Warsaw - Ready for Euro 2012
This Summer’s Euro 2012 is just around the corner. Travel writer Brendan Harding checks out the Polish capital Warsaw in the first of his reports on the country’s preparations for the games and the arrival of Europe’s football fans.
Warsaw’s new National Stadium, the Stadion Narodowy.
The street name Aleja Księcia Józefa Poniatowskiego may not slip easily from the tongue of most visitors to Poland's capital city, Warsaw (Warszawa), but in just under one hundred days time, the chant on the lips of every red-shirted football fan walking that very thoroughfare will be the same; Polska! Polska! Polska!
Recently I was fortunate enough to be one of the lucky
55,000 strong horde which thronged the street, making its
collective way to the official opening of the new National Stadium (Stadion Narodowy). The fans were in singing
voice. In every bar, cafe and restaurant on the way to the red- and white-clad
new edifice the sound of laughter and good humour filtered into the still, but
wintry, Warsaw evening.
On the corner of
Francusko Street, a fan, wolfing down
a finger-dripping kebab, overheard my English language. "Where are you
from?" he asked. Ireland, I replied. Wiping his
hands in his trousers he shook my hand, "No!" he shouted,
"Tonight, you are Polish like us" and slapped my shoulder heartily.
Inside the modern façade of the
new stadium the atmosphere was electric. As the Polish team took to the field
against their opponents, Portugal,
the noise was deafening, as if encouraging the rest of Europe
to sit up and listen. Despite the lack of excitement on the field (a dour nil
all draw) the fans did their best to turn the night into one giant party. As
Mexican waves rolled around the stadium like a human tsunami the game was all
but forgotten. Strangers, young and old, smiled at each other as if to say,
‘Look what we’ve done, isn’t it amazing?’ Among the fans, the Poles sense of
pride and passion was tangible; just what the Summer tournament needs from its
hosts, when the international press is solely focused on the problems of
hooligan fans and the rumours of poor organistation.
UEFA's Euro 2012 is just around the corner but already the infection is spreading. On every street corner of Warsaw there are signs of renovation, rejuvenation, rebirth and modernisation. In the city centre the Soviet era Palace of Culture, - a towering wedding cake monolith of a building and an unwelcome gift from Stalin - a building that once controlled the skyline with an iron grasp, is now left dwarfed by its shiny new contemporary siblings.
As impressive as these towering new adornments are to the city skyscape it's
the
people of Poland,
and Warsaw in particular, who won
me over hands-down.
Poland's history is as intricately braided as its colourful national costumes. Stories of invasion, conquest, enslavement, disbandenment and genocide at the hands of foreign pretenders sit shallow in the minds and hearts of the Polish nation. In the year 966AD Mesko I embraced Christianity and the foundations of the Polish state was laid. In the centuries that followed came Czechs, Prussians, Tatars, Lithuanians, Magyars, Swedes, Germans and finally the great hulking might of the Soviet Union trundled through the already devastated towns and villages across the land. Another, weaker nation, would bow and buckle under the weight of oppression, but not the Poles.
Evidence of this unbending will comes in the darkened and stifling halls of the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Wandering through the exhibits of defiance, the rooms echo to an omnipresent sound of a disembodied heartbeat. Each of the exhibits tells stories of brutality countered by heroism, loss countered by survival and the will to survive. In its own words, 'the Museum is a tribute of Warsaw’s residents to those who fought and died for independent Poland and its free capital.'
On the streets of the old town and the ' Royal Route' Warsaw's past has been restored to its former brilliance. Brick by brick the horrors of the past have been erased. Walking past palaces and presidential mansions on a quiet winter evening, it is impossible to believe that less than eighty years have passed since the city was razed to the ground by the invading Nazis. It is as if time had stuttered momentarily, then carried on oblivious to its brief but brutal hiatus.
But Warsaw is not just about the past. At the Copernicus Science Centre, on the banks of the Vistula River, the future is very much alive. The core mission of the Centre is to 'inspire curiosity, assist the independent discovering of the world,' and to 'help to learn and inspire social dialogue on science.' Evidence that the core mission is indeed working is confirmed by the hundreds of children, teens and adults enthralled by the centre's hands-on exhibits. On a journey of discovery visitors can explore the science of light, civilization, humanity, the planets, the human body, time and so much more. For me, I learned that time passes far too quickly in such a fun and entertaining place.
For many the Euro 2012 football championships will be their first encounter with Poland. Fans will make their way in huge numbers to throng the historic streets of Gdansk and Poznan - which will host Ireland’s group games against Croatia, Italy and Spain. In these picturesque cities the gates of welcome will be opened for another invading army; this time, green-shirted men and women, singing good-humouredly late into the night, (we hope,) and sampling the welcome which the Polish people have laid on.
The years of planning and preparation will go unnoticed, the rejuvenation and rebirth will appear seamless in the fabric of a country which has known so much adversity. But, the smiles and welcomes on the faces of the Poles will appear as they have done for centuries, courteous, friendly and willing to open their homes and their hearts to strangers. Welcome to Poland!
Getting There:
Aer Lingus - www.aerlingus.com
Wizzair - www.wizzair.com
Attractions:
Copernicus Science Museum - www.kopernik.org.pl/en/
Palace of Science and Culture - www.pkin.pl/
Warsaw Uprising Museum - www.1944.pl/en/
National Stadium - Stadion Narodowy - www.stadionnarodowy.org.pl
Staying There:
Novotel Centrum - www.novotel.com
Victoria Hotel - www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-3378-sofitel-warsaw-victoria/index.shtml
Eating There:
Dekanta Restaurant, Marszalkowska 55/73
Rycerska Restaurant, Szeroki Dunaj 11
Hetman Hotel Restaurant, Klopotowskiego 36
Browarmia Pub - www.browarmia.pl/
Further Information:
Polish National Tourist Organisation - www.poland.travel/en
Euro 2012 EUFA Football Championships
www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/news/newsid=1757816.html