today started off slowly. i figured that i had the time to move slowly today. being mostly underwhelmed by the city, i decided that i would see the interiors of the restored palace today, but only after i finalized my movement for tomorrow.
so i woke up late - considering that i went to bed at 4-ish after "clubbing". i went to the Central Train Station to find out about transportation to Vilnius. (for those who have never heard of Vilnius, it is the capital of Lithuania.) the sticky part about transport between Warsaw and Vilnius is that the stretch of land that Poland and Lithuania share as a border is small and is surrounded by a small piece of Russia on one side and Belarus on the other. both of those countries require visas on my part, so i needed to make sure that my transit did NOT involve those two countries.
and then it also boiled down to time and money. if i wanted to take a train to Vilnius, the only way to get there NOT via Belarus is to go to the Lithuanian town of Kaunas and transfer. just going to Kaunas is 8.5 hours and i'm sure the rail infrastructure in Lithuania, being not so hot, would only make it another 5 hours between Kaunas and Vilnius (i'm guesstimating). whereas taking a bus straight to Vilnius and NOT going through Belarus takes 10 hours. hmm.. i chose to buy a bus ticket. BUT the bus leaves from a different station, so i had to go to the other station to buy the ticket.
after buying the ticket, i made my way to the old restored palace at the bottom of Old Town, a palace which was almost completely destroyed following the Nazi occupation. touring around the castle, one can't help but feel displaced. it looks old because they tried to match the interiors to pre-war pictures. unfortunately, it feels brand new. and then destroys the illusion. the plaques in each room describing the room's prior use and the objects within kept referring to the rooms as if they existed before. but the feeling of newness is just too overwhelming and it gives the whole visit a weird tinge. it doesn't go down well. and that's troubling. it's sad. and it really drives home the feeling of loss and devastation that WWII created. i wasn't around, yes, but i can only but feel the profundity of the destruction.
thankfully, many locals stole a lot of the priceless art pieces and furnishings away from the castle before it all crumbled, and they returned them upon its reconstruction. so the items inside are authentic, but the building itiself just doesn't fit, in my opinion. again, it's sort of a Disneyland. not to mention, immediately outside the castle in plac Zamkowy (Castle Square), there are countless numbers of clowns running around making balloon animals for the children that are passing through. it's an extremely surreal experience.
i decided to follow the palace with a restaurant across the square. my meal consisted of another cup of borsch and some particular poultry: one of my favorite traditional Czech dishes (and pretty much the only one that works with my limited, no-beef-no-pork diet) is roast Duck with warm cabbage and dumplings. i decided to match it with the Polish version, which replaces the cabbage with apples and cranberries. it was delicious and tasted more like thanksgiving, due to the cranberries.
after the duck, i decided that i would call it an early evening, since i didn't have much energy and i wanted to (and still need to) use the internet to check out hostels in Vilnius and elsewhere. on the way, however, i decided to check out a very nice statue of Chopin (i finally got back to him) that resides in the same park as the Castle on Water (see the Day 5 update).
and so here i am, writing this entry and preparing to go hostel hunting. and mentally (and i suppose physically) preparing myself for the 10 hour bus ride. (minimal fluids come morning, i know.)
i suspect tomorrow's update will be negligible, if at all, since i'll be on the bus until 19:30 tomorrow. sigh. i much prefer trains.
Posted by iain at August 13, 2005 08:38 PM