Krzyżacki Zamki w Dzin Urodzin Bryana (Teutonic Castles on Bryan's Birthday)!!!! - Day 1

Map of Our Trip - blue is the route, letters are the stops,
and stars/squares are the ones we didn't get to!

We had such a wonderful Holy Week in Rome, that it is almost impossible to imagine a subsequent trip being nearly as enjoyable or amazing. Well, Emily's surprise for my birthday was up to that challenge! After renting a car, we spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday driving around the countryside of northern Poland visiting as many Teutonic castles as we could find...and boy was it awesome!!!
Remembering back, the Krzyżacki (Teutonic Order) was the group of monk-knights from Germany who were brought to Poland to convert the pagan Prussians to Christianity. They built Ordensburgen (Order Castles) all over northern Poland, with their capital in Malbork. Most of the castles were built on hills overlooking rivers to command the countryside. They were typically designed in square patterns (like a monastery) and were constructed of brick over stone foundations. Dozens of these castles still dot northern Poland, either as intact structures, ruins, or modern reconstructions, and most of the intact castles house museums dedicated to the Teutonic Order.

First we traveled northward, and later swung down to the West. Altogether we made 23 stops, with 15 of those stops having either intact or ruined castles, and I dare not leave even one of them out! For the sake of organization and sanity, though, I will break the trip up into three posts (one per day per day). And away we go...

Stop 1: Shrine of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Rostkowo
We could not pass up the opportunity to visit the shrine of my patron saint - St. Stanislaus Kostka - whose birthplace in 1550 was a tiny village in central Poland, which is even tinier today. Despite the village's population of about 30 people, there is a beautiful neo-gothic church, several monuments depicting scenes from the saint's life, a well-manicured garden, and a grade school all located at his birth site. I was so grateful to have this opportunity, especially because this village was virtually inaccessible other than by car.

Stop 2: Teutonic Castle in Nidzica
Nidzica's castle was an impressive second stop. Built on an oblong hill overlooking an expansive Old Town, the high-walled rectangular fortress was imposing from all angles. Surrounded by trees and trenches, it had a long driveway and an enclosed gate-yard of cobblestones. The castle itself had two thick towers fronting an interior, cloistered courtyard. The palace occupied the highest part of the hill, which dropped off steeply on three sides. The town of Nidzica also contained a medieval brewery, monastery, church, and part of the town walls.
Stop 3: Teutonic Castle in Ostróda
Ostróda was quite a different setting. Located on a long, thin lake, this town had its two brick gothic churches on a hill while its castle sat right down at water level. The castle was perfectly square and rather squat. Its front and side faces were thick, windowed structures and its rear was simply a short wall enclosing the square courtyard. The yard had a covered wooden balcony along one side. The castle sat facing the lake next to where a large stream entered. The dug-out remnants of a moat still surrounded the structure. Ostróda is now a beautiful resort town with a developed waterfront and fashionable restaurants and parks overlooking the water.
Stop 5: Cathedral of Warmia in Frombork

After a long afternoon drive we arrived in Frombork in time for 6pm Mass. Frombork is the location of the cathedral where Dantiscus served as bishop, and the cathedral is amazing. It sat high on a hill overlooking a harbor on the Baltic Sea. The cathedral was fortified with tall outer walls, defensive towers, a moat, and barracks. It had four skinny towers on each corner and a grand entry portico. Inside it was spectacular. The walls and ceiling were pink plaster, and the soaring brick arches were painted with brightly colored stripes. Every column had an ornate altar in front of it, and statues of the saints lined every archway. The huge Baroque altar gleamed from the rear of the church, and the floor was covered with memorial stones from former bishops and priests. Outside after Mass, we walked down to the small harbor, past rows of small fishing boats and a group of fisherman packing the day's catch in barrels of ice. We walked out on the pier and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets over the Baltic lagoon.


Stop 6: Elbląg
For dinner we stopped in the medieval port city of Elbląg. We briefly took in the giant brick gothic church located along the river, the long central market street, and the tall brick gothic church at the entrance to Old Town, before settling in for some Polish comfort food.

Stop 7: Teutonic Castle and Hotel at Gniew
Our last stop on Saturday was our hotel, located in the beautiful and imposing Castle Gniew, high atop a ridge overlooking the Vistula River and its large floodplain. The castle was square in pattern, with five-story-high walls, corner observations towers, and tall arched windows. The central courtyard gave us access to our room, which overlooked the tournament grounds and the sizable Old Town. What an incredible place to spend two nights in between our incessant castle-tracking!

What an amazing first day! More to follow tomorrow...

Niedziela Palmowa (Palm Sunday)

Like most religious holidays here in Poland, Niedziela Palmowa (Palm Sunday) is celebrated with gusto and has been given a unique Polish flavor. Easter decorations have been for sale in shops and adorning storefronts for a week or so now, but it wasn't until we stepped outside on Palm Sunday that we really got a taste of the Polish Easter Spirit. As soon as we stepped outside of our apartment Sunday morning, we could tell that there were far more people than usual out and about, especially on a Sunday morning. The square near our apartment was very busy and there were hundreds of people walking around outside the local church.

In addition, we quickly realized that instead of receiving simple palm branches to have blessed during Mass, Poles purchase for a few złoty these elaborate, colorful, woven bunches of dried plants, palms, and flowers. Booths and tables selling these Polish palms occupy almost every street corner, especially in the vicinity of churches. Every booth had lines of people waiting to purchase their palms, and the children especially were enjoying waiving their colorgul arrangements around. Here is a shot of Susan and us with our palms, just after Mass on Sunday!

Like in the US, Palm Sunday Mass began with an outdoor blessing of the palms followed by the whole congregation processing into the church together. This was the first service at out church that was so crowded that we needed to stand in the back! For the rest of the day, throughout the city, there were tons of people milling about, most of whom were carrying their brightly-colored palm arrangements. Once again, the Polish zeal for religious celebrations was a beautiful, amazing thing in which to participate and witness, and it made us sad to realize that we will miss experiencing Easter (Wielkanoc) in Poland. But not too sad, after all...off to Rome!! Happy Easter, everyone!

My, naród" (We, the people) - The other side of Polish politics

Ah, presidential primary season. Believe it or not, a surprising number of folks on this side of the Atlantic are aware of the intricacies of the current U.S. political situation. We've had friends ask candidly about our take on it and even go so far as to express concern since the U.S. has such an effect on the matters of the rest of the world. But it's with some relief that I can say we are not bombarded by the rat race every minute over here. Need a break? Let's talk Polish political shop! It may make you feel better...

We have not experienced much change day-to-day under PiS, the current governing party in Poland; however, we have been horrified to follow their actions since taking power (see this earlier post). Despite all of this I am optimistic, which one of my Russian teachers in St. Petersburg would have considered "very American" of me. It gives me hope to see Poles in Warsaw reacting in large numbers, especially an event we think may have been overlooked by Western media. It happened the weekend before last:

Saturday, February 27 - My, naród" (We, the people) protest
We were heading down to a museum in the afternoon until our tram stopped prematurely and forced everyone off. Aleje Jerozolimskie - the busiest thoroughfare in the city - was eerily empty of cars and buses and blocked off by police, and a helicopter circled overhead.

Walking east, we heard drums and the dull roar of a crowd. We squinted and saw a tidal wave of people in the distance crossing Most Poniatowskie, filling the wide street. The stream of marchers seemed endless as it passed us. We watched for about twenty minutes before joining, and still the bridge was full of people, tens of thousands of them. There were older couples, young couples with small children, students, parents, grandparents. Neighbors greeted each other. It felt universal. Everywhere you looked there were EU flags and Polish ones. The signs and conversations were
emotional, pointing to Poland's history and cherished national heroes, defending what their tragic history was for, and calling for a return to legitimate democracy. It was powerful. It ended in a historically monumental spot: Pilsudski Square, and the huge space could not have squeezed in any more people than it had. Police set the number at 15,000, but we feel it was much higher. The sponsoring organization K.O.D (Komitet Obrony Demokracji / Committee for Defense of Democracy) claimed 80,000.

I'm not sure what can be done but I hope some good comes out of the efforts of KOD and all of these Poles (perhaps a call for early elections like a decade ago). This isn't over yet, and we will be following it closely as we continue our lives here in Warsaw. We're certainly just observers here but have a lot of hope for this country - and our own. If Trump has his way, we can't help but wonder if Americans of the future will be like the Poles of today, scratching their heads wondering how the unthinkable happened and got them into the mess they're in.

Happy International Women's Day / Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji Dnia Kobiet!

Ladies, today is our day to be celebrated! Today is Dzień Kobiet, or Women's Day, in Poland.

Women's Day takes place on March 8th each year and is predominantly celebrated in Russia and Eastern/Central European countries, although it has recently become popular globally.

The celebration has a long history but was generally adopted by Socialist parties in the mid-20th century (and, in particular, the Soviet bloc countries) to glorify the ideals of women as hard-working contributors to the economy. Despite its Soviet origins, the holiday became part of the culture and is one of the biggest holiday celebrations in this region to date. It is an official holiday in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and other eastern European countries.

Not to be confused with Valentine's Day - which was adopted by Poland once the fall of Communism permitted an opening for Western culture -Women's Day is a day to honor all of the women in one's life. Mothers, girlfriends, female friends and colleagues, and teachers are flooded with flowers, sweets, and small gifts, not only privately but also at work and schools. Tulips are especially popular, and Bryan said there were flower stands on every street corner with short lines of men waiting to purchase them.

Here's what my wonderful husband brought home tonight!

Happy Women's Day to our favorite female blog followers, especially our mothers who we know are reading<3

Zamek w Malborku z Kevinuszkim (Malbork Castle with Kevin)

The Middle and High Castles from across the Nogat River

(can you pick out the tiny people along the walls?)

After a couple of great days in Kraków and Warsaw with Kevin, we took him on a short but totally worthwhile daytrip to visit Malbork Castle, another of Poland's spectacular medieval sites. This medieval castle near Poland's northern Baltic coast is the largest brick castle in the world and also the world's largest castle by surface area. It is situated on a low hill along the Nogat River, overlooking the wide, flat plain formed the Wisła River delta as it empties into the Baltic Sea. Malbork Castle was built in the 13th century by the Teutonic Knights (remember them from the ruined castle in Toruń?). It was their capital fortress as they tried to convert (by force) the pagan Prussian tribes, and later battled the Kingdom of Poland for supremacy along the Baltic Sea. The Castle's position along one of the larger rivers leading to the sea gave the Knights considerable control over transportation and settlement in the countryside.

Walls and Moats of the High Castle

Drawbridge Connecting the Middle and High Castles

On the Hill outside the Walls of the High Castle

Detailed Model of the Castle Complex

Malbork Castle contains three connected castle structures (low, middle, and high), all surrounded by several levels of high defensive walls, several kilometers of moat-work, and dozens of defensive towers. The entire area of the castle covers 52 acres, four times the size of the famous Windsor Castle in England. You can see the highest reaches of the castle as soon as you exit the train station, several kilometers away, and as you approach the brick walls, they rise higher and higher until you are directly beneath them, wondering how any medieval structure could possible be so extensive and massive. The moats are wide, the walls thick and tall, the brick work is immaculate, and the hundreds of arrow slits and battlements make you wonder why anyone in their right mind would ever assault such a fortress.

Two Interior Walls (of Six Total) of the Middle Castle

A Large Man (for scale) below the Water Gate

The interior of the Castle is just as interesting and imposing as the exterior. The Teutonic Knights were both monks and knights, and so Malbork Castle served as both a monastery and a fortress. At its peak in the 14th century, Malbork Castle was the seat of the Teutonic Order's Grand Master, housed 3,000 brother-knights, stabled over 500 horses, and was a highly-sought destination for royal dignitaries from throughout Europe. The high castle served as the primary monastic residence and cathedral, while the middle castle held the Grand Master's palaces, receiving halls, kitchens, armories, and massive storage structures (to feed the 3,000 soldiers!).

The Polish name "Malbork" is a phonetic derivation of the German name of the fortress - Marienburg - which means Mary's Fortress, because Mary was the patron saint of the Teutonic Order. Rarely attacked and never officially "conquered," Malbork was sold to the Kingdom of Poland in 1466 as part of the treaty ending the Thirteen-Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Order. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was used by the leaders of Weimar and Nazi Germany as a palace and fortress. Heavily damaged during World War II, Malbork has undergone incredible restoration and is almost completely restored, scheduled to have its High Church of St. Mary and the accompanying high tower finished in April, 2016. As words can barely do justice to this incredible structure, here are some of the hundreds of pictures we took on our tour!

Kopalnia Soli "Wieliczka" z Kevinuszkim (The Wieliczka Salt Mine with Kevin)

We were so excited to have Kevin (diminutive: Kevinuszki) visit us this past week, and as with all of our visitors, our time together was just too short! Perhaps the coolest (at the very least - top two) thing we did was visit the Kopalnia Soli "Wieliczka" (Wieliczka Salt Mine), an 800-year-old underground mining complex full of beautiful carvings, chapels, and chambers, located just a few kilometers east of Kraków. It was so great to share this new experience with Kev on his first trip to Europe!

Salt Rock Sculpture of Saint Kinga

The medieval origin of the salt mine began with the marriage of Hungarian Princess (later Saint) Kinga to Prince Bolesław V of Kraków in 1239. Legend says that Kinga wanted to bring a special gift to Poland as part of her dowry and so she asked her father for a block of salt to bring to her new home. Salt was extremely valuable in the Middle Ages as a preservative but was a relatively rare substance in Poland. Once Kinga arrived, she dropped the salt block attached to her engagement ring down an old abandoned mine shaft and instructed the local miners to dig down until they hit rock. The miners dug and dug until they reached a depth of about 64 meters, where they found the ring atop what is still one of the largest and purest deposits of rock salt in the known world. Thereafter it became one of the Crown's most valuable properties.

Now, after almost 800 continuous years of salt mining and the excavation of nine subterranean levels reaching down to almost 400 meters, the Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of Poland's and indeed the world's most important geological and cultural heritage sites, drawing over 1,000,000 visitors per year. The mine's nine levels include almost 200 miles of mine shaft, over 800 chambers, dozens of carved chapels, and several subterranean lakes, all dug through enormous deposits of smooth gray rock salt, salt which even in the ground is purer than the salt we use at the kitchen table. The mine produced table salt until 2007, and is still officially an active salt mine employing several dozen miners.

Our descent to the first (and oldest) level of the mine came via 53 flights of a tight, short, wooden staircase. The air in the huge chambers and narrow mine shafts was cool and dry, kept that way artificially because heat and water cause salt to corrode, which would of course bring the ceilings of the chambers crashing down. The walls, floors, and ceilings were all made of the smooth, dark gray rock salt, with veins of white (purest) salt running through, illuminated by the dull lamps lining the passages. Often the walls were supported by thick wooden pillars, many of which were hundreds of years old and petrified by the salty air. Much of the floor space was carved in diverse patterns as if tiled, but was in fact carved out of the solid rock salt deposit. The passages were punctuated every 50 meters or so by sets of wooden double doors which served as air locks, ensuring that air from the surface flowed through every passage in the mine. There was very little metal underground, as salt causes metal to corrode very quickly. Life-size models of the medieval mining equipment, such as water pumps, horse-drawn elevators, salt block sleds, and intricate stairways lined many of the passages.

Our tour covered the highest three levels of the mine, including most of the oldest chambers, all of which contained various huge statues of Polish saints, kings, and heroes, all carved out of giant blocks of rock salt. The most impressive chamber by far was the Chapel of St. Kinga, a huge church about the size of a concert hall carved out of solid rock salt (first picture seen above). Two enormous sets of stairs led down into the chamber from the rear. The wall spaces were all carved with beautiful 3-dimensional reliefs of biblical scenes, and three altars in the front employed various colors and purities of rock salt to highlight their statues and reliquaries. For example, the life-sized statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus used a piece of glowing pink rock salt for Jesus' heart (seen below). Like so much of the Wieliczka Salt mine, it was absolutely breathtaking!

Tłusty Czwartek - Fat Thursday

You've probably heard of Fat Tuesday, yes? Carnival, perhaps? In Poland, a similar tradition dating back to the 17th century  is celebrated on the Thursday preceding Lent (yesterday), called "Tłusty Czwartek" or "Fat Thursday".
   
The two most popular treats are thick Polish doughnuts called "pącki" (PAWNch-key) and "faworki" (fah-VOR-key) or "angel wings", traditional sweet crisp pastry shaped into thin twisted ribbons and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

The demand for pącki on Fat Thursday is so high that bakers and confectioners open in the early hours of the morning, after a marathon night of frying doughnuts. People queue outside the bakeries, and wait times are quite long throughout the day. A representative from one of Poland's most famous bakeries - Blikle - estimates that demand for pącki is twenty times higher on Fat Thursday than on an ordinary day. Statistics from the past few years suggest that close to 100 million doughnuts (and many hundreds of kilograms of faworki) are eaten on Fat Thursday. That's at least 2.5 doughnuts for every Pole. According to a home broker in Warsaw, the money spent by Poles on Fat Thursday delicacies on Fat Thursday would buy 200 apartments of 50 square meters in Warsaw.

On a related note, last week the first Dunkin Donuts in Warsaw opened (to much fanfare, see image) a block or two from where I study Polish.

Thinking myself wise, I stopped by after class on Wednesday to pick up some doughnuts to enjoy on Fat Thursday. But there were no more donuts! You heard that right folks. Dunkin Donuts ran out of donuts, possibly for the first time ever, on the eve of Fat Thursday in Warsaw.

Anyway, take some time to enjoy a donut (or two!) before Ash Wednesday next week. You'll be in good company!