Poland is a study in contrasts. Downtown Warsaw is crammed with giant office towers, but the nation is largely agricultural. Despite the towers, the center of Warsaw features an age-old market called Mirowska Hall, brimming with foods both raw and prepared. Flower vendors frame the exterior, and individuals sell meager possessions like old running shoes off old small blankets on the ground.

We based in Warsaw, two blocks from Mirowska Hall, as Warsaw is pretty much the geographic center of the country. We took side trips north to Gdansk on the Baltic Sea, and south to Krakow, which is building itself into the tourism capital. Thanks to the upgraded train system, each of these cities is less than two and half hours away, downtown to downtown.

This plan allowed us to compare Old Towns, the tourism heart of everywhere in Europe. Warsaw had a problem, as the Nazis were followed close by the Soviets in demolishing the country and flattening it. Warsaw rebuilt its Old Town, but it looks it. The cobblestone streets are too wide, too flat, too straight and too clean. Rather than gargoyles and carvings, building facades are simply painted in bright pastels, with little or nothing to distinguish one from another. Menus were all the same. About as exciting as the junk stores got was pierogi-shaped pillows.

Old Town Warsaw	Old Town Krakow

Gdansk wins the Old Town rankings. Its buildings are tall, elegant and well-preserved. It is right by the shore, next to the heavy-duty fishing and shipbuilding industries. The Old Town Hall is a stunning and imposing structure that clearly stands apart from everything else. The shopping experience was no different though.

Old Town Hall Gdansk	Dluga St, Gdansk	Rosehip Paczki, Gdansk

Krakow has done a tremendous job in rehabilitating its Old Town. It is vibrant and active and alive with tourists and school tours all day long. The central square is gigantic. I can see it easily holding a good hundred thousand people to celebrate something or other. Ironically perhaps, it was Gdansk that did actually host the massive crowds of workers of Solidarity in their attempt to break free of communism and the Soviet Union. Solidarity's leader, Lech Walesa, is a national hero and became president of the newly freed Poland.

We didn't do much restauranting in Poland, certainly nothing like we did in Hungary. This was because the market provided such a great variety of foods we were happy to eat at home. The variety of smoked fish was astounding. There were a good dozen varieties of raw pierogies, and all kinds of dishes based on buckwheat, and so many homebaked breads that were so different they all needed explanations. We ate well.

Warsaw library roof	Redleaf vine over library well	University Library roof continued

We did visit the university library in Warsaw. The street side was composed of giant books, two stories high, each employing a different language on its cover. One language was music, another math, plus Latin and of course, Polish. But the reason we were there was for the roof. It is a giant, sprawling, rolling park. It is filled with flowering plants, arranged by color, punctuated by colorful trees, arbors, hidden paths, and of course, views down into the libraries. Right by the Vistula River, where the city provides wooden deck chairs and chaise longues to encourage lingering.

We even went to theater, at the Teatr Capitol. It's a modern theater, reeking of theater vibes. It has a well-established ensemble of local stars, and the place was packed. Unfortunately for us, the English supertitles, when they appeared at all, were so tiny and faint on the big screen as to be unreadable. Fortunately, the play was a bedroom farce, and we could pretty much understand everything, until each of the leads got to improvise and crack each other up near the climax, breaking the fourth wall and playing directly to the audience. We keep trying.