revenge of the killer tomatoes 13

Warsaw, Poland -  First and most painful lesson learned from traveling by rail in Eastern Europe:  travel light!

I should’ve taken the trouble of finding a luggage locker at the Tegel Airport.  I only realized that when I was skidding down the escalator of a train station in Berlin (heading to Warsaw), chasing after my falling suitcase. 

How delusional of me to think I could drag around one week’s worth of used corporate wardrobe, meeting notes and conference swags (drastically reduced this year) around Eastern Europe without pulling a muscle!  

How do the Germans teach the history of the World Wars to their children?  This question haunted me from Berlin to Poland.

According to a Polish friend who went to a German prep school, the German re-telling of the war was very objective and fact-oriented.  They spent a lot of time discussing the events that led to the rise of Hitler to the top echelons of power.   I am sure the Germans were and are remorseful for the genocide and other atrocities, but I still wonder how they tell their children about that dark era.

My friend’s apartment in Warsaw has a national park for its backyard.  Our walking tour began there.  I admired the Royal Palace from afar, sitting on a glassy pond surrounded by canopies of trees.  Peacocks and squirrels wandered freely.  We watched intently as a male peacock danced for his lady love, his fan of blue, emerald and gold feathers flying open as it quivered with a low whirring sound.  I was delighted to see a monument dedicated to Frederick Chopin  (the first CD I ever bought: Chopin’s classic piano pieces).  Chopin’s statue was bombed during WWII, one of several attempts to crush the Polish spirit.  It now stands proudly again.

We then dashed off to Warsaw’s Old Town, which was flattened during World War II (it is widely known that Warsaw was the most devastated city of WWII, while few are aware that the City of Manila ranked second).  Warsaw’s Old Town was charming, even if many structures were merely rebuilt after the war.

I bought souvenirs from various quaint shops.  Colorful, handpainted eggs.  A pair of handwoven slippers, great airplane shoes!  A hard-to-find mug with Picasso’s rendition of the Polish mermaid, holding a hammer instead of a sword - a reference to the Soviet Union’s opportunistic subjugation of Poland at the heels of the WWII…  And because I’m such a nerd, I shrieked with glee when I saw a marker saying that Marie Curie, icon of physics and chemistry, lived in that building (my science teacher mom would be so proud!).   My friend and I walked around the Old Town in the cool weather, eating chocolate-flavored ice cream swirled high on waffle cones. 

Oh, strangely, we came upon an exhibit of over a hundred Berlin bears painted and jazzed up to represent the countries of the world.  Guess which country made the most hideous but funny bear?  The other bear below, with the painted image of a monkey-eating eagle, was the Philippine entry.

 Later in the afternoon I spent hours inside the Museum on the Warsaw Uprising, moved and awestruck at how the Polish have retold their past and clarified its lessons for future generations.  I saw articles by a favorite author, George Orwell, condemning the Soviet occupation of Poland and the tolerance/acquiescence by the Allies.  I can’t resist a good book, so I walked out the museum with a 3-inch-thick authoritative account of the Warsaw Uprising, along with additions to my growing ref magnet collection. 

I liked Polish cuisine, especially the rich borscht soup that looks like wine and those delicious dumplings.  My friend and I had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant located in the basement of what used to be a former vodka factory right in the middle of Warsaw.   

I saw many great symbols - the “Fighting Poland” symbol engraved in stone beside the Warsaw Uprising memorial, the mermaid holding up a sword and shield, to Chopin and memorials to war heroes.  Unfortunately, I only took a handful of photos in Warsaw.  I forgot to charge my camera (waaa!).   As I packed myself onto a train cabin heading to Cracow, clutching my precious baon bag of strawberries and chocolates (courtesy of my friend), I felt an odd calm and satisfaction.  I know I will not visit Warsaw again with the same eyes.

Berlin, Germany - Recently ranked by BusinessWeek as one of the most livable cities in the world, Berlin is a battle-scarred veteran ready to take on the world.  It reconnects with its rich cultural heritage, keeps mementoes of both proud and bitter past.  But it is also fascinatingly modern and edgy.  

I joined a walking tour and we saw the magnificent royal buildings and wide boulevards to the broken tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church that was bombed in World War II, the archeological treasures in the Pergammon Museum (must-see’s: the Pergammon altar, the Ishtar/Babylonian gates and fantastic ancient mosaic art and sculptures) to Norman Foster’s modern addition to the Reichstag. 

There were horse-drawn carriages bearing tourists circling the Brandenburg gate.  A few minutes later, I spotted the innovative pedal-powered transport designed by the Max Planck Institute, then hopped over to the mall-like Hauptbahnhof train station, gateway to other European cities (this is where I landed a week later, coming from Prague).  There were few remnants of the Berlin Wall.  One scribbled graffiti said it all: “Madness”. I was in tears after our tour guide narrated how hundreds of thousands ripped the wall apart with crude tools and their bare hands, with throngs on both sides of the wall shouting, “Freedom!!!”

Whatever is left of Hitler’s complex underground bunker is now several feet below a nondescript parking lot, conspicuous only because of a historical marker.  Hitler committed suicide in that bunker, along with other loyal minions who took cyanide.  Several hours later, we visited the Jewish Memorial, a vast installation of thousands of dark gray, starkly sharp-edged, unmarked graves in different sizes.

During the Cold War, a royal building was converted into one of the Communist party’s headquarters.  Now it houses an MBA school - a shameless paean to capitalism.   Beside it, another party building was torn down to give way to a commercial development.  At Checkpoint Charlie, student actors gamely posed as American soldiers for 2 Euros.

Across a mural that depicted progress, equality and (supposed) happiness during the Communist time, there was a haunting blown-up photograph of protesters who were killed during that era. 

While sipping capuccino, I ran into a rally staged by young people about joblessness and the sorry state of education (they should see our public school students attending class in flooded rooms!).  There was music, lively chanting and a speaker with rocker looks, standing on a moving platform.  One of the streamers featured Spongebob Squarepants.

People in Berlin are very friendly and accommodating, which was a pleasant surprise to me.  Different cultures collide and collaborate to create the Berlin vibe, without smothering the city’s heritage.  I was sad to leave Berlin but anxious to go on to Warsaw and explore Eastern Europe for the first time.