Downtown

I think I might finally have a glimpse into how people feel when they come to Utah and see the Wasatch Mountains for the first time.  It’s always amazing to me when people say “You LIVE next to these things?! How do you get anything done?“.  And I say, pointing to the nearest peak, ‘Those old things? Ah, nobody cares about those.  They’re just, you know, boring old mountains.’

We’re walking around next to these buildings that have been here for centuries; these gorgeous, amazing buildings with stunning architecture that were re-built brick by brick after World War II, and all I can think is, ‘How does anyone get anything done around here?’.

But all the teenagers are just walking from class to class and smoking cigarettes and hanging out with their friends, listening to techno on their cellphones, like the city behind them is just that boring old thing they see every day.

Amazing.

I wanted to get a picture of the cobblestones, and Charming decided no picture is a good picture unless he’s in it, so here he is.

And for the record, yes, he’s filthy at the end of every day but I packed lots of hand sanitizer and wet wipes so we’re all good.

Charming wanted a photo of me and Viktor, so he took this picture of us in the old part of Warsaw yesterday.  Not terrible for a 6-year-old.

We walked  miles and miles and miles around town yesterday at a really leisurely pace so Charming could keep up, and we saw some really amazing bits of history.

This is all that remains of an old royal palace downtown, after all the bombing from World War II.

That’s it.  That tiny little slice of a building.  An entire empty square stands in front of it, and an enormous park that used to be the palace gardens lies behind.

Inside?  Two armed guards keep watch over the eternal flame of remembrance.

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Random notes:

• Yesterday an old woman at the trolley stop asked Precocious if she was a goat because she was chewing gum.  Old people don’t have a problem interfering with other people’s children here.
• On the bus two teenaged boys wearing combat boots had this written on their backpacks in permanent marker: Punx Rox Lives! Indeed it does boys.
  
• One of my favorite translations from our Polish/”English” map of the city: “Restaurants: There is plenty of them in Warsaw with cuisine from all over the world. Prices vary, but it’s hard to find a less expensive and good one at the same time.”
• Charming has had a tooth falling out for 2 weeks.  It’s a front tooth and is hanging on by a THREAD but he won’t pull it out because he doesn’t want Polish Zwoty, only good old American dollars.  No amount of bribing is working because Babcia is giving him enough chocolate to keep a small country happy.
• Out of all the minutia of details I remembered about packing a family of 4 for a month long trip, I neglected to bring the right camera lens for my Canon.  I brought the 50mm 1:1.4 which is a fixed lens.  It’s great for close-up shots but doesn’t get landscape.  PERFECT.

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!