Picture the scene. Randi and I are sitting on the sofa together under the warm glow of the Christmas tree lights. Of course, the reason this independence ended in was thanks to Nazi invasion, and the entire Jewish population — including my family — either escaped in time or were wiped out. Still, even though all this means I was never going to find a plaque commemorating my great-grandmother on a wall, you can see how I was primed for a lot of historical resonances.
Nevertheless, we waited patiently and were eventually rewarded when he finally looked up and handed over the room keys to a much, much bigger room than the one I had booked. Relieved, we hurried to bed before he could change his mind. Randi also has Polish ancestry, and the next morning she began to experience a growing love for her long-lost motherland when she discovered that the breakfast buffet included both pickles and fish.
Having both stuffed ourselves, we walked off our breakfasts on a nature path along one of the branches of the river before turning towards the Old Town for our first foray into the Christmas Fair. The market is absolutely packed with people, but there are also tons of stalls and we barely had to queue for our latke lunch. They had a different name, but same thing. We also tried the delicious little Oscypek dumplings served with cranberry sauce which — I later learnt from Klaudia!
It is worth saying that, just as in Warsaw, the architecture of the Old Town is truly extraordinary. Note to the US: this is an appropriately limited usage of the Fahrenheit scale. This was a close call — yes, the other museums were very tempting! This movement led civil resistance against the Soviet-aligned state, precipitating the imposition of martial law in in Poland and ultimately contributing to the remarkably peaceful downfall of Communist rule.
So, of course we had to see this. Plus, on the walk there we stumbled across a near-infinite stream of motorised Santas to boot…. As Randi noted, it gave us both a new perspective on how painful the democratic backsliding of the last few years must have been for those who opposed the Law and Justice government. With our emergency Christmas Market mission achieved, we flew home on Sunday night feeling very satisfied and festive.
