On our return walk to the van we passed the Pawiak, which had been the Tzarist prison in Warsaw. The pain and rebirth is felt here by many and in different ways.
As gray as the skies were that day in Poland, there was color everywhere. On our walk in Warsaw, we passed an open-air flower market with numerous stalls selling all kinds of flowers (and I noticed especially the pussy-willows)...
...as well as the "yahrzeit" candles we'd see more of later that day.
We had seen little Catholic shrines as we approached towns throughout France and Italy, but I became especially aware of them in Villach at the Judendorf. Driving in Poland on Good Friday (from Krakow to Warsaw) and on Easter (from Warsaw to Gdansk), I (m) was struck by the number of these shrines: one before every tiny "drive-past" village. And now, during Holy Week they were all elaborately and beautifully (in a folk sense) decorated for Easter. On our long drive from Warsaw, we saw many people out walking between towns, and many police speed-traps (more than any other time in our travels). But, it was around dusk that we began to see a wondrous site: cemeteries lit up with these "yahrzeit" candles.
