Poznan
29 - 30 December, 1999
29 December
I awoke in Torun on 29 December at 7:30. That gave me time to take a shower, rearrange my backpack, check out of the hotel, and catch a bus to the Torun Glowny train station. I then took the 9:08 train to Poznan, the 4th largest city in Poland. We arrived on time at 11:16. It snowed heavily most of the way there (and continued snowing for most of the day, as well as most of 30 December). As with Torun, I didn’t know a lot about Poznan either, but it was also highly recommended to visit (one of my adult students, Piotr, even went as far as telling me it was his favorite city in Poland).
At the Poznan Glowny train station, the left luggage is even different. Here, you go to a window, a guy speaks to you in Polish, and even with "traveler’s sign language" he won’t take your bag. I had no idea why (he even pointed to a sign in Polish, which I couldn’t read, to try to get me to understand). Finally, a lady about my age behind me, who spoke some English, offered to help me. In Poznan, you have to declare what you think is the value of your luggage, and pay 10% of that, plus 1.50zl ! I’m beginning to think that only Warszawa and Krakow have luggage lockers in this country.
Tram 5 takes you from the main train station to the Old Town area. Poznan has the same bizarre fares for local transport that Gdansk has. You pay for time you think you will be on the tram or bus. 10 minutes = 80gz, 30 minutes = 1.60zl, 60 minutes = 2.40zl, and 120 minutes = 3.6zl. Luckily, on the signs that tell you what time the tram/bus picks up at the location you are at, it also tells you estimated travel time between stops. I wasn’t going far, so I only bought 10-minute tickets.
As with most places in Poland, the main attraction of Poznan is the Stare Miasto (Old Town). In this city, it is also beautiful! The architecture is fantastic! It is larger than the one in Torun with a few buildings in the middle. The town hall was under renovation when I was there.
Two hours after I arrived, the moderate snow we had been having changed into heavy snow again, so I had to duck into an internet café to wait out the storm.
After the snow died down, I went back to the Stare Miasto and went to the Muzeum Historic Miasta Poanania (Historical Museum of Poznan) and the Muzeum Instrumentow Myzacznyck (the Museum of Musical Instruments) both of which are located in the Rynek (Old Town Square). Admission only cost me 2zl with my ITIC card discount of 1zl.
Next, I went back to the main train station. I needed to pick up my backpack, and wanted also to book a train for 31 December to Warszawa. I didn’t know how crowded the trains would be, so I wanted to book as soon as possible. The only problem with taking a train from Poznan to Warszawa is that it is on the main Berlin-Warszawa train route, so, the only trains that call there are Express, InterCity, and EuroCity trains, all of which are quite expensive. I didn’t even consider the EuroCity train, as those are the most expensive. The fare for the Express and InterCity trains for the route I wanted was 50.69zl (306km), with the only differences being that the Express train made one stop and the InterCity didn’t stop at all, plus the price of the seat reservation (Express was 7zl and Inter City was 12zl). I chose the InterCity (also because it left one hour later, and arrived only 40 minutes later than the Express). Also, with it coming from Berlin, there is a chance it would be a Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) train, which are nicer than PKP ones.
Then, it was off to check into the hostel. I stayed at the one located just off of the Nad Wieredalkiem tram stop, a twelve minute ride from both the center of the city (tram 9) and the train station (tram 11). I went to check in. The man that runs it is about 55 years old and speaks no English. He does speak German, which would be good if I also did. All I can do with German is recognize that it is German and say (in that language) "I don’t speak German"! It was "broken Polish" time again. It worked, however, occasionally he would slip into German in hopes that I would understand better. That part of it didn’t work. I took a shared room with 8 beds in it, however, I was the only one there. It cost 16zl per night.
My Polish is to the point that I can make myself understood, however, I can’t make complete and proper sentences yet. I am still working on it. I can say basic things and pronounce just about anything, even if I don’t know what it means. Progress in action, however, I still have a long way to go.
The rest of my evening was spent walking around (in the snow). Poznan is also a walking city and had many Christmas decorations.
30 December
Today, I was out of the hostel at 9h to see more of this great city. There was a light snow falling when I walked to the tram stop. When I arrived, I noticed a small triangular shaped snow-covered park behind that area. It was very nice, with a partially iced over stream running through it, a few bridges over the stream, and a lot of ducks. I spent about 20 minutes taking in pictures it. I figured that I could always catch the next tram, but I would never have this opportunity to capture the park on film again. Granted, there will be other opportunities if I ever go back, however, it looked so beautiful that I wanted to capture this actual scene. I guess you could say I "stopped to smell the flowers."
Tram 9 came and off I went. My first stop was to see the Monument to the Victims of June 1956, the first major mass protest of communism in the former "Eastern Bloc". 70 people were crushed to death by Soviet tanks and hundreds were injured. With it, now are other monuments, and one said that it now commemorates all that were part of the "resistance movement" from 1918 to 1989. I felt great vibes there. It made me feel very honored to be invited to live in this country for a while.
Next, I saw the castle (right next to the monument) and then walked to the Grand Theater. What brilliant structures. I continued down the road to see Poland’s answer to Harrods: a circular department store with a circular stairwell in the middle. Interesting concept.
I continued in the same direction and ended up back in the Stary Rynek. I found some postcards for 40gz. Great deal! I then took pictures of that area (I didn’t yesterday as it was snowing too hard). and moved on. My next stop was the Parish Church, just a bit west of the Rynek. It caught my eye yesterday, so I went for a closer look. What a phenomenal building! It is baroque style and was built from 1651 – 1732 (it took 81 years!). I wanted to go inside, but hadn’t yet figured out if that would be okay or not, so I chose not to (I did noticed people coming and going at many churches throughout Poland, but thought that they might be parishioners.
Next, I just walked. Poznan is such a great place architecturally that it’s nice just to walk around and admire everything (like Prague). Poznan is much larger than Torun. I wasn’t following my map, I just walked towards places that looked nice. When I crossed over streets with even better looking structures, I changed direction. After a while of that, I realized that I was very cold and ducked into a small place for lunch (meat patty, fries, and tea for 7zl). As I was having lunch, the light snow stopped.
I read my guidebook during lunch and knew that I wanted to visit the Cathedral (also, as the train came into Poznan, a girl in my compartment pointed it out and told me it was nice). I walked to where I could see it, and decided to find a bridge with tram rails that went across the river and follow them over by it. It worked, and about 20 minutes later, I was there.
The cathedral is built in an old and nice area. There are other related buildings on the Cathedral complex. I had seen pictures of the inside of it and wanted to go in. I saw people going out, so I went in. All I can say is WOW !!! To find out how great it really is, you’ll have to see it for yourself (or look it up on the internet). There was a sign saying that individuals were requested to buy a ticket for 2zl, however, I didn’t see anyone selling ticket. Out of respect for their rules, I put that amount in a donation box.
When I walked out, I looked at my watch and it was 11:45. I remembered that I had wanted to be at the Town Hall in Stary Rynek at midday, but realized that there was no way I would make it on foot. Luckily, tram 4 came by and off I went. After a five-minute ride, I got off the tram and was only a five-minute walk from the Rynek. I made it.
What happens, when the clock strikes 12h, is, out of two doors on the clock tower, two steel rams appear. They turn, face eachother, and butt head 12 times. It ONLY happens at 12h every day.
As I was waiting for the midday festivity, with my camera in hand, a distinguished looking gentleman of about 65 years old with a mustache, gray hat and coat, and cigarette in his hand, began talking to me in Polish. He asked if I was Canadian, and I told him that I was American. He then said something I didn’t understand in Polish, but ended it with the word "Italiano", which is not a Polish word. I asked him, in Italian (of which I speak about 5 words), if he spoke Italian. He did. I told him that I speak Spanish. We both knew that the two languages were close enough to have a conversation, so we did. We talked for about 15 minutes, and ended by exchanging names. His is Edmund. That’s just another gem of traveling. You meet wonderful people all over the world, whether you can communicate with them through language, otherwise, or not at all. I regret not taking his picture.
For the afternoon, I decided to go see a castle in Kornik, 22km from Poznan. I read that there were busses every half-hour from the PKS station, so I went. It’s not as easy to get to as the train station. Busses 71 & 76B take you there, but if you’re ion the Stare Miasto, by the time you get to where you can catch one of those, you’ve just about walked the entire way.
I bought a ticket for the next bus (22km, 4zl), which left at 13:40. It’s a nice 25-minute ride out of Poznan (nice meaning a nice rest for your feet it you’ve been walking around for the last 4 days). It drops you off at the bus stop in the center of Kornik. It really is only a bus stop, not a terminal (to catch a bus coming back, you just walk to the other end of the curb). The castle is a 5-minute walk down ul. Zamowa (the street that goes off to the right).
What a grand place! I was awe struck just walking up to it. It has a great setting, as it’s across the road from a lake. As I walked over the bridge that leads from land, over the moat (with real, or at least at this time of the year, frozen, water) and ducks and approached the front door, I felt my anticipation grow. I got to the front door and read the sign, that said (in Polish) that the Castle was closed from 24 Dec – 20 Jan. My heart sank! I knocked on the door, and a lady opened it and told me the said thing the sign said. *sigh* Just another one of the joys of independent traveling…not knowing what will happen. So, I walked around the outside, admired the architecture, took pictures, and walked back to the bus stop. Catching a bus back to Poznan is very easy, as they run every half our. However, this time, the first bus to stop was a letter NB MKT bus, which is part of the Kornik local bus system (most likely a suburban bus from Poznan). A ticket back cost 3.60zl, and an advantage of this bus is that, since it is not a PKS bus, it drops you off right on San Marcin, one of the main streets of the center of Poznan.
All in all, what a great day.
