Warsaw Wedding

I just spent five days in Warsaw, Poland. A dear old friend of mine, Sylvia, was getting married to my new dear friend, Dixy. This is the second of my friends who have gone to Burning Man, fallen in love and later gotten married. So if any of my old single friends want to get hitched, go burn!

I’ve always considered Sylvia my Polish Pixie. Words won’t convey what an exuberant and joyful person she is, but the story of how we met hints at it. We met at a pride event held in a gated area with an entrance fee. Sylvia got around that by arriving with a crate of cherries , pretending to be a delivery girl. The real beauty of the scheme was the bottles of vodka hidden underneath the cherries. I met her sitting on a blanket surrounded by vodka and cherries, inviting strangers to join her.

Sylvia and Dixy getting engaged at Burning Man, 2013

I always wondered what man could match an original like Sylvia. The answer was Dixy, another indescribable personality. Perhaps a photo of him in his bathing suit says it best. Sylvia loves to laugh and no one is funnier than Dix, so it is a perfect match!

The wedding was in a park in Warsaw, in front of a small chapel, surrounded by friends and whispering trees. It was a fun celebration of love followed by a proper polish party!

The next day we met at the river for a post-wedding beach day, drinking and eating all the leftovers. Perfect way to wrap up an enviable wedding!

Warsaw

I spent much of my non-wedding time in my AirBnB apartment just working away. But, I did take a few breaks to see some of Warsaw, starting out with the uprising museum. The museum is about the attempt by the Varsovians to kick out the occupying Nazi army towards the end of the Second World War. It didn’t go very well. They had expected help from the nearby Red Army, but they chose to passively watch while the Nazis slaughtered the poles and razed the city.

Later that day, I met up with my two-step teacher from Vancouver who just happened to be in town. His mother had been part of the uprising. The subject of the museum got a lot ‘closer’ and real with this personal connection to this horrible event.

Together, we walked through the old city, all of which was rebuilt after the total destruction of the war. We also walked past the Jewish ghetto wall used to round up the Jews of Warsaw, many of whom were sent to the concentration camps.