Yesterday we were a little underwhelmed by Warsaw, possibly because Ton was under the weather and without her list of places to see I am a little lost. We cut our losses and headed back early. As I said yesterday, Ton rested for the evening, and this morning she felt a lot better so we headed back into town.
We got off the tram at Charles de Gaulle roundabout and the first thing we came across is a giant artificial palm tree. It was erected in 2002 to honor the Jewish population of Warsaw. One of the streets that feeds into the roundabout is Jerusalem street which led to the old Jewish Quarter. The artist had visited Jerusalem and was impressed with the number of palm trees in the city. This inspired her to erect the artificial tree as a temporary street art exhibit. It split the community with many people liking it and many hating it. But the people who liked it won the rest of the city over by showing up one January weekend for a beach party in the center of the roundabout complete with bathing suits and beer.
We decided to stroll down Nowy Swiat (New World)street, which is the main street leading to the old town. At the beginning of the street is the building that used to be the communist party headquarters in Poland. After the fall of the communist government the Poles showed their disdain for communism and sense of humor by converting it to the first stock exchange in the new capitalist Poland. It is now an office building but it still hosts one of the major banks in Poland.
Our first stop was at the Church of the Holy Cross. It is a nice Catholic Church with a pretty interior. At one time the composer Chopin was the organist at the church. Chopin is another national icon of Poland. The main reason we visited the church is because Chopin’s heart is buried in the church.
Unlike yesterday we began to appreciate Warsaw as we strolled down the street. The University of Warsaw is located just off the street and the students were out in force giving a positive energy to the crowd on the street. There were a lot of elementary and middle school groups on their end of the year school trips that also brought a good energy. The sun came out as we walked and Ton felt a lot better than yesterday. So we enjoyed ourselves.
As we were leaving the market square we saw a sign for a tea shop which offered over 120 types of tea. It said it was located in the basement, and it looked interesting to me, (though I was hoping they also offered coffee). We headed in on the spur of the moment and it was a great experience.
We both ended up ordering teas (no coffee), and they were carefully prepared and meticulously served. We didn’t realize when we ordered them that we were ordering pots of tea, because the price made us think we were ordering cups of tea. We ended up sipping on our tea for about an hour as our pots seemed bottomless, but the tea was delicious.
The coat of arms of Warsaw features a mermaid armed with a shield and sword. Apparently, no one really knows why. So the locals have made up a legend for the mermaid. The mermaid is a fresh water mermaid (Polish has different words for fresh water and salt water mermaids.) She swam up the Vistula and when she got to the old town she liked the place. But she didn’t like the fishing nets so she began to create currents and waves in the water to free the fish. When the fishermen went to capture her she charmed them with a song so they left her alone. But a rich merchant decided to capture her and put her on display. The fishermen of the city rescued her, and since then she has taken up arms to protect Warsaw.
Yesterday we had walked by a restaurant that we wanted to try. Ton has been looking for cabbage rolls since we arrived in Poland, but apparently they are not as popular with Poles as they are with Polish-Americans as we have not found a lot of restaurants that feature them. This restaurant had them on the menu so we headed over for lunch today. I ordered the Schnitzel that was the daily special for about $12. But when Ton ordered her cabbage rolls they said they were out, so she settled for Goulash. My Schnitzel arrived and it was the biggest pork cutlet I had ever seen. Tons Goulash was also immense. In addition we had a big bowl of sauerkraut and two giant dill pickles given to us as appetizers. We didn’t come close to finishing our meals, and ended up skipping supper.
Sometimes first impressions are wrong. Today Warsaw won us over and we really enjoyed ourselves. We are both glad we gave it a second chance.
