My love for Poland has been growing over the past few years. Each time I visit, the richness of culture continued to impress me, and this time we decided to do a small tour around the country to experience various cities and widen my perspective even more. My birthday is in summer and happened to be a great time to travel. Although this is more of a travel blog post, you can skip to the end to see what interesting plants I discovered in the “Nature Watch” section.

Gdańsk

During my first trip to Poland, we had flown into Gdańsk since there is a direct flight from Trondheim. I didn’t have a chance to see the city since we were immediately on our way down to Olsztyn, a bit to the south. I remember being enchanted by the area and Olsztyn at the time, with it’s “classic European feel” to me as a foreigner. Arriving in Gdańsk this time resurfaced my fascinations with the area.

St. Dominik’s Fair

We had particularly unexpected good luck being in Gdańsk at this time. Little did we know that the city was celebrating its 762nd year of the St. Dominik’s fair! It was founded in 1260 and is considered one of the biggest cultural and trade open-air events in Europe, attended by 5-8 million national and international visitors each year.

The architecture was one of the first things that attracted my eyes. Although the overall shape of the buildings was nothing to note, I was fascinated by the variety of colors and the motifs painted on the exteriors. They were subtle, but it was a nice touch that gave the city an overall artistic air.

As we walked through the crowded cobblestone streets, I could see that the booths were lined up as groups from different municipalities and even from neighboring countries. We stopped by a tea booth in the Lithuanian section that had beautiful color-changing tea in shades of blue, pinks, and greens. The lady explained that the team would change colors based on the temperature and acidity.

There was an overwhelming amount of booths with all sorts of jewelry, crafts, foods, and antiques. In fact, there was a large street across the river that had dense collections of antique items. By the time we had arrived there, we were already pretty exhausted and looking for somewhere to eat, so alas we didn’t get to spend much time perusing. There were many items that I guessed were from around World War II, and wished I could spend hours just looking at everything.

On our way to find a good restaurant, while snacking on some tasty raspberry-filled donuts called pączki, we passed a watercolor artist’s stand. My attention was caught by her detailed paintings of birds. Earlier in the year, I had become familiar with lapwings on one of my birdwatching trips, and the artist had an exquisite painting of one. I couldn’t resist and happily purchased it, especially since it was the original and not a print.

Although we didn’t go inside due to timing, we passed by the Wielka Zbrojownia (The Great Armory). I learned later that this elaborate building from the 1600s was restored and is now used to house rotating exhibits from the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts. I think this will be high on my bucket list the next time I return here.

St. Bridget's Church

Gdańsk is the amber capital of Poland, which is predominantly visible in the amber altar inside Bazylika św. Brygidy w Gdańsku (St. Bridget’s Church). Among the plethora of relics and artwork present in the church, the amber altar is an exquisite expression of Catholic reverence. According to Wikipedia, it measures 120 m² surface, 10 m wide and over 12 m high, being noted as the largest amber object in the world. I couldn’t help but marvel at the myriad of intricate details of wheat, grapes, leaves, and vines.

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital city of Poland, with the large Vistula River flowing through its center. Amidst the many stoic gray buildings of government and university institutions, we managed to find an unusually lovely garden atop the Warsaw University Library. Although heavy with tourist traffic, it was delightful to meander along the pathways on the building roof. There was a large dome, thickly interwoven with vines and leaves, clusters of unfamiliar shrubbery carefully partitioned into sections, and plenty of benches to sit down and enjoy the wide view of the sky over the city.

We eventually followed the conga line of spectators out of the gardens and continued to the real destination of the day — the Chopin Museum. Along the way we passed through the Warsaw University grounds and followed a road with seemingly impressive museums, churches, and the palace, but I was too excited to get to the Chopin Museum to pay them much mind.

Chopin’s music has been a quiet fascination of mine, mainly because I have so many fond memories of listening to my dad play his music. It lulled me into a peaceful state and served as the ever-present ambience of our home. I would become intrigued whenever he would practice a section over and over again. I tried to listen to which notes he was trying to improve, but I think it was something only an expert could hear.

The museum was fascinating, filled with stories and artifacts from Chopin’s entire life. There was everything from his school boy penmanship practice books, to his pianos and furniture after his death. A fascinating new fact I learned was about a student and friend of Chopin’s named Jane Stirling. She was responsible for paying for and preserving most of the artifacts that were displayed in the museum. That seemed like such a beautiful expression of friendship and admiration to take on such a responsibility.

Lublin

Until now, I had only been to Lublin in winter, where the dark hush of Slavic snow blankets the land and hardens your resolve. The trees whispered horror stories in my ears and lured me into their mirage of spindly gray limbs. Summer was a vibrant and startling contrast to the cold beauty I’d seen before. I wrote about a forest I affectionately called the wicked forest the last time I was here, which I now wonder what new name I shall give it. It was incredibly lush with bright green foliage and hazy streaks of golden sunlight.

The forest does actually have a name, it’s called Stary Gaj (The Old Grove), which feels very fitting now that I know it. I’m not sure how old it actually is, but it does feel like it’s endured time and has an ever-present gaze over those who wander underneath the tree limbs. I wondered what made it feel so different to the Norwegian woods. It took me several walks to realize it was the absence of dense undergrowth. One could easily see the forest floor, unusually tidy, and accentuating the long trunks of the linden and beech trees. It felt as though they stretched high and tall into the area, enclosing and perhaps ensnaring you in their maze of winding trails, each path looking similar to the last that one could easily lose the way.

In either case, I became even more enchanted with the forest and wanted to spend as much time as possible falling under its spell.

UMCS Botanical Garden

One of the great things about visiting other countries in summer is getting to see nature in full bloom. We decided to visit the Ogród Botaniczny UMCS (botanical gardens) to see what lovely plants were on display. I had been too excited to take note of the different species, but you can see some hibiscus, gladiolas, and dahlias here below. I was fascinated by the patterns and colors of nature’s design, especially the symmetrical dahlias.

Chłopków

South of Lublin is a sleepy little countryside village that probably no one really travels to unless they’re from the area. I was quite fortunate that my partner’s family is from there because it is a beautiful range of rolling farm hills. The horizon lies low in the sky with undulating hills of wheat, raspberries, corn, and sunflowers. Each crop was grown and rotated in long rows that stretched far out into the distance, where they eventually met with a house. Space felt larger and wider out here. There were no mountains and few trees sparsely standing on top of the occasional field. Small clusters of houses formed tiny villages, which took all but 2 minutes to drive through. Most homes had beautifully manicured flower gardens in the front yard. It was a drastic change to the overcrowded cities like Warsaw with people, noise, smoke, and cars everywhere. Chłopków was quaint, remote, and I loved it.

Agroturystyka Siedlisko

Our primary reason for being out in the middle of nowhere Poland was for the annual family summer trip to an agro-tourism farm called Siedlisko. Run by a wonderful couple Dorota and Stanisław Kosik, the farm has several wooden buildings for guests to stay, with a rustic charm including hay-filled beds and goats grazing on the grass just outside your window. Ducks and chicken roam around the grounds, and occasionally the owners will walk by with the horses to change grazing fields. A vibrant vegetable garden sits between the buildings and is the primary source of all the food they prepare for the guests. You can see the onions bursting up from the fields, the magenta amaranth gently swaying in the breeze, and morning glories creeping up the metal wire fence past the yellow squash to flirt with the deep purple blackberries. It was nothing short of abundance, even on such a small plot of land!

We spent the days lazing around on the hand-made wooden swings, reading on the porch, taking leisurely strolls under pastel sunsets, and enjoying a cozy bonfire at the base of the hill in the evening. At night, the soft hush of rain would have lulled me to sleep, except I had noticed a monstrous spider living high up in the corner of the wooden boughs. I wasn’t able to sleep, not daring to take my eyes off it.

Alpaki Roztocze

Not far from Siedlisko lies a hidden gem — an alpaca farm called Alpaki Roztocze. I have always found alpacas to be adorably weird creatures and had admired their long fluffy necks from afar up until this point. Here we were able to feed them slices of carrots and pet their delicately soft fur. The males and females were separates since several of the females were pregnant and fiercely territorial. My partner tried to pet one after feeding her some carrots, to which she was not pleased and spit in his face. Otherwise they were quite gentle and calm. I didn’t pick up on the names of the husband and wife owners of the alpacas, but the wife uses their fur to stuff blankets and spins and knits hats, toys, and even cute bookmarks with the fur!

Kraków

The last stop on our Poland tour was Kraków. As Poland’s second-largest city situated in the far southern area of the country, Kraków has a long history dating back to The Middle Ages. Like most large, old European cities it was dense with history and tourists at every turn. By now, you should know these things seldom interest me, but it was still enjoyable to explore the colorful city. My American ignorance (and lack of European history education) surprised me yet again, when I didn’t realize how prevalent the Jewish population of Kraków and Poland at large had been during World War II. Of course now that I could put all the pieces together, I realized how close Auschwitz was (a mere 70 km to the west) and why Nazi-occupied Kraków had been a major transportation city of Jews to the camp. Thankfully, on this trip we decided to forego that experience, but I do intend to return and see it. It’s indescribable as an American, the drastic effect that being at those places has on oneself. We were so removed from these particular horrors overseas, but the wreckage of that war is ever-present in places like Poland. We walked through large Jewish districts in Kraków and as we passed by crowds of people it further illustrated in my mind what this war must have looked like and the extent to which people were tortured here.

Nature Watch

Let’s end on a happy note with “Nature Watch” where I share some interesting plants and wildlife I found on my travels.

First up is a collection of the edible plants I saw growing on the farm at Siedlisko. These are cultivated, of course, but it’s always fun to see crops in peak maturation. All of these fruits and vegetables were harvested for the meals made for guests on the farm. It was so tempting to want to take a big fistful of blackberries to eat, but I resisted somehow!

Squash

Amaranth

Echinacea

Blackberries

Pea plant

Peas