Pierwszy Weekend Latem (The First Weekend of Summer)

After some beautiful but chilly weather during the Koziks' trip to Poland, the weather took an even better turn this past weekend, when it hovered in the mid-70s and was sunny most of the way through. It really started to feel like we had left winter behind, and so we decided to explore our city in its new light.

Starting in May, on Friday and Saturday nights Warsaw puts on a light and music show at Multimedia Fountain Park. The show this year is called Syreny Warszawskie (The Mermaids of Warsaw). We showed up at 9:20pm on Friday and there were already a couple thousand people sitting on the hillside below New Town waiting for the show. We found a clear place to stand and enjoyed the 30-minute display projected on the beautiful fountain. The show depicted three mermaids helping out people around Warsaw, set to an original score and broken up by elaborate combinations of colored streams of water.

 

On Saturday we met a bunch of the Fulbright students at Bar Studio at the Palace of Culture and Science for some afternoon revelry, enjoying the weather and the music from the unexpected breakdance competition that was taking place in the Palace parking lot.

After church on Sunday, we took the trams across the river to Praga where we attended the Gaude Mater Sacred Music Festival concert at St. Florian's Cathedral. Bryan's Fulbright colleague Julia was singing with the Cathedral Choir, and they were even performing one of her original pieces (she's a composer). The concert was great and it was fun to explore another part of the city. Then we had a terrific Lebanese lunch at Le Cedre, one of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in Poland.

After lunch we decided to visit the Warsaw Zoo, located in a large park in Praga, right across the street from St. Florian's Cathedral. It wasn't our original plan for the day, but we fell victim to the Zoo's ingenious marketing strategy - the brown bear exhibit located right along the main road! The Zoo was excellent and was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. We only hope that Warsaw continues to give us more new surprises and activities as the summer approaches. We have to fit them in now because after all, we only have seven weeks left in Poland!!!