Vodka anyone?

Yep, we have done it again - added another city to our list (AND another country!) that is :-) Jeroen and I just spent a long weekend in the "wilds" of eastern Europe, in the Polish city of Wroclaw (phonetically speaking, Vroshwav - what else??). We have now decided to try and fly to ALL the Ryanair destinations on the list from Dusseldorf Weeze. 3 down (Wroclaw, Berlin and London), so only about 41 to go !!

And what a strange/friendly/other-wordly little city it is. AND what a bizarre language Polish is. Bloody hell, I thought Dutch was difficult to understand, but Polish has absolutely no recognisable words, let alone combinations of letters! Just about every letter is pronounced as something else (for example, a W is a V, an L with a stripe through it is a W, a Z with a dot above it is different to a Z without a dot - aaaggghhh, help) and for those of you who love to hang out on sunny terraces drinking coffee, forget it - Poland is definately not big on drinking coffee......beer and vodka yes, but anything else is as rare as seeing someone with a non square-shaped head ! We did manage to have a lovely weekend though, despite all the aforementioned hardships ;-)

For starters we really lucked on a great hotel (booking over the internet is always a bit of a risk - you are never really quite sure what is in store). But for a bargain price we got a 4 star hotel in a great central location, friendly & helpful staff (who could speak perfect English), a huge buffet breakfast, and a swimming pool, jacuzzi & sauna all thrown in.

We also had near perfect weather the entire weekend. Sunny and not too hot, perfect for doing lots of walking. The only time it really rained was Saturday evening, and by that time we were well ensconced undercover on a terrace mixing it up with the locals :-) We spent Saturday evening with the eyebrow-less Mischa (courtesy of one of those "boys-will-be-boys" practical jokes), and his friend, the chatty Bartek. We were treated to traditional Polish pierogi (a sort of dumpling stuffed with, amongst other things, meat & cabbage or cheese & pototato - yum!), and plenty of cherry flavoured vodka. When in Rome...... ;-)

During the three full days we spent in Wroclaw, we managed to see pretty much all the touristy sights the city has to offer. High on the list, but in no particular order were:

The Raclawice Panorama
A massive painting of 15 x 120 m depicting the "legendary" General Tadeusz Kosciuszko's victory over the Russian forces at Raclawice in 1794. The battle was a part of the eventually unsuccessful, but nontheless heroic Polish battle for independance. Taking just over 9 months to complete, the painting is now displayed in a purpose built rotunda. Originally banned from public display by the communists, it has been a huge draw card since its unveiling in 1985. Impressive and lifelike. I could almost smell the gunpowder in the air.

See http://www.panoramaraclawicka.pl/ for more.

NB For those of you in Oz reading this you may recognise the name of General Kosciuszko ;-) Yep, it IS one and the same - our highest mountain is named after him! But wait for it, after all those years of pronouncing it Kozzie-osko, imagine my surprise to find it sounds more like Kozkushko !!

Gnomes

Yep, you read it right - gnomes! One of Wroclaw's cutest and most popular attractions is not a cathedral/church (and there are PLENTY of those), not a castle or monument, but a legion of "little people". We were definately keeping our eyes peeled for the little fellas as we walked about town. The work of a local artist, the little bronze gnome statues are discreetly placed all over the city, and are engaged in all sorts of weird and wonderful activities - from riding a pigeon, to passed out drunk, to plastering a wall. There are reportedly up to 100 gnomes around town, but we only managed to find 14 of them....hhhhmmmm, maybe an excuse for a return visit!?

The People's Hall

This UNESCO listed heritage site was really something when it was built in 1913. Designed by renowned modernist architect, Max Berg, it was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig, and is apparently a shining example of the beauty of reinforced concrete! These days the greying concrete monolith is mainly used for trade fairs and concerts, but in the past it has hosted everyone from Joe Cocker, to Pope John Paul II, to the Dalai Lama.

Train station

Not usually on my list of tourist attractions when visiting new cities, but when we read the following description in our tourist guide we just had to pay it a visit. And I quote: "the station, at the time of its completion in 1857, was the biggest in Europe ..... but today only the marvellous vaulted ceilings remind visitors of those long lost days when arriving by train was a pleasure not a chore ...... the usual smattering of toothless wonders with their rancid dogs are still ten a penny ...... the station serves as an impromptu social club for tramps, junkies and people who talk to windows ...... and it was on platform 3 that Polish cult actor Zbigniew Cybulski (aka The Polish James Dean) died while trying to jump onto a moving train bound for Warsaw". How could you resist? :-)

Rynek (market sqaure)
Whilst gawping at the medieval beauty of Wroclaw's market square, it is difficult to remember that in 1945 much of the square was levelled by the war. In fact most of Wroclaw was levelled! Such was the dedication of Wroclaw's "pioneers" (the Polish resettlers who moved back and kicked all the Germans out of what was then Breslau (the Germans including one of my uncles!)) that all was rebuilt with a remarkable attention to detail. They even rebuilt a faithful replica of the stone pillory used from 1492 to way into the 18th century to flog prostitutes and thieves. Although whilst walking through the cobblestoned square, I must admit to a bit of a Disneyland feeling - alot of the buildings are painted in garish yellows, greens and pinks!

The Japanese & Botanical Gardens
Both worth a visit if you are into all things green and tranquil. I was pretty keen to see some good bonsai specimans (to give me an idea of what I can expect of my own little bonsai in about 150 years!) and I wasn't disappointed. The Japanese garden was established back in 1913 and they made quite a big deal of the whole red & white thing - with both the flags of Poland and Japan being red & white. The funniest thing we noticed though was the fact that the "guidebook" (more like an A4 sized flyer) was more expensive than the actual entrance LOL

And despite the fact that outside the lovingly restored inner-city, everything, in true eastern block style, is grey, miserable and totally run down, it was all in all, another fun and interesting weekend and a small taste of life in the east.

Alli xxx