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POLONIA

Part 1 :Warsaw, I have a crush on you

By Carolyn Chon

September 21^st, 2016

solo in polo(nia)

It’s been long time since I’ve gone on a solo trip, probably almost 10 years ago to be a bit more precise. As a person who enjoys meals alone and occasionally going to the movies alone, this solo trip was definitely long overdue - to say the least.

I picked Poland for three reasons :

1. My friend, Bea had visited Poland last year and made a damn good sales pitch with her photos.

2. I wanted to go somewhere where I would struggle to communicate at times.

3. It’s heck a lot more affordable than West Europe.

My trip in Poland was rather a short one, covering three cities in about 12 days with a plethora of recommendations from Bea… I’d like to think I made the right decision by not being greedy to cramp in everything in the short span I had there.

I started my trip in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland and I must confess, I had fallen in love with it.

stare miasto, warszawa

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POLONIA

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polin museum

The POLIN Museum is probably one of the best museums I’ve been to thus far. I think I spent up to four hours or so inside, really taking my time walking through the exhibitions. Hopefully, when you do visit this place one day, you will NOT join any tour so that you may take your time in there learning about the history of the Polish Jews. On the same note, I would recommend getting the audio guide, even if there’s reading material for each and every exhibit.

The museum opened its doors to public rather recently in 2013, and was designed by a Finnish architect. Personally, I liked the interior more than I did the exterior. I think I liked the stark contrast of how structural the outside looked, whilst the interior was organic looking and to some extent looked like a cave.

The exhibit itself is pretty awesome as well, as it is very interactive.. though, it could be too interactive for some. Besides it being very interactive, I also felt that every exhibit was really carefully planned and designed. It was as though they used different designers/planners for each and every exhibit, which was probably why it’s hard to get bored inside.

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POLONIA

Dance of death

There was one particular art piece that really stood out to me, not just visually but also the meaning behind the piece as explained via the audio guide. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of it as I assumed I would find it easily on the internet. Ha, well I did but it is rather a crappy low-res one.

The Dance of Death piece that I saw at the POLIN was dated all the way back to1680 and was apparently in the Church of St. Bernadine of Siena, Krakow. What I liked about the piece was that even back during the 1600s, the Dance of Death portrayed that no matter what class, what religion or what gender you are, you cannot escape death. Talk about progressive thinking during the 1600s eh?

There are different variations of paintings of the Dance of Death of which you can read about here.

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A few of the many different approach to illustrating Polish towns.

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POLONIA

POLONIA

wilanòw palace

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POLONIA

I took a bus from the city and made my way to the next museum, Wilanòw Palace. According to wikipedia heh, the palace’s museum was established in 1805. I’m not going to bore you with details and/or history of this palace, except that the paintings inside really blew my mind because there were so many!! Yes, it was a mind blown moment for me because this was the first ever palace I’ve set foot in Europe, let alone East Europe.

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POLONIA

POLONIA

POLONIA

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POLONIA

I wasn’t kidding about the amount of paintings inside the palace. Literally, plastered left, right, centre and top.

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i could live here.

I explored the other parts of Warsaw on bicycle and on foot, obviously. First two are photos of the Royal Łazienki Park, where I was rushing my way to catch the wonderful Chopin Concert held every Sunday during Summer! Rest of the photos are some of the in between places where the skies were just too awesome.

I think I can safely say that Warsaw is the one European city I can see myself living in. What appeals to me most about this place? The parks, the trees, the not too heavily populated city feel, the lack of high-rise buildings, the Polish people, the cleanliness… I guess pretty much everything that makes Warsaw awesome for me.

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POLONIA

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dziękuję Warszawa

kocham Cię

Sorry the photos are so mundane, Heh.

Next post, Krakow!

Footnotes

Shot on iPhone 6 and Sony A7s, processed via Lightroom.

FootNotes

Shot on iPhone 6 and Sony A7s, processed via Lightroom.

© 2026 Carolyn Chon

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