Warsaw continued

Warsaw continued

Day 155 was a big day. It was the day Rach opened the first door of her advent calendar. Christmas had begun! We also discovered we'd trodden the dog/fox shit into the van. Merry Christmas!

The next day we explored more of Warsaw. We saw more of the old palaces, castles and churches. So many of them have been rebuilt from previous destruction, down to the last brick. The Royal Castle was only finished in the 1980's after it's destruction during the war. I found out that it also got completely tatored by the Swedish Army in 1598, so it's been rebuilt twice! I mean, Birmingham doesn't even bother replacing those grey round things when they inevitably fall off the plastic Selfridges building.

By 'tatored' I mean destroyed, in case you were wondering.

We had a nice Italian meal in the old town, which was only ruined slightly by the waitress' refusal to bring Rach more garlic sauce for her pizza.

Watching stuff

Back at the campsite we played some pool at the bar and watched a Polish show about some woman with a mic stopping people in the streets and asking them what they were listening to. It was surprisingly gripping. Later we watched an old channel 5 Myra Hindley documentary on Youtube, for some reason. God they made documentaries differently back then. They seemed far less concerned about keeping your attention. A lot less editing. Seems like they just shoved a camera in some talking heads' faces and said ''okay, talk''. We also watched both Fyre documentaries, about the disastrous music festival and its fraudulent founder, Billy McFarland. Much more 'entertaining', made for a 2019 audience. Billy McFarland - what an unbelievable twat. Not as bad as Myra Hindley though I suppose. Then again she isn't as bad as Ja Rule.

Warsaw Uprising Museum

Warsaw Uprising Museum is the one absolute must-visit I would recommend to anyone visiting Warsaw. It's the best museum I've ever been in, by far. It covers the battle for liberation fought by the local 'Home Army' during World War II, and the eventual fate of the city and its citizens.

The amount and depth of information is incredible, but what really makes it special is the way the information is set out and displayed, through interactive elements, amazing audio design and brilliant visuals. There was a Liberator bomber plane exhibited, along with Nazi motorbikes and sidecars, authentic outfits from the period, original weaponry and more. They'd even decked out certain rooms and corridors to look like the streets from the time, with cobbled floors, old brickwork walls and resistance graffiti. It was a pleasure to walk around the place, even though the subject matter was obviously pretty harrowing. A fascinating and unforgettable visit.

On our last evening in Warsaw, after drinks in an underground karaoke bar - where a concerningly skinny blonde girl nearly burst my eardrums singing something or other - we arrived late back to the campsite, meaning we were temporarily locked out. Luckily one of the nice women who worked the bar was still up and about and soon let us in, otherwise Rach may have cried herself unconscious.

Boxing, Twitter and tree surgery

Before we left Warsaw for Krakow we paid up at the campsite. The younger of the two women at reception was from Krakow and gave us some advice on things to see. She encouraged us to wander the city aimlessly and find what we find, which is something we do like to do.

The drive to Krakow was nearly as stressful as the drive to Warsaw. More major roadworks had caused plenty of diversions, and we were starting to really get to understand the national driving style. It falls in the sweet spot between impatient and carefree; I was really starting to think that maybe the speed limits didn't apply to Polish nationals.

On the first evening in (well, near) Krakow we stayed at a bit of a ropey campsite and watched Joshua Ruiz II with some beers. Rach tweeted a funny meme about Joshua's ringwalk looking like coming down on Christmas morning when you know you've got a Gameboy Colour. It got plenty of attention. As of today: 325 likes, 34 retweets and 3 comments, one of which was a picture of Quality Street which had been photoshopped to say 'Quality Tweet'. Rach was over the moon. I myself tweeted about Joshua coming out to 'Water No Get Enemy' by composer, saxophonist and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. 1 retweet. Bastards.

Before the fight we nipped out to get a Christmas tree. What we ended up buying was a little oversized for the van, so the next morning I performed some surgery on it so that it would fit on the work surface. By 'surgery' I mean I cut the top off. This did make it fit, but at the expense of the shape. The classic triangle became basically a square. We also got some fairy lights which Rach managed to attach to the ceiling. All of a sudden the place was feeling very festive!