Warsaw
Warsaw (pronounced locally as vah-she-vah) is the capital of Poland and has a population of about 2 million. At the end of the 2nd world war the city was almost totally destroyed by the retreating German army - Warsaw was perhaps the biggest casualty of Hitler’s ’scorched earth’ policy, but I also clearly saw the effects in Pushkin (The Catherine Palace) and Riga (The House of Blackheads and the Town Hall). As with the others, much of Warsaw has been faithfully recreated; and although this looks really good it somehow lacks soul.
The palace of culture, Stalin’s ‘gift’ to the Polish people is, for better or worse, the most distinctive building in town. During the Warsaw uprising at the end of 1943, when the Poles tried to liberate their own capital from the third reich, the red army provided a few token air-drops of food and munitions whilst they watched from the other side of the river. It seems that Stalin was happy to let the Poles and the Germans fight it out to the last man so they could enter and ‘liberate’ the city with little resistance from either.
Anyway, Warsaw is perhaps a little disappointing in terms of things to see and do; I expected a bustling city like London or St Petersburg, but this place was mostly built post-war and is more spread out. Somehow this takes away some of the big-city buzz.
I must thank Valdemar who runs the hostel in Gdansk; I’ve never met a more accomodating and generous host - and the sofa-packed common room (with views of the river) and nightly vodka shots are all part of the package.
