Friday, February 21, 2014

Continental Travelnurses Head To Poland!

Our nurses come from all over the world to work and play in the UK. But their adventurous spirit doesn't stop there. They use their homes here as a launching pad to explore the rest of the UK and Europe on day trips, weekend excursions and vacations between assignments. Philippa, Leigh and Vicki headed to Warsaw, Poland. Their story is below.


(Leigh and Philippa at the Opera House)

Dear Continental Travelnurse Friends

January in Poland - brrrr! - minus seven to twelve! and snowing when we arrived...& every day after. But it was absolutely fabulous. We stayed in an apartment in Warsaw & had a good look around. Tried traditional Polish food & of course Vodka -- for medicinal purposes only, as our tee-totaler Methodist Grandfather used to say.  

We even went to the Warsaw Opera & saw a famous Polish opera - "The Haunted Manor" - romance & comedy with strong patriotic undertones. It was written in the 19th century & became very popular with the locals - the Russians, in control at the time, even went as far as to ban it at one stage. Thank goodness for subtitles! The costumes, music & dance was superb & it really was a fun thing to do.

The saddest thing we did was a day trip to the Auschwitz-Berkenau extermination camp.We took a train from Warsaw to Krakow. OMG what a heartbreaking visit. Those poor people living in those conditions & so brutally treated & then murdered. An estimated 1.1-1.6 million of them here alone.
All those piles of spectacles, shoes, prostheses, suitcases.... And it was a bleak bleak day, very cold, very windy, grey sky.

Afterwards, we picked up a walking tour of Krakow, the former capital of Poland, & got to see a lot of the town's famous landmarks. I found the Polish people very friendly & the Polish men gorgeous! Obviously this is where I've been going wrong!

Kind Regards

Philippa