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Say it slowly tour Day 20: Warsaw, Hades
There is a plane in hell that resembles travelling by Polish rail, second class, surrounded by surly locals, italian and american tourists, and the poor doomed soul is given a standard size backpack. I’m sure there are worse rail experiences, but right now I can’t think of any that I’ve haad, except maybe trying to catch a train from Subiaco oval after a game, or trying to catch a train in Melbourne during a heat wave. Will the next two hours get better? I doubt it. For consolation, I’m probably going to spend that time sweating out last nights vodka, making my travel compartment companions uncomfortable, too. Too small, not…
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Say it slowly tour Day 19: Warsaw, old town, the ghetto
Spent a good chunk of the day wanting to cry. Warsaw hasn’t had the greatest of pasts, and I’m here just in time for the place to mark 70 years since first the Germans, then the Russians, took half of Poland each. I’m in the right month, too. There are a bunch of exhibitions, displays and other informative bits all around the place. Not too surprising, really, given that between 1939 and 1945, the place was practically levelled, a whole lot of people died of very unnatural causes, many more disappeared and most of the population displaced on numerous occasions. Poland got it as bad as anyone during the war,…
