Travels with Mom & Dad

Looky here.....another post. I'm on fire....or I just have a lot of time on my hands. Either way..you, my dear readers, score another exciting, informative, must-read post. Or...maybe you have a lot of time on your hands and can use this to pass the time.

Back in May/ June, Mom and Dad came over to Europe for a month long road trip. They rented a car in Geneva and planned to just travel where the wind took them. Of course, they arrived and the weather gods had other ideas....namely, torrential rain and historic flooding! Ah yes, the typical Janis vacation!!

Anyway, because their plan was quite flexible, I got to spend a lot of time with them. Two trips to be precise....I'm really lucky my parents love to travel (gee, wonder where I got the gene to live overseas??!!) and I get to see them on a fairly regular basis (yes, once a year is fairly regular!). I, also, love that we have discovered these new places together and I'm not always just "showing them around". It's fun. And this time, it was a road trip- just like when I was growing up!! Janis-style family fun.

As it was over a month ago, I may not remember everything, but I'm going to write a summary of each city we visited......here goes!

Wroclaw

The first weekend I spent with Mom & Dad started in Wroclaw, Poland. As I stated in the previous post, I was there for school. My colleagues left on Thursday after dropping my off at the hotel where I met Mom & Dad (hereafter known as M & D- my fingers are going to start cramping if I keep typing it out long hand).

First of all, let's discuss the hotel...Puro Hotel is something to behold. I booked it because it looked like it was centrally located, had wi-fi (I was still doing my grad classes then), and seemed fairly reasonable in price (which for what the place offered, it was). Um.....how can I describe the place? Well, it was very, very modern and tech-ed out. The check-in was diy on a computer in the middle of the lobby. iPads were located all over the lobby, comfy couches and chairs, books, free coffee, etc. included. The rooms were small, but chic and everything was controlled via touchscreen panel. Very nice....BUT, well, let's talk about the loo. If you ever decide to stay in said hotel and you are planning on sharing the room with another person......just be sure you really know said person. Basically, the walls to the loo are glass- not opaque glass, translucent glass. Completely. Which was really cool for me as I was staying alone and found the design really nice...river rocks, uplighting, etc. But if you had company....let's just say you would really get to know each other very, very intimately!!! Haha! Actually, I'm pretty sure there was a curtain that could be pulled to separate the bedroom from the loo area....M & D found it very interesting!

A bit of glimpse of Mleczarnia

OK, enough about the hotel...let's get to the city itself.

After meeting up with M & D, saying our Hellos (almost one year since I last saw them), and putzing around their room a bit, we went across the street in search of a drink. We found this lovely little cafe called Mleczarnia right across from the hotel. Situated between two Jewish restaurants, we didn't realize that we were actually in the Jewish Quarter until later, this little cafe/ pub was adorable. Lots of old pictures, mismatched furniture, and just all around cool vibe. There is, also, a lovely beer garden in back and a hostel upstairs. Would definitely love to come back and stay in the hostel.

After a piwo, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and then headed out to see the square. The hotel was really perfectly located, we only had to walk about two blocks and we entered a little alley way that opened up to the first little square.

OH- one important little note- the gnomes. Yes, gnomes! All over the city are little gnomes, hidden and in plain sight. Why gnomes? you ask inquisitively. According to the In Your Pocket guidebook:

First gnome sighting (actually seen the night before I met M & D)

The Krasnale are actually an iconic part of the Wroclaw cityscape. And they are tied to the 1980's political protest movement. "Under communism gnomes became the absurdist calling card of the 'Orange Alternative' movement- an underground protest movement that used absurdity and nonsense to stage peaceful yet subversive protests. Armed with paint cans and led by Waldemar "Major" Frydrych, an artist and art history student at Wroclaw University, the group specifically ridiculed the establishment's attempts to censor public space. During communism, any anti-establisment graffiti or public art was quickly painted over by the militia, upon seeing fresh daubs of paint, the pranksters of the Orange Alternative quickly painted over them yet again...with gnomes. As the movement gained popularity, gnomes became inexorably linked with the Orange Alternative and Wroclaw, though they soon began appearing in other major Polish cities as well". (IYP, pg. 65) The modern day statues started popping up in 2001 and now businesses will pay loads of money to commission little krasnale for the front of their shops. There are now over 130 of them all over the city...there's even a map sold at the information center that lists the most popular ones. Some have their own Facebook pages, of course, and all have GPS chips in case of the occasional theft.

Even krasnale need a little cash...from the ATM

Bankus, the Bank Clerk

Back to our adventure...

Most of what you see in the center of Wroclaw has been completely rebuilt since the war (WWII of course). Something like 90% of the Old Town area was destroyed by the Red Army. Wroclaw was actually a German city, Breslau, before the war and was one of the last German cities to capitulate at the end of the war. The Soviets were not kind....they laid siege on the city for 4 months, destroying everything in their path. The city was a pile of bricks by the time the Germans surrendered to the Red Army. Can you imagine? It's just so far beyond my imagination, or more like horror, to think of what it must have been like during the siege. It's not like the citizens were allowed to leave before all the destruction started. And to think that of the 30,000 registered buildings in the area, only 8400 were left standing...170,000 citizens dead and then the rage of the Red Army was unleashed on the survivors- rape, beatings, torture...it's really unfathomable. And so, so sad.

After the War, the city was given over to the Poles after the Yalta Conference. Thousands of those displaced in the eastern part of Poland, and beyond, starting to straggle into the new Polish city of Wroclaw, including many from the Ukrainian city of Lviv. The rebuilding of Wroclaw began, the German population was almost entirely deported, and the many millions of bricks that made up the rubble were shipped off to Warsaw to help rebuild that city. This left quite the blank slate to rebuild on, which is exactly what happened. The city architects decided to build up the Rynek as a showcase of Polish strength and resilience. Between 1953 and 1962, the market square was rebuilt "faithfully" to what it was before. However, that was not really the case. As hatred towards anything German was high (to put it mildly), the architects refused to build anything from the 19th or 20th century resulting in an outburst of Baroque designs. In addition, the beautiful and colorful buildings you see on the square conjure up images of grand mansions with winding staircases and gloriously gilded rooms behind the front doors. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the facades look like children's drawings of a fairytale town, behind them are true socialist apartment blocs. But don't let this spoil the awesomeness of the square...it is simply astonishing that the area was completely rebuilt in just 20 years!

Behind the Mleczarnia cafe

Part of the White Stork Synagogue- only remaining one in the city after WWII

Lovely beer garden next to the synagogue

On the way to the market square

Cute little passageway

Near the square

Little square...first glimpse of the Old Town

So colorful

Like a child's drawing really

We spent some time walking around the square and looking for a place to eat dinner. We decided on pod Freda, a traditional Polish restaurant. It was amazing! So, so yummy! One note here....I LOVE Poland! Seriously, I love everything about it- the people, the places, the food. I truly believe that I have all the Polish side of our family (with, of course, a healthy dose of the Irish) in me. There are three places in the world where I feel like I am "home": the mountains of Colorado, Ireland, and Poland. I know, you're all saying, "Jen, why do you live in the Czech Republic then? Why not move to Poland? It's so close!". Believe me, I think about this a lot and I'm looking for opportunities...trust that!!

Unfortunately, even though it was the end of May, it still was a bit chilly out, so after dinner, we strolled a bit more, but then made our way back to the hotel.