A Batson's Education: Weekend in Warsaw and Wrocław: Hail, Parties, Dwarves, Candles, and Saints

Getting arty in Warsaw

TL;DR or Quick Summary

Sorry about the late update! I have been traveling this weekend and haven't had a chance to post until now.
Teaching is going well; this past week had some ups and down, but definitely more ups than downs.
This past weekend was a long holiday weekend because of All Saints' Day. My university cancelled classes on Monday and Tuesday.
Over the weekend I traveled to Warsaw to help celebrate some birthdays and then onto Wrocław (for pronunciation, see below) to visit a new city.
Wrocław is beautiful and I would 100% recommend visiting.

This post will primarily be about my travels this weekend. So if you are here for the nitty-gritty teaching details, I am sorry to disappoint. But worry not, I will post soon again about showing my students SNL election debate skits, teaching them about the electoral college system, and some challenges I have encountered.

Birthdays in Warsaw

Tuesday, November 1 was All Saints’ Day and is one of the most significant holidays for Catholic Poles; it is a national holiday and nearly everything is closed. My university cancelled classes all day on Monday and Tuesday, and in the morning on Wednesday so I had a very long weekend! For the first half, I traveled to Warsaw (again) for a Fulbright Birthday Bash. If only PKP (the Polish national rail) had a frequent rider card…

On top of the university library in Warsaw

It was good to see so many Fulbrighters that I had not seen since the end of orientation. There were at least 18 of us who met up. We had a couple of fancy dinners, finished an escape room game, and went out to some favorite bars. It was a fun but crazy weekend.

All Hail will soon break loose from these clouds

On Saturday, several of us tried to go to the Copernicus Museum for Science (it is one of the highest rated science museums). Unfortunately, everyone else in Warsaw also wanted to go to the museum and we couldn’t get into to it. Instead we decided to go for what we thought was going to be a peaceful walk along the river. All was well until a hail thunderstorm decided to roll in.

Dark clouds over downtown Warsaw

Within five minutes (no really, five minutes) the weather goes from being relatively calm with some clouds off in the distance to powerful winds, thunder, and hail. We heard thunder, felt the wind, and suddenly were being pelted by (small) hail. Cracking up laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, we had to walk into the wind to reach the shelter of the Copernicus Museum. Once inside, I shook a layer of ice from my head and slowly recovered from my first hail attack. Sadly, I think this is just the start of winter weather here.

About an hour later however, the weather cleared up and we were able to see the rest of the storm passing over downtown Warsaw. From the top of the university library, there were some great views of the city and river.

Wrocław

Wrocław town square

On Sunday, I traveled to Wrocław, which is in southwest Poland. The first thing I learned about the city is that it is not pronounced like I would immediately think. Instead of ‘row-claw’ it’s pronounced like ‘wrote-suave’.

Despite the name difficulty, Wrocław is a very beautiful city. It used to be a German city and still has some German influences in its buildings and architecture.

It was not only a great opportunity to visit somewhere new, but also to catch up with some people I had not seen in several weeks. Throughout our time in Wrocław, we took a walking tour (only to embarrass all Americans when we could not name the most important American author), ate some amazing pączek (donuts), made a 'full' breakfast with ingredients from a Żabka (corner store), and somehow ended up in a city wide Halloween parade! So overall, a pretty uneventful weekend.

If anyone is planning on visiting Poland (or just coming to see me!!!!) I would highly recommend checking out Wrocław. It is a city with a lot of history and it is not difficult to get to.

The Dwarves of Wrocław

Professor Dwarf

Dwarf in Prison

One of Wrocław's many quirks is the small dwarf statues placed throughout the city. There are nearly 400 official dwarfs in Wrocław and each has a different theme. The dwarves originated as a symbol of protest against censorship and oppression and have since come to represent Wrocław.

There are firefighting dwarves protecting the cathedral that has burned down three times, a dwarf behind bars at the old jail, and a professor dwarf outside a university. According to our tour guide, some of the more popular dwarves has GPS trackers in them to deter theft.

Right now there is a dwarf dressing competition, so people will knit or buy outfits for a particular dwarf to won the title of best dwarf dresser. I don't think that I have ever been jealous of a 5 inch dwarf scarf before, but I supposed there is a first time for everything.

Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław

Jewish Cemetery

Another unique aspect of Wrocław is its Jewish cemetery. I was told that it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Poland and it certainly looked it. Although not as dense as other cemeteries, there were still hundreds of graves.

Trees, bushes, and shrubs had taken over the paths and climbed up many of the tombstone, but it created a peaceful and woodsy feel. While there were several other groups of people wandering the area, it was mostly empty.

Dates on tombstones ranged from the 1800's to just before the outbreak of World War II. During this time, Wrocław was a German city and as such, most of the people buried here has German names;

The calm isolation stood in great contrast to the Catholic cemetery I would visit next.

All Saints’ Day

Cemetery on All Saint's Day

On All Saints’ Day, Poles visit the towns where their relatives are buried to pay respect to their family members. At the cemeteries, they clean the graves and place flowers and candles. It is a tradition that I had heard a lot about from different people; I was very interested to see the tradition for myself.

Candle lit cross at the center of a cemetery

As we approached the cemetery, we joined fifty or so other people on their way to the cemetery. Some brought flowers and candles, while others were going to pick them up from venders right outside the cemetery.

Inside the cemetery things looked like organized chaos. People were weaving through tombstones, benches, and trees to find their family members. Little kids were running and screaming, only to be promptly shushed by parents. Flowers and candles (not yet lit) adorned nearly every grave. There were overflowing dumpsters with flower wrappings and broken candles that didn’t make it all the way to a grave. While people looked somber and reflective, I did not see any tears.

Later in the afternoon (since the sun now sets around 5pm), we visited another cemetery. Even though it was after dark, there were still hundreds of people present. Immediately upon walking in I was surrounded by a sea of flickering candle light. It was a very sudden change from the street that was lit by electricity.

In the center of the cemetery there were hundreds of candles surrounding a large cross. Every few minutes someone else add a candle. Heat pooled around the area which was noticeable warmer than the rest of the cemetery. There was an incredibly somber and reflective vibe in everyone present.

Overall, visiting the cemeteries on All Saints’ Day was one of the most unique experiences of my life.