Thought Trinkets from Warsaw: Melancholy & Up-and-Coming

My sister Kasey just got back from Warsaw, which she reports as a bit melancholy, overly modern architecturally, yet stirring with an 'underground' evolution towards a sense of 'up-and-coming.'

Most memorable was her visit to the Uprising Museum, which is a commemoration to the people of Poland who 'rose up' against the Axis Powers in 1944, and died rather tragically in doing so.

Apparently, the fact that the people resisted (and that now their efforts are being honored) is somewhat controversial as their actions left many people dead, and essentially led to the desecration of a city that had once been described as 'the Paris of the east' when the Nazis proceeded to systematically annihilate irreplaceable historic structures in retaliation. (And thus - depending on where you stand - making the resistors or the Nazis [or the Communists] the reason for the 'melancholy' and 'overtly modern' city that rose up in its place).

Oh, there's always 20/20 hindsight - isn't there? But sometimes, faced with the future that is believed-to-known... and is unbearable... any and all sacrifice in the present seems more than worth it.

Anyway, moral quandaries aside, Kasey brought with her a few atypical and adorable souvenirs that I absolutely had to share with you. Ahh, she has such an eye... if it had been me in her place I would have come back with a postcard that wouldn't get mailed to anyone for a year. Enjoy!

Wedel's signature chocolate bars wrapped in illustrations that represent some of Poland's best-loved fairy tales.



A stack of animal puzzles to help children learn to spell ...



It rather amazing that in Polish so many animals can be spelled with exactly four letters...



Cute cat playing cards for the likes of Go Fish!



Looks like the cat ate the fish.

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