Warsaw, Poland (2008)

We visited Warsaw to attend the wedding of my Oxford labmate, Przemek, and his fiancée, Marta. Lots of friends and colleagues from Oxford came and it was very much like Oxford-in-Poland. The first night about 40 of us got together to take over a restaurant for a dinner of the house specialty duck. The wedding took place in a beautiful park inside a hall that was full of replicas of famous statues. There was a break in between the ceremony and reception so we all took a walk through the park and settled at a café for beer, ice cream and pancakes. Carmel had brought my laptop and was busy working on a book chapter that was due the following Monday. After a relaxing break in the park, we took off to the reception. The reception was great fun with lots of good food, tons of vodka, and music and dancing that lasted til 4am. The next morning, Carmel and I tried to squeeze a bit of touristy stuff in with a walk around the town and to the uprising museum, which was very modern and cool. We congregated later in the afternoon at Marta’s mom’s house, where we chilled out for a few hours before coming back into town for some dinner and to watch the football finals between Germany and Spain.

The reason for Warsaw: Marta and Przemek.

Smooooch!!

Offering our congratulations. Actually, Carmel is asking Marta if she wore the underwear that they gave her at the bachelorette (hen) party.

Przemek and Marta have lots of friends and family.

Serious academics bring laptops to work during weddings.

At the reception.

Playing a game with Yadvinder’s 5-year-old: who can talk the best whilst holding a rose in their mouth?

Dance til 4am!

Warsaw was literally flattened by the Nazis. Hitler was upset at the resistance/uprising so when he finally defeated the Poles he had a list made of all of Warsaw’s most important buildings and then he systematically went down the list blowing up each of them. After Hitler lost the war the Polish people decided to rebuild the town exactly as it was before, but the blue-prints were all destroyed so they rebuilt it based on a few photographs, paintings and people’s memories. The exteriors look as they did before WWII, but the interiors are all modern.

Old town.

The palace throne.

Marble room.

Carmel was unimpressed by the royal bed.

This was a “gift” from Stalin that is controversial because it is a scar of Soviet occupation.

Incredibly, this synagogue somehow managed to survive the war.

The very modern museum of the uprising.

A bit of breakdancing in the Old Town.

The Polish specialty: pierogis, which are pastries filled with anything you want.