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twocities
While Warsaw is stiff and formal, business and politics,
Krakow is laidback and friendly, colleges and culture.
Warsaw is vertical with tall buildings and grand avenues
full of traffic; Krakow is horizontal. RANJAN PAL savours
a unique poles apart experience

The Palace of Science and Culture, Warsaw

EXOTICA [58] FEBRUARY 2016

Inside Enklawa nightclub, Warsaw

I LOOK

down at
the
remaining
pierogi (Polish dumpling) on my plate and ponder
whether to spear it. Sitting outside the Zapiecek
restaurant on the main strip of Nowy Siat, the
nightlife on the streets is beginning to pick up.
Next to me the dark-haired Polish guy is wolfing
down the last of his kaszanska (blood sausage). He
notices me looking at his plate and we strike up a
conversation. Turns out that Nima is actually
German but of Iranian extraction while his friend
Florian looks more Teutonic. Like me they have
just arrived in Warsaw but from just across the
border, the Polish capital being an overnight train

ride from Hamburg.

Having downed several bottles of Tyskie lager,
my new friends and I stumble tipsily down Nowy
Siat looking for some action. Eventually we find it
on Mazowiecka Street where the trendy nightclub
Enklawa is drawing the beautiful young people like
a magnet. I dont fall into either category but the
bouncer lets me in anyway, maybe he doesnt get
to see many Indian punters. Inside, the club is
alive with wildly gyrating bodies and we are
seriously impressed with the Polish female
talent on display. Unfortunately the jet lag and
the alcohol have begun to catch up with me and
I fall asleep on a couch near a group of PYTs.
I am shaken awake and find myself being

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unceremoniously deposited on the pavement

outside. Wearily I flag down a taxi and make it
back to my friend Ajay Bisarias home by 4 am, add
being thrown out of a Polish nightclub to my list of
lifetime achievements!
By day, Warsaw is a big impersonal city with
tall Soviet-style buildings that block out the sun.
The tallest of them is the Palace of Science and
Culture which is to Warsaw what the Empire State
building is to New York. Originally built in the
early 1950s as a gift from the Soviet people, it
survived the fall of the Soviet Union though the
name of its benefactor Stalin was summarily
removed. I ride the elevator to the 30th floor on a
Sunday morning hemmed in by chattering Polish
tiny tots and their doting parents. Most of the
viewing terrace has been given over to a free arts
and crafts centre and the splashes of bright colour
light up the sombre interiors of the palace.
Later that night the view is even better from
The View, Warsaws most happening rooftop

nightclub and Im not just referring to the city. The

people-watching is amazing as glitterati, celebs and
business tycoons, all crowd around the iconic
circular bar. Nima and I try to look the part in our
trendy leather jackets as we sip at our dirty martinis
but I dont think we have successfully cultivated the
Im-so-bored-but-Im-so-rich look. Paradoxically this
draws the attention of a stunning tall brunette
called Maya who speaks with a definite American
twang. Turns out she is originally from Minnesota,
has lived in Warsaw for half her life, hates Polish
men and is clearly looking for a hook-up. The
evening has suddenly got a lot more interesting!
It also helps demonstrate the elemental truth
that if you are with one beautiful woman at a bar
then it serves as a positive signal to others. We
succeed in chatting up two striking blondes
visiting from Frankfurt and for a giddy moment
Nima and I are the envy of all the other men in the
place as we manoeuvre our companions on to the
dance floor. We do our best to persuade the babes

Nightclub The View, Warsaw

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to hit Enklawa but the Germans have an early

morning flight home and so we settle for an
exchange of digits and a promise to reconnect
someday sometime. Somehow Ive taken Nima
under my wing and we have become fast friends and
comrades-in-arms all in the space of 24 hours!

Enklawa

Franciszek Chopin remains

Warsaws most popular son.
Although the great composer left Poland at the tender
age of 20 never to return, his heart remained in
Warsaw. Quite literally because after his death in Paris,
this life-giving organ was carried back to his native
home and interred in a pillar of the Holy Cross church.
His name is everywhere from the international airport
to a popular brand of high end vodka though there is
no evidence that he was fond of the stuff.
I decide to remedy matters by raising a vodka toast
to the great man while sitting on a bench in front of
his statue in Lazienki Park. It is a Sunday afternoon
and the crowds are gathering for the free Chopin
concert performed by specially invited pianists from
around the world. Today it is an attractive local
musician called Monika Rosca who has the audiences
attention as she launches into the Polonaise in A Major,
one of his most famous compositions. The airy notes of
this beautiful piece waft out into the evening air and
the audience listens in rapt silence. My eyes are
closed and I feel as if I have been transported
into another world maybe even the Paris
salon of George Sand, a French Romantic

FRYDERYK

Mazowiecka street

Pardon To Tu
Bollywood lounge
Palace of Science
and Sulture

Lazienki park

Map of Warsaw; Chopins

Statue, Lazienski Park, Warsaw

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First Warsaw Golf and Country Club

novelist and Chopins lover in the years

before he fell terminally ill.
my last weekend in
Warsaw, my host Ajay,
who is our Ambassador
to Poland, returns from an
extended trip around the country
and we spend a few hours
catching up in his beautiful
mansion over several glasses of
Chopin. Jokingly I assure him
that I have done nothing that
would bring disrepute upon
him or our great country
plausible deniability being
the name of the game. We
are great friends and he laughs
uproariously at the suggestion. He
is laughing considerably less later
that afternoon as I match him
stroke for stroke on the fairways
of the First Warsaw Golf and
Country Club. Ajay is a far
better player than me but
beginners luck is on my side
and I play an unexpectedly
good round!
Ajay is also a man after my
own heart which translates into
enjoying the finer things in life
and that evening he takes me to

ON

the strangely named Pardon To Tu

billed as Warsaws finest jazz bar. The
Swedish group Fire! are in full swing
and the place is packed with standing
room only. We squeeze our way through
to the bar and Tyskies firmly in hand,
watch the group side on as they jam in
front of a backdrop which has the name
of every known musician from Chopin
to CCR to Coldplay, the epitome of cool.
The evening ends back on Nowy Siat
at the garishly decorated but extremely
popular Bollywood Lounge, a Polish
sheesha fantasy of what India is like.
Ajay has invited a group of Polish
diplomats and IKEA executives to
celebrate a three-way deal which will
have Polish furniture makers
manufacture in India and channel their
product to Sweden for further
processing. In exchange, IKEA will have
greater access to the Indian
market...truly a win-win-win for all.
The Indian food is quite average
but everyone is in good spirits and
the booze is flowing quite liberally.
I sit next to the affable IKEA
senior guy and it turns out that
he is based in Gurgaon,
ten minutes from where
I live. Talk about a
really small world.

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the second
city of
Poland, is
about as different from Warsaw as chalk from
cheese. They also exhibit a rivalry which matches
other great pairs in the world: New York and DC,
Sydney and Melbourne, Mumbai and Delhi. While
Warsaw is stiff and formal, business and politics;
Krakow is laidback and friendly, colleges and
culture. Warsaw is vertical with tall buildings and
grand avenues full of traffic; Krakow is horizontal
with a sprawl of brick and slate roofs clearly visible
from its spiritual and physical heart Wawel Castle.
I am met by my guide Bruno as I disembark
from the PKP Intercity express at Krakow station.
He is instantly likeable with a boyish smile and a
roguish charm that I am sure makes him a big
success with all the ladies. Our destination is
Zakopane, a mountain town which is the takeoff

KRAKOW,

point for the Tatras and a couple of hours drive

due south. After lunch, Bruno takes me for a stroll
through the town but I find it a little too touristy
and full of kitsch. We unwind in the heated pool
and jacuzzi at the luxurious Aries hotel hoping for
better company but finding only old German
pensioners. Even the pretty PR manager Kascia
politely but firmly rebuffs our suggestion that she
try out the facilities in the line of duty.
As adventure travel is my passion, I had specially
requested a trip up to see Morskie Oko (meaning
Eye of The Sea) a beautiful lake nestled in the heart
of the Tatra mountains. However, this morning the
weather has turned against us and we trudge up the
asphalt path in halting rain, chilled to the bone by
the freezing wind. I am amazed at the number of
Poles who are making the same pilgrimage, some
even pushing toddlers in prams the whole
experience is a world away from the solitary trails

Wawel Castle, Krakow; Two views of the mountain lake Morskie Oko

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at Krakow, I am handed over

to my new guide Darek who
seems as different to Bruno
as Warsaw from Krakow. Older, heavier, more
plodding and pedantic, he is a stark contrast to
Brunos twinkling charm and engaging banter. Still
Darek is a complete professional and his knowledge
of Krakow is considerable as I am to find out over
the next two days. Wawel Castle dates back to the
10th century and the cathedral is a hodgepodge of
architectural styles imposed by successive rulers
it looks like something a child might have slapped
together. However the numerous staterooms and
royal chambers are richly appointed and under Nazi
occupation, Governor General Hans Frank made it
his home, knowing a good thing when he saw one.
That decision alone saved Krakow from the awful
fate that befell Warsaw of being bombed and razed
to the ground, so the city appears much as it did in
medieval times.
The one thing that remains seared into my
memory from my stay in Krakow is
my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is
an appropriately gray and overcast
day when we reach the largest
concentration and death camp ever
built by the Nazis, just an hours drive
from Krakow. One has heard so much
about the horror of these places but
nothing quite prepares you for it. I
stop at the entrance and look up at
the words Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Will
Set You Free) wrought into the
metalwork of the entry gate. The Jews
that entered thought it might mean
some small chance of survival. The

BACK

PHOTO: RANJAN PAL

I am used to in the high Himalayas. Finally we reach

the lake and even with the lowering cloud which
obscures the high peaks that surround it, one can
see that it is quite a magnificent sight. A few photos
and a couple of massively overpriced coffees later in
the solitary chalet and we are on our way down, this
time opting for the horse-drawn cart which carries us
down at a rapid clip.

Big Head sculpture, Wawel castle, Krakow; Entrance gate to

Auschwitz concentration camp (below)

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Nazis knew otherwise: in a grotesque parody, it

meant that the Jews would be worked to death and
thus set free from life. I feel a cold shudder run
down my spine; it is hard to tear my eyes away from
these chilling words, frozen in metal against the sky.
The hours that follow feel almost interminable
and their impact on my emotions is wrenching.
Theres a massive glass chamber full of human hair
shaved from the Jewish victims. The black wall
where political prisoners were executed with a shot
to the back of the neck. The iron rail from which
eleven prisoners were hung as a reprisal for others

who escaped. The cruel narrow cells where

prisoners were made to stand for 72 hours as
punishment. And, finally, the gas chambers where
the Jews met their final solution, all the time
thinking they were being sent in for a hot shower.
In the lowering dusk, my guide David and I
walk back the length of the Birkenau death camp
in total silence. Behind us is the International
Monument which marks the murder of 1.5 million
people, almost all Jews, with an inscription
translated into 24 languages for all the countries
the victims came from. The train wagon that

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PHOTO: RANJAN PAL

Jousting with a knight outside Wawel Castle; dancers perform in a public plaza; view of the river Vistula from Wawel Castle

Getting
T H E R E

BY AIR: John Paul II Intl Airport is located in

Balice which is 13 km from Krakow.

If your health permits, the city centre can be

easily explored on foot or on a bicycle. There are
some picturesque walking routes, try the Royal
Way or the Planty Park. You may also get around
using trams and buses.

Teatro Cubano (top); Stalowe Magnolie

transported Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz stands alone

at the end of the railway line which enters the camp, a
forlorn reminder of the horrors of this place of
suffering and death. I look at the date and notice with a
shock that it is September 11, a day to remember the
slaughter of innocents. I know I will never forget this
afternoon as long as I live.
It is Saturday night, my last in Poland, and
Krakow has the reputation for being the most rocking
party town in Poland, if not in Central Europe. Horses
for courses, I quickly ditch Darek and hook up with
Bruno for the evening. We start out at Teatro Cubano,
one of the hottest new places on the Krakow clubbing
circuit. Bruno has invited his neighbours Eva (a lively
blonde who could pass for Reese Witherspoon) and
her banker husband Jarek. The ambience is all Havana
with Cuban flags and symbols and even laundry
hanging from the balconies above and the salsa beat
is compelling.
Several mojitos later, we stagger out on to
Jagielloska Street and my new Polish friends head for
Stalowe Magnolie (Steel Magnolias), a well-known
dance club a stones throw from the Barbican. This is
one of the advantages of clubbing in Krakow. You can
walk everywhere and so no worries about driving home
drunk. The club is an amazing place, all decked out in
opulent red velvet with low lighting so that you feel like
you are entering an Aladdins Cave. But the best part is
the live music and a local band is belting out Smoke on
the Water which gets us all out on the small dance floor.
Eva is dancing with me and my theory about the Rules
of Attraction proves right again. But thats another
story and now my Polish adventure is done!

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