Warszawa

It is inevitable to get swept up in the ease, curiosity, familiarity of arriving in a city and instantly compiling a list of the local attractions, historical markers, museums, and such. It seems to give a filmy bubble of a border to this vast new landscape that you've stepped into. It is one way of reorienting - sometimes extremely good, stabilizing, comforting. Sometimes leaving you feeling like a real Tourist (neon capital T), trapped in the stream of other visitors, destined to be moving to and from one ticketed place to another should you allow yourself to simply float there for a moment.

Finding a (preferably free) map and cobbling together a sense of space with (and sometimes in direct opposition to) these landmarks and the patchwork of suggestions, stories, guidebook clips, view from the train, intuition, bits of history or art or whatever might be buried in your brain and making it's way to the surface....and devising a general wandering route, that may or may not be adhered to, is our general m.o. lately. This has been a good way to settle a little bit and zoom in or out depending on the day and the mood. It also helps us to practice letting go of the notion that we might be missing something - so many of our adventures come far less with visiting or observing, and more from our exchanges/interactions with the landscape and the people that live there.

As such, we greeted Warszawa with this in the front of our minds and were rewarded greatly. Of course, the first thing we did, truly, upon arriving, was cross the street improperly and get scolded by a police officer. Well behaved pedestrians are a given in Poland and we spent the rest of our time earning our gold stars by waiting patiently for each signal at a clearly marked crosswalk. We had been properly trained by that stern (and exhausted-with-morons) glare and a bit of kindness, considering we could have been fined 100 złoty or so. Phew.

A heap of more general impressions and memories I am left with are: the small market stands on corners, sunflower seeds being sold still in the flower, a rather serious social etiquette in the general population, the better bars/cafes tucked into back alleys, a strong sense of resilience and pride, memorable street art, ice cream (lody) sold everywhere, old vs. new, confusing (!) train tickets, delicious shared meals and so many good conversations with incredibly friendly people.

More specific experiences include our walk around a seriously green roof, spending a half day at the Warszawa Uprising Museum, and riding in Critical Mass with Eliza and Artur (hosts/friends extraordinaire).

The University Library is home to what is essentially a rooftop park, complete with a rain water filtration/drainage system and almost full circle view of the city and nearby Wisła River. The interior of the library is restricted to students and members only but, from what we could tell from peering inside, the roof was cooler to investigate. Metal walkways arch over just barely manicured grounds (which likely take a wee army to maintain), flowers that resemble Thing 1 and Thing 2 dance in the breeze, and you wonder if people on the second floor inside get a lot of up-skirt views of those passing overhead, what with all of the glass:

That is the Wisła and the Praga district in the background. After many takes while squinting into the sun, we managed a decent self portrait. Additionally, the exterior of the Library maintains the green status in a different way:

Th Warsaw Uprising Museum pulled us in on a mellow afternoon and spit us out three hours later. We entered knowing a minimal amount of the history of Poland and Warsaw in particular. We emerged feeling incredibly moved by the new found details and knowledge - and by the perseverance and commitment of the people of Warsaw during the time at their city was being invaded once more. Children of twelve were fighting, part of a team that led others through the sewers and delivered mail via the same system. Ghettos were formed, and 1944 Poland, and particularly Warsaw, was being swallowed alive by the powers involved in WWII. The museum houses a staggering amount of information but manages to alter the way it is delivered enough to maintain your attention and curiosity for an entire day's visit. There is visual, audio (listening wall pictured below), loads of take home literature, a 3D creation of destroyed Warsaw on film, documentary footage and even a live printing press demonstrating anti-propaganda printing techniques:

The spirit of the uprising lives on clearly in the streets of the city - via street art, on t-shirts, in the music, and through markers throughout the city. This is the true spirit of revolt but also of patriotism. Our description and photos can do no justice to either the events or the memorials or the cultural institutions, but we can say that they all had an incredible and unforgettable impact on us both.

What makes more of an impact is the response and transformation - the Old Town has been rebuilt according to original plans and with meticulous detail, artists share a neighborhood with born and bred Praga families, a critical mass honoring the 65th Uprising Anniversary draws 2000+ participants, and life moves onward. This is something to take with us while we do the same.

Location:Olomouc, Czech Republic

Puszcza Białowieza

So there's this forest, right?

It's ~14,149 strictly protected acres in a 146,397 acre national park called Puszcza Białowieska. There's a wall that goes through the middle of it marking the border between Poland and Belarus, it is home to wild European Bison, and it is the largest (as well as one of the only) remaining forest in Europe with primeval qualities. It's where Casey and I spent the past week, crossing off one of the first places on our must-see list when we started talking about this trip two and a half years ago.

I read about the forest in a book that is essentially a thought experiment; exploring the idea of human impact on the natural world, and how the planet has a tendency to want to right itself. The Białowieza forest (roughly pronounced: be-ah-woh-vee-ay-zsha) was used briefly in the book as an example of a place that has been protected and/or lucky enough over the years, to remain essentially without human impact, despite the aforementioned wall being built through it, multiple wars, and a changing of managerial hands as borders shifted.

The only way to get into the aptly named Strictly Protected Area, is with a tour guide, which we did on Tuesday. It's hard to explain exactly how it's different from any other forest (birds, trees, mosquitoes, etc.), save to say that it just kind of feels different - lush and alive and green. What's easier for me to put into words are some of the things we took from our guide. Things like the fact that we asked a few questions that he said just weren't answerable yet, as a place like this is so rare there hasn't been enough time to observe and study it. Or things like how the bison herds, which are wild here, were hunted nearly to extinction in the early 1900's, reintroduced from 12 specimens in the 1920's and now, with no major natural predator, have taken off again. (This on top of the fact that what was once one heard is now two, thanks to the wall dividing Poland and Belarus - an irony not lost on us coming almost directly from Berlin.) Or finally, how even with a guide, you can only trek a 4km path through the southwest corner of it, knowing that the rest is only visited by scientists.

We spent the rest of the week exploring the rest of the national park: - Some walking around the Palace Park, where until 1944, there was a palace built for Russian Czar hunting parties. - An accidental mountain biking trip that will remain a source of pride in having completed it on Monday, the day after a flash flood style downpour resulting in a "trail" that was more mud than forest, and what might be a personal best 41 mosquito bites on my ankles. - Another bike ride to through the park, to the nearby village of Narewka...a roundtrip of 38km on rented bikes that went forward, but only mostly.

We're headed now back to Warszawa, another city rich with history (not to mention the most amazing green roof either of us has seen on the University of Warszawa library) that we got to know with the help of some Couchsurfing hosts (and now friends) last week, where we'll touch down again briefly before heading towards Krakow. There'll certainly be more to talk about concerning both of these cities, but we felt it appropriate to start the Polish portion of our program with the forest that got us going in the first place.

Location:Białowieza, Poland

Highlights: Germany

Potsdam Sansoucci Park: The park and grounds surrounding the summer home of King Frederich II. Filled with statues and palaces and gardens around every other corner of its well-maintained pathways that make you wonder if you took a wrong turn somewhere and mistakenly made it to Greece.

BioCompany: probably high priced for most goods, but a savior for gluten-free treats or bread mixes...which turn into good picnics, breakfasts and emergency snacks. Plus, there was delicious cheese to taste at the counter.

Film museum: Sadly, the big exhibit was closed for renovations while we visited, otherwise we would have attended. Babelsburg Film Studios are linked to this space and akin to MGM or Universal stateside - similarly expensive as well. Babelsburg is the biggest studio in Europe, though, and recently was home to the filming of Inglorious Basterds.

Stadt für Eine Nacht Festival: A great one day arts and music festival that we lucked out being in town for. Located at the culture center in Potsdam (part of which is the Fluxus museum), a few of the highlights of the day included the cost (free), Grotest Maru's Timebank: an amazing performance art troop from Berlin, the band Jersey (not sure how they are recorded, but they were good live), and any breeze we managed to find off the river.

Berlin Tacheles: So the stairwell smells like fresh bathroom. But otherwise, this place was incredible to walk through - there were multiple good (and if not good, at least prolific and/or interesting) open studios, a sculpture park out back, and layers upon layers of graffiti and posters marking the time that artists have been camped out here. It is on the verge of potentially being shuttered for good, considering all of the new development in Mitte, so we are happy to have gotten there now. If it cannot live on as is, perhaps the spirit of it will in another form.

Pro QM: Hands down, the best design, architecture, modern culture bookstore we have ever frequented. Myriad local and international publications - they even had my all-time favorite, Cabinet, which was strangely comforting to browse. Eli drooled for a while over a wall of all things design and we decided that taking notes on the titles was the best way to take anything with us. Not the warmest service in Berlin, but that is easily ignored once you glance at anything else.

Reichstag building: Nevermind the beautiful green space in front of the house of Parliament. The magic in this building is the way the glass dome fits in so well with the classical architecture holding it up. We didn't get to go in (there's a three day wait for visitors) but the idea is to keep Parliament and the government in general transparent; they wanted people to be able to walk in the dome's spiral, also reminding the elected officials below who is in charge.

Free walking tour for the overview sites: Lewis, our fearless and knowledgable Dutch transplant guide, lead the way through the mobs of aimless tourists and shared with us a balance of facts, anecdotes, and present day reflection on everything from Brandenburg Gate and its Victory (previously name Peace) Sculpture on top to the the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe to the 1989 press conference debacle that lead to the fall of the wall (we can thank Tom Brokaw for asking the important question of exactly when the travel restrictions were to be lifted). The tour guides work completely on commission, and are clear that you pay according to both your budget and the value extracted from the three hour tour. It was well worth it to us and we hope that no one is lame enough to flat out stiff any of the guides.

Stasi exhibit: A free exhibit located right near the almost laughable tourism of Checkpoint Charlie, it may or may not be a somewhat western viewpoint of life in the GDR under the Stasi Secret Police. Fascinating, regardless. Despite the the aforementioned Checkpoint's Disney qualities, there are a slew of giant placards with a lot of great historical info.

Making Mirrors: A gallery exhibition at the NGBK gallery in the hip, artsy, highlight-in-its-own-right, neighborhood of Kreuzberg. The gallery is tucked behind a nice little bookshop, but had several really great works that force some reflection on society and human interaction:

Academy of Art / Akadémie der Künste: Another place we didn't get to explore as much as we had hoped, thanks to it behind closed for summer break. The main building itself is pretty spectacular though, and overlooks Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Tor.

Magdeburg Cable Island: aforementioned wake boarding adventures....tucked into the middle of the city, naturally.

die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg Better known as the Hundertwasser house which is pretty much the wild, slightly tacky physical realization of his artwork.

Magdeburg Dom: The oldest cathedral in Germany, and one of the tallest in the former east Germany. Construction began in 1209, though it took a couple hundred years to complete it. It's huge and filled with art and scultpures and carvings, and also happened to save 4000 people from murder, rape, etc. during the 30 Years War.

Plau Am See Plauer See: Lake houses are always nice, but they're even better when they are on a chain of lakes and with friends you haven't seen in ten plus years. This also happens to be (if memory serves) the third largest lake in Germany.

Kletterpark: Climbing on tight ropes and swinging ropes 30-40 ft in the air (with harnesses). Who knew it could be so entertaining?

In General Old friends, new babies, great families. Rides on old bikes on dirt roads. Murphy beds. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. Baths in lakes. A nip of Honey infused Highland Malt Whiskey from the apiary up the road from the lake house that we enjoyed in Berlin while on video chat with awesome friends. Gluten-free selection in most German supermarkets. Jacob brand instant espresso: cheaper than 2euro coffee and tastes better sometimes. Dairy selection: particularly quark (pronounced kvahrk), apfel-mohn yogurt, Soft cheeses and, especially, Waldmeister ice cream. Dark chocolate spread and honey at every breakfast, and a little more chocolate tucked in a peel roasted banana after a cook-out. Watching Inglorious Basterds in Magdeburg - somewhat surreal. Learning how to understand the Deutsche Bahn train system. Practicing our German with a two year old and the parents of our friends.

Location:Pogodna,Białystok,Poland

Berlin Revisited

We couldn't help ourselves. Two days in Berlin was clearly not enough time to even get acquainted with the city AND we wanted to visit our friend's family, so we extended our post-lake jaunt to a four day stay. As was mentioned in the Part II post, we had previously been on a walking tour that gave solid coverage to some of the basic historical and cultural sites. This was beneficial because it gave us the space to have someone else remind us of the facts (and know they were correct) and for our brains to wrap slowly, quietly around the vast and complex nature of this city. With every morning, a new walk through a different neighborhood brought the realization that Berlin has many tricks up it's sleeves. The onion skin would peel back and Kreuzburg would deliver to us a sea of hipsters, bookstores and art surprises as well as a Turkish street market, doner kebap[sic] shops and sanctioned murals on the firewalls of old buildings.

Another day, we found ourselves at the birthday party of Carla's brother, Christoph, held in a super-mod bar with great wallpaper and even better caipirinhas near Hackesher Markt in Mitte. It was here that we found ourselves shouting over the pub crawl packed with young (and loud) British students to continue a great conversation with a friend of Christoph's, who also happens to be a police officer (and, of course, spent a high school year in Wisconsin). It was also here that we felt less like tourists (looking, observing, documenting) and more just like part of a place, if even in a temporary way.

That being said, Berlin is so densely rich with history that being a part of it must be a widely varied and evolutionary experience - growing up through the changes, showing up fresh faced and blinking, or coming to it a year from now all would hold their own story of what its true identity is. The oldness meeting the newness is evident not only in the architecture, but in the people and their convictions, in the personal memorials fit snuggly into the bricks on the street, and in the infusion of art happenings that we heard about and could sense existed but somehow missed the bulk of.

However, to use the architecture to illustrate the point, we got the best view of Pariser Platz - where the Brandenburg Gate is - from the inside of the Académie der Kunst (Academy of Art), which is impressive enough on it's own. Here's the inside of the Académie and the square in full - both practically right on top of one another:

In addition to all of this reflection, we were treated to wonderful meals and a great place to stay with incredibly kind and generous people. In fact, the view of the TV tower at the start of this post comes courtesy of a look out the window from Christoph's flat. He welcomed us to stay the extra couple of days and was exponentially helpful. Overall, we left feeling incredibly lucky - the shared meals and, more importantly, conversations that we are a part of continue to add dimension to our visits that cannot come out of us wandering the streets solo, reading information off the placards. Plus, we enjoyed, with our dear friends, some of the best hot chocolate on this side of the Atlantic thus far:

Location:Berlin, Germany