I spent the last week in Wroclaw (pronounced vroat-suave), Poland working in their music history archive. My trip was cut a little short for a few reasons - I worked faster than I thought I would, they had less stuff than I though, and there was a techno festival in town during the weekend and I couldn't find an empty bed.
As some of you might know Krakow and Warsaw were two of our favorite places during our honeymoon, so I was excited to see more of Poland. My night bus from Vienna arrived at 4 am, though, so I wasn't that thrilled when I got there. I found a train station nearby and sat for a few hours before heading into town. The area around the train station is not very pretty and is mostly crumbling communist buildings. Once I made it downtown, though, Wroclaw revealed itself as a beautiful city with all the charm of Krakow. Wroclaw is much smaller, around 200,000 people. It is a university town and there were tons of students everywhere. Basically everything for a tourist is within walking distance, and there are very few cars downtown. Instead there are mostly trams and bikes.
I made it to the library at 8:00 and spent the day transcribing a set of madrigals from the 1580s. The music library is on a little island and in a former monastery. This picture is of the courtyard and the huge church that it is attached to. To get in I had to show my passport to a couple security guards who didn't speak any English. Luckily there was a woman nearby who spoke German, so she translated for me. It is always so much easier to speak German with people who don't speak it as their native language. I'm not really sure why there needed to be so much security. I saw hardly anyone all week in the library, and I was the only visitor for the whole week in the music collection. Jane thought it might be a communist holdover of having a bunch of jobs that aren't really necessary but keep people eating.
The main music librarian was very friendly, like most Polish people, and spoke some English. He sat by me almost the whole day and when I wanted to go get lunch he walked outside with me to show me how to get to the best places. Near the library is the main cathedral of Wroclaw. I took relaxing walks during lunch most days near the library. Here are some pictures, including one of a statue of Pope John Paul II, who lived in Wroclaw at one point. Tomorrow I'll post pics and description of downtown and the many gnomes of Wroclaw, so look forward to that.
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