Fantastic Monthly Guide to EVERYTHING in Warsaw!
by JessH
We've all been there: visiting a new city for the first time, confused about where to see what, and at what time, yet we're too embarassed to pick-up those little tourist leaflets from the hotel reception, or (god-forbid!) even head down to the tourist information office! (*gasp!*)
Thankfully some wonderful little publications exist that spare us the confusion and embarassement:
I picked-up the "Warsaw Insider" from a newspaper stand, and found it immensly useful. This publication covers everything from restaurants, clubs, cafes, events, sights, movies, music & theatre and much more.
Price for the A5-sized magazine is 9,90 Zloty. The picture shows September's issue with a special on the city's best restaurants.
I took the "Warsaw Insider" back home with me... little magazines like this are very helpful when writing VT-tips as well ;-)
TIP: >> And if you want to keep up-to-date even when you're not in this lovely town, you can visit their website (in English): Warsaw Insider.com!
>> And here is their online Events Calendar: http://www.warsawinsider.pl/calendar/index.shtml
Lazienski is the beautiful...
by wena
Lazienski is the beautiful royal park just beside of the presidential palace. One of the building is the palace on the water. You can see a lot of peacocks running there, and if you come in the right season, you can see the males are trying to induce the females.
Once I entered the gate, I saw a statue of Chopin sitting under the tree. The statue is made from stone, and it stands so beautifully. I miss the family's of my friend. They are so warm and so friendly, especially her little brother. They welcomed me as a member of their family. I was there in the Easter, and I can see the thick atmosphere of Catholic.
Moving monument and story
by matcrazy1
This small monument to Soviet genocide victims is very important for many, many Poles including me. For many it's a symbol of succesful fight against Soviet totalitarism and domination over Poland. Despite the nation will the monuments to the victims of any Soviet crime were forbidden till 1990. In 1981 (during limited freedom period after creating the Solidarity Movement) the first Katyn monument was secretly put at night in Powazki cemetery by unknown that time people. It was soon badly damaged at night by "unknown perpetrators" (read: UB = Polish KGB; never found though) and removed.
Most foreign visitors don't know how many touching and sad stories are hidden behind this memorial. There is no explanation at place in English (why?).
Let me translate the inscroptions:
"To memory of the officers of Polish Army who were killed by communist, Soviet totalitarizm all over the whole area of the Empire of Evil after September, 17, 1939." Signed: Katyn Committee, Colonel Kuklinski, Polonia from Chicago. Warsaw, May, 1998. And below: "stone from the fields of our fathers."
Katyn Committee is a common name of organisations founded all over the world by Polish families of the Katyn victims.
Colonel Kuklinski (1930 - 2004), a hero for many Poles now, was top Warsaw Pact spy for CIA in 1970 - 1981 when Poland was de facto under Soviet occupation. His museum (Kanonia St. in the Old Town) opens on May, 3, 2006. Visitors will walk on the former Soviet Union flags put on the floor which is controversial for some folks.
Chicago, Illinois, USA has the largest Polish community out of Poland.
On 17 September, 1939 Soviet troops invided Poland. The two great friends that time: Stalin and Hitler divided Poland.
Read more about Katyn massacre, please. Stalin's Killing Field in Katyn forest will be my first destination to visit in Russia, I am sure. I saw this monument for the first time during some tensions between Poland and Russia. Russia closed half a way investigation on the Katyn crime without charging anyone and refused to treat it as a genocide crime. That made many Poles outraged. Poland decided to start own investigation run by Polish governmental Institute of National Remembrance. The crimes of genocide never come under the statue of limitation in Polish law. This decision was criticized by Russian officials. Russia finally promised Poland to hand over all files of Russian investigation including 22,500 personal files of the crime victims but didn't do that until now (2006). Many Poles believe they will as Russia of 2000' isn't for sure the past Soviet Union, right?
Well, one of my foundest memories of Warsaw refers to that monument. I saw a couple with two teen-age boys standing and staring at this monument with flowers in hands. They had tears in eyes and desperately wanted to put their flowers. Well, it isn't a monument to put flowers under as you see in my picture. They asked me for help suprisingly... in English language. They were both from Chicago, USA, born in the USA. The woman had both parents born in Warsaw. They survived Warsaw Uprising as kids and luckily escaped to the USA soon after; quite common story. I got to know that someone from that woman family was killed by the Soviets during WWII and that her old parents were very unhappy not to be able to come to Warsaw and asked her to pay tribute to their ancestors among other places just by this, quite new that time monument.
Well, I found 5 people of my (not very popular) surname on the Katyn massacre victim list but as I know no-one of them is my family. There are more popular Polish surnames on the list: 64 Nowak and 42 Kowalski.
Warsaw under snow and big freeze :-)
by matcrazy1
I was lucky to see Warsaw in "the winter of century", in January, 2006 when after heavy snow falls temperature dropped down below -20C (4F) or even -25C (-13F) at night. Lucky? YES, it happens once a human life :-). I was very surprised to see empty, white Royal Way (Krakowskie Przedmiescie and Nowy Swiat streets). This is the main and normally crowded street although with no traffic jams since it's closed for public traffic (taxis and buses only). The Old Town Market Square looked very unique as well. No worries, normally snow is removed from streets and sidewalks a few hours after snow fall; well, up to 24 hours in case of rarer continuous and heavier snow falls, but not this time. Main streets are treated with salt and very rarely remain white for longer time.
Warsaw weddings
by Dabs
Since we were there on an early summer weekend, we encountered a bunch of weddings, seemingly at every church in the old town of Warsaw and that's quite a few! What these weddings all seemed to have in common was small bridal parties of just 4 people, a large gathering of people outside the church kissing the bride and congratulating the groom and most of them had snazzy cars to deliver the bride and groom to their wedding party. The BMWs paled in comparison to the classy Rolls Royce we saw at least two of the weddings.
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Palac Kultury i Nauki
Garden bridge
littlesam1, HORSCHECK and hikerpark
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
