Poznan

Trip Start Jan 10, 2005

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Poland Poznan, Poland
Saturday, July 16, 2005

After Gdansk the five of us went on to Poznan, the capital of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and one of Poland's first capitals. It's a big city (half a million) and our impression of it was that everything was huge. The streets in the old part of town were lined with majestic buildings and monuments and since Poznan is a major financial centre in Poland there are also many large modern buildings. The market square wasn't very big, but it felt big because it was so crowded. The square was lined with historic houses, some of which were spared during the war and others have been rebuilt, and in the centre of the square stood four buildings. Two of these buildings are the historic town hall and fish sellers stalls, but the other two are modern buildings that are completely out of place in a historic old town. On each corner of the square was a fountain and the first night we arrived we bought some beer at the corner store, sat on the fountains steps, and took it all in. There were flamenco dancers dancing in front of a club, and there was a guy travelling around the square spinning fire, which was really cool except it smelled bad, and then there was this man going from table to table in the bars singing for people

American Hot Dog in Gniezno

. We figured he must be an old opera singer who has gone slightly crazy because he had a really good voice, but he was singing really loudly and his singing was interwoven with loud shouts and screams. We were entertained.

The hostel we stayed in was pretty nice, except the youth discount promised on the phone was not given since we were foreigners. Also, half of it had burnt down the month before, and the backyard was full of charred bunk beds. Apparently the fire started when someone left a cigarette burning in their bed. Thankfully no one was killed, but the lack of smoke detectors made us feel slightly uncomfortable.

Near Poznan is an archaeological site (Biskupin) where the remains of an Iron Age city were found and have been partially rebuilt. We found our way there the next day, but we missed one of our busses and didn't end up with much time there. The city was built about 2500 years ago and people lived there for 150 years until the water level started rising and the site was abandoned. There were 100 houses that probably housed about 1000 people and their livestock, which was surprising because it was such a small area. It was interesting to us how many similarities there were with Native American settlements we've seen in Canada. On the way back from Biskupin Greg and I got to ride on a narrow gauge train. It looked like a kids train from a zoo, and was purely a tourist attraction but it was a lot of fun.

On our way to Biskupin we had stopped in Gniezno to catch our bus but we had an hour between connections so went to check out the town. We liked it so much that Greg, Monika and I returned afterwards to hang out there in the evening

Biskupin

. Gniezno was the first capital of Poland, but the power was soon transferred to Poznan which has become a much more important city. We weren't expecting anything special in Gniezno, so it was a surprise that there was a nice old town with so many historic buildings. It wasn't nearly as touristy as Poznan or Gdansk, which was nice for a change.
We got yelled at by a child in Gniezno, which is always fun. While we were sitting in the square a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old, started playing in a fountain near us. He was trying to get the water out of the fountain and all over the square in as many ways as possible. First he tried to stop the water from draining by standing on the drain. It was just a little fountain, a face squirting water through its mouth, so he was sticking his finger in the mouth to spray the water as far as possible. When he tried using his foot to do the same thing and completely soaked himself we couldn't help laughing. So he put his hands on his hips and bent way over and yelled "What are you laughing at?" A little while later a teenaged girl walked by and did the same thing. She seemed a little too old to be playing in fountains.

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