Hi everybody and welcome to Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
I'm super excited to be showing you around today, because this was once my hometown.
Now, I want you to do one quick, little thing for me.
If you have any, any, preconceived notions of what Warsaw might be like,
I want you to take them and chuck them out.
Because today, what I'm gonna show you is a slightly alternative side of the city.
We're gonna be seeing street art, traditional arts and crafts,
a bit of history of course, local food with a contemporary twist and lots more.
All right, this is gonna be a great day, and I can't wait to show you around.
I'm Eva zu Beck and this is DW Travel in Warsaw.
Let's go!
In this video I want to show you Warsaw through the ages.
It might just be one of the most radically transformed and dynamic cities of Europe.
But before we talk about the Communist era,
and the sexy, modern face of the city,
let's go back to the basics.
Welcome to the medieval looking, old town of Warsaw.
During the Second World War, the entire city was pretty much razed to the ground.
It was bombed into oblivion and basically, ceased to exist.
None of these buildings actually survived the war.
So, none of these buildings are the original, beautiful
19th century town houses that you imagine them to be.
All of Warsaw had to be rebuilt from scratch, brick by brick.
It's the story of a city that's kind of like a phoenix,
that rose from the ashes.
Now, I'm about to show you a side of Poland that many of you might know about.
But I bet that the realities of living in the Communist era
will shock and surprise you.
Poland was under a Communist dictatorship after the Second World War and until 1989.
Now, I was born after the fall of Communism,
but the irony is not lost on me that the Museum of Polish Communism
is located right above an American fast-food joint.
All right, let's go and check it out.
It's actually quite amazing just how real this feels.
I mean, to a Polish person this is an actual apartment.
My grandma had an apartment just like this one.
Starting with the fur coats in the hallway,
just like the hallmark of the Polish grandma,
to the picture of John Paul II, the Polish Pope, on the wall.
My grandma had one as well.
You know, all this furniture, the phone, the lamp.
I mean, all these elements are very real.
None of this is fake.
In fact, Communism may have fallen 30 years ago,
more than 30 years ago now,
but a lot of apartments might still look like this all around Poland.
And there's one thing I wanna show you,
which is the classic of Polish communist decoration.
The glass fish.
Every single grandmother in Poland has one of these, I can guarantee.
You know, these days we're so used to 7 ply toilet paper...
But back in the day, and I remember this distinctly from my childhood,
this is the kind of toilet paper that you got in Poland.
And for many decades during the Communist times,
this is all you could use. It's very rough.
It's not luxurious at all, but it'll do.
And here, this is something I also remember from my great-grandmother's house.
This is one of the very first washing machines that was actually
commercially available in Poland.
And it's got a very affectionate name.
Frania.
This was a bit of a luxury item.
If a housewife had a washing machine like this,
that was definitely a privileged household.
There's one thing that all Polish grandmothers have in common.
And that's telling you just how good you have it,
and just how luxurious your life is.
So, I grew up hearing stories from my grandma
about all the food and product shortages during the Communist era.
So, she would tell me that queuing up just to buy
a piece of ham or a piece of cheese,
was a completely normal part of everyday life.
You'd stand in lines for hours, sometimes days at a time,
just to get the most basic, day-to-day, daily products.
Imagine, standing in line for an entire day, only to find
that there is no more sausage, or butter in the shop for your family.
30 years and such a massive difference to everybody's lives.
You know, the amazing thing is that I recognize all these products.
I mean, after the fall of Communism, these things didn't just magically disappear.
You know, most people would have kept them in their homes.
So, I remember as a kid using this very perfume.
I remember using this perfume, called "the green apple".
This is all actually a part of my childhood too,
which it's kind of crazy to think about it.
I firmly believe that the world is split into two kinds of people.
Those that know what this is, and those that don't.
So, if you're born before the 90s,
you probably know how to use one of these machines.
If you were born after that, sorry but you wouldn't survive Communism.
During the Communist era, if you wanted to go out for dinner,
you didn't have that much of a choice.
You'd come out to a place like this, a traditional milk bar.
Now, this museum actually has a room that's arranged just like a milk bar,
but I've got something better for you.
Milk bars still exist in Poland and that's where you'd go to find
cheap, traditional Polish food.
This is the classic of Polish cuisine.
The dish that is the greatest of all comfort foods in Poland.
The dish that you would make with your mum or your grandma at Christmas.
If you've never had "pierogi", you're not Polish.
So, pierogis are basically dumplings,
and they come with all sorts of fillings on the inside.
Some of the most popular ones are these, "ruskie pierogi".
Their filling is potato, cottage cheese and onion.
And of course, you sprinkle some fried onions on top,
and ideally add a little bit of cream.
And now you just bite in and enjoy the process.
It's just so simple.
So plain, so delicious.
You gotta try this.
With my tank full again, I'm ready to take on
a fascinating part of Warsaw that few travelers ever visit.
Here, in the grungy neighborhood of Praga,
residential courtyards hide a fascinating secret.
Many of them are home to this tiny chapels or shrines.
Check out this chapel right behind me. It's so beautiful and it just stands here.
So majestic, in the middle of this kind of grungy, dilapidated neighborhood.
During the Second World War when going to church was just too dangerous,
some of Warsaw's religious residents decided to build neighborhood chapels like these.
So that people would have a place to pray in,
without straying too far from home.
Over 100 of these chapels survived to this day.
One thing that I find truly amazing about each and every single one of these chapels
is that they're all completely different.
They're done in a very different, creative and artistic style.
So, no two are alike.
This one for example is just so beautiful and pristine, and perfect, and compact.
Compared to some of the others which are a bit more grungy,
and perhaps less well taken care of.
Each of them seems to have a soul of its own.
In today's Poland, religion can be a huge point of contention,
and a divisive subject among Polish people.
The current government has close ties to the Catholic Church,
which has led to various protests, sweeping across the streets of Poland,
in reaction to increasingly restrictive Church inspired laws
around issues such as abortion.
But these kind of clashes don't end with politics.
Even on these very streets, the traditional shrines and chapels
are neighbors with a much more contemporary phenomenon.
Street art.
I have a map of Warsaw street art here and it's really cool actually,
because it can lead you to spots like this.
There's a giant piece of street art, a beautiful mural right behind me.
But it's kind of hidden behind the buildings of one of Warsaw's main arteries.
You'd never find it without a map like this.
And it's actually quite amazing, because it's a real piece of street art.
Covered up by, you know, someone came here at some point
and decided to build some trash containers, pretty much in front of it.
You see how the art kind of evolves as the city evolves, as well.
But as cool as this map is, I think we should head over
to a slightly different neighborhood here in Warsaw.
With a guide who can tell us a little bit more
about the city street art revolution.
Let's go.
Here, in the neighborhood of Praga,
you can find some incredible examples of world-class murals,
created by artists from Poland and beyond.
I joined Przemek, who leads a local street art foundation,
on a quick tour of some of the neighborhood's top murals.
After all that walking around, I think we need to refuel again.
Traditional Polish food is great.
But I have something even more special for you.
This is not what it looks like. Appearances are deceiving.
This is not a pork schnitzel and this is not a tartare.
So, this here is actually a vegan pork chop.
Check this out. I mean, even the texture here is just like meat.
All this food is 100% vegan.
And it really passes the taste test.
I bet that if you gave this food to someone and you didn't tell them
that it was not real meat, they're not gonna be able to tell.
Not only is the consistency just like meat,
but it looks just like real meat.
So, in traditional Polish fashion,
you mix the onions, you mix the pickled cucumbers.
You kind of smoosh everything together.
Polish cuisine is quite meat heavy, so it might come as a surprise
that Warsaw consistently ranks as one of the world's most vegan friendly cities.
It's absolutely delicious.
Maybe even better than the real thing.
As you can probably see by now,
Warsaw has been busy reinventing itself again and again over the last century.
Throughout all this change,
very few businesses survived to tell the tale of a changing Poland.
But I found one that did.
So, Warsaw as you can see is a super modern city.
So, there's not that many traditional crafts people left here.
But there's one shop I've been frequenting for a couple of years now,
and I really want to share it with you.
Mr. Barylinski has a shop where he specializes in making handmade brushes.
Let's go inside.
There's all kinds of brushes here, in this shop,
and they serve all kinds of different functions
So, before coming here for the first time,
I had no idea that there were so many brushes with so many uses.
For example, this is a brush for your hair.
This here is a brush for a horse.
This brush is for cleaning and polishing your shoes.
This brush here is for scrubbing your body and your skin.
And this brush here is for brushing vegetables,
such as beetroots, potatoes or carrots.
Mr. Barylinski brush workshop is one of the last traditional businesses in Warsaw,
and I always swing by here when I'm in town.
And there's one more spot I always visit here.
This one shouldn't come as a surprise.
So, this here is one of the most popular iconic spots in Warsaw to get donuts.
There's always a line.
There's a line today, but I assure you it's worth the wait.
This spot is so popular that there's basically no donuts left.
There's two ladies in front of us who are getting some donuts right now
and I'm not sure there's gonna be enough for us.
This is like treasure, you guys.
So, let me show you a traditional Polish donut.
Oh, my...
It's warm, and fluffy. And soft. Check this out.
So, what we've got here is just a beautiful piece of bakery.
I see sugar on top, but inside that's where you find the real gem.
So, traditional Polish donuts are made with rose jam.
Not raspberry jam, no strawberry jam.
Rose jam. That's the real deal.
Are you ready? I don't know if I'm ready.
There's one thing you ever do when you come to Poland.
This should be it.
So, this is Warsaw.
With so much history and character, and a drive to always reinvent itself.
It might just be the most fascinating city in Poland.