We arrived in Warsaw the night before last (Wednesday) and have spent two wonderful days learning about this beautiful city, it's challenging history and the people. Before sharing more about the trip, I want to share a little bit about why we chose Poland as a stop on this journey.
My Grandpa Ketchmark (dad's dad) was 100% Polish - making my dad 50% and me / my siblings 25%. We also have a lot of Irish from both my Grandma Ketchmark (nee Mulcahey) and Grandma Rasmus (nee McKinney - and mom's mom) plus a lot of Scandanavian (mainly Sweden and Norway) from Grandpa Rasmus. We were fortunate to visit Ireland a few years ago with my brother Dave, his wife Roseann and a group of (f)awesome friends from KC. As Craig and I were talking about where we wanted to go on this trip, we thought we would take the opportunity to visit places that weren't necessarily the 'usual' stops but that had some personal meaning to us. For Craig that included Vietnam and Tokyo - and coming up we will be traveling to Denmark (more on that later). For me, I wanted to see Poland, Sweden and Norway (more to come on those later too!).
My dad had some limited information about our relatives from Poland. My great grandfather Tomasz Kaczmarek immigrated in the 1880's from Poland. As many immigrants did at that time he changed his last name to something that was easier for Americans to pronounce and spell - hence Ketchmark! He and his first wife (also from Poland) settled in central Illinois in a small town Minonk. (Fun Fact - we learned today that Chicago is the city with the second highest number of Polish residents behind only Warsaw). They had a few children but his wife died much too young. Tomasz didn't want to live the rest of his life alone - or to raise a family by himself - so he "sent back to Poland" for a second wife - my great grandmother Hedwig. They had a few children together including my grandfather Anton "Tony" Ketchmark. I was lucky to get to know him when I was young (he died in 1975) and remember him as a very loving, smart, funny, hardworking man - traits my father carried on. So, visiting Poland is a chance to connect in a way with this part of our history. Ok, back to our visit.
First, the trip to Warsaw from The Maldives. We flew on Qatar Airways - wow - what a treat. The first plane was huge - and we were able to experience what they call Q-suites - very cool. We had a connection in Doha, Qatar. Our first plane was delayed so unfortunately we landed and had to go to our next gate right away - because what an airport! You normally don't wish you had more time to spend at an airport - but this one is very new and they certainly spared no expense - it was impressive. Even the train you took between terminals had chairs for everyone to sit in that were really nice!
We are only staying in Warsaw for 2 days - so decided to stay right in the heart of it to ensure we could maximize our visit. We are staying at the Hotel Bristol which is stunning. It is connected on one side to their version of the White House - where the Polish president works and lives. What we didn't know when we booked is that it is one of the few buildings that survived WWII - almost 85% of Warsaw was destroyed during that war. They have painstakingly rebuilt Old Warsaw to replicate the original architecture using paintings and some pictures from before the war - it really is remarkable. But the Hotel did not need to be rebuilt. Our guide shared that it survived because it was used by the Nazis as their command post - pretty sobering reason. We keep trying to imagine what it must have been like at the time and the conversations that were had walking through the halls / up and down the stairs. Anyways, the hotel is beautiful. Here's a few pictures.
The last picture is of the hotel bar. One quick small world story. Last night we decided to have a nightcap at the bar. It was only us until we were joined by Steven. He has been living in Poland / Europe for years but was originally from Ohio. We talked a lot about a ton of topics - really great conversation with, of course, a lot of laughs. Towards the end one of the topics was sports - and we asked him if he was a fan of "The" Ohio State :). He was and Craig then said we went to college in Iowa - and Steven immediately asked "which one"? When we said U of I - he told us he had gone there for grad school! He went there for his second grad degree - following a girl he met in Phoenix who was from Bettendorf, IA. We then compared notes about Iowa City and our old hangouts. What a crazy, small world.
I mentioned Old Warsaw before - but this is a funny one to us / those of us from the US. Old Warsaw is from the 13th century - "New" Warsaw is after the 15th century - still sounds pretty old to us :). It is really cool though to walk the streets and see all of the architecture. Not a lot survived the war but there are some parts of the city that did - and more in the outskirts that we were able to see on a tour today. The history here is really amazing as well - and we loved learning about it / hearing the different stories. Here's a few pictures.
Last night we went on a walking food tour. As mentioned we love to try the local food and have discovered these tours are a great way to meet some locals and learn more about the city. At first we were a little disappointed as our tour guide was Jose - not so much a Polish name :) - he actually is from Colombia and moved here 5 years ago (for his ex-girlfriend - of course!). He was really good but we wanted someone with a bit more local history. We were fortunate that two locals who are in training to be guides also joined us - Pavlo and Cesar. Craig and I did laugh a bit later though that it felt like we were in a Polish joke : "How many Polish tour guides does it take to lead two Americans on a food tour" :).
We ended up going to 4 restaurants and eating way too much food - but, as always, it was a great way to experience the culture and the city. We learned that the traditional Polish diet consists of a LOT of meat (sausage, pork), bread (rye is a favorite), cabbage (prepared every way imaginable) and mushrooms throwing in the occasional cheese and potatoes. We had these ingredients on plates, in soups, in pierogi (boiled and fried), and prepared on their own. A bunch of pictures from the tastings.
We actually went back out to lunch today on our own and ordered some pierogi - really quite yummy. For our St. Louis friends we realized there is a similarity with ravioli - and the fried variation is analogous to toasted ravioli :).
Today we were treated to a private tour of the city in a retro Fiat with our guide Olga - she was awesome! One more small world connection - as we got to know her we were talking about our mutual love of travel. She said that Spain is her favorite country in Europe other than Poland - specifically Valencia. We told her Matt studied there for a semester in college and then learned she spent a year studying there while she was in college. They missed each other by only a few years - otherwise we wouldn't have been surprised if their paths had crossed as we keep getting reminded how small this world can be. Her family has lived in Warsaw for 4 generations and she had a lot of personal perspective and stories that really added to the tour. Her grandfather actually escaped capture from the Nazis when he was 9 years old. He was on a tram with a big group of people riding home when the Nazis boarded the tram and started rounding everyone up to take on different buses - you have to believe the fate of those poor people was not good. Her grandfather was young and small and able to slip through the crowd and run away. How brave he was - and fortunate to not be caught or shot.
We didn't know that Poland produced the Fiat for a number of years. They started production in 1963 and continued until 1991. In 1983 Fiat decided they didn't want to use the plant here any more - but the Polish were able to keep producing it with some very slight modifications for a number of more years. The one we were in today was from the mid 1980's - manual everything (transmission, windows, locks), no seatbelts in the back seat, ashtrays ... It was fun driving around in it - and drew attention from a lot of folks.
Now time to share a few more of the sights plus the stories that we learned. In Old Warsaw there is a column called Sigismund's Column and it is a landmark / gathering spot - it's actually where we started our food tour. Sigismund was a prior King of Poland - he moved the capital of Poland from Krakow to Warsaw. When he died, his son wanted to honor his father and decided to build the column in the 1640's - it is located next to the Royal Palace. However, it wasn't that easy. The Catholic Church was quite powerful at the time and, up to that point, there were no secular columns - columns were reserved for religion. The King was adamant that he wanted to erect the column for his father - and even jailed the Cardinal during their fighting. They eventually reached a compromise - which we found rather entertaining. So that Sigismund's Column wasn't the first column in Warsaw, the church was able to build a column honoring the Virgin Mary nearby - it was much, much smaller but it was the first. Also, the King agreed to have his father carrying a cross in one hand - and the cross had to be taller than the statue of King Sigismund on the column. Here are pictures.
Here is a picture of the most narrow house in Warsaw - it's the one single column in the corner. The owner was actually ingenuous. The property taxes at the time were determined by the width of the house on the street - so even though small in front and less taxes - since it was the corner the home is a triangle and actually quite spacious.
We went on the outskirts of the city to see more palaces and their royal gardens - really beautiful. The palaces were built by an earlier King - who happened to be one of Catherine the Great's lovers - she helped to get him 'elected' as King and to fund the construction. Their relationship didn't end well and unfortunately that actually led to the loss of independence for Poland and the splitting of it between Russia, Prussia and Hungary for a number of years. After this trip we have decided we want to go back and read more about history - I know I will appreciate it much more than I did when I was younger.
Our tour ended at the Palace of Culture. It is currently the largest building in Poland (although a new building is coming up behind it that will take over that title). There is a lot of historical significance to this Palace as it was a "gift" from Stalin after WWII. He wanted to show the Polish people that he cared - so he asked them what they wanted as a gift. There was actually a vote - we were surprised - and the options included a Palace, Metro, Park, or Museum. The people voted for the Metro - wanting transportation. Stalin decided he wanted a Palace - so there you go. He wanted it to be the tallest building so you could see it from anywhere in Warsaw. Unfortunately he also wanted it to be quite wide and to be surrounded by a large square. The reason this was so unfortunate is that the location he chose was in a part of Warsaw that had withstood the war without much damage - so there were beautiful, historical homes and buildings. They could withstand the war but not Stalin - and the Polish people were forced to tear down these buildings to make room for the Palace. There now is a viewing spot on one of the top floors. Olga said it is a favorite spot because you can see all of Warsaw but not the Palace :).
One other quick story about the Palace. In 1967 the Rolling Stones performed the first concert in Eastern Europe / the Soviet Union at the Palace. They wanted to go to Moscow but the Soviet Union would not allow. The only reason why Warsaw allowed was because the minister from the Soviet Union who was leading Poland at the time had granddaughters and they begged him to let the Stones perform (gotta love grandpas!). However, Poland didn't have much money to pay the Stones - so instead of cash they gave them a wagon of Polish vodka! We can imagine there was a bit of a party after the concert - but when leaving the country the border patrol would not let them take the rest with them. We suspect some patrolmen had fun later! And, speaking of vodka and fun - that was another part of wrapping up the tour.
I know this post is long - so many stories - we tried to pick a few of the highlights but even with that it's long! So, to finish it off here are a few extra pictures minus the stories - we'll let you create your own / figure out the punch line to the Polish joke :)
Until next time...
Enjoy the Ride!
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