June 26, 2015 (Warsaw, Poland)

It was our last day in the second to last country of our whole world travel! That morning we rented bikes and biked to Kendall's favorite donut place in all of Warsaw. On our bikes I pulled some wet wheelies. We had visited the Warsaw Uprising museum. It was full of detailed information and told us a load about what happened. The Uprising lasted for around sixty days and about one hundred and forty thousand people were killed. The Polish were committed  and would not give up until defeated. I read  about a miniature tank bomb that the Nazis used against the Poles. The Poles would transport from place to place through the sewers for hours at a time, until the Nazis found out and blew up the sewage path ways. The Nazis won against the Poles in the Uprising but just a little while later the Soviet Union took over until the 80s. They have had a hard history fighting for their freedom. 

For lunch we ate at a Polish Milk Bar. The food was quite odd, like how I had plain pasta with sweet strawberry sauce! We later hopped back on our bikes then rode to the LDS church where Kendall had served on her mission. On the way there I took a pretty hard bike fall on to the pavement, scraping my knee on the pavement and hitting my chin on a metal bar close to the ground.

At the church we helped cook for tomorrows 25th anniversary picnic for the church. I also played basket ball with a Norwegian missionary. Mom and I met the cleaner of the church , Godfrey from Zimbabwe. He knew Kendall from her mission and Mom asked him if he had heard of the Nields in Zimbabwe and he had but had never met them, he had joined the church in Poland. My cooking jobs were loads of fun. One of them was shredding carrots through a machine. And another one was slicing cucumbers on the awesome slicing board, back and forth.

On the way back to the hotel we had to bike in the pouring rain for a ways. Right in front of the  hotel was a chrome blue Audi RS6, it was wet but looked awesome. For the rest of the night I layed low at the hotel, ordering room service and watching TV while Mom and Kendall ate dinner where we had eaten with the mission president the day before. Tomorrow we would head off to Split, Croatia and meet up with all my family.

wheelie!

Sewers

Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising

Wall that went around the Jewish Ghetto

Pasta with strawberry sauce?!

June 25, 2015 (Warsaw, Poland)

Today was one of our last days in Poland. Today we toured around and visited church members. We first toured the museum of the History of the Jewish Poles. The museum was HUGE, and had very unique and cool architecture. Inside the museum they had a replica of an old synagogue. It reminded me of other religious buildings we  had seen with its bright colors and painting of animals and symbols. Before WWII Poland had the most Jews throughout all of Europe. This is because the Polish kings were the most tolerant to the Jews. 

During WWII Poland was taken over by the Nazis who hated the Jews.The Nazis made the Jews wear an armband showing who was Jewish and made them cut their beards and curls to try to humiliate them. The Jews were treated worse than everybody! The Nazis killed 6,000,000 Jews, 3,000,000 of them were Polish.There were 11,000,000 Jews in Europe before the war. Hitler and the Nazis killed over half of them. 

We ate lunch with the mission president, President Edgren and his wife Sister Edgren.’ We ate at a little restaurant that Kendall really loved on her mission in Warsaw. The Edgrens were from Southern California and were in Poland for three years. President Edgren was Kendall’s mission president throughout most of her mission. I liked talking to the president about biking, he was a fellow mountain biker too.

Around half an hour later we met back up with Sister Edgren at her mission home. The mission home was pretty big, and got the job done. All they brought from California were their clothes, a custom chest and their pictures. Sister Edgren drove us to a nice pottery shop named Kim’s. There Kendall bought many blue and orange pieces of pottery, like a pie tin. We later drove back to her house and caught a Taxi to the old town.

At the old town we took a super fun Segway tour around town. Twists, turns, bumps, and speed, loads of fun on the Segway. We also learned some history about the old town and the Warsaw Uprising. Anyways it was tons of Fun.

That night we were back near Stallin' tower, where we saw Kendalls missionary apartment! Her apartment was several stories up and one of the nights she had slept on their deck with her companion, haha! Her apartment was literally right next to the Jewish ghetto wall from the 40s. I thought it was neat to look at where Kendall had stayed for part of her mission.

Next we listened to a strings concert outside. There wasn't any more seating left so we tried finding a restaurant near by. The outdoor seating for some of the restaurants was not opening up #overit. After a little we hailed a Taxi and ate at a sushi restaurant a ways away, Izumi Sushi. The inside of the restaurant was really cool. it was like a indoor jungle/restaurant. The sushi was tasty! When we took a Taxi back to the hotel there was another Izumi Sushi LITERALLY right across the street!

We were tired! That night we slept pretty well in our own beds.

 Jewish Ghetto Uprising Monument

 Inside POLIN Museum of The History of Polish Jews

Bridge that connected the 2 Jewish ghettos during WWII

 Warsaw was completely destroyed after WWII and the Uprising in 1944

 Mom outside POLIN

 Outside Kendall's mission president's home

 Inside the only church left standing in Warsaw after the War

 The Mermaid in the Old Town Square which is the symbol and protector of the city

 I walked around the bell 3 times for good luck

 Uprising grafitti

 New Old Town and the symbol of the Unicorn on the water fountain behind Kendall

 Home of the Polish chemist who received two different Nobel Prizes

 Uprising Monument

 Outside the tomb of the Unknown Soilder

 Kendall in her old neighborhood where she lived in Warsaw while on her mission.

 Looking through lenses in what represents the old bridge between the Jewish ghettos where we could see images of those who lived here and were forced to use this bridge between their walled ghettos

June 24, 2015 (Warsaw, Poland)

We woke up fairly early this morning. We took a taxi to the train station for our train to Warsaw!  We left the pretty and fun city of Krakow and had a two and a half hour fast train ride to the central of Poland, Warsaw. When we arrived in Warsaw we had a little walk with our bags to the Marriott hotel. The Marriott hotel was built just after Poland had regained its independence from the Communist Soviet Union. It provided jobs for the people of Warsaw.

After we had chilled and dropped our bags off at the hotel we hopped on some city bikes and biked over to one of Kendall’s favorite restaurants in Warsaw, Manikin. Most of the food in Manikin had something to do with crepes, like my crepe spagetti. The restaurant was unique and was themed after a top hat wearing mannequin.

Later that day we biked to the Old Town where we simply walked around and Kendall ate some soft serve ice cream from one of the missionaries' favorite spots she used to visit when a missionary. In Old Town we visited the Mermaid statue. The Mermaid was a tall tale about a man who caught a mermaid and the mermaid told him if he let her back into the water he would be the leader of a new succesful city (Warsaw), so he trusted her. 

There are few original buildings in Warsaw, because during the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis in 1944 the Nazis had leveled the city. The whole city had to be rebuilt. The money was donated to rebuild the city by the citizens.

We had also visited the Warsaw Uprising Memorial and then Chopin's museum. The Uprising Memorial was interesting and reminded me of superheroes, and how they showed bravery fighting for the city's freedom. The Chopin museum told about Frederick Chopin the famous  Polish composer's  life and how smart and talented he was. Chopin died at an early age of in his thirties in Paris. 

That night we ate dinner with an investigator of the LDS church named Honka who Kendall taught. She read the Book of Mormon but didn't come to church. She was very nice and reminded us of our friend Ruby. We chatted with her for a while, we saw her photo album of her grand kids and she told us she was coming to the church’s twenty five year reunion. She was really excited to see Kendall and meet our family. 

We tried renting city bikes to bike back to our hotel but there was no three city bikes that worked properly. So instead we road on the back of each others bike. After a little we returned the bikes and just walked. We walked to Stalin's Tower which looks like a very large Big Ben and was built during the communist times of Poland. We took an elevator all of the way to the top. There was a good view of the big city of Warsaw, and next to us was the “Super Man tower”, the name Kendall gave it. 

At the hotel we layed low for the rest of the night ordering room service and lying in bed.

In Warsaw headed to our hotel.

Lunch at one of Kendall's favorite restaurants Manekin.

Riding bikes around the city.

Inside a Catholic church dedicated to Mary. All the necklaces/rosaries on the wall are from people who had their prayers answered in this church and donate them back to St. Mary.

Outside an ice cream stand where Kendall used to go in the Old Town Square

Inside the Old Town Square

Along the old City Wall which was rebuilt and below is a statue of a child remembering the children that fought in the Uprising in 1944

The Uprising Monument

"Lunch" at around 5 p.m. with Mrs. Honka, one of the people Kendall taught on her mission. We learned about what it was like to live during times when the Communist times in Poland and how she had to wait for hours in lines to just get a stick of butter

We couldn't get 3 bikes that worked to ride back to our hotel so walked through this pretty park

Outside The Palace of Culture and Science which we went up and could see the whole city from, "A gift from Stalin"