, Warsaw has been a fun place to explore different routes to get around town and an opportunity to simply walk around a lot in beautiful scenery.

Outdoor Gym (actually though its not a playground, it has diagrams of what muscles you're working)

On Sunday, the other interns in Warsaw joined as we explored the Palace on the Isles and surrounding buildings in the park. Oddly enough, according to the ticket agent the student rate only applied for students of Polish universities. However, I’m still not entirely convinced this is true because another worker in the system told us that we did qualify for student tickets even though none of us attended Polish universities. In the end, we only entered the free admission areas and enjoyed walking around the park. It was a picture perfect summer day- clear blue sky, only a few clouds, tons of sun, and 75-80 degree weather. To be honest, it was almost too hot to be in the sun  comfortably. So we enjoyed an ice cream cone and then went to lunch at the same place we had dinner last weekend and got a chance to try a few new dishes. 

Literally have ~20 pics from this general area and I have my eyes closed in all :( 

That afternoon, we went on the Orange Umbrella Free Walking Tour of Communism. Unfortunately, I think the amazing walking tours of Prague spoiled this one for me and I wasn’t as impressed by this tour. I felt we didn’t see that much of the city but instead stopped every five minutes for a 20 minute history lecture… There were a few funny stories though that went a little something like this: During the time of extreme poverty and rations, they simply weren’t enough for all. So people would line up bright and early ~4-6am to get in line in the hopes that today there would be meat and bread in the store. The cues were terribly long, and one day a man fed up with the cue left saying this was insane and he was off to murder the leader or Poland (sorry name sounded like Camuka, but not sure how to spell or if I totally have the name wrong here). So the man comes back hours later and everyone ask, so did you kill him!? He relies, “no, the cue to kill Camuka was longer than the cue here!” lol lots of distrust and annoyance with the government of the poor country under the communist regime.  

Feeling bad for Hello Kitty 

Following the walking tour, we stopped at the main central mall to cool off from the tour and then went across the street to the Palace of Science and Culture, for a small price, you can get a ticket up to the 30th floor of the Palace (which is the tallest building in Warsaw and the tallest originally communist building in Europe) for a view of the city. The panoramic views were really pretty cool here. We went up around 7:30 since it closes at 8, and got to see the beginning of the sun setting sky from the tower. If you want to see a view of the city, I’d recommend it, but know there is wire all around the observation deck so pictures are hard unless you put your camera through it. Also, there is a ton of rooms and exhibits inside the palace apparently, so we could have done more there too. 

Too tall to fit everything

Case for further exploration

One of the pano views