Instead of continuing west from Berlin, I decided on a little detour to Poland again before I finally go home. I am slowly getting used to Europe again, the first evening in Toruń all of a sudden I realised "this is all quite normal". Though I never felt Siberia or Mongolia were especially abnormal while I was there, or that the fact I was there in the first place was anything out of the ordinary, since I got back it does feel like a great accomplishment, a dream come true.

But I was talking about Poland. My first destination was Warsaw for 3,5 days. Though not nearly as picturesque or crowd-pleasing as Krakow or Gdansk, Warsaw is one of those cities that has that inexplicable special vibe. Despite the old parts (which are very pretty), it`s a thoroughly modern city, which can be good or bad. A good manifestation of this is the contemporary art museum in Ujazdow castle, certainly one of the best of its kind that I`ve been to, displaying mainly work by Polish artists. It`s an ode to the imagination, with dozens of fascinating pieces, from paintings and skulptures to video films, soundscapes and all sorts of things-that-move, with none of the pretentiousness western European contemporary art often has.

Another interesting (and free) museum is located in the citadel. They have an exhibit on concentration camps in Siberia during WWII, a subject not mentioned by any museums I visited while actually in Siberia.