Wroclaw, Poland

I went to Wroclaw not because I knew anything about it, but to visit my friend Martyna who studies there (I worked with Martyna last summer at Planet). It was great to see her again, and as it turns out, Wroclaw is an extremely interesting city! Doesn't hurt that one of Martyna's close friends is a pro Wroclaw
tour guide, literally. The city (based on it's geographical area, and obviously for political and historical reasons) has been a part of the Austrian Empire, Hungary, obviously Germany (3rd Reich) and Poland. The symbol of the city is a small dwarf: there are 70 of them throughout the city, the reason being a funny 'revolution' in the 80's against communist rule. During the 80's, whenever there was graffiti of a protesting manner written on the walls of the city, the police would come by and simply white it out with white paint. Obviously that left loads of white blotches all over the city, so what did these people do? They returned to the spots to illustrate a dwarf in different ways. Earlier forms of protest were being replaced by the use of humour: the police had no idea what to do! One time, they even arrested 100 some people dressed as Santa, which apparently made world headlines. Anyhoo, it was great seeing Martyna again, I would highly recommend Wroclaw to anyone who gets a chance to go there.

Pics:
1) Martyna and I in the rain
2) Dwarf who ate too much
3) Oldest restaurant in Europe
4) City Hall
5) Tour guide Marek and I in front of the university
6) Jailed dwarf