Two Ex-Soviet Cities: Warsaw vs. Kiev

Have you been to Poland yet?  Most people traveling to Europe tend not to see Poland as a "must-see" location -- granted, if you're going to Europe for the first time and only have a week, I can see why you would leave it off.  Fortunately, I'm married to a man who knows Europe well (he lived there for five years) and has many good buddies from Poland.  For us, Poland is a much-loved destination.

Stare Miasto

I first visited Poland in the summer of 2004, visiting Warsaw and Krakow with a few side-trips into the surrounding forests. Warsaw is an enchanting city.  One of my favorite places is Stare Miasto (Old Town).  In reality, 'Old Town' isn't that old.  The entire city was completely leveled by the Nazis in World War II (in retaliation for the Warsaw Uprising, where the city did it's best to oust the Nazis after years of occupation and oppression).  After the war, the Soviet Army took control of Poland and reconstruction work began.  Warsaw's residents wanted to recreate what had been destroyed, so they gathered old paintings and photographs from wherever they could, using those images to build new buildings but with the old facades.  (One funny story: about 200 years ago, a painter was having a bit of fun and put a monkey in place of the old gargoyles on his building. Also in fun, the people decided to go ahead and put the monkey on the building while they were reconstructing it, so it, like the others, would match the paintings they'd found. Why not, right? A bit of whimsy is never out of place. Especially after such devastation ) Walking around Old Town, you'd think you were in a place that was over 200 years old.  But really, it's only about the same age as our parents!

Side note: Krakow, on the other hand, really is old.  Home to Wawel Castle, this ancient city was spared during the war because it was used as headquarters for the Nazi secret police.  As a lover of old buildings, I'm glad about this.  The castle, the old church, the Cloth Hall (market place) and the Bell Tower where, for centuries, a trumpeter would alert the town if invaders were spotted -- it's all still there, still original and beautiful as ever.  (If you love old children's literature, you might know the Newberry Award book The Trumpeter of Krakow, a fictional tale of one such trumpeter.)  Look this place up on your Google Images and you'll see what I mean.  It's delightful.

deli delights

Wherever you go, you'll find good food in Poland. In the summer, fresh fruits and vegetables are abundant and used in everything they make. I'm especially fond of their raspberries, full of flavor and often harvested from wild berry patches in the woods. Lovely little mushrooms in all different shapes, fresh pickles of every kind (my mouth is watering just thinking about the pickled cucumbers), made quickly in just a few days, steeped in light-flavored vinegar. Grain-crusted breads and delicious apple pies. And the meats!  Gorgeous sausages, pates, fennel-steeped head cheeses, spiced hams... a trip to a deli is my favorite lunch-time outing.  Of course, you also have plenty of the soups and winter fare most people associate with Polish food: borsch (beet soup), zurek (sour rye soup), bigos (Hunter's stew), dumplings... it's all here.  And did I mention how nice Polish people are?  Really, it's refreshing to visit a place where people are genuinely polite and welcoming, happy to help a stranger, sociable with neighbors. 

Warsaw: Stare Miasto's Castle

Wikipedia's photo: Palace Kultury

We've seen a lot of changes in Poland over the years as it's definitely experiencing an economic rise.  Old cars are almost all off the streets, new buses from Germany offer comfortable rides around Warsaw, roads are newly-paved, train stations are being upgraded, new shopping malls covered in glass reflect modernity, jutting out between the old Soviet-style concrete buildings still in use.  I love that Warsaw is moving ahead with all of these changes while still holding on to some of the past.  One symbol of this is the Palace Kultury, a gift to the people of Warsaw from Josef Stalin.  It's the epitome of Soviet architecture: tall and pointy, slightly ugly, frilly and ornate yet made of concrete. (Our Polish friend tells us that Stalin offered a menu of possible gifts to this city and the man in charge of choosing the gift opted for this building... instead of, among other things, a metro system.  Perhaps he should have deliberated a bit longer.)

smalec

For us, going to Warsaw is like a trip home.  We love seeing our friends there, and the city is familiar. Michael, who lived in Warsaw for a year, tells me stories of different places as we walk past them.  He's excited when we see a little food stand selling food that looks kind of sloppy and unappetizing (but tastes "pretty good, surprisingly") -- a memory of eating quickly between classes.  I prefer to visit in the summer when the days are long and we can spend the evening outside a cafe, having a drink with friends while Michael practices his Polish, eating appetizers like pickles or smalec (bacon pieces in lard) spread on fresh bread, (one of those delicious foods you know you shouldn't eat - and wouldn't normally - but do because you're in Poland for a week and it's freshly-made by someone's grandmother. Or something like that.

Old concrete block meets new glass-clad style

In the Spring Break of 2012, we decided to visit friends in Poland before their upcoming relocation to neighboring countries.  It was just as wonderful as always.  This time, though, we came from Kazakhstan... the way I was viewing Warsaw was different than the way I'd viewed it before.  This time, I noticed how clean it is.  It seemed even more friendly than I'd remembered.  More modern.  More green.  I loved walking in the park around the statue of Chopin (he was from Warsaw), where, in the summer, pianists play free concerts of Chopin's music.  I loved seeing old buildings with blue skies behind, hearing birds chirp, getting greeted on the sidewalk by pensioners carrying their groceries in reusable bags. Getting on clean buses that ran on time ("look -- there's even a schedule!").  Certainly, perspective can enhance one's experience of every new place.

Kiev:

matriochka (nesting dolls)

I'm glad I had that memory of Poland in my mind when we stopped through Kiev, Ukraine on the way back to Almaty.  Unlike Poland, which seems to lean more towards becoming European, the Ukraine seems either to want to be more like Russia... or can't decide which way it wants to go and ends up stagnating with indecision.  We had many, many interactions with extremely unhelpful workers at the airport (the most un-navigable, inhospitable and confusing airport I've ever been in -- I've been told it's being updated, thank goodness).

Orthodox domes gleam in front of a blue sky

Fortunately, it wasn't all bad.  We had a guide meet us at the Kiev airport and she took us around her city for five hours (we had a long layover and decided we'd like to see the city).  She showed us the old town.  We had some good food (pirogi!).  And I've never seen so many amazingly-ornate, lovingly-restored and beautifully-decorated Orthodox churches.  There are some beautiful sites to see in this city. Kiev still has a great deal of the old Soviet architecture in place -- in my opinion, they aren't advancing nearly as quickly as Warsaw -- but some change is occurring.

cathedral mural

Unlike Poland, it seemed like Kiev was still using the old Soviet plans to make new buildings -- though we did find a few new constructions with some modern flare. Not pretty, but more modern! I'm not sure who would opt to live in those concrete monstrosities -- they're not going to win any competitions for beautiful cities of Europe. (The only benefit to living in those buildings is that you won't have a view of it out your window.)  I'd like to think that even Russia is moving on from these designs, but I've not been there yet and can't say for sure. Again, I think this inability to modernize is due to the fact that there is a lot of disagreement with the people about which way they want to go -- leaning towards Europe, or towards Russia (something our guide lamented about often).  Seeing as they are right on the border between the two, it must be hard to decide.  I'll give them another chance to 'wow' me soon enough... but not too soon.

But I will be back in Poland as soon as I can get there. Anyone know how I can get a job at the American School of Warsaw?  That would be sweet.  Of course, I'd have to lay off the smalec.