This is nearly 2 weeks overdue, but I'll finally be writing about my trip to Poland a couple of weeks ago :P
I've ripped quite an number of photos from Sarah & Siying on Facebook too
Siying, Sarah, Kenelm & I had travelled to Warsaw and Poland. And I was really enthralled by the fact that this place has so much of the 20th history that I've studied in secondary school. History was my favourite subject then, so I was definitely excited.
DAY 1: WARSAW
First up was our flight to Warsaw, and when we stepped outside we started snapping away at this huge, elaborate building (at that time we didn't know it's name. And some local greeted us "Tourists! Hello!").
This building is the "Palace of Culture and Science", and was a gift from the Soviet Union to Poland during the 1950s (cold war period).
Coming to Warsaw, I remembered one thing: Warsaw Pact (a mutual defence treaty of the communist states during the Cold War). Turns out that THIS building was where the treaty was signed. It's pretty cool that I stood where Stalin has been! :)
Here's an aerial view of Warsaw that we had seen from the 30th storey of the building. We were fortunate enough to catch the sunset, which made the trip on the rooftop a lot better, because Warsaw has been so modernized there wasn't much of history or culture to appreciate.
We went to explore Old Town in the night, and the picture above on the right was a memorial of those that died in the wars.
DAY 2: KRAKOW
We took a bus from Warsaw to Krakow, which took half the day away. Well, we still had sufficient time to see and appreciate Old Town in Krakow!
City Square and all its hustle and bustle
By far my favourite part/image of Old Town, a whole row of beautiful paintings!
Krakow's sky is filled with beautiful pastel hues throughout the day, and they're ESPECIALLY beautiful when the sun sets. I'm so glad that we've caught it a couple of times, really.
DAY 3: AUSCHWITZ
Say, you're a Jew from Austria, here's your journey...
You, as well as other Jews, were told that you would be "relocated". So you and your family would pack your bags and squeeze with many others in that cabin.
When the cabin stops and you come out, this is where you are - in the middle of nowhere. You've got no clue. Back then, the nearest house from this place was at least 5km away.
Your belongings wouldn't be yours any more, but it could be the least of your worries. People would be sorted to those 2 groups: Those to do hard labour, and those to be sent to the gas chambers
There were many scratch marks on the walls of the gas chambers.
And the children weren't spared.
So for those who were sent to do manual labour instead, here's a look at their living conditions. It is definitely not as clean as this, considering that people die and do their "business"/"release themselves" here. They also only get bread and some soup once a day. Most would die from lack of nutrition and sanitation, averaging 1-2 months for females and 6 months for males.
Those who rebelled were shot or hung in an assembly of all the prisoners.
On the whole, it was a pretty solemn trip and I have no happy photos to show of the place (given how inappropriate it was to take things like a selfie). It's crazy how so much has happened and how each and every one of these 1.6 million lives that were claimed, and thousands tortured, have been reduced to being part of a statistic. I don't mean that they're just 1 out of 1,600,000, but rather, there's not much to remember them by as an individual. No tomb or tablet or form of proper burial as an individual. It's overwhelming.
On to slightly happier stuff...
This is an apple coated with chocolate, and with cinnamon sprinkled over it. Of all the chocolate-coated fruits, this was definitely the best combination I've ever had :)
We went to a place called Yellow Dog for dinner, because we were told that it serves great Singaporean food.
Yes the place is an Asian restaurant called Yellow Dog
And yes, it's a racist term (it was the nickname of the Singaporean chef when he was in the UK)
And yes, that's a dog's butt on the logo of a restaurant.
Anyway, considering that Europe would lack certain ingredients that would normally be used, the food was pretty legit. Like, you can tell that this is Laksa, and Beef Rendang, and Chicken Masala (it's the best there). A pretty decent job.
DAY 3: WIELICKZCA & WAWEL CASTLE
I'll update on Wielickzca another time, when I have photos :P
There isn't much to say about Wawel Castle, we only had about 2 hours before it got dark and the exhibitions were closed when we got there. But we've managed to catch the sunset again :)
Sunsets were especially wonderful in Poland because there aren't many tall buildings/skyscrapers here. Also, because it's winter, the sunsets have a very nice pastel hue. (The camera couldn't catch the green hue then). The buildings were also in complementary pastel shades.
Siying and I were joking about how we knew the people that owned the castle, Johann, Petyr and Elizahabeth Wawel. (hahaha John, Peter and Elizabeth would be too mainstream). Siying started it HAHA
What was I trying to do...
FOOD
Got a caramel vodka shot, tried a bit of hazelnut and mango too. Would have liked it more if it weren't pure. The strong flavours were nice, but the burning sensation afterwards wasn't so nice for me.
Deer goulash and pierogi (Polish dumplings). The goulash was shiok for winter, but I'm not a fan of the dumplings. The skin was a little bit thick for my liking, partly because I'm used to Chinese dumplings with the thin dough. They served us the filling of the dumplings in a bowl, and the meat was awesome I just whacked.
Got a crepe from this place called Manekin, which were decently priced. The portions were huge and had a lot of cream/chocolate, so we were all struggling to finish our crepes (which we didn't). They gave us their cool pretty postcards (Excellent service!)
And there was Yellow Dog and the chocolate cinnamon apple (:
So what's up next would be my trip to north of Sweden to catch the Northern Lights! Really hoping for clear skies to be able to catch them. Unfortunately, I don't have the proper camera for photos (oh well google images)
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