In classic New Years Eve fashion I found myself in yet
another new place. My past five New
Years Eve celebrations have popped off in classic all-night party fashion, all
in different parts of the world. The
latest of the five celebrations rang in the year 2012 in a country that, until
this past summer, I never really saw myself visiting. It ended up being a great decision with all
the fun and interesting travel experiences included.
Krakow, Poland is pretty interesting old city. At one time it was the capital of Poland but
it is now better known in as their beautiful old medieval city; a place you
want to go if you’re into the history and want to see the sights. Little did I know before taking the old town
tour, it is also pretty well known throughout Europe for its particularly rowdy
soccer fans as the city includes two rivalry teams. So rowdy I’m told, that Poland decided to exclude
Krakow from hosting any Euro 2012 matches. The clean, pristine old town with the Wowel
castle at its head looking out over the Visla River is surrounded by a band of
parks. Crossing that band will take you
out of the medieval city and onto streets lined with 18th century
buildings including some traces communist architecture popping its head out
from time to time. Certainly walking the
old town is a pleasurable experience with its churches, large square, and small
intimate store fronts, but even outside of the old town roaming can be a
pleasurable experience.
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| Welcome to the Goodbye Lenin! |
The New Years Eve celebration was in itself a pretty great
time. The first face I saw when entering
the hostel was that of my brother Nate. Just
before entering I figured that he had probably showed up and left the hostel
already, getting out on the town to see what the next few nights have in store,
but to my surprise I caught him just before going out to pick up some beers so
I had him pick up a couple for me. The
Goodbye Lenin Hostel rocked from the people working there to its convenient location
next to the Jewish quarter. Peace Corps
Ukraine represented about half of the guests at the hostel. That is a slight exaggeration but there was a
very large group of volunteers from Ukraine present for the NYE celebration. I was lucky to have had the chance to meet,
hangout, and have extended chats with many of them. Once again I’ve realized that the really great
times that you have when traveling happen when you’re around like-minded people,
open to new experiences. You’re all just
having a good time.
A trip to Krakow isn’t complete without getting out of the
city for one of those days and checking out Auschwitz. A good part of the 2nd of January
was spent bussing it to the camp and roaming around the grounds with a tour
guide. There’s an informative museum at
Auschwitz I with some pretty intense displays and the sheer size of Auschwitz
II was imposing. Images from Schindler
List flashed through my head.
The following day was Nate’s last day in the Krack. We spent the day seeing more of the city including
the National Museum where we pretended to be WWII soldiers and an English book
store where I finally acquired some reading material for the trip (I had left
my apartment to travel alone to Krakow without a book!). I had decided to stay in Krakow until the 5th
instead of heading right back to Warsaw. After seeing Nate off at the bus station on
the 3rd I had a couple more days of roaming around on my own seeing
more of Krakow and then a bit of Warsaw.
It poured those last couple of days dampening the mood that was
already dampened when Nate and the rest of the PCU volunteers left to go back
to their sites. Every time this happens;
the first couple of days following a nice long get-together you feel more alone
than you’ve ever felt. Even though it
rained, I took the chance to put a good sized dent in the rather large book I had
just purchased (The Shock Doctrine-Naomi Klein, you should read it if you haven’t
already) while enjoying coffees or food in small cafés. I also took the time to go through the museum
of Nazi Occupation in Krakow which was located in Schindler’s factory. While walking through that museum I realized
that in the 2.5 years I’ve been in Europe I have only been to a few
museums. The 5th was a long
day of walking around the amazingly rebuilt old town of Warsaw to conclude my
Polish NYE adventure.
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| UNESCO Site, the Old Town Square in Warsaw rebuilt after being destroyed by the Nazis at the end of WWII |
After three NYE celebrations, in three different European
countries I’ve realized that they’ve all followed a pattern. Each time I have seen new places, met new
people, hung out with good friends, enjoyed the travel, but all centered around
a big, all-night party. On our tour
through the old town I actually chatted with some people who recognized me from
the hostel in Budapest for last year’s NYE celebration. Not bad, the only question is, where to ring
in the year 2013?
