Hej Polska Gol!

So going back a little bit, yesterday the tour was lovely. We were able to see so much of the city and the history. Our tour guide was adorable and incredibly helpful. He actually catered the tour to what we wanted to see. "Stalin's gift" was one of our first stops. Its the tallest building in Poland and was built during the communist reign. Our tour guide told us where the best place to see the monument was: at the top, because you can't actually see the monument. Apparently the Polish don't like the monument, even though it was beautiful and the view was amazing. We also toured the Jewish Getto, which was really moving. Only two walls remain from after the uprising. Shortly after, half of our group wanted to leave early to start getting ready for the Poland-Czech football match that night. Caroline, Eric and I decided to keep touring - which was the best idea. We then ate the greatest ice cream I have ever had, saw the supreme court which is held up by look-a-likes of the statues at the Acropolis, was given a kiss from winnie the pooh and saw several people get married. It was one hell of an afternoon. I basically fell in love with Warsaw yesterday.

Then the insanity began. We got all dressed up in our white and red to go and watch the football match.  Our entire group went together. Applying face paint as we walked to the "fan zone" (we preferred "fun zone") we practiced our polish cheers. 100 thousand tourists and polish citizens crammed into the "fan zone" to all watch the match. Now, imagine this scene. Half of those people, drunk, trying to buy more beer, with no line. Mosh pit. In the center of this giant mosh pit, several of the other girls and myself pushed our way to the front somehow. Completely illogical and terrifying, and my shoe broke while i was in there. I did however acquire a scarf somehow. After taping my sandal back together (Annie, the Michael Kors? RIP.), we enjoyed watching Poland lose in quite the upset. Just as the final seconds ticked away, mother nature unleashed her fury and it began to rain. We made it to a bar where we could watch the chaos outside safely in our seats with mojitos in hand. After the riot police passed, we decided to make friends with the different nationalities in the bar. The greeks were very nice and happy, considering they won. The russians were surprisingly cheerful considering they lost. Additionally, one of the russian men turned out to be the national champion for wrestling in russia, he's sort of a big deal. And he gave me his flag. Our time came to leave said bar to adventure forward in search of a Klub for Caroline who just wanted to dance. Two frenchmen accosted us as we were leaving but we made it out of there unscathed.

We walked for quite a while in search of some place new to go, and we found ourselves outside of the Warsaw University where we attend classes. Normally the square is very calm and serene. This was not a normal night. People were everywhere with bottles of Wodka and their Polish flags. Caroline had been very jealous of my scarf all night so I vowed I would find her one. There happened to be a scarf just within reach: wrapped around Copernicus's neck, at the top of a 10 foot high statue. Naturally climbing up there seemed like a really good idea - so we did. The Poles on top loved that we were american's and decided that we need to take shots with them on top of the statue. This also seemed like a good idea at the time. When in Poland!! We finally made it to another bar, which had the biggest beers I've ever seen and a crew of rowdy irishmen who decided we were going to spend the rest of the evening learning irish drinking songs. "Trapattoni's having a party, bring your vodka and bacardi!" We sang that one quite a few times. They also sang "Sweet Caroline" to Caroline, who just about swooned.  The irishmen were going to another bar and invited us along so we followed them. On the way, we saw two people get married and ran into some spaniards who let us play with their soccer ball for a while.

The final bar was so unbelievably hot. We tried to learn more irish drinking songs, one involved taking off one of your shoes. Someone gave me a rose, and Seamus gave me his sunglasses as a momento of the evening. As the sun began to rise in Polska, we finally got a taxi home.

Net gain: two Polska scarves, a rose, a pair of sunglasses, Russian flag, a tiny Polska flag and some fantastic memories.