Not many people realise this, but Warsaw is the capital of Poland. Unfortunately it doesn’t attract anywhere near the number of tourists as Krakow and it seems the main reason is that the city itself is seen as too modern and nowhere near as beautiful.
We made the mistake of coming here on the Easter Weekend, and given that the country is made up of roughly 97% Catholics, the majority of the attractions were closed. Stepping out of the train station, the first thing we noted was the skyscrapers which we hadn’t seen in the other cities we visited. But there was something strange about it all; there were some buildings that looked brand spanking new situated next to buildings that were much older. Things just seemed out of place and it wasn’t long until we realised why.
We visited the War Uprising Museum which was incredible. It told the stories of the people of Warsaw attempting to defeat the Nazis. This really pissed off Hitler and unfortunately resulted in almost the entire of Warsaw being bombed. Hitler’s goal was to literally wipe Warsaw off the map, and he did. During this time it is estimated that over 100,000 citizens of Warsaw perished. So looking at the city now, it is absolutely incredible how they were able to rebuild.
Unlike Krakow, we were blessed with beautiful weather, especially when we decided to do the Old Town free walking tour. In a group of about 30 tourists we wondered through the beautiful streets taking in all the subtle hints that the Old Town was in reality a New Town because of the reconstruction. But I must say, the people of Warsaw have done an incredible job to rebuild an entire city and re-establish a whole society.
Unfortunately during our time in Poland, I was riddled with sore-throatitis so it did mean that by the end of the day I was exhausted. It was probably a good thing in a way in that everything was closed at night for Easter so we couldn’t do anything anyway!
So that wraps up our whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe. Incredible countries that should be visited by all history lovers and travel addicts.
We’ll keep you posted about our upcoming adventures
Till next time
Ann & Jason xo
The Thrifty Travellers 