3 Days in Warsaw, Poland
Recently, I took a flight to Warsaw in Poland to visit my friend Teresa. Teresa is my Polish friend that I met during my time studying the International Baccalaureate at sixth form last year. Most people in the UK when they go to sixth form take the A-levels, which is a course with 3 – 4 subjects designed to help students specialise in the subjects that they are most interested in. However, I did something a little less common in the UK which was the IB. It was a much broader course than the A-levels, that covered about 6 different subjects of my choice, something that seemed ideal to me at the time as someone who loved learning and always enjoyed a variety of different subjects. Although the IB became one of the toughest two years of my life so far in terms of the amount of work that I had to complete, it was also my most memorable two years of my life as I was able to make so many new friends, many of whom came from different countries. I have a friend called Maia, who is Italian, a friend Celina, who lives in Switzerland, and a friend called Audrey who lives in the UK but is part Thai and part Filipino. I intend on catching up with these friends too, sometime in the near future. However, recently I went to see Teresa because it had been on my list of things to do for a long time now. Teresa is currently studying business and philosophy at university in Brussels and I went to visit her there with my older sister Alice, back in February. Nevertheless, it was still very important that I went to see her in Poland as well since that is Teresa’s home country and she has always wanted me to meet her family too. Unfortunately, Alice was working during the time I booked the flights and the dates that I went to Poland were the only dates that Teresa was available during the holidays so I had to travel to Poland by myself. However, it was a good exercise for me because I’ve always wanted to prove to myself that I could travel abroad on my own. Me and Alice both flew to Japan to see Family in April and that gave us a lot of experience and confidence to begin travelling by ourselves. So on the 9th of August, I flew out to Warsaw by myself to see Teresa with her family for the first time.
My flight from London Stansted to Warsaw Modlin was at 3:30pm UK time and I arrived in Warsaw at 6:45pm Polish time so in total, the flight was about 2 hours and 15 minutes long and a comfortable flight altogether. Despite the small wait time that I had in the corridor of the gate as I was waiting to board the plane, a typical occurrence for flights with Ryanair, I boarded my flight and arrived in Warsaw with plenty of time to spare. I came to learn that Warsaw Modlin was one of the smaller airports in the city. In contrast to the much bigger Warsaw Chopin that is named after Poland’s famous composer, Frédéric Chopin, at Modlin there were only about 4 gates so to get lost in such an airport was near enough impossible. When I arrived at Modlin, I got through customs fairly quickly and I waited at the arrivals area for Teresa and her dad to turn up. It took a while for them to get to the airport at first because of all the building work going on in the area. However, I soon got the phone call from Teresa to say that she was waiting near the bus stop with her dad so I tried to find Teresa as soon as I heard she was there. When I got to the car, I was introduced to her dad Gregory, who had very kindly agreed to pick me up from the airport. It was about a 40 minute drive to Teresa’s house so as well as catching up with her, I also had a general discussion about life with Teresa’s dad, whilst Teresa herself was haphazardly giving her dad directions back to their house on the phone. I would also come to learn that Teresa has a much bigger family than my own, with two sisters and a brother that are all younger than her living under one roof alongside both of her parents, so discussions in the household took place in a much different manner than in my own. Ultimately, I suppose that the slightly stressed out dialogue going on between Teresa and her dad as they were figuring out the route back home, foreshadowed the crazy nature of their family that I would soon come to see. However, it was still a pleasant drive to the house and I was very much grateful for the lift. As I looked out of the window of the car, all I could see on the side of the road were forests of dense fir trees and the occasional lake or river too. They say that the UK is the least forested country in Europe and you certainly wouldn’t see that many trees at home in Cambridge. That was the first thing I liked about Poland, how green it all was, even in the most urban areas like Warsaw.
When I arrived at Teresa’s house, it was almost eight in the evening. Teresa’s dad opened the door and as I brought my suitcase through, I was introduced to Teresa’s mum, Delfina, and her three younger siblings: Joaśka (Joanna in English), Wandzia (Wanda in English), and Karolek. Joanna is a year younger than me and would be turning 18 soon, a big celebration in Poland. For the majority of my time in Warsaw, Joanna was getting a little bit stressed about her upcoming 18th birthday party as she wasn’t sure who to invite in her class. I didn’t realise how big the 18th birthday was in Poland but clearly it was a birthday that mattered to a lot of people. However because we were fairly close in age, it did mean that me and Joanna got on pretty well and I found her to be a really nice person. Karolek was only 12 years old and the youngest in the family. He was quite shy at first but overall I thought he was kind, polite, and a lovely person. However, what I found was most surprising was the age of Wanda. Wanda seemed quite young but she was also very tall like her parents and actually taller than Teresa, her older sister. Teresa came over to me and asked me how old I thought Wanda was and I guessed around 16 but it turns out she was only 14 years old! Alice and my parents at home are not tall people so I’m used to living in a household where everyone is pretty much at an average height but I noticed that most of Teresa’s family were very tall which was probably what made Wanda’s age seem so deceiving. Teresa’s mum Delfina, had a great energy about her. I sat down at the dinner table that evening with the rest of the family and Teresa’s mum asked me if I wanted to have a glass of wine with my food and I said yes and she responded to that with “Yes, finally, someone that I can drink with!” In general, Polish people are very cautious when it comes to drinking because I think Poland has a culture where people can take drinking too far. So most of Teresa’s family, except for Delfina, did not drink and in general, there were also certain public spaces in Warsaw where you could get fined if you were caught drinking. So I respected that aspect of Polish culture. However, I still enjoyed having my glass of red wine with Delfina at dinner. Lets just say, it was a little bit interesting watching Delfina try to open a bottle of wine. Teresa’s parents were kind of struggling to take the plastic part off the top of the bottle and the cork broke in the process. Teresa’s mum did let me know that she chose the bottle of wine because of the cool picture it had on the front, which was probably the best thing I heard anyone say! But that was the kind of energy that Teresa’s family had, very care-free and light-hearted and if anything, it was quite a refreshing presence to be around.
Everything that happened that evening was a little chaotic to say the least but such was the nature of Teresa’s family. We basically had dinner at around 9pm because Teresa, Wanda, and Karolek were still making the pizzas and Joanna was busy making the cheesecake for dessert, which was really nice by the way. However, we ended up eating our dinner but poor little Karolek was still waiting on his pizza for a little while longer as his dough didn’t work the first time. Thankfully, Teresa was there to help as a big sister and Karolek could finally eat his pizza in the end! Once the dishes were put away, I had a shower to get myself clean after a day of travelling and then I came downstairs to watch some TV with Teresa. Teresa didn’t have an actual TV in her house but she did recently sign up for a 30 day free trial with Amazon Prime so we both looked for something to watch on her laptop. As Teresa was scrolling down, I spotted the Jack Ryan series that I had been watching with my family recently and I suggested that we watch that for the evening. Jack Ryan is a series about the CIA and an American secret agent, the protagonist Jack Ryan, and it’s based on a series of books written by Tom Clancy. The first series is set in Yemen and Jack Ryan and his colleague, James Greer, try to take down a terrorist who goes by the name Suliman. It is a very exciting series and even watching it for the second time with Teresa was gripping. I think Teresa liked it too because we binged watched about 3 episodes that evening and went to bed at around midnight! However, when I woke up the next day from my very comfortable sleep in my very comfortable bed, I was informed by Teresa that she actually had a couple nightmares about people shooting and attacking each other. Teresa has always been a very bubbly and positive person so perhaps watching Jack Ryan that’s about guns, wars, and terrorists, was probably not the best idea! However, it was clear she still liked the series because the next evening we stayed up pretty late again watching some more episodes!
Day 1
The next morning was quite an interesting morning for me. Usually, my natural time to get up in the morning is around 8:30 am on a day that I’m not working. However because I went to sleep so late that first evening, I stayed in bed until about 9:30am. It was probably quite a good thing for me because the whole reason why I went to Poland in the first place was to have fun with friends and relax a little bit. Teresa and her family liked to make the most of the summer holidays so most of the time, they all got up between the hours of 10 am and 12 pm. This is probably normal for most families (I’m probably just the weird one) but most of the time, I got up a little bit earlier than the others just out of habit. However, on the first day, Teresa got up at around 10am as she had a doctors appointment at around 12pm at a doctor’s surgery that was located about an hour away from her house. That morning, she got up and she asked me if I wanted to do a workout with her which I agreed to do because again, I was there to have fun. Yet, Teresa chose to do a 40 minute workout on YouTube and the whole time I was doing the exercises, I was asking myself when Teresa was going to get ready for her appointment because time was getting on a little bit. Once the workout was finally finished, I thought to myself, “Finally, maybe Teresa will have enough time to get ready.” However, after the workout, Teresa then went on to make the biggest breakfast ever. She started cutting up some aubergines, courgettes, and peppers that she put on a tray to bake in the oven. Then she cracked 4 eggs into a pan that she fried over easy. She then began to pace up and down the kitchen listing out all the other things I could also eat for breakfast. “Would you like to have some toast? Look there’s also some peanut butter, lets also have some peanut butter…There’s also granola, would you like some granola?” After a certain point, I began to say “I’m okay but thank you” a lot and I made my way to the kitchen table to eat with Joanna who had just woken up. It turns out that Teresa’s family are quite big foodies but then again, my mum is also a professional baker, so in a way, so am I. Very soon, Teresa’s dad Gregory came down in a slightly anxious state saying “Tereska, Tereska, are you getting ready soon?” Long story short, Teresa said she was going to go to her appointment, then she said that she wasn’t, then she said that she was, and in the end, she concluded that she wasn’t. So that was quite a hectic morning but at least it meant that Teresa could take me to the museum in Warsaw, which I suppose was a good thing, right?
On the first day, me and Teresa went to visit the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw in the city centre. Initially, it was meant to be me and Joanna going to the museum while we waited for Teresa to come back from her doctors appointment but of course, in the end, Teresa didn’t make it to her appointment and Joanna was getting over a cold anyway so it was me and Teresa going to the museum as a duo. Due to the wait time for the bus, we opted to cycle to the museum using bikes that you could rent. It was quite a long bike ride to the museum but overall, I rather enjoyed the experience as I was able to get a good picture of Warsaw as a city. As we cycled through the suburbs, I saw many old buildings dating back to the era of the Soviet Union. They were not the most picturesque buildings to look at as I am sure you could probably imagine, but I liked how some of the buildings were reclaimed by the people and built in a more ornate style. It was as if it was done as a small act of rebellion by the Polish people against the former communist authoritarian leaders that ruled over them. I also liked how many trees there were in the city; it seemed as though every spare patch of land was taken up by trees. As I said, it was quite a long bike ride to the museum but in between moments of tiredness, I tried to sit back and enjoy the view.
Overall, the museum was a super interesting and immersive experience all together. I didn’t quite realise how big the museum was until the end of the day and I checked the time and how long we were in the building for and it said that we were in the museum for 5 hours! We arrived at the museum at around 1pm and we left at around 5:30pm so it certainly was a very informative visit. The museum itself took you through the whole history of Poland and the Jews that lived there. The museum took you through the era when Poland was a kingdom, starting in the year 1025. Then it talked about the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth that began in 1569, until the Commonwealth became subject to a series of devastating wars initiated the rise of its powerful neighbours Austria, Russia, and Prussia in the 17th century. Then the museum also talked about the 20th century history relating to Poland such as its fight for independence from Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany after the First World War, the conflict between the Nazis and the Soviets in the Second World War, and the overall fight for independence from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. When I left the museum that day, I felt a little bit overwhelmed because there was so much information to absorb. However, I think that I also left the museum with a different perspective of Polish culture altogether. Suddenly I realised why Polish people were so patriotic and also why Polish people, like Teresa’s family, were very outgoing and tried to make the most of every day because they have, from the very beginning, a very long standing history of having to fight for their country and fight for independence. It also made me think that during the 40 – 50 year Soviet occupation of Poland in the Cold War, families probably were left with very little of anything that was actually their own so now that Poland is becoming an up and coming country in Europe, it’s understandable why Polish people are now very protective of that. I laugh at how fiercely loyal Polish people are to their country sometimes but actually, if you look at the whole history, you realise that their attitudes make total sense.
The history of the Jews in Poland was what I found to be particularly devastating too. The Jewish community never really started off as a respected population in Poland, as was the case for Jews in many other places across the world, as we all probably know. Although they eventually abolished the practice, the Jews started off as slave traders and traditionally they also became known as people who were very good with their money so they became very wealthy and affluent people, which in turn brought on its fair share of hatred, animosity, and jealousy by those who were not. Not to mention that the majority of the European world was Christian and the Jews went by different rules and practices to the Christians so they were certainly not welcomed with open arms to start off with. However, following the formation of Poland as a kingdom in 1025, Poland became known as a “paradisius iudaeorum” or a Jewish Paradise because Jewish people became so well respected by the king, that they were granted special privileges and treated a lot better than in some other parts of Europe so more Jewish families ended up migrating to Poland. In the end, from 1025, Poland had the largest population of Jews in contrast to any other country in Europe. It is of course then devastating to discover that the largest population of Jews that were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust were killed in Poland. Of course, the largest and most infamous Nazi concentration camp became Oświęcim (Auschwitz) which I’m sure we’ve all heard about before. This once again reinforced to me how powerful ideologies can be. Just one toxic idea can be the make or break between the acceptance or persecution of a community. We are reminded here to always think independently and be kind and accepting of those who do not wish to harm us.
We left the museum that day both feeling a little bit tired because it was so informative and it took us so long to get from the beginning of the museum to the end. However, I am so glad that Teresa chose the museum as the first place for me to visit because it gave me so much historical context to understand Polish culture better than I did before. Since we had such a fulfilling breakfast so late in the day, I was able to get through the museum without feeling too hungry. However, I must admit that I was getting a little bit hungry so Teresa took me to the Old Town to buy some snacks. We went inside this small corner shop and got some Pork Kabano snacks which are like long strips of Peperami or smoked pork sausages that you can eat on the go and they were super delicious. That evening, Gregory made some spaghetti for dinner which was really nice and just what I needed at the end of a long day but these snacks were a great thing to eat to keep us going until then. The Old Town was really beautiful to walk around as well. It wasn’t quite as old as it seemed since most of the very old buildings were destroyed during the Second World War and the Warsaw Uprising, when Polish Jews in ghettos fought for independence against Nazi occupation. However, the buildings were still a nice contrast to some of the brutalist style buildings that I saw whilst cycling through the suburbs. They seemed a lot more European and ornate than the buildings I saw before. When we arrived at the Market Place in the Old Town, we saw a statue of a mermaid, which Teresa told me was the symbol of Warsaw. Legend has it that the mermaid decided to stay at the riverbank next to the Old Town, creating waves and releasing fish from nets. The local fishermen tried to hunt the creature that took their fish but fell in love with her voice when she sang. The fishermen rescued the mermaid trapped on the shores and ever since then, this mermaid was seen with a shield and a sword, trying to protect the city of Warsaw from threat or danger. I thought that this was quite a fitting symbol that encompassed the aura of pride and patriotism that Polish people in Warsaw seemed to have.
After walking through the Old Town and the Market Square, me and Teresa went to visit the University Library in Warsaw next to the Vistula River because apparently it was a really unique and pretty building. I thought that the university library would be an old building with shelves of dusty books but actually, the library was quite modern. It was a very big library but what made the building stand out were the gardens next to the library that had luscious green grass as well as the unique architecture that integrated nicely with the natural environment surrounding it. It felt really nice to see this small bubble of nature in this bustling big city. There were many levels to the University Library so me and Teresa went to the top terrace to take some photos using my Polaroid with the sun setting ahead of us. It was a really great way to get the best views of the city too!
To finish off the first day of visiting Warsaw, me and Teresa went for a walk beside the Vistula River. It was a really pretty evening and it was really nice to see the sun setting on the water. There was a long boardwalk beside the river with restaurants and other fun activities taking place on it. We walked past some musicians singing and playing the guitar with a group of people sitting on the steps spectating the performance. Initially, people were quite shy and reserved so they were just watching and listening politely from a distance. Then a group of teenage girls began dancing to the music in the middle of the boardwalk and me and Teresa began singing along to the songs that they were playing too. Next to the performance was another statue of the Warsaw mermaid. Me and Teresa took photos in front of the statue; the evening sunlight turned the statue into an imminent silhouette behind us.
Day 2
The next day, me and Teresa’s family did something completely different. On the second day, we took a coach to the Suntago water park, located just outside of Warsaw. I think by now you can probably tell that Teresa’s family are quite wild and outgoing. When I thought about what I would be doing in Warsaw before I left the UK, I didn’t think I would ever be going to a water park but although it seemed like kind of a crazy proposition to go to one while I was there, in the end, I am so glad that I went because it ended up being a lot of fun.
Joanna told me that the Suntago water park was among one of the biggest in Europe and I certainly got that impression. It had lots of slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, and a lot of different outdoor water activities like surfing. The park wasn’t really located in Warsaw though so we had to take the Metro to the city centre and then a coach directly to the park which lasted around an hour. Although it was a little bit of a journey, I’m glad I did it because it meant that I could see some of the buildings in the city centre that I wasn’t able to see previously like the Palace of Culture and Science. The Palace of Culture and Science is a big tall skyscraper building located in the heart of the city. Joanna told me that it has many negative connotations for people in Warsaw as it was built as a work of propaganda by Stalin and used as a reminder to the Polish people of who ruled over them. Much like Oliver Cromwell’s construction of Ely cathedral, Joseph Stalin’s Palace of Culture and Science (as it was formerly known as) was built as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s conquest over Poland. Whilst it remains a slightly imposing and intimidating building in Warsaw, Joanna told me that it has been gradually reclaimed by the people in Warsaw through the construction of its more modern neighbouring buildings. As I’ve mentioned before, some of the buildings in Warsaw are not too pretty to look at but now that Poland has entered the era of being a free state, it’s nice to see how these buildings are being interpreted in the modern day. Me, Teresa, and her siblings all decided to take a photo in front of the Palace just before going to the water park. Though it was quite sunny that day so excuse the squinted eyes!
Now onto the fun aspects of the day. We arrived at the Suntago park after an hour long coach journey which was quite relaxed to say the least. Joanna gave me a book of short stories to read whilst on the bus as I had forgotten to bring my own book so I was nicely entertained during the journey. When we arrived at the water park, we got ourselves checked in and ready and then went straight to the slides. There were so many different slides. There were some you did on your own and some you did with a group on a raft. Most of the slides that you did by yourself tended to be the easier ones. However, my favourite slide that I did by myself was called the Rainbow Slide. You got a mat with handles on the front and you had to lie down on your front as you went down the water slide. It was quite an exciting one to do because you initially went down a tunnel that would spin around and as you come out of it, you separated off into different coloured slides, going down face first. When I first did the slide I found it quite scary but I kept going back to the Rainbow Slide in the end because I realised it was a lot of fun. My favourite slide to do as a group with Teresa and her siblings was the Hunters Raft Race slide. In the middle of the slide, you went down this whirl pool that spun the raft round in a circle until you fell into this hole that took you through a tunnel. As you came out of the tunnel, you dropped down this really steep slide that was shaped like the letter U so you would go up and down the slide like a seesaw. I got really scared when I did the Hunters Raft Race because as we slid down the slide, the raft jumped off the surface of the slide slightly due to how steep it was. However, it was also totally exhilarating so it became another one of my favourites.
My least favourite slide to do was called the Jaw Drop, partly because the slide was exactly as the name suggested. You were basically placed into this tube with a platform that you stood on and after they closed the door, one of the workers would count down to 5 before they pressed a button that removed the floor from beneath your feet. So all of a sudden, you would start shooting down this really dark tunnel as water would splash in your face. I didn’t like how fast-paced the slide was and how trapped and claustrophobic it made me feel so I only ended up doing the slide once during the day. However, Teresa’s younger brother and youngest sister Karolek and Wanda, went down the Jaw Drop slide constantly. I wish I had the confidence that I had even just a few years ago but unfortunately, as I grow older, I’m becoming more and more aware of all the potential technological faults in these slides!
When we arrived at Suntago, the first activity that we saw was the wave pool. When I initially saw everyone bouncing around in the big waves, I thought it could be quite fun to try. After trying out all the slides, me, Teresa, and her siblings all went to the pool to try out the waves. I waited in complete anticipation for the wave machine to be turned on but as soon as it was, I was quite disappointed. Instead of having fun bouncing up and down in the waves, I ended up treading water quite a lot, trying to keep my head above the surface. As soon as the waves stopped, I felt very much relieved that I could finally breathe with ease and relax a bit!
For lunch that day, Teresa and her siblings decided to make some food at home to take to the park. They made some pancakes with chocolate and some pancakes with jam, as well as banana bread, and cheese toasties. Overall, it was a very sweet choice of lunch that I would definitely not have everyday but on a holiday like this, I guess I very much enjoyed it. I was also very impressed by the banana bread that Joanna made because it was very fluffy and delicious. We sat outside to have lunch and then digest, before heading back to the slides. After a few hours into the day, I was getting quite tired and I began to wonder when we would be heading home because it was already approaching the evening time. I asked Teresa when we would be going home and it turned out that Teresa had booked us in for a 10 hour slot and we would be staying until closing time! When I was at the water park, by 8pm, I just kept on thinking about how much I wanted to go home and how much I didn’t want to do another slide. However, my mum said it quite rightly when I got back to the UK. Since Polish people have had a history of having so little, they like to make the most out of every special experience that they get the opportunity to have, even if that does mean staying at a water park until the 10pm closing time. So in the end, I just went around the lazy river a few times with Teresa until it was eventually time to go.
Day 3
On the last day, we all naturally woke up quite late because we were all so exhausted from the fun of the day before. When I lay in bed that night, I still felt like I was floating on water and going down a slide because we had done it so many times!
That day, I did a whistle stop tour of the parts of Warsaw that I hadn’t already seen. I saw the Tomb of the Unmarked Soldier, a monument guarded by Polish soldiers that was dedicated to the unknown soldiers that died fighting for their country in World War I. As well as this, I also saw the important Papal Cross monument in the city centre. This was a giant cross made from white granite that was dedicated to Pope John Paul II, a man (a Polish national himself) who gave hope to many Polish people during communism by offering a spiritual fight against an oppressive communist dictatorship. In 1979, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Poland which ignited a sense of unity amongst the Polish people and the courage to stand up for the truth which in turn, led to the rise of nation-wide movements like Solidarity, who helped lead to the downfall of communism in Poland. The Papal Cross was the location in which a candle lit vigil was held upon the news of Pope John Paul II’s death in April 2005. Now on the cross reads the inscription, “Let your spirit come down and renew the face of Earth, this Earth” a quotation taken from his sermon. Although I do not believe God exists, I was reminded again here of just how powerful of a force religion can be. No wonder religion is banned in some communist countries that exist today like North Korea because it forces people to think about the truth and to try and seek it and it can be tool for rebellion in a country under the grips of authoritarianism.
After visiting some key monuments in Warsaw, me and Teresa went to a café to get some ice-cream. I got two scoops of cookie dough on a cone and Teresa got a scoop of cookie dough and mango ice-cream on a cone. We sat outside on the tables and chairs to eat our ice-creams, take photos, and also talk about life. The ice-creams were very delicious although I wish I had also gotten a scoop of mango ice-ream too because that was also really nice. After having some ice cream, we took a walk in the park and listened to some live piano music. We sat down on the grass in the sun next to a pond. It was then that a cute little dog walked up to us and sat by our side, looking a little sleepy. Of course we took a lot of photos with the dog because it was super cute!
Towards the end of the last day, Teresa took me to her favourite park in Warsaw, the Łazienki Park. I could see why this was Teresa’s favourite park in the city because it had the biggest ponds, the biggest trees, and the prettiest buildings of all the parks I had already seen so far. My favourite building in the Łazienki Park was the Palace on the Isle, a classicist building completed in 1689. I liked it because it seemed so regal looking and it sat beautifully on top of the water of the pond that stretched out in front of it. I brought my Polaroid camera with me again on that day so me and Teresa took lots of photos in front of the Palace for future memories. It was also in the Łazienki Park that I saw my first red squirrel. The red squirrel is classified as Near Threatened in the UK because of the introduction of the grey squirrel, an invasive species. To see a ginger little squirrel scurrying up a tall tree was certainly a special experience for me!
Next to the park, there was also a movie theatre and it was here that we watched the movie Reality. Teresa’s friend Gorsha, who is a similar age to both of us, also came to watch the movie. Gorsha was very nice and she was actually going to be studying languages in Warsaw at university so she was at a similar stage in life to me so we had lots to talk about. The movie that we watched was based on a true story about a woman called Reality Winner. She was an American intelligence specialist who released unauthorised information about the Russian interference in the 2016 government presidential elections. I was not particularly keen on the movie when I first heard about it and not too excited to watch the film initially. However, having watched the film, I can say that I was pretty hooked throughout the whole movie. The film began with two FBI officers interrogating Reality Winner in her home and it ended with her being sentenced by the FBI. The whole moment in between was super exciting with the suspense of what was going to happen next. I would recommend watching the film if you haven’t already done so.
When we came out of the cinema, we then walked to the Vistula River to watch some shooting stars! Next to the Vistula River, there is the Copernicus Science Centre that is dedicated to the great Polish scientist from the Renaissance era, Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus was the first scientist to suggest that the planets orbited the sun not the Earth, thus popularising the heliocentric model of the solar system. On the 12th of August every year, there is a massive meteor shower and to commemorate this great Polish astronomer, people gather around next to the Copernicus Science Centre and the Vistula River to watch the shooting stars. I thought we wouldn’t be able to see any shooting stars because of the light pollution from the city so I lay down on the grass next to Teresa, Gorsha, and Joanna expecting to have a relaxing evening by the river. However, every so often there was a gasp from the spectators around us and it was in these moments that we saw the shooting stars! When we went home that evening, me, Teresa, and Joanna all lay down on deck chairs in the garden under blankets until 2am watching even more shooting stars! I haven’t really seen shooting stars like this before so to be able to see them on my final evening in Warsaw was very special and a great way to round off the trip.
The next day, I got a lift to Warsaw Modlin Airport by Teresa and her dad and I boarded my flight at around 12:30pm. That marks the end of my trip and the end of my blog post for you all today, I hope you enjoyed reading it. I didn’t realise quite how much I had to say about my 3 day trip to Warsaw until I began writing about my experience and I realised that there was actually a lot to reflect on. Teresa and her family might have seemed a little bit energetic and crazy at first but overall I think staying with them was good for me. Being in a relaxed and fun environment for a few days was just what I needed for a summer break. I also learnt so much about Warsaw as a city too. It may not be the most picturesque city in Europe but the reason why you go to Warsaw is to hear and learn about it’s story of the people fighting for freedom and independence in the face of adversity. Once you’ve visited Warsaw, you realise how inspiring this story is.
If you’ve made it this far into the post, I appreciate your attentiveness. Let me know if you’ve ever been to Warsaw before or if you’ve been anywhere nice over the summer holidays in the comments below and I’ll be sure to get back to you! Also, subscribe to my new webpage below to keep up to date with future posts like this!
Thank you for reading my first blog post on my new webpage. I hope you like the new design. There will be more blog posts coming up in the future. I will starting my first term at Durham University as a history student on the 23rd of September and there will be lots of blog posts going up in relation to that so stay tuned for those blog posts!
In the meantime, I hope you have a great day and I’ll see you soon!
XOX, Juliette
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