Weeks 7/8: Leaving the Apartment

This is an update on life generally, because I have moved out of my apartment in Warsaw and begun to travel on the way to Pride in Prague.

Over the past two weeks, the lovely people at the KPH let me interview them, and I'm working on transcribing pieces of those interviews for another post.  Slava, who as I've mentioned previously is great, also set up an interview with Robert Biedron, the first openly gay Polish Member of Parliament.  I was so happy to have a chance to speak to him and it was super cool to discuss Polish LGBT life and politics with him.  I'll have a post with that interview as well.

In the meantime, I thought I would do a general life update about the past two weeks.

First of all, I moved out of my apartment on the 31st.  I was really sad to say goodbye.  It's a great little place and I loved being able to get to know the neighborhood.  It was perfectly located in relation to the KPH, less than a mile away, and I loved being able to walk almost everywhere I wanted to go. I also loved being in my own space after hostel living for a few weeks.  I spent the last week and a half there interviewing at the KPH and interviewing Robert Biedron, going to my favorite places around the neighborhood and to some of the places recommended in the Queer Warsaw guide from Slava, and cooking my favorite things while I still had access to a kitchen.

On the 31st, I moved back into the Oki Doki.  Again I met lots of nice people and stayed in some funny rooms, including "Sweetie" which was pink with pink with pink and white cherubs over the mirrors.

Again I met some very nice people there and I will be happy to return one last time before leaving Warsaw for Buenos Aires in a few weeks.

BBQ on the Vistula River with the Oki Doki Group 

The anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising is August 1st.  It commemorates the beginning of the rebellion of the Polish resistance against the Nazis.  The resistance army received little to no aid; in fact, the Russians waited for the Nazis to defeat the rebels so that they could take the city with as little political opposition as possible.  The rebels were defeated but it was an extremely important few months for the Polish people, Warsavians in particular.  Everyone rolls out Polish flags and on the day, sirens wail mid-afternoon and everyone stops.  Cars, baristas, people on the street.  Those who are outside or able stand and it's quiet except for the wailing of the sirens.  I was at a coffee shop and it was an eerie but beautiful change in atmosphere.

Building in the city center decked out for the anniversary. 

This is a short update, but as soon as I can get the interviews up and posted, there will be lots more about Warsaw and the wonderful people who are working to improve LGBT life there.

In the meantime, I'm thankful for:

1. An opportunity to speak with Robert Biedron.
2. The Rozbrat apartment and the neighborhood that was my home in Warsaw
3. Heini, a great roommate at the Oki Doki, and Chris and John