At the end of the tour I remain at the Holocaust or Jewish Museum while Danielle returns to the hotel having seen it two years ago. This building is an architectural marvel and the exhibition which at times struck me as disjointed gives an outstanding history of Germany and Jews throughout time. After two hours I find myself feeling a little claustrophobic and overwhelmed by it all especially struggling to find the exit.
Back to the hotel for a relax and research on where to go for dinner. With Poland, Czech Republic and Austria coming up I decide on a well known Chinese restaurant to complete our tour of German cuisine – Jewish, Indian and Chinese – hey think back we did have sausages for lunch yesterday.
Monday morning and we have a relaxing time in a bookshop and mooching around before picking up the car from the HauptBanhHof. I had booked a Mercedes C Class being assured (but doubted by me) that I could take this into Poland and Czech. “Of course not sir” she says “we can offer you a Skoda” Hmmm Mercedes for a Skoda I think not. After some negotiation I get a Chrysler PT Cruiser but after examining the 40 square centimetres of boot space and determining that if there is a reason that I can’t take a Mercedes into Poland and Czech that my luggage better be out of site I negotiate a Jeep wagon with a largish covered boot.
My GPS tells me that it will take 8 hours to do the 600kms to Warsaw – not possible I think as we leave Berlin at 14:00 – 75kms average seems low. We take the autobahn to the border where the road becomes a beautifully paved highway with 1½ lanes in each direction. How does this work you ask – you simply drive on the verge creating a centre lane for those brave enough to risk good graces of the oncoming traffic to move into their verge space. Still the traffic moves well and I still don’t see how it is going to take so long especially as we hit an extended stretch of 2 lanes in each direction highway. Then with 133 kilometres and supposedly 2 hours to go I understand what is happening. The remaining road into Warsaw is like a country road in France – one lane in each direction. Now you need to understand that in Poland there is 43 trucks for every car – and so it is that we crawl within reach of Warsaw when I decide we have to stop for a meal.
With the traffic going so slow we are further welcomed by a series of 24 hour “clubs” and ladies of the night plying their trade during the day on the edge of the forest – hmmm.
We find a traditional Polish restaurant where we order one soup and one chicken schnitzel – easy you would think – but not so. After 45 minutes I ask the waitress, who does not speak ANY English what is happening by pointing at my watch. She shows me the menu to indicate that the schnitzel takes time. I equally point to the menu asking what about the soup. She goes to the window to the kitchen to ask the chef what is happening. Now I don’t much Polish at all but enough to understand that the chef, who was sitting looking very casual, asking “what order”. Oops the waitress has forgotten to put in the order. We take our leave half in disgust and half laughing at our “welcome to Poland after an efficient Germany” experience.
As we get in the car Danielle gets out Mum’s story of her life up to and including the war which she wrote two years ago and which neither of us had yet read. It seemed that as were about to visit her birthplace it would be fitting to read this story. We found it moving and touching and at times it had us in tears.
Anyway onwards to Warsaw we stop at K.F.C. – got our chicken schnitzel of sorts, a supermarket for some supplies and to our hotel around midnight. Now for the uneducated among you there is a vast difference between Al. Jana Pawla II 22 and Jana Pawla II 22 just one word but around 12kms times two – perhaps not surprising with the name John Paul II. Anyway hotel room secured we go to bed after an arduous 10 hour trip to Warsaw. Although we planned to stay outside Warsaw by doing his we had some flexibility as to the order in which we do Warsaw and Bialystock.
We wake up latish and decide to spend the day in Warsaw. A quick check of the hotel booking and I notice that breakfast is included – a nice change. So after a quick bite we head off to the “Jewish Historical Institute” pay our 10 zloty per person ‘donation’ and luckily join a Japanese group for the video about the Warsaw Ghetto. The Japanese woman next to me who clearly spoke no English was moved to tears by 30 minute movie – as was I. Hard to understand how ‘ordinary’ people could be moved en mass to become so barbaric.
We move on to the old town and new town and find our way around some of the ‘interesting’ (their word not mine) monuments and churches around the place. It starts raining on what is a very cold day considering it is summer so we head to the hotel for a breather and after two hours we head out to some historical Jewish sights conveniently located near our hotel. We find a small remnant of the Warsaw Ghetto wall when we are approached by an old man who asks if we speak German – some may call it a lie but I answered yes. He explained that he was a lieutenant in the Polish army and was forced to build the wall. Now 87 years old he wound up in a Russian Gulag for three years after the war and lives next to the remains of the Ghetto Wall. He spent 27 years convincing the Polish authorities to recognise and restore the wall as a monument and the plaque bears his name at the bottom. Together with a Jewish man he built a garden around the base of the wall and restored a walkway leading up to it. I naively ask whether the Poles are still anti Semitic to which he sighs and says of course. I ask him to join us for a coffee which he misunderstands as showing us where the coffee shop is located – he ushers us there and takes his leave.
Danielle insists on traditional Polish food and after consulting her Lonely Planet she takes me to a restaurant about 10 kms from the hotel. Thank goodness for Vito, the adopted name of my GPS navigation system. We arrive at a restaurant which I can best described as being built and fitted out under communism where I imagine the “apparatchiks” eat their meals and with no refurbishment done since. Danielle has Hot and Sour Soup with a hard -boiled egg - which I describe as excellent peasants soup while I have a crab salad (not nearly as good as Ludmila’s mother) as well as some potatoes and mushrooms. Not a bad meal but hey give me the Wurstel, Indian, Chinese and Jewish food of Berlin.
On the way back to the hotel we stop at the Marriott Hotel which has a casino. I have my ID and am admitted while Danielle doesn’t have hers and walks around the hotel for 20 minutes while I play showing a small profit – in Zloty noch. We decide on dessert in the Italian restaurant in the hotel – chocolate soufflé and semifreddo – now that is real food notwithstanding that it cost more than the entire dinner beforehand.
I should observe that I find Poland to be more expensive than Germany for just about everything. I don’t fully understand how people survive here. As an example dry cleaning is $5 a garment, manicures and pedicures Danielle tells me are the same as Australia while restaurants outside of the tourist traps and hey KFC are equal or more than Australia - and I don’t believe for one second that they earn the same as their Australian counterparts. Back to the hotel to watch an episode of Law and Order on my computer
An early night and we head off at 7:00am the next morning with bleak and cold weather forebodes the day ahead. Now again it is 254 kilometres to Jalowka and Vito tells me it will take 3.5 hours. Why Jalowka you ask – this is the shtetl (Jewish for small town) of 500 inhabitants where my great grandparents lived. They ran a tobacco and fabric shop. Well what a disappointment when we arrive to find arou nd 30 houses along two sides of just one street. No shops, no restaurants, no marketplace described by mum - no nothing. We think maybe the cemetery may yield some results but it seems that everybody buries their relatives in their front gardens.... hey just reporting the facts.
We pull into a driveway where we see a man getting out of a car so we ask in our non-existent Polish and pointing to the Polish word for cemetery on the map of Warsaw. He looks very put out and suggests we go to Warsaw as he storms off mumbling under his breath. His wife is more helpful and his daughter even speaks English. We determine that there is no cemetery so we head off most disappointed.
As we leave I get a business call on my phone and am asked where I am – visiting our ancestral home was the best answer I could think of as I explained more fully lest I be asked to reduce my fees.
On to Bialystok. We go to the first place Gerda suggests 4 Dombrowskiewo Street. Vio finds the street which is good seeing he only has high level maps for Bialystok. We get very excited as we arrive to find that the street numbering starts with....12. We go into the ‘Vinnies’ shop and tell them we are looking for cztery and they say no such place they are number 12 and that is where the street starts. It was as Gerda describes in the square opposite the church. On to Rocha and Krakowska Streets where an apartment block now stands but we take photos all around anyway.
Then to the street in which Gerda’s Parisian cousin Lucia lived again nothing historic looking but we took photos anyway. Dora's home is now a publishing house and it seems it was next door to the Palace Jewish theatre.
As we are driving to Bialystok I say to Danielle “we should go to the tourist information office”. This is met by much laughter and guffawing by Danielle – guess what there is a Tourist Information office and despite being poorly signposted they are MOST helpful providing us with a brochure and map on the Jewish sights of Bialystok. We go to the monument for the Bialystok Ghetto and some other places. By now it is 15:15 and I am hungry. We find what was likely the best restaurant in Bialystok. Nervous when they proudly announce Polish, Japanese, Chinese and other cuisines – good advice for travellers avoid mixed cuisine restaurants – but this one looks and turns out to be very nice indeed. This stop however proves to be a poor choice.
Around 16:00 we head for the cemetery again hoping to find some roots only to find that it closes at, you guessed it 16:00. I drive in and start asking where the Jewish section is located – bad mistake as the ‘official’ starts abusing me for driving in, asks me what I am doing there and shows less and zero interest in anything I have to say as he chases me away ordering me to leave immediately. You don’t need to know much Polish when confronted by somebody with so much bad attitude.
Anyway back to Warsaw after very little to show for what we hoping would be a cathartic visit to our ancestral birthplaces.
Here are some links to the photos and brochures (I have more which I am bringing back) including a detailed brochure of all of the Jewish sites of Bialystok past and present - not much present of course.
http://users.tpg.com.au/davstern/bialystk/ (photos in reverse order with apologies)
http://users.tpg.com.au/davstern/bialystk/bialystk.pdf (be patient it is large)
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