Millennium Eve
31 December 1999
I could also call this section "The search for a steaming hot cup of tea and a warm place to sit for a few minutes". Read on.
I woke up at 4:30, as I had to catch a 5:15 tram to the train station for a 6:25 train to Warszawa. Trust me on this, 4:30 come VERY EARLY in this part of the world also! I could have taken a later tram, however, at that time in the morning, the next one wasn’t until 5:45. I didn’t want to take the chance of it being late and missing the train.
I made the train on time. I had about an hour wait at the Poznan Glowny, but that was better to me than missing it. I had a tea (1.5zl) in the cafeteria while I was waiting.
The train arrived, and much to my dismay, even though it was coming from Berlin, it was a PKP train, not a Deutsche Bahn train. Actually, it looked like it might have been a Deutsche Bahn train twenty years ago, as it was a nicer than the regular PKP trains. I was in carriage 6, seat 45 (a window seat). We departed on time and it started snowing shortly after we left Poznan. Sharing the compartment with me were two Polish ladies of about 40 years old. We all dozed on and off throughout the journey. Also, we were served tea and crackers about one hour into the trip. At 9:15, we arrived at Warszawa Centralna train station (on time). I put my backpack into a luggage locker and went to explore again.
After I purchased my one day transportation ticket, my first stop was a backtrack. When the train came into Warszawa, we passed Warszawa Glowny train station. There, I noticed that they had the old steam trains lined up. The backup plan for possible Y2K problems with Poland’s (electric) train system was that if there were electrical problems (most train tracks are run off of local power grids), they would deploy the old steam trains to rescue passengers and keep the train system going. Where I come from, steam trains are such a thing of the past (backups are diesels), that I wanted to get a picture of them. So, I did (from quite a distance).
Next, I went on a tour of the churches of this city (since I finally knew that visitors are able to go in). I took a few hours to tour many of them. By far, the best one is St. Mary’s. I wish I could begin to describe it.
By now it was 3pm, the "warm" part of the day. It was –4C and I had basically been outside all day and I was cooooooooold ! I knew of a small place that I had eaten at when I was in Warszawa last year and went there for a tea and also had a small potato dish. I also went to a shop and picked up some bread, cheese and a bottle of water for the long trip home I had ahead of me after midnight. Then, it was back to the festivities.
The music was supposed to start at 19h. However, when I got back to Rynek, there were people with guitars singing in the square. Informally, the music had already started. So had the snow (again).
There is a statue in the Rynek that has about an inch of water in the circular base. Tourists walk through the water to have their pictures taken with it, and gypsies wade through it to get the coins that people throw in. Strange.
There were a lot of people in Warszawa for the festivities. I heard Polish, German, English, and Italian being spoken. It is estimated there were 300,000 people in the city for the event. The main area of the city was closed off to vehicles and there were two stages, one at Plac Zamkowy, in front of the Royal Palace and one in front of the Grand Opera House.
Fireworks were being sold and shot off everywhere. In this respect, it was kind of like Bastille Day in Paris (which, one of the people I was with, said seemed like Beirut), with the major difference being that in France, they throw fireworks at people. In Poland, they throw them into the air.
19h came and the party formally started at Plac Zamkowy. The first group consisted of four ladies and a man. They were British and did a few different kinds of music, including a spiritual. They were excellent. They even did a Russian Folk Song, which was very daring on their part.
It really was a beautiful site. There were Christmas lights lit up on the buildings that line Plac Zamkowy, as well as lights from the stage and spotlights. The Palace was lit up, as was the Christmas tree in front of it. Heavy snow was falling. It was great!
There were a variety of different entertainers throughout the evening. There was even a Polish pop singer who was kind of like the Polish Madonna. She was a lady of about 22 years old and sang pop music in Polish as she strutted up and down the platform. Everyone knew all the words to every song.
At 22h, I went to the other stage. The Grand Opera House was lit up in soft blue lighting. There, a rock band was playing hard rock and metal. This was more my kind of music! They did a few songs in Polish, then switched to Metallica, Guns N Roses, etc. They were fantastic! They played until 23:30.
It was now only ½ hour until the year 2000 ! This is where the major event would happen. The music stopped at Plac Zamkowy at 23h and people were flooding into the area in front of the Grand Opera House. There were a couple of television (from TVP1) personalities hosting and they had things like jugglers, etc. to fill the ½ hour. The snow was still falling and people were still shooting off fireworks.
In the distance, I noticed a large Polish Flag on a rod being waved by someone (it was the size of one that would be carried by a person in a parade). I thought to myself, "With all that Poland has been through in the 1900’s, go ahead and proudly wave that flag. The fact that you are able to at all is a miracle."
The big countdown began with 10 seconds to go. At midnight, just about everyone opened Champagne and soaked everyone else with it. Also, the real fireworks went off, being shot from tubes that were set up at the top of the Opera House. After about 10 minutes the fireworks stopped. Then, on the Jumbotron, being piped in from the Vatican, was the Pope giving midnight mass.
I had just under two hours to make it to the train station for my train home.
