Poland Part 1: Why had I never heard of Wrocław?!?

Many a year ago, in fact it was about 2 years and 9 months to be more specific. Gemma and I jetted off to Poland. There was some discussion at this holiday destination, Gemma was sceptical it would be of much interest, yet I was keen because beer is to Poland is like what rain is to England. 

Beer glasses where even the small musg are bigger than my head. Baily could totally drown in that. This was going to be great!!!

I was also keen to learn more about modern history and World War 2 that I had already explored in Berlin, Odessa, and Malta.

Plus, I got to be on TV

I finally convinced her and before we knew it we had arrived at our first destination: Wrocław! Never heard of it? Don't feel ashamed. Neither had we; Ryanair just offered cheap flights from our local airport in to  and out from Warsaw. So Wrocław, he we come!

Oh yeah, woohoo, mugs as big as your head, this is gonna be... great...sigh.

To say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Wrocław has a rich history, superb old town, fantastic sculptures, and dwarves. There are just sooo many dwarves.

Grumpy

It began as an important trading post where European east west trading routes met the north south trading routes. Not surprisingly then, Wrocław has a massive market square (Rynek we Wrocławiu), the biggest in Poland, the second biggest in medieval Europe, and still one of the biggest in Europe. 

A photo of Rynek we Wrocławiu. I could peice togtehr a hundred such shots and yo still would not have captured half of the space.

Now it serves as the epicentre of a bustling tourist industry, it is filled with restaurants, shops, tourists (naturally), and, dare I say it, pubs!!! It, ah, also has a whipping post. In case you're wondering what a whipping is for I will be frank. it is not a euphemism, it is not a metaphor, it is a post that criminals an ne'er-do-wells were tied to and flogged. Right in the middle of town. Right outside all of the pubs and nightclubs. Needless to say Baiky was on his best behaviour.

Criminals were placed in pillory as public punishiment for their crimes. Were, is it are? I'm not too sure this was clarified...

Like everywhere we visited in Poland there was an intense focus on WWII and the Nazi influence. Wrocław was the last town to surrender to the Soviets after a brutal seige called the seige of Brelau. Over 50% of the old town, which incldes the market square was destroyed. Sadly, this type of hostory was common theme, but it also demonstrates the resiliance of the Polish people who were able to rebuild not just their towns, but their lives too (more in the later posts).

Sculpture representing people just up and disappearing during the Nazi occupation.

Wrocław is also a university town as well as holiday destination. Wikipedia believes it was founded in 1505, but if you want some real evidence of its stature as a prominent university check out the staute of the naked student at the front, or, you can have a chat with alumni such as Max Born and Erwin Schrodinger and see what they thought of theur time there.

  Legend has it the statue represents an extravagant gambler who squandered all but his sword in drunken card games - thus serving as an example to the university’s population. I think the sculpture just wanted to put a dong in a prominent place.

Students, being students, are good at coming up with creative ways of emphasising the flaws in government. They used a symbol of dwarves to accentuate the ridiculous nature of communist leadership. The comical miniature statues started popping up all over the city and eroded the tenuous rule of the communist regime. There are hundreds of these statuettes dotted around the old town and, well, they're kinda like Pokémon; gotta find them all.

Baiky finds himself a drinking buddy.

Polish beer is well known throughout the world for its variety and quality, and Wrocław did not disappoint. We finished each day with pub crawls, visiting the plethora of breweries around the town. Not much can be said about these adventures except one night ended badly when I asked Gemma to buy me a halfpint of a 14% beer and she came back with a pint.

Was this before the pole, or after the pole. The answers to this mysteries are lost forever.

We're not sure what happened after this, but our note book says that I walked into a pole and then laughed it off as karma. So I clearly did something I wasn't proud of... From a beer drinker's and pub goer's point of view it was a dream.

A bar in an alley, I love it.

We went to outdoor bars, bars in alleys, german bars, irish bars, the list seemed endless. I drank, stouts, porters, beer cocktails, lagers, ale, wheat beers all mixed with grains, fruit, and flavours before unheard of. Truly a paradise for drunkards.

 

Beer, motherf***ing, cocktails. It was another Pokémon experience.

Which goes a long way towards explaining the staggering amount of people on the flight over dressed ready for a buck's night out.

Baiky sneaks a beer or two

Other highlights included the islands of Wrocław, which include Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island), the Hydropolis, and Stare Jatki.

Scupture on Ostrów Tumski

Ostrów Tumski is home to a statue of Bishop Boleslaw Kominek who rebuilt relations between Poland and Germany in much the same way Ataturk did between Turkey and the ANZACs. Tumskli island also retains the tradition of gas lanterns to light the streets at night. Each evening a lamp lighter traverses the island and lights each of the 103 lanterns.

Ostrów Tumski from a distance

 Hydropolis is a science museum dedicated to water. It was awesome! And, get this, the entire facade of the museum is a waterfall that parts as you get closer to let you in. It has senses on so no matter where along the front of the building you approach a little gap in the water stream opens for you.

Pure genius. I spent, like, hours running in and out of the building.

 Stare Jatki is a medieval street in the Old Town that maintains some of its 13 century elements. It used to be an area known for butchers but now is home to artists and their studios. Its entrance is littered with bronze statues of farm animals providing some indication of its previous tenants.

 Twice in my life I've approached my hotel and thought, it can't this one, there's no way I can afford that. This was one of those times.

And just like that our three nights in Wrocław was up. It was not enough but Baiky had thus far managed to stay out of the pillory and I didn't want to take any more chances. I said good bye to the little people and breweries and we hopped on a train to see if we could catch up with Schindler in Kraków.

Even the Train station was immense.