Szczecin is an interesting city. In many ways, it's clear that it's still very much suffering the legacy of Soviet influence. There are many of the classic Soviet apartment buildings with crumbling, graffitied walls, the tram system has decent coverage but looks as though it hasn't received any improvements since the fall of communism (including an incredibly archaic ticketing system that makes the Charliecard look space-age), and the city generally has a depressing pall that's hard to escape. That depressing atmosphere extended to the museum I visited, which was focused on the city's history during WWII and up to the fall of communism. Though it was part of Germany prior to the war and hadn't been Polish for quite some time, Stalin awarded it (and all of what is now the westernmost province of Poland) to Poland to curry favor among the communists in Warsaw. This caused obvious ethnic tensions due to the millions of Germans living in Western Pomerania who were now displaced back into the ally-occupied remains of a German state, but some of whom attempted to return in the following years. It sounds as though acceptance of the city's history as both Polish and German is still ongoing. Continued mistreatment and abuse by the Soviets led to mass unrest and brutal suppression, much like the rebellions in Czechoslovakia around the same time. Point is, Szczecin's history is mostly just that of the city being abused and subjugated by greater powers. Like most of Poland, Szczecin has been flattened by invaders so many times that almost nothing from its prewar history survives, though there are a few things. One of the nicer attractions was this museum which appeared to be pretty ancient but was unfortunately closing early the day I was there.

There was a nice town hall and some sort of other government building that looked out over the river. I couldn't tell what purpose it served, but there were dozens of soldiers hanging around on the front steps. I saw a few very nice parks and an attractive river walk. At night I went to a nearby bar to try some local beer. This ended up getting me stuck in a conversation with this middle aged Hungarian guy (the only other person in the bar - it was around midnight on a Wednesday) who's apparently a huge craft beer snob and I got lectured for a while on the various types of craft beer that Poland produces. He was nice, though, and made for decent conversation on the rare occasions that I could pivot the conversation away from beer. I asked for travel tips and he didn't have anything especially notable to say, other than that I should avoid the Balkans because they're "overrun with Gypsies". He also had surprisingly strong opinions on the Patriots and Bill Belichick despite not being a fan. I think he was pretty lonely since he started trying to buy me more beer so that I would keep talking to him, but the bar closed a few minutes later anyway and I was spared that. On my walk home I stopped by a 24 hour mart and bought some frozen pierogies, which I made when I got back to my apartment. I wasn't very impressed, though part of that owes to the fact that I tried browning them in the pot without any oil (I don't have any) and they immediately burned onto it, partially disintegrating in the process. The store also had a variety that were dressed on the package as if they were an ice-cream sundae; the rather disturbing box art had them drizzled with chocolate sauce and dotted with Maraschino cherries.

So Szczecin... it's ok. There are some genuinely nice parts of it, but there's really not much of a reason to go there. It's pleasant enough, most of the time, and I never felt unsafe or anything, but when Berlin is less than two hours away, why wouldn't you go there instead? It's cheaper, I guess, though not by as much as I'd hoped. I'm glad I saw it, though, since these smaller cities are in some ways the places I'm most interested in seeing. I know that Berlin has cool stuff, but I have no idea what might be in these lesser known regions. I also appreciated having my own room and a kitchen - it had been long enough since I'd been able to do much cooking for myself that my jar of mayo had somewhat exploded in my food bag, presumably since it was unrefrigerated that whole time. Anyway, I'm in Berlin now getting ready to visit that conference. Just one day in this hostel but I'm looking forward to settling in for a slightly longer stay tomorrow. I'll probably go straight from here to Copenhagen on the third.