For our last full day of touring Europe, we had the chance to go around the city of Warsaw with people that actually live there. It’s a much different experience! Marek and Ania made the day really special. We toured some sites, ate great food, and played lots of board games in the evening.
Tourism with guidance
One of the perks of touring a city with locals is that you get to focus on the best parts of the city, or at least the parts that the locals are most proud of. Marek and Ania started out by taking us to a wealthier part of the Warsaw suburb they live in. The shopfronts are situated fairly close to one of the surviving palaces in Poland, which housed some monarchs they didn’t know anything about. Lol. It was a beautiful location though and the stores were some of the best we’ve seen the whole trip.
Our guides brought us into one of the family-owned Polish pottery shops that sold expensive kitchen pottery and decor. They had everything from soup ladles and tea sets to gnomes and Christmas trees, all hand-painted. We debated for quite some time on what we would get. Everything was expensive but we definitely wanted to bring something home. We eventually settled on a teapot-teacup-saucer set for one. I wish we could’ve gotten more! Maybe someday.
After taking a long time to decide what we wanted, Marek and Ania took us to the Warsaw University library, which mixed modern architecture with horticulture. The entrance was an all-glass foyer that had vines growing up the walls and tons of natural sunlight. They wanted to take us up on the roof but the garden was closed for some kind of event today. It was still really cool to see the bit that we did. I’ve never been a huge fan of combining plant life with architecture despite my love of nature, but it was good for me to see a well-done example of it in person.
From the library, we walked to the Warsaw Old Town district, where all of the major historical buildings were. We poked into a couple of cathedrals, one of which had a wedding going on! We got to see the opera theatre, the parliament building, the historic market square, and more.
At the government building/palace, Marek showed us a memorial for a major recent tragedy in Polish history. In 2010, a plane carrying major members of the Polish government to Smolensk, Russia crashed, killing everyone on board. This included the Polish President, members of the General Staff of the military, and 18 members of Parliament. It’s crazy! Imagine a crash of that scale in the US today. If the President, Secretary of State, and 18 members of Congress were killed in a crash in a sketchy nation, we would probably be at war. Even today, the public isn’t entirely sure whether the Russians had anything to do with the crash. It sure didn’t help relations between the two countries. Crazy that I’d never heard of it before (and you probably haven’t either).
The end of our time in the Old Town was spent in the market square. It was a literal square of buildings surrounding a courtyard that held a popup market of restaurants, shops, and locally-grown groceries. There’s not much to say about it but walking around in it was special. My favorite part was listening to a man in a barbershop outfit sing to a tune from a crank music cart. That man was the embodiment of dapper cool.
Before heading back to the apartment, Marek and Ania took us to get our last döner kebab meal in Europe. Sadly, it just wasn’t very good. I think the sauce they used really messed with the flavor we’ve come to love. It was a nice thought though. They heard us raving about it at some point and wanted to make sure we had one last opportunity to eat it. The thought of waiting years to taste it again brings literal tears to my eyes. 🙁
Game night
One of the few things I’ve really missed from home on this trip is board games. We were excited to learn that Marek and Ania’s family loves board games! They even have some of the more obscure ones that our friends have never heard about back home. We played for over six hours. Pawel and Hania, Marek and Ania’s kids, really love Dixit. Since the siblings couldn’t get along, we didn’t actually get to play it again today. However, it’s definitely one that I’ll associate with Poland now.
We played Ticket to Ride Europe, which goes by some different rules and adds tunnels to the game. I really enjoyed looking over the map and seeing how many of the cities I’d been to just in the last few weeks. At the end of the game, Marek and Ania taught us how to “chase” the points to see who the winner is. Basically, whoever has the lowest score on the board will select a completed objective card from their hand to play. They’ll move their point marker up and the next lowest scoring person will do the same. It adds a little flair to the scoring at the end. It’s much more fun than just stating our point totals. It also adds a little guesswork to who will actually win.
A couple other games we played were Power Grid: Japan and Kascadia. Valerie and I acquired Power Grid less than a year ago. We love the game and it was nice to try out a different map. Japan comes with some special rules and really forces players into a tighter, more competitive map, so that was different. Kascadia is an Alaska-themed game that plays really chill. It’s a great game with deep strategic thinking, but can also be played casually with little attention. Valerie wants to buy it for ourselves, which is really saying something.
Polish culture
One of my favorite things in Warsaw has been getting to see the similarities and differences in our cultures. We are far more alike than I thought we were. From parenting to leisure to cooking, we aren’t much different from the Poles. To be honest, I always thought of them as Russia-lite. They definitely aren’t like the Russian stereotypes that I grew up with though. They a thoughtful and patriotic people that are very aware of their history of oppression. Throughout the last couple of hundred years, they’ve been invaded and ruled over, only to rise again above their invaders. This mentality has influenced the ways they interact with their neighbors and how they think about themselves. I can tell that they’re quick to help others, especially those in need. When Russia invaded Ukraine, an influx of refugees crossed into Poland. The Poles welcomed them with open arms and borders, doing their best to care for their struggling neighbors. As a family unit, Marek and Ania housed their own family of refugees for a few weeks. The way they talk about that experience and their experiences in building the apartment complex they live in with their neighbors is inspiring. It just feels like the neighborly love Jesus called us all to.
Fluency progression
It’s worth noting that we’ve picked up three Polish words since we got here! We’re getting fluent. They are the words “shishka”, “nostrovia”, and “rupeck” (just spelled like they sound). Translated in order, they mean pinecone, bless you (after sneezing), and crackers. You know. Important words you should know in any language.
For context, shishka comes from the game Kascadia. Marek and Ania didn’t know and then couldn’t remember the word for pinecone, so we just kept calling it a shishka. Shishki were what we used for special points. Nostrovia got learned because Valerie kept sneezing. What a dweeb. And rupeck was learned because that’s the name of Hania’s pet hamster. Cute names are cross-cultural. Go figure.
Last day
Today was wonderful. Definitely one of the highlights from the whole trip. Though we barely knew them 48 hours ago, we’re so sad to leave Marek and Ania tomorrow. I’m also sad to say it’s our last full day in Europe. We’ll go to church in the morning, hang out in the afternoon, then head to the airport for our flight to Frankfurt in the evening. I’m not ready!