Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Smell Goes On

Day 217

Today was my last day in Warsaw and I had quite a bit to do. I wanted to be up early, but I hadn't expected to be woken up at 6 am. One of the guys in my room came back at this time, he absolutly reeked and it didn't take long for his smell to fill the small space. One he fell asleep he snored louder than I thought possible. Everyone was out of the room by 7 am, he cleared the place.

I headed downtown and was delighted to find that the castle was actually opened. The opening hours were inside, where you can't get to if its closed. Thats not very helpful. The castle had been destroyed during WWII and was restored to reflect its 18th century appearance. The rooms are decorated with objects and paintings that had been salvaged from the wreckage or hidden during the war.

That original castle was partly built in the 14th century and added to extensively in the 17th century. Not only did royalty live here, but it was also used as a meeting place for parliament. In 1939 the castle was bombed, but the staff at the time had the forethought to try and save much of the objects and even some of the wall paper and moldings. In 1944 the castle was blown up completely with the rest of the city. Reconstruction began in 1990 and it was opened to the public four years later. There is still work to be done though, from what I could tell the castle gardens were next.

The palace was nice. It wasn't anything I hadn't seen before, it was interesting to see the things that had been salvaged though. There was a small but nice collection on paints and a room full of porcelain. The room on coins was rather boring, but the woman watching it seemed like her feelings would be hurt if I didn't check it out so I took my time in there.

After the castle I wanted to go and see the Powaik Prison Museum, unfortunately it was closed. I did get pictures of the memorials though.

I ended up doing some blogging instead. When I was done with that I headed to the history museum. I asked the woman at the front desk if I could take pictures, she told me that it would be ok as long as I didn't use any flash. Wonderful, I like taking pictures!

The first settlement in the Warsaw area dates back to the 10th century. Quickly the small settlement grew and soon became a center for crafts. I took pictures of everything that interested me. I was having a good time. Warsaw becomes a center for crafts. Warsaw became home to the Moravian kings and later the Saxon kings. It was interesting to see everything that had been salvaged from the original museum.

At this point tried to take a picture of a piano thing and was yelled at for doing so. I tried to explain that I had been told that I could take them, but she didn't speak any English and there was no point. I was pretty irritated though. Sometimes when I ask people act like I have done something really awful. I just don't understand. It's a yes or no question.


I wrote down a handful of notes afterwards but I was kinda sick of the museum. There was an odd dolphin sculpture that had been left over from the Swedish occupation. When they tried to move it back to Sweden in 1655 they accidentally dropped it into the river. It was rescued in 1911. By 1792 Warsaw had become a center for Polish culture. It was easy to see through the paintings how the old town used to looked compared to what it is now.

When I got to the more modern history there as a really stale smell about the place. I also knew most of it at this point. I didn't want to read anything else about WWII. Plus, my stomach was growling.

I went to Pizza Hut for dinner and to write. I've been craving pizza, but I want the greasy NYC kind, not what I had today.

Back at the hostel I met up with the guys from the night before. I hadn't known, but Jeremy was also in my room. He pointed out the stinky guy who came into the room this morning. Jeanfrançois pointed out, along with several other people, that this guy had been looking at porn all day long on the hostel computers. How gross!

That night Jeremy and Tom and I went out for a bit. When Jeremy and I got back to the room we had to get our pj's out of the rather creaky locked cabinet. The room reeked and we were both annoyed so we talked a bit as well. I guess we were louder than we thought because stinky man told us to shut up. I replied that I didn't care what he wanted because he smelled bad and woke everyone up in the morning and he didn't care then. Perhaps this wasn't the nicest thing to have said, but it shut him up. He did smell bad, really really bad. He rivaled the woman back in Portsmouth.

In the end neither of us could sleep because of the smell and we went to ask if they could do anything at reception. Apparently they had asked him several time during the day to stop looking at porn and he wouldn't. He had also was very aggressive in hitting on the guy at receptions girlfriend. We were given beds in a new room. I was happy to go to bed after an eventful night.


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