Day 253: Centennial Hall & Wroclaw

Settled into our apartment no problems last night, and got up ready to face the day. Our apartment is absolutely beautiful by the way, the most modern and fanciest place we've stayed in by quite some distance. Great finishings, nice modern touches etc. Almost like being back in our home in Crows Nest - it even has some exposed bricks!

First stop today was Wroclaw's only UNESCO site, the Centennial Hall. This is a large multi-purpose hall that was finished in 1913. Remembering that this area of Poland is slightly Germanic and was at the time part of the German empire, the building was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat by the Prussians at the Battle of Leipzig. It was also one of the first major buildings in the world to use reinforced concrete.

We wandered around outside, checking it out from each angle. There's a large park on one side with an enormous "multimedia" fountain which has lights, angled jets, mist sprays, music and so on. It was playing Ride of the Valkyries as we walked past which seemed rather appropriate.

Had hoped to go inside and check it out, since it's still actively used for things like sporting events, concerts etc. As it turned out, it was actively being used today for a careers fair for Polish uni students, so we did what normal people would do and registered for the fair to get in! The girl seemed rather startled when she mis-heard my date of birth as 1991 and I corrected her to 1981! How many years of working experience do you have? Uh, about 20 I guess. Oh, so more than five? Yes :)

Lots of people inside, both students and recruiters alike. We probably stuck out like sore thumbs but whatever! Got our filming done and headed back outside.

Dropped the car off at the apartment again and walked the 10 or so minutes into the old town. It was almost completely destroyed at the end of WW2 so it's not as old or picturesque as Krakow, but still quite nice. Lots of brightly painted buildings and ornately decorated ones too. Enormous central square with a Renaissance-era town hall.

One cool little touch are these small bronze gnome statues scattered around the city. They're all interesting, some a little cheeky. Originally from the Polish resistance movement in the 1980s, the trend has been kept alive and the city adds more every year. Managed to find a few on our wander around!

Had some lunch at a Thai restaurant where we reviewed other tourist options for Wroclaw. It seemed like if we weren't going to check out the main few cathedrals, the other highlights were the Centennial Hall and the main square, both of which we'd accomplished before lunch!

So we wandered around a few more side-streets, enjoyed a couple of other squares and some street art, then headed home where we relaxed and did work for the rest of the day.

Headed out in the evening to a semi-trendy bar with good food and drinks; seemed quite popular with the after-work crowd.Read more