Visitors part 1

My Sunday began at the airport, where I picked up Kristen who had just flown in from France. We returned to the apartment where Kristen asked if we were going to Mass. Of course, the next Mass was at one o'clock. It was 12:53. So, I waited for Kristen to sort her stuff out before we flew down the street to Church. I brought my Polish/English Mass parts book, but I was still confused. 

Afterwards, we caught the number 10 tram all the way up to the Uprising Museum. The Uprising Museum is free on Sundays (yay!). That was especially nice as this would have been my second time to the museum in as many weeks. Plus the hours I spent exploring it the first time I ever went there. I'm a bit museumed out. That, combined with my lack of food intake and my low blood sugar, made for a very slow moving Amanda. So, I sat down and watched this really long film they have. Then I went up to the cafe and got a pot of tea while I waited for Kristen to slowly really examine everything they have in the museum.

While in the museum, we met up with Andrew who was visiting his "girlfriend" Anna. So, we met up with them for pierogi after the museum closed. Good times were had by all. Especially me, since I was eating apple, raisin, and cinnamon pierogi. I'm a sucker for the dessert ones.

The evening wound down to a close shortly after that.

The next day, we went to Browarnia. I ate delicious kielbasa and garlic bread and the best french fries ever, paired with a delicious stout. Afterwards, we checked out the Warsaw University campus, the Nicolaus Koperniki statue, and the church where Chopin's heart is buried in the wall. I showed Kristen all the old palaces that belonged to Polish nobility. Then we went to Saxon Garden (another example of old school Polish nobility caring more about their comfort than the wealth of their people).

The park is right behind Plac Jozef Pilsudskiego. Pilsudski had a really serious walrus mustache and is known as a freedom fighter for Poland in a lot of ways. Even though he ruled Poland with a kind of dictatorial edge during the few years of freedom it had in the early twentieth century. The square is also where they have the tomb of the unknown soldier, so Kristen and I lingered a little bit to see the changing of the guards.

Afterwards, we slowly made our way up Old Town where I showed Kristen the interesting things that she missed when we were there in the daylight before. We went back to the Uprising Monument.

Then we walked along the barbican until we came to the little boy soldier. This is a surprisingly hidden statue for how awesome it is.

By then, it was nearly too dark to see anything else. We dilly dallied everywhere so much that we didn't get to go to the Museum of Technology inside the Palace of Science and Culture. But maybe that's something I can talk Lola into doing with me next Monday. It was too dark to wander down to Lazienki park, too.

Now Kristen is in Krakow for two and a half days doing the Krakow thing. Hopefully she can fit it all in, especially now that I realize she's a very thorough tourist. As in, she sees everything very slowly. Which actually I guess is a not very thorough way to travel. Because then you don't see as much...