Side note: On the way to the park we found the US Embassy...how funny we are as Americas! All the other embassies were so nice and classic looking and then ours was all protected with huge gates and video equipment. I took a picture of it and then noticed I wasn’t suppose to because there was a no photography sign on the building, are we really that paranoid?
So every Sunday in the summer they have Chopin concerts at the base of the monument at noon and 4pm. We decided to go to the noon concert and found ourselves a nice spot on the lawn and listened to a young pianist play some Chopin music. The pianist was very talented and we were told that he had been a finalist in the Chopin competition last year. He’s currently preparing for this years competition and they community is hoping he’ll win. It was so nice to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful music. Sunday was absolutely beautiful outside and in fact we both got some nice sun sitting outside for so long! :) It was a great way to start the day!
After the concert we decided to walk through the park and continue to enjoy the beautiful day! We shortly discovered many hidden treasures in the park and came upon a beautiful Palace with an outdoor theater and two peacocks living there! I later read that the grounds of the palace had at some point been a zoo for the royalty in the area but one king decided to make the grounds into a big garden instead and its been that way ever since. We got some ice cream on the way back towards the city and headed over to the Chopin Museum to continue out musical day.
While Joe was here two years ago he was unable to visit the museum because they were remodeling it so we were glad to make it there this time. The museum was very interesting and provided a lot of information about Chopin’s life but the layout was kind of strange. Every display had a screen next to it and you could watch little bits about each display. Great idea, expect the museum was busy and so it took a long time to get to the screens to be able to watch things. We eventually gave up and just looked around and read the descriptions and if something caught out eye we went to the screen. The coolest things were the last piano Chopin used before his death and the lock of his hair and death mask from when he died. It turns out that Chopin was actually pretty sick most of his life and was kind of a complainer. It was a lot of fun to learn more about his life and music though. All in all a good experience and cool to see some of the artifacts from his life.
By this point we decided we were hungry so we stopped at an outdoor cafe and got some pizza and salad. Again, it was enjoyable to people watch and just be outside. After our late lunch we wandered back towards Old Town because on Saturday we saw that there would be a big fashion show on Sunday. Now I don’t know much about fashion aside from the one time I actually watched Project Runway so I wasn’t really interested in the whole experience but it was cool to see some of the designs and all the people gathered for the show. After walking around some more we decided we were hungry again so we went to a Turkish restaurant and of course picked an outdoor table. The food was really good and since it was cooling off a little it was very pleasant to sit outside. I was sad to think that our time in Warsaw was already over because I really enjoyed the city!It was such a great experience to be in Warsaw and think about my ancestors who used to live here. I enjoyed thinking that maybe they went to some of the churches we visited or walked the same streets I walked. It was a great way to feel connected to my family history and enjoy being where my family came from. I was excited to visit Krakow as well since some of my ancestors also came from that area of Poland, in general it was just a great experience to be in Poland and feel that connection with my family history!
No comments:
Post a Comment