Tuesday 17th August mileage 5775 Warsaw poland

Lovely nights sleep in hostel although some "young people" were making a noise until after midnight, but I forgive them I was young once !! The breakfast that is included consists of freee coffe or tea and bread and jam, but there is a toasting machine so I felt right at home.  Sat with the couple I had met yesterday who had a young baby boy with them.  In conversation it turned out they were both from the Ukraine. She had a green card to get into America and they were busy going back and forth to the American Consulate to sort out details of how they can go to America as a family.  They said things are bad in the Ukraine.  No work for him and she can only get part time work as cleaner, but now with the child they are having to do something radical to change things.  She didn't say how she managed to get the green card.

Set off to explore Warsaw and in particular the Ghetto area and the National Museum to the Warsaw Uprising.  
On the way just around the corner from the hostel I saw my first Suzuki 650 v-strom in silver.  I wonder if I can interest him in a pannier !!

First to ul Sienna 55 where there are the remains of the wall that seperated the Ghetto from the rest of Warsaw, and it is also the location for the loading ramps for the trains that took the Jews to Treblinka and Auschwitz.

Ther plaque commemorates the 400,000 Jews who perished in the Ghetto.  100,000 from hunger , and the other 300,000 from the reprisals after the uprisings and being shipped to concentration camps.

Now on to the museum and again on the way was an interesting advertising hoarding showing a young woman excited at getting her new apartment in Warsaw, the contrast with the photos yesterday of Jewish people on the Ghetto wall was very striking to me.

 

Also saw a mural or maybe graffiti on the side of a housing block. Not sure exactly what the message is and who the soldiers are but interesting none the same.

Pressed on to the museum !!  It seems there is a conspiracy to make things difficult for me !!  I set off with the tourist map and had decided to walk to the National Uprising Museum.  The address is ul Przyokopowa 28 and was in section D3 of the map. Found the street and was making for it when the road leading to  ul Przyokopowa was blocked off totally for road works, so I walked around and approached from the other end.  As I was walking along I'm thinking this is not right, I am passing scrap car yards, and battery manufacturers and it did not look like the location for Warsaw's primary museum.  Stopped and looked at the map again and saw there is another ul Przyokopowa not connected to the one I was on but also in section D3, and very confident now because this location had a symbol for a museum next to it.  Off again and I arrive at the museum.  Closed all day Tuesday !!!! open every other day of the week, just closed Tuesday.  I was not the only frustrated person, there were plenty of other people arriving hoping to visit the museum.  Anyway here is a picture of the outside just to wet your appetite !!

Anyway undaunted I decided to walk up to Pawiak Prison to see the place where people were imprisoned by the Nazis.  Again on the way passed this intersting contraption outside a bank !

Eventually worked out it was a coin printing press !!

So pressed on and arrived at Pawiak Prison and you guessed it cloed on Tuesdays and Mondays.  It could have been worse imagine arriving late on Sunday night wanting to visit!!  So agin have to make do with shots of the outside for now.

So tired and dejected ( I reckon I have walked 5 miles today) I set off back to find the hostel, and again came across an interesting cultural experience. I found the place where all the sex shops had been collected together ( about six) and I felt it was my duty to inspect them all to make sure I wasn't missing out on an important aspect of eastern european culture. It's a hard job (no pun intended) but someone has to do it. I can confirm that all six shops were selling very similar wares!! No photos I'm afraid, my mother reads this blog !!

Later I passed the Palace of Culture and Science, a huge building that dominates Warsaw centre.  It was a gift fron Stalin to the people of Poland to commemorate their joining of the Soviet pact in 1945.  It looks just like the building out of Ghost Busters.

So in many ways this seems like a wasted day, but since I have no fixed agenda I will do the museums tomorrow.  I have booked into this hostel for another night and then into the one in Krakow for one night, and then it is luxury with Savi in 4 star hotels for 4 days !!!

More later

TOR