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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Warsaw: Stare Miasto's Castle |
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| 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.)
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
Here in my little house, I have to dust twice a week to keep up. I have to use soapy water to clean and not just a static cloth because it's not dust -- it's soot. And even with mopping and sweeping, my socks become black with soot. In the bedroom, we have a humidifier that doubles as an air filter. We have to vacuum out the air filter regularly or it starts to sound like it has emphysema! I can only keep dusting and count the days until spring arrives. 
Our itinerary:
The biggest note in Uzbek currency is 1,000 som, which is around 50 cents (USD). You can imagine that people have to carry a lot of cash to live their daily life. (Our guide came on the bus with a duffel bag and said, "for our money". We all laughed. And then he said, "No, really... Uzbek people have to have big money bags. You'll see." Indeed we did!) We were a group of six. Each time we went out for a meal together, paying the bill was always amusing for us. We’d hand over a huge stack of bills and watch while the waitress counted them out in front of us, quickly and expertly. Once, we asked if we could pay in dollars and have change given to us in som. The stack of bills that came back to us (pictured) received a lot of amused attention from other tourists in the room, several of them taking pictures while we tried not to look like brash high-rollers. If you so please, you can pretend to be a rock star in Uzbekistan, extravagantly fanning out your money. I only regret that we didn't take the time to do money “snow angels” on the bed, like in those old Las Vegas movies.
We stayed at the inevitable Hotel Uzbekistan, a requirement for all travelers. Just kidding... Maybe. Well, it was one of the first major hotels in Uzbekistan and it remains a major landmark. It's certainly in a great location and every taxi knows it. We had some delicious food in Tashkent, and visited an impressive bazaar filled with the sights, sounds and smells of every spice you'd expect to find. This is a culture whose history is steeped in trade (the Silk Road!), so I wasn't surprised to find that they still take a lot of pride in their markets and their work. Tashkent is also home to one of the longest-standing Eastern-Orthodox churches in the world, built entirely out of wood but without a single nail (mostly held together by dovetail joints). Uzbekistan is also lucky enough to have a slightly-more-temperate climate that some of their -stan neighbors, so even though our friends back in Kazakhstan were in three inches of snow, we were wearing light jackets and eating fruit (are you noticing the bright-blue skies in each of these photos?). Awesome. Yummiest thing I ate in Tashkent? Pumpkin samsa (pictured), a kind of flaky bread roll filled with different things. Often it's potato and onion, but these ones had sweet, tender pumpkin inside. Yum!
Khiva’s old center is a UNESCO World Heritage site. No cars are allowed inside the old city walls, so it is a small sanctuary from modern life. Old buildings have been restored, including the castle and the king’s harem, and artisans sell their wares inside the squares. It’s pretty impressive to be in a small village without any hint of the outside world. We stayed in an historic madrassa that had been converted to a hotel. (Madrassas usually have dozens of small students’ rooms surrounding a large courtyard.) The building itself also had UNESCO protection – for good reason. The intricate mosaics on the floor, geometric wood carvings in the ceilings and on the doors (pictured), turquoise and cobalt tiles covering the half-finished minaret outside (pictured)… it was enchanting. It was also one of many places we could admire Uzbek pottery, beautiful bowls and platters stained in the same blues and greens as the mosaics all around us. For me, Khiva was the highlight of my trip to Uzbekistan. One morning, we were lucky enough to see women making bread in a traditional tandoor (an outdoor wood-burning, clay/mud-brick oven -- they quickly slap the bread against the side of the oven, where it cooks against the hot coals). She watched us all happily eat her bread right on the street, warm and fluffy and reminiscent of grandma's house. While we ate bread, we watched a young boy head off to his circumcision ceremony, dressed in his fanciest garb and being paraded through the streets by his very proud parents (to collect money and well-wishes from the townspeople). We also briefly joined in a few passing wedding parties. It was great to see such a healthy slice of 'normal' life.
We brought back a bunch of suzani. These days, you can find all kinds of suzani at the Pottery Barn and other such places, selling for five- or six-times the price of what you’d pay in Uzbekistan. The first time I’d heard about it was from my aunt, who keeps up with stylish interior design and told us about them. A man we met in Samarkand was finishing a PhD based upon the styles and symbolism of suzani. He taught us there are several styles of embroidery, based on where in Uzbekistan the artist was from. All suzani convey specific meaning centered in their cultural roots (and the old religion of Zaroastriosm). My two favorite types were the Bukhara design (usually blue, red, green threads on cream or white linen), and Samarkand design (usually lots of thick, black embroidery embellished with red, orange and white thread). In both styles, there are common symbols used by the artists, sewn into the suzani for different purposes. Pomegranates (a major crop in Uzbekistan) represent family and children. Chilies represent protection from harm. Black lines (Samarkand design) represent a separation of day and night, good and evil, while clouds represent hope and ways to keep away the evil. All suzanis are meant to remind the user of what is important in life (home, family) and offer protection from anything that might harm them. 
In between Bukhara and Samarkand, we spent the night at a Yurt camp. We also got to ride camels.
One of the show-stopping moments of our trip was visiting the Shakhi-Zinda Mausoleum, located at the top of the highest hill over-looking the city (pictures). The oldest graves are enclosed in small rooms of exquisite turquoise tile, or metal tiles carved into geometric patterns. It’s a unique place to say the least. Over a hundreds of years, the most elite members of the city were buried here in these elaborate suites. All of them are open to the public, at the top of any tourists' list (which is why you’ll always see a lot of people here). It’s still used as a cemetery, but all the modern graves are located on the back of the hill. The new graves almost always had pictures of the dead engraved on the headstone, along with pictures of things that were important to the person (we saw a headstone engraved with a eyeglasses, a stack of books and a globe for a teacher). 
Finally, don't forget to stop and enjoy the pilaf ("plov"), a rice dish cooked in a massive pan. Each city has its own recipe for pilaf, and I found the Samarkand recipe to be particularly tasty.
