I finally got a “vacation” this past week, darting off to Poland from Saturday until Thursday. I had to be back before Friday or I would have lost my hotel room for the weekend.
Flying in the time of COVID stinks. Going there was really
not a problem; I bummed a ride from a colleague also heading out and no one
even bothered to look at my vaccine card. Coming back, though, it was nuts. I
thought since it was EU to EU there was nothing involved (I mean, hey, the way
there was EU-EU, too) but I had to log on to some site in the airport and get a
QVC code and then when I went to check in with the airline staff (none of whom
were wearing masks), one asked why I’d done it. I pointed to another one and
said, “He told me to.” I have no idea. Boarding the plane, they were looking at
everyone’s QVC code, but not mine – I just got shooed onto the plane back to
Lithuania. Getting off, though, they looked at multiple things from everyone.
As if something had changed from boarding to deplaning.
Anyway, I spent two days in Warsaw and then took a train to Krakow, spending two days there before heading back for the last night in Warsaw before heading back. I should have thought to just fly back from Krakow, but I think I would have had to go through Warsaw anyway, so whatever.
The highlight – or lowlight, however you want to view it –
was Tuesday, when I did a package Auschwitz-salt mine tour.
As you can imagine, Auschwitz was gut-wrenching. We visited
both I and II, standing right on the sites where thousands of Jews were
murdered at once multiple times a day. We saw the warehouses that had been
found filled with sorted goods, such as one for luggage, one for eyeglasses and
one for shoes. Over 300,000 pairs of shoes had been found at the time of the
liberation. That’s not how many there were total; that’s how many were found.
The Nazis had offloaded stuff as it came in, even – and I did not know this –
using the hair they shaved from the Jews for weaving into textiles. There was
an entire storage display of human hair. It was absolutely horrifying.
It’s hard to imagine that kind of hate, but there it was;
brick building after brick building, each one built for 700 Jewish (or Roma)
women or men, but holding over 1k of them, six to a bunk. We saw the spot where
the Germans would shoot any misbehaving prisoners. I just can’t comprehend it. Over
a million people killed in that facility, right on the edge of town.
We walked for about three hours, and it was pretty hot. All
I could think of was that the Jew were forced to walk that far to the factory
before they worked 10- to 12-hour days. And as hot as it was, it gets that cold
in the winter, and darkness comes early. I honestly cannot imagine. The guide
said the fences were electrified and that people would commit suicide by
throwing themselves on them.
Since I knew I wouldn’t have been able to handle both Auschwitz
and Schindler’s factory in one day – just too much – I opted for the tour that
went to the Wieliczka salt mine, which is just outside of Krakow. I took as
many pictures as I did in Auschwitz, but it was a bit cheerier. First, we
descended 60 meters or something like that down; it was 53 flights of 6-7 steps
each. I was towards the last in my group and was humming “Hi ho, hi ho, it’s
off to work we go” the whole time – I have no idea how I managed without
bursting into song, because the whole experience screamed for it.
The mine was incredible. Honest to God, I had no idea the “salt
mines” in “off to the salt mines” were a real thing. I thought salt came from the ocean, not
underground. By the end of the tour, we had walked three hours, finished over 130
meters underground and the tour guide said we’d only covered 1 percent of the
whole thing. The thing was huge. For the tourist part, they had set up displays
that included statues and such, all made of salt. The flooring in many parts was
made of salt blocks. There were even multiple cathedrals underground, with
everything carved out of salt, including a replica of “The Last Supper” and a
life-size statue of Poland’s favorite son, Pope John Paul II.
It was a nice way to end the day; I knew the morning would
be emotional but had no idea what the salt mines were all about. I went in with
no expectations and it was a pleasant surprise. Even lunch was pretty good.
I stayed in AirBnBs the first four nights, two in Warsaw and
two in Krakow and it was fabulous having a kitchen again. Unfortunately, rice
apparently isn’t a thing; that’s what I wanted to cook but the grocery store I
went to (a tiny one) didn’t have any, so I opted for pasta and a salad. It was
just nice to be able to turn on a stove.
My housing was in Old Town in both cities, but Old Town in
Warsaw is really a Disney-eque version, because all of Warsaw was leveled and has
been rebuilt. But it’s been done nicely and I had a great stay, walking around
everywhere. I got a bus pass for 24 hours but someone still surpassed 30k steps;
I’m not even sure how that happened. 
The only museum I went into was the Polish museum; it went
back to Abraham, so that was pretty cool. I went to the Uprising museum but the
guides said it was best for hard-core history buffs so I skipped it. Mostly I
just walked and took pictures, which is what I usually do.
Krakow was more authentic old town, and again, my housing
was right there. The windows were open and I could hear the horse-drawn
carriages clomp-clomping down the street. It was a nice break.
The trains were fine other than setting off in the wrong
direction and turning a 15-minute walk to a hotel into a 30-minute walk,
everything was good upon return to Warsaw. Since I’ve now reached some kind of
ultra-special level at Marriott, I sprung for the Westin for the last night, although,
unlike in Vilnius, I declined to get the rate with breakfast. It was a good
decision. With my newfound specialness, I was welcomed with open arms and
informed that I now get breakfast, so that was nice. Even nicer was a coupon
for a dinner in the restaurant downstairs, an upgraded room and a massive bowl
of fruit upon arrival. We are talking banana, grapes, strawberries, blueberries,
cherries, pomegranate, fig, apple, orange, grapefruit, kiwi and a plum,
assuming I am remembering them all. I gorged and then took a walk.
The dinner menu was limited but perfect: I could pick two
items off an abbreviated menu. I opted for “chicken with seasonal vegetables”
and a “tart with fruit.” Well, again, it was a farmer’s market. The chicken
itself maybe half a breast and seasoned nicely, sitting on a small bed of
mashed potatoes. The veggies mirrored the fruit basket: so many varieties, but just
a couple bites of each: one asparagus stick, maybe 3-4 strings of beans, some
kind of carrot and zucchini cut into a cylinder, broccoli, cauliflower …
possibly more. It was so much. Then dessert, I could not locate a tart, but
again was hit with a massive fruit pile, but this time it included watermelon,
pineapple and at least three other melon kinds, plus other stuff. Honestly, I
don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much non-meat in one 24-hour span than I have in
my life. But eat it I did. It took forever, but I sat in that hotel bar and paced
myself. By the end of the evening, the only things out of all three services
that I didn’t eat were the apple, orange and banana. Since they packed well, I
took them back with me.
Once home, I still have my Marriott status, and the kind folks at the Courtyard moved the bag they stored for me into my new room, which they deemed an upgrade. I kind of had to laugh at that because, well, it’s a Courtyard. There’s really not an upgrade. The room is five doors down from the other one and its mirror image. However, they did leave me a piece of pie, four cherries with whipped cream and some other kind of berry. I could get used to this.
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