I woke up at 10. In pain. So much pain.
A few glasses of water later, and after forcing myself awake, I felt a little better. I need to take a few days off. Probably starting tomorrow.
I had sort of recovered by noon, when Judson and I gathered the energy to head outside into the daylight.
We were surprisingly efficient yesterday, so only had a few things to get done/see today. The first was the Palace of Culture (formerly the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture).
The Palace is the tallest building in Warsaw and Poland, the 8th tallest building in Europe, and the 187th tallest building in the world. At a towering 234 meters, with 42 floors plus a 43 meter broadcasting antennae on top, the building stands out in the Warsaw skyline.
Due to the manner by which the Palace was built in Warsaw (as a gift from the glorious Joseph Stalin), it's been very controversial over the years. It was almost torn down in 1989 as the Berlin wall was being dismantled. For many, it seems, the building represents years of Soviet domination. There's a joke in Poland that the best view of Warsaw is from the Palace, because it's the only place in the city where you won't see it.
I was underwhelmed by the view, though reaffirmed in my belief that Warsaw is, architecturally-speaking, stunning. It was also a little cloudy, and we had to pay 20PLN each (just shy of $6) to get in, so that didn't help either.
We left the Palace and walked around it to the other side. From there we walked a few blocks to Ulica Złota 60. Here is the site of one of the last remnants of the old Warsaw Ghetto wall.
It wasn't easy to find. Even with the address and the place marked on my map, we had trouble locating it. If it wasn't for a tiny blue sign on a random pole in the street, we wouldn't have found the unmarked gate to cross through, from where we had to walk around a corner about 30 yards to find the wall.
It was a tall, eerie, hastily constructed brick monstrosity, set right in the middle of the downtown area. It's amazing to think that the Warsaw Ghetto was just a cordoned-off section of town, not a separate place, like the one outside of Bistritz. This tiny section of wall is all that seems to remain.
I left two stones on the wall, one for those imprisoned and another for those who fought back.
We walked back towards the hostel and, as directed by our gracious hosts, took the #4 tram line three stops, from the corner of Świetokrzyska and Marszałkowska (which means Marshall Street) to Pl. Konstytucji. From there, we waited for and boarded the 519 bus towards Powsin-Park Kultury. We got off about 25 minutes later at Wilanów.
Wilanów is situated on a small estuary outside the city proper. Today, it is adjacent to some new constructions that resemble Soviet-era apartment houses, but the palace itself is still well hidden behind some trees.
We didn't go inside. I'm not sure if they usually let visitors inside, but they seem to have been doing renovations of various aspects of the house when we passed by - looking through windows, we saw people repainting doors, cleaning mirrors, etc. Some of the exterior busts from the wall had been replaced by molded copies, and the originals have been set aside in a glass warehouse on the edge of the building for restoration.
That being said, Wilanów is gorgeous. It resembles the Peterhoff quite a bit, with a bright yellow exterior, intricate design work, and statues everywhere. These statues were of stone, not gold, and the fountains were off, and the back of the house hits the water, not the front. But it is an impressive structure, very European, and clearly a product of an Enlightened architect.
After wandering the grounds for a while, we headed out to grab a bus back. Of course we barely missed bus 519 back, and so we had to wait the absolute maximum amount of time to get the next one.
Back by the hostel, we picked up some kebab. It was glorious. First meal of the day at 4:30, when it was dark.
I rested for a while, taking an hour-long nap, calling home, answering emails, etc. Then happy hour rolled around.
Justyna made me promise to show up to Happy Hour, but I didn't want to be getting drunk tonight. Around 7:45 I gave in and got a liter of beer for 7 PLN ($2)
Some Brazilian woman sat down with me and started going on and on about how I should go to her country, telling me how it is nothing like the photos and videos of Carnival, but all she described of the country sounded exactly like Carnival in Rio, or at least my imagined version if it.
At some point Judson and I met an Aussie guy (born in Sri Lanka) named Dinuka. He's got his PHD from Sydney in Astrophysics, a fact I only mention because I think it's impressive to hold a conversation with someone of that caliber. That being said, we spent a few hours arguing the tenants of socialized systems, both in socialist countries and in more traditional republics. It took a few hours, but I think I won. He ceded the point to me that socialism is inherently flawed and not sustainable, and that capitalism is the better alternative or, as he put it in a halfway admittance, perhaps the answer was found somewhere in the middle. Really good guy though, and I'm sure if he read this he'd disagree with my view of the outcome. Oh well.
Midnight McD's and Kebab run. McDonald's out of the US doesn't sell Quarter Pounders, but the McRoyals... It was funny. Other stuff, too.
Asleep circa 1:30.
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