Warsaw

Krakow to Warsaw. We found ourselves surrounded in a snow haven as our train jerked along its icy tracks; rolling fields of whiteness glistening in the sun and the warmth that the wintry season brings was welcome. Amongst the beauty, nevertheless, the freezing sensation in our toes continued in Warsaw. But good news, I didn't lose any toes. They were saved by dodging in and out of cafés every 20-30 minutes. Lots o' cocoa!
Upon arrival, I immediately fell in love with Warsaw. It sent me straight back to Seattle with its skyscrapers. The modernity and oldness combined made Warsaw a very unique retreat. And by 'old' I mean the reconstructed oldness of Warsaw after 1945 'old'. 85% of Warsaw was destroyed during WWII. The Old Town center (Right) was completely rebuilt to exactness, and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The Marie Curie Museum was small, but impressive; what an amazing woman. Thank goodness I had Brains accompanying me to explain all of the chemical and physics jargon!
Amazing architecture of the Political buildings, University, and places of worship lined the Royal Way Street on our way to the Old Town. The Old Town is dominated by the Royal Palace that dates back to the 13th Century. While wandering we had no idea that leaving the walls of the Old Town would land Laurent in the arms of a very drunk, out of work actor posing with helpless men with their head's placed on a stump and his accomplices axing off their heads (Right). Unable to free Laurent from this money trap, I finally gave in very angrily and took his picture. But, at least I was quick enough to tell them that we only had Czech Crowns with us and apparently that was fine; good to get rid of the coins anyway!
The way we usually chose where we were going to eat was by how frozen we were. This time we chose an amazing cozy little restaurant. Yes, Le Petit Trianon was not kidding when it said 'petit.' I was shocked when we walked into this French restaurant with the 4 tables; I looked around to see if we had walked into the wrong place. However, our dinner turned into more of an evening of laughter, good company, and a wonderful Host/Bartender/Waiter/Cook help that lasted 4.5 hours! We surely enjoyed our dinner with the cutest older man waiting on us very slowly in his tuxedo. This dinner hit the spot and warmed the freezing sensation we had been feeling, well, of course until we had to walk back to our lodging at midnight. Brrrr…
The Pawiak (w=v) Prison Museum was quite an emotional stir about all the people persecuted during WWII by the Nazis (Right). This museum was the former Gestapo prison during the Nazi occupation. Many prisoners' personal items, poems, news briefings, and rooms were displayed. This took me back to my feelings when I was in Dachau Concentration Camp summer of 2004.
We found ourselves a wonderful chocolate café, E. Wedel (http://www.wedel.pl/), with the best drinking chocolate I've tasted in a while, (well, of course, Starbuck's drinking chocolate, Chantico, is pretty good too and it actually originated from E. Wedel!) which followed us to our final destination, the New Year's Eve Gala and Ball at Downtown Restaurant.









All dressed up, sparkly, and ready to ring in the New Year, we headed to our NYE Party. At the entrance to the restaurant an elaborate dessert table with an ice sculpture of 2006 and a E. Wedel chocolate fountain atop it greeted us and I knew we were in the right place (Right). A chocolate fountain? Just for me?! An all-you-can-drink selection of wonderful spirits and an all-you-can-eat fancy buffet catered to us for the evening until 2am. It was quite a gourmet smorgasbord.




We were also swooned to the music of a Warsaw band playing old, favorite Jazz classics for the evening and dancing enjoying ourselves.











"Happy New Year!"



We left feeling content with the party, music, fireworks, and the New Year. What a delightful treat to have seen winter at its finest in the East.