Polish Adventures: Pierogies, History and Fun

Polish Adventures: Pierogies, History and Fun

This spring break, I went to Poland.  Why was I the most excited to travel to this particular place? Easy.  Poland presented the opportunity to indulge in mass amounts of pierogies, one of my favorite foods.  I’d been counting down the days to this trip, and was so happy when I finally made it there. (And got fed pierogies the first night!)

Poland was a trip Loyola planned out, and all I had to do was pay for it.  All the meals and activities were planned for all 6 days of the trip.  This was an added bonus in that the trip was stress-free for me. All I had to do was show up and the group would travel together.

Contrary to popular belief, we did more than just eat pierogies.  It was a very educational trip. We went to a lot of museums, including The Uprising Museum, Schindler’s Museum, Auschwitz and the Salt Mines. Schindler’s Museum was very interesting.  The actual museum used to be the factory where all the Jewish people that he saved would work.  If you are completely clueless to what I am talking about, I highly recommend watching Schindler’s List. It’s a great movie that shows how one man made such a difference in peoples lives; he saved thousands of people from Auschwitz and death.

We visited Auschwitz as well.  It was probably the most depressing place I have ever been to.  It was exactly what I expected it to be: eerie, barren and dusty.  It was nice to see that those people’s memory was kept alive; there were flowers from visitors covering the wall.  I think the saddest part of Auschwitz was going inside the different buildings that were turned into museums, because everywhere you looked there were huge pictures of the people who lived at Auschwitz, and the horrid conditions they lived in.  They were so sad.  There was also a room with collections of things left behind. There was a huge showcase of shoes and suitcases, and there was one huge window of human hair that was found when the concentration camp was shut down.

On a lighter note, the rest of the trip was very light hearted and fun.  I really enjoyed traveling to Krakow because my great grandparents immigrated from there.  Both Krakow and Warsaw are beautiful cities.  They both have a big main square which is there city center, and surrounding the city center are buildings that are pastel colored.  It was beautiful.

We also indulged in a ton of food.  Since Loyola planned out all the meals, we got to eat like kings. I think my favorite meal would have to be the four course one consisting of beet soup, duck (which I tried for the first time and loved), pierogies, kielbasa, salad and apple pie. Simply delicious. Every meal was amazing, though. Polish food may be my new favorite!

The trip was a success.  I had a ton of fun, devoured delicious food, and learned a ton about the history of Poland and it’s role in World War II.  I’m so glad I decided to go on this trip!

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