Poland - Day 4, Warsaw

After another nice breakfast at our hotel, we ventured out to use the metro for the first time. It was really inexpensive to use, and with the aid of our phones, it was easy.

During our ride, we saw a very drunk shirtless man (it was way before noon, btw). He was wandering slowly around the cars, and every time he grew near to people, they would ease away. We all listened to Matt and avoided eye contact, and luckily it wasn't long until he got off the train.

When our stop came up, Matt took the kids to the nearby train museum while Anna and I went to the Uprising Museum.

In the summer of 1944, Nazis had occupied Poland for nearly five years. The Soviet army was advancing on Warsaw, and although they were allies, the Polish Home Army wanted to control their own country instead of letting Stalin take over. For this reason, the Polish resistance tried to push the Germans out of Warsaw. The resistance went on for about two months, and though the Poles gained control of some areas of the city, they were ultimately defeated. This whole time, the Soviet army was camped outside of Warsaw, waiting. The British army tried to help by doing supply drops, but it was not enough. In January of 1945, the Soviet army arrived to "free" Warsaw, which of course meant that they assumed control. If you want to learn more about the Warsaw Uprising, go here.

 The museum was large, with interesting artefacts and films. There was a chronological order to it, but it was confusing because there wasn't a clear path from the beginning to the end. I sort of wandered, and I feel like it would have made more sense if I'd been able to go in order. Still, it was informative and sobering at times. I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want to make light of what happened.

Armbands worn by resistance fighters

One soldier's identity papers and letters from loved ones

This is what might have been in an air drop

Another example of an air drop's contents

Anna and I had started out walking around together, but soon went our own ways within the building. After awhile, Matt texted to say that the kids were getting hungry and they were leaving the train museum. I think I walked back through the museum four times from top to bottom, but didn't find her. Finally Matt said just to come outside to wait, and I found Anna near the front door. It was a good lesson to make a plan before wandering away from each other.

We crossed the street to find a strip of small takeaway and coffee shops, so we stopped for lunch. The kids had an enormous bag of frites, and I had an enormous coffee (I don't remember what anyone else chose).

Once we had eaten, Matt said he wanted to check out the Copernicus Science Museum. However, when we arrived, there were only a few tickets remaining for the day- and entry was hours later. The kids did play outside for a few minutes before we started back toward the area of our hotel.

The path we took was a different part of the city than we'd seen so far, and we walked through a pretty little park (the kids were disappointed not to see any playgrounds).

We passed shops and businesses, and tried to keep the kids entertained. It wasn't late, but we were all feeling tired.

There was cool artwork on some of the buildings

The area right near our hotel

We bought ice cream for the kids and went back to our rooms to rest. Anna opted to stay in the hotel rather than venture back out for dinner, but Matt and I took the kids to a restaurant we had passed earlier.

Bread with a cream cheese spread. Everyone liked it!

Feeding her mermaid

Potato pancakes

Guess what Miles ate

Chicken and chips

This was tasty

"Look how full I am!"

Complimentary dessert

After our meal, the server brought shots of Polish honey wine for Matt and me. It wasn't bad- it was sweet and didn't burn going down.

Since this was our last night in Warsaw, we had to keep with the tradition of paczki every night. We took them back to the hotel, ate, and went to bed. The next day brought all new adventures!