Just Like Medieval Times

Last week was filled with activities related to Halloween. Halloween's really not much of a holiday here in Poland, in fact it's even a little controversial with people who are very religious. The kids who do wear costumes usually dress up as angels or saints. The school director encouraged me and my American co-workers to do Halloween-related games and activities in our English classes as a sort of 'culture class.' I had my younger students make construction paper headbands of either a spider, a cat, or a pumpkin as their 'costume' and then we went trick-or-treating from classroom to classroom, which the kids absolutely adored. The school secretaries followed us around taking pictures because the kids looked so cute!!

I personally didn't do any specific Halloween-related things, but on the 31st I decided to take a daytrip to visit Malkbork, which is about 30 minutes by train from Elblag. Malbork is another small Polish town in the north. It's known for the famous Malbork castle, which is an old medieval castle originally completed in 1406. The castle is pretty massive, in fact it's the largest castle in the world by surface area. It was first constructed when Malbork was a part of Prussia. The builders were the Teutonic Knights, a German Roman Catholic religious order of crusaders, who intended for the castle to be a fortress. They named the castle Marienburg (Mary's Castle) and the town of Marienburg (now Malbork) grew around the fortress. Over the years, the castle's been used for everything from housing soldiers, serving as a makeshift hospital, and acting as a destination for pilgrimages of the Hitler Youth in the 1940s. During World War II combat, over half the castle was destroyed and restoration has been ongoing since 1962.

Guys look I found a castle!

Despite the fact that so much of the castle has been restored, when I stepped into the castle courtyard I immediately thought that if everyone there was just wearing more 1400s-style fashion it would feel just like medieval times. The castle's quite big and it was hard to know where to start (unfortunately I didn't get an audio guide because they were all in Polish). I just generally poked around, which was ridiculously fun considering that the castle has plenty of doors that seem like you shouldn't be allowed to go into, but actually open if you try them and lead to rooms with displays. Some of the halls were a little dark and creepy, so it felt appropriate that it was Halloween. I spent several hours wandering inside the castle, and then walked around the outside walls enjoying the beautiful fall day! There were plenty of views to appreciate.

Creepy...