The Polish Independence Day Parade (or How Not to Put on a Parade)

Today is Veteran's Day in the US and Independence Day in Poland. Polish Independence Day is not connected to WWII, but more like the end of WWI when the country that had been partitioned by Prussian, Germany and Austria took that land back and once again became present day Poland. It's a big to do here with different celebrations throughout the country. So, we decided to get together with friends and check it out.

Maybe I should have watched the Polish news channel, but I figured that running a search for "Polish Independence Day parades in Warsaw" would be sufficient to bring me some information about the festivities, location and time. But, not in Poland. I didn't even care if the information was in Polish, i just wanted some info. Nope. The best I could find was the site for a local college that mentioned some festivities (in English). I forgot to ask friends before the holiday and by the time I e-mailed everyone, they were all off for their long holiday weekends. So, we decided to wing it and take the tourist bus downtown and go where everyone else was going.

Having been to other so called parades in Warsaw. I didn't have high expectations for these festivities. I actually had a bit of deja vu because everyone was getting off at the same area (Nowy Swiat/Aleje Jerozolimskie) where the last Polish "parade" that I tried to attend supposedly took place. But, we got off anyway, since we saw large crowds of people and some Polish tanks. It was a gorgeous fall day. Temps didn't get above 55 F which is fairly warm when you consider that two years ago we had already had our first snow.

We walked down the route that has become so familiar to us over our years here. I asked a police officer where to find the parade and he told me to walk towards Plac Zamkowy. Another guy told me that the parade would come down toward Nowy Swiat from Old Town starting at noon. Great! Finally, some info.

We packed lunches in backpacks since we are always warned that everything is closed on holidays. Some restaurants were open, but I was glad we packed lunches because the crowds were a bit much. We found some open benches on the street around 11:30 and everyone had their sandwiches before we moved on.

We walked towards the Copernicus monument where there was lots of hoopla going on, but it had nothing to do with a parade. It was the Independence Day 10K Run. We climbed up on the monument (yes this is allowed in Poland) and watched thinking that after the runners take off the parade would come through.

Uh....NO! We notice that the crowd is moving towards Old Town. So, we start following. My friend asked a lady about the parade and was told that it would be coming down this way at 1:30. That was almost an hour away! So, we stake a spot on the sidewalk. Mind you, there is no roped off area. If I had just arrived and was wandering the streets of Warsaw, I would have no markers to indicate that some parade or procession would soon be coming through (although I would have found the massive amounts of people odd for winter).

This is my biggest pet peeve about Polish festivals and parades. It is very disorganized. You can't tell where anything is taking place. This is the reason that this my 3rd Independence Day here, yet only the first and last that I have attended. Having an area roped off to view the parade would have been a great help in just indicating the parade route and, much more, in staking out a spot and in keeping other people out.

But, despite this, we waited. Here is where it gets dicey. I love my Polish friends - really, they are nice, polite, and very decent people. But, I can't say the same of the strangers I saw today. Get a group of Poles together (especially strangers) and it is a clusterf***. It's like the few Americans that give the USA a bad reputation. Only this was on a much larger scale.

We were on the edge of the sidewalk where we were "supposed" to be had a rope been drawn around the parade route. This did not stop large group of Poles from creating their own area in front of us, thereby blocking the view that we had arrived early to get. The police? Not very useful and you can tell that the people really had no respect for their authority. All I could think of was how orderly parades must have been when the Communists were in control. It is sad that people can't be self disciplined unless they have a gun or the threat of being shot before them.

So, our nice little spot on the sidewalk was taken over by people who really should not have been there in the first place. Finally, we hear a band playing. They march right up to within feet of us and stop. And they wait. The entire crowd that had created the fake parade route viewing area, now turns around and is made to move further away because they were looking the wrong way. Furthermore, they were blocking the street. Part of this parade is horse drawn carriages, military tanks, vehicles and personnel marching in formation. But, really the way these folks had positioned themselves, it was hard for anyone to get through.

So what do they do? They pretend they didn't know that they were in the wrong spot and proceed to come over to the real parade route viewing area (where we are) and squishing into us as if we weren't even there. People were very upset about this, but the ones that managed to squeak their way in were really jerks. People were standing shoulder to shoulder and if one person moved, you could easily topple the crowd. I could barely get my arm up to snap a picture.

Then, the procession begins with the band and as the band moves on the music fades. No music through speakers here. The band was followed by different branches of the military dressed in different military uniforms representing different eras of the Polish military. This was followed by vehicles and small scale tanks.

We had enough by the time the vehicles started rolling out. We started heading back, walking quite a bit through a street with horse manure (because their horses don't even have those bags that are attached to horses in the US to prevent such droppings) towards our Embassy to try to catch a bus that didn't look like a can of sardines on wheels. Like Thing 1's friend said "it was the worst parade ever!" But, coming from the US where parades are very well done, how can Poland compete. Anything that doesn't measure up is bound to be a disappointment.

Overall, we did have a nice time with our friends. It would have been much harder to get through that mess on our own. If you happen to stumble across this blog and wonder if you really want to go, I would recommend going at least once just for the insane experience. But leave your high expectations at the bus stop!