Film Photo Diary: Poland 2021

After seeing lots of cool 35mm pictures, I started film photography earlier this year. I found my parent's old film camera and figured out which batteries it needed, ordered some film, and just started taking pictures to figure out the settings. It was so exciting to take pictures with friends and family for my 18th birthday, my high school graduation, and hangouts- so I brought my camera with me to Poland this summer. It is yo girl emilia and I am here with a film photo diary of the pictures I took in Poland.

At the beginning of our trip to Poland, we went to a very old castle on a lake near the Poland/Slovakia border called Niedzica. It was a really nice day and while looking at the view, I remembered a picture from my first time in Poland with my parents and I realized that I came to this castle when I was 15 months old. Did I cry a little bit when my parents and I recreated our picture in front of the castle because I am now 18 years old and I will be leaving for university? Yes, but I am not here to talk about that. 

So fun fact, I can never find my name in any sort of souvenir shop in the US. Las Vegas keychain? No Emilia's. But when I come to Poland my name is on all sorts of souvenirs. So when we were walking back from the castle we passed all sorts of booths and I could see my name on all sorts of random knickknacks. There was even one booth where they had a bunch of US state license plates and I found a Nevada one with EMILIA on it. Nearly got it honestly. 

What a beautiful day and beautiful view! We were so close to the border that I kept getting text messages from T-Mobile saying "Welcome to Slovakia!" and I was like oh okay great, just might hop and skip over. 

After a week in my family's hometown, we started our drive to other parts of Poland. We went to Piotrków Trybunalski for a night because that is where my mom grew up and we visited family friends. Here's a history lesson, Piotrków Trybunalski actually is the city that had the first large ghetto in all of Europe during World War II on October 8, 1939. The main square of this city is actually very colorful and when we went at sunset the buildings had a warm glow to them. 

My little sister, Adela, and I 

Looks at those colors!

Next, we went to Warsaw, which I cannot and will not stop gushing about how much I love that city. It was my first time there and the last time my parents went there, they were kids. We stayed in a really really cool AirBnB near the main historical square and Royal Palace of the city. 

Our first walk up to the Royal Palace the night we arrived after a day of driving from Piotrków Trybunalski was breathtaking honestly. A part of that is because it was a steep walk, but also because of the gold accents of the buildings and again, the pretty different colored buildings. When you go on Pinterest and look at travel guides of Warsaw, a picture of this square is normally the first thing that pops up. For us to be staying RIGHT next to it was a pleasant shock to all of us. 

Inside the Royal Palace

I hope to write more in detail about our time in Warsaw, but we went to the Royal Palace and got to take a tour of the recently renovated and restored palace. A majority of the Old Town of Warsaw was destroyed in World War II and in recent decades, a large of it has been replicated and restored. Warsaw even used to be called "The Paris of the East" with how it originally used to look. 

One of our favorite restaurants that we went back to multiple nights was an Italian restaurant near the Royal Palace that had some delicious pizza. Above is a picture of my dad and me at dinner. Before you ask, I am drinking a homemade lemonade that included mint and homemade syrups in the picture.

On our last full day in Warsaw, we went to Łazienki Królewskie, which is a large park that includes several estates and palaces along with many, many gardens. This used to be the King's summer estate and he would come to cool off in the summer here (It is pretty woodsy so it was nice and shady). 

A park of Łazienki Królewskie includes a lovely rose garden and lake with a Frederic Chopin statue because guess what? Chopin was born in Warsaw, the more you know! Every summer they have a live classical music concert here and lots of people come with blankets to sit around the statue to listen. It wasn't happening while we were there. Here's my mamma and I there!

After our time in Warsaw, we drove back down south to Krakow, which is another major city in Poland and where a lot of my family lives. My dad was born here too! Anyways, the main square in Krakow is the beautiful Bazylika Mariacka, St. Mary's Basilica in English. Here are some pictures of me when we arrived in Krakow on a lovely afternoon. 

Fun story: So after these pictures and after dinner, I went on a solo walk to go look at some stores and try to find some stickers for my travel notebook. These storm clouds then blew in and it was thundering like CRAZY. I genuinely thought I was going to be struck by lightning when walking, so I hid inside a random souvenir shop. In an attempt to reunite with my family, I sprinted to one of my favorite stores, the iconic and Danish store Flying Tiger, and purchased an umbrella. It eventually cleared out, but I was pretty spooked during the evening. **the fun stories that pictures won't tell you!**

I don't have anything to say about this picture other than that I took this mirror selfie the morning I found out my AP test scores and I was very happy and shocked about them.

These next pictures were taken near my grandmother's house, but you must be wondering what is that strange silver ring on the outside of my pictures. So because this is an old camera and because one of my friends dropped my camera when taking a picture, I think my lens is a little wonky. It isn't that big of a deal because I can easily crop it out (which I already did on my phone). Even so, in some pictures, it creates this cool fisheye lens look that makes it even more unique in my opinion. 

My camera clearly takes nice pictures, so in the future, I may buy the same model of the camera I have right now to no longer have the silver ring on the edges. 

These pictures were taken when I went to go visit my aunt in another town. She lives near the Tatra Mountains, but it had been stormy so you couldn't see them really due to them being covered by clouds. Still! Look at this beautiful view! This is only a short walk up the hill from her house. 

Gig 'em Aggies all the way from Southern Poland

Towards the end of our trip to Poland, we went to go visit my family's lakehouse. We had a lovely time there and got to see a lot of my dad's side of the family. I really like how the lake is surrounded by mountains/hills so the view is very scenic and peaceful. 

When we came back from the lakehouse, we had only a couple of days left. So our family threw us a "Goodbye Grill" with delicious sausage and chicken. Below is a picture capturing one of the batches my uncle was cooking. 

On our last day in Poland, there was a fair that my mom really enjoyed going to when she was little. There were candy vendors (as shown below) and lots of toys, balloons, and knickknacks sold at different booths. 

I ended up purchasing some hair accessories and some really good Apple sour rings for my brother and me that we ate after dinner. It is funny though because last time when I was in Poland (3 years ago) this fair took place and my mom wanted me to take a picture of the balloons because she has a childhood memory of getting a balloon at this fair. 

These aren't all of the photos I took, there are some that I took with family and I didn't want to share them without their permission. These were some of the favorites that I took and I love how they all have good stories and memories attached to them. Thank you so much for reading and checking out these pictures I took. I should be getting the physical photo prints in the next couple of days in the mail and I am so excited to decorate my college dorm with them and put them in nice frames. I hope you have a lovely day or night, depending on when you read this and I hope you had a good summer!

love,

yo girl emilia

Instagram: @yogirlemilia