Phase 1 of my Poland trip was complete. I had made so much progress collecting documents for my genealogy research. I had seen so much and met so many people in Poland. The weather was hot and I wanted to go swimming. I was really looking forward to going to Berlin and cooling off in nature. I took the train from Lublin to Warsaw and then transferred to another train to Berlin at Warsawa Wschodnia (east) station.  The train was delayed over an hour, which gave me enough time to get my requisite iced coffee and McDonalds. It reminds me of childhood and makes me feel better when I’m having moments of weakness.  On the train ride to Berlin, I met a Polish film director who was interested in my genealogy story. At Posnan, a Dutch, married couple in their early 60s joined us. They had just finished biking around northern Poland.  We all hit it off well and one of those classic European train journeys filled with international love and hours of conversation.

A significant amount of time in Berlin was spent researching which lake would be best to spend the day.  I saw four lakes and would bathe nude, drink sparkling wine and eat fresh fruit. It is the complete opposite of the crazy-party-filled Berlin trip I thought I would have.  It ended up being the same weekend of Berlin Pride. I saw lots of people on the metro and on the street totally drugged out.  

I decided it would be best for me to spend time on my own at the lake and process all of the stuff that happened in Poland. It’s really interesting because months later, I’m still processing it. It’s taken me months to put the Poland story to paper and edit it.

While I was in Berlin, I walked around the city and I was able to catch up on the progress of a few of my favorite architectural projects. I also noticed the slow progress of the U5 extension.

Friends in Berlin

I have met some wonderful people from Germany during my backpacking experience. In Berlin, i was able to meet up with Alexander. I met him in Mexico during my first month backpacking! I was also able to meet up with Maja. She was on South Sea Island in Fiji, departing only a few hours after my arrival, but we really hit it off.

The Lakes of Berlin

I found myself really enjoying the vibe at the various lakes I visited. The water was seemingly clean. Some of the lakes had a hipster vibe, others were completely empty. Most of them had some sort of market nearby the public transportation so I could pick up my picnic food. It’s important to note that I reached all of these beautiful wonders of nature by means of public transport; usually a combination of subway and bus.

Schlactensee

Wiesensee

Plötzensee

Tempelhofersee

Maya recommended Tempelhofersee because no one would be there. There is also a gorgeous 15 minute forest trail from the bus stop before you reach the lake.

In Europe, My Genealogy Research Is Never Too Far Away

In regards to my genealogy research, a few particularly interesting findings occurred.  I had seen some emails from JewishGen that the International Jewish Genealogy Conference was going to be held in Warsaw the following week.  When I checked out what this conference was about, I saw that there would be speakers and representatives from all of these amazing groups that have been digitizing records from Germany, Poland and Ukraine for the last 15 years: JRI-Poland, JewishGen, Ancestry.com, Jewish Historical Institute, etc.  These were magical fairy people to me. The work they have done is the sole reason I have been able to construct a family tree! If I attended, I would be able to thank them first-hand! Even put faces to names! I’ve been trying to get involved with volunteering but they are all so bad at writing back to emails. The cost of the conference was $400. This seemed to be on the high side, but it did have five days worth of schedule.  Only the first three days were really worth attending, after spending lots of time reading through all of the various options. I would find out later that JewishGen covers some of the cost because they do not break even. (This really bewildered me, they didn’t even have coffee served during the day. Maybe they should cut down the conference to three days?)  Anyway, I wanted to see what the IAGJS organization was all about before I gave them $400.

I started reading all of this stuff on their web site and I saw they had a Jewish Cemetery Project.  This interested me so I started clicking on a whole bunch of links about it. I eventually was led to a catalog of Jewish cemeteries in Poland.  I was then led to descriptions about their status. One of the sites was a Polish site. This then linked to a site from an Israeli high school that had volunteered to catalog the names in six different cemeteries in Poland.  One of the cemeteries they cataloged was in Jozefow. Out of thousands… really incredible. I typed Graf, in Hebrew, into the search engine and my great-grandmother’s name: Resza Graf, appeared in Hebrew. It seems that her gravestone is intact.  I must have walked right by it in Jozefow. I couldn’t believe it. It was all so incredible. I knew I would have to go back to Jozefow and see it with my own eyes (see Phase II of the Poland trip). Besides, I wanted to go back to Zamosc anyway and try to search the state archives there to see what I could dig up.  It all seemed to come together: if I went to the genealogy conference after Berlin, I could also go to Zamosc and Jozefow again. It was a good excuse to go back to Poland.