I Left My Heart In Poland Part 4 - Wrocław!!!

Heyyy everyone!!!!

Yes yes, I went to Poland again. It was a kind of birthday celebration (thanks Mom and Dad!), a chance to meet up with one of my best friends from Stanford (who is also Polish and working in Warsaw), and of course, another chance to go to Poland which I clearly couldn't turn down.

I went to the city of Wrocław (pronounced V-roh-tz-wav..its ok if you fail though it's pretty hard to say haha), which is not too far from the German border. Annddd Dresden runs an express train there a few times a day... Dresden being the other major East German city which is about an hour and a half from Leipzig. So this was all fantastic travel news for me : )

I was both incredibly happy to go to Poland again and incredibly sad upon leaving because I realized it was going to be my last time there for at least a year. I didn't go with any particular Wrocław history in my head or anything.. I actually didn't know much about it until I got there, just that it was the 4th major city in Poland (after Warszawa, Kraków, and Gdańsk), and that it was known for some goregeous medieval architecture.

It was seriously one of the largest and most beautiful town squares that I have ever seen. In Poland it's always fun to walk around the Rynek Głowny (main squares), but this one in particular really captivated me. There were also little gnome sculptures everywhere - which I found slightly strange and incredibly awesome at the same time. I later looked it up and found out that they were actually a sign of protest against the Communists. There was some big parade protest where someone dressed up as a gnome and handed out supplies not available under Communism, but because he was dressed up as a gnome the Communists could find no real reason to arrest him because it was all so silly. (I could not make this stuff up). After that, graffiti-ing gnomes became a sign of undercover protest, and little sculptures throughout the city remain a reminder of the city's fighting (and kind of silly) spirit in Communist times.

Wrocław is also pretty cheap and not super touristy which was really nice. I think it's because it's not the easiest of Polish cities to get too.. you really have to come by train. There was a fair amount of Germans but not so many of the drunken English bachelor parties you tended to see in Krakow. We still ran into one (who tried to hit on me - I gave the inquisitor my best Polish blank stare), but one is a lot different than the like 20 I saw in Krakow last time I was there...

It was also fabulously fun not being the most competent one in Polish, like I've been the last few times I've gone. Being the only one that speaks a little Polish is no problem and is even kind of fun - but I just used to find it kind of frightening that I was the most competent person at handling situations that required only Polish....considering my current less than spectacular levels of Polish. As I've gotten better and better in German I tend to through some Deutsch words in my Polish sentences too, which just makes everything all the more exciting and random : ) . But anyways, Emma's really good in Polish because she's been in Poland her last 3 summers, and she brought along with her two friends from Warsaw that are actually Polish. We were all instantly great friends. I love Polish people : )

Anyways, in a nutshell, Emma and I went out for my birthday both nights, ate epically delicious Polish food the whole weekend, and walked around and went shopping during the day. I wish there was more to report but that was really it. But it was really the best last weekend in Poland I could have asked for. I was really sad when I left as I always am but I know I'll be back. I have to go visit my favorite gnome, Piotr again. I promised : )

LOVE U ALL!!!!

-Court