Warszawa

I'm travel weary and drinking diet coke at the office.

After Jackie and I got home from Berlin, I had six hours before my train to Warsaw with Aydan and Krisia from the DUK. The DUK decided to send us to the capitol city for three days so we could learn about Polish history and visit the regional office of DUK there.

My legs were numb from getting lost in Berlin, and then I was shuttled off to Warsaw to visit the parliament and various palaces. Let me tell you this: Warsaw has nothing on Berlin. Most of the Poles we talked to said Warsaw wasn't really worth seeing, but we went because DUK paid for everything.

We stayed in this terrible little place called a Botel - a dirty hostel that was "unique" in that it actually a boat and utilized the polluted, undeveloped Warsaw riverside as a dock. We had to climb to the top of a bridge to get a bus into the city proper every morning.

Warsaw was completely destroyed by the war, so there's nothing particularly beautiful or interesting about the architecture, and the rich history of the city doesn't make up for this. We walked around the former Warsaw Ghetto area, which is now a park with a bronze monument and unkept grass surrounded by soviet-style apartment buildings. There were a few quaint streets and it was generically European-looking, but nothing very interesting.

On Saturday morning, Aydan wants to hitchhike to Prague. I need a vacation from this vacation. It's not that I don't want to see Prague, I really do, but I also want to spend my last weekend in Wroclaw, hanging out with my friends here and making sure I appreciate this city before I leave it.

I can't believe that I only have about a week left here. I can't belive that for most people, a week is a very long trip. I can't believe that I thought two months was such a long time. I'm homesick in a very strange way. I miss English, I miss being able to ask for directions, I miss my friends and family, of course, but coming back from my weekend trips, as I walk down the street to my dormitory here, I can't believe how much it feels like home here too.