From Los Angeles to Warsaw, Poland: Anne from the PURO Warszawa State Miasto

My sister Anne has travelled to Poland where she will see Bad Bunny in Warsaw and travel to Krakow and Prague. In preparation for this conversation, I read “Notes from Poland” by Kenneth Sherman.

Topics for discussion from “Void and Voice: Notes from Poland.” The article was written by Kenneth Sherman and published in Creative Nonfiction. Click here to access. I’m excited to look at the Creative Nonfiction archives!

The writer Kenneth Sherman goes back to Poland in a reverse trip from what his grandfather took 93 years before. I consider a trip to Norway to trace the places my own ancestors lived. Anne did one of those DNA tests and it reported we’re 25% Norwegian.

• The idea of a pilgrimage. 

Some lines from the piece for a TRUE or FALSE Discussion:

• A people’s grave, especially if it is ones own people, is a very special place in one’s psychic map. 
• After a time, being a tourist becomes merely an exercise, an accumulating of numerous dates and sites. Mind travel is usually superior to the geographical kind. 
• On the tombstones… They lean this way and that, like crooked teeth. 

Stuff I didn’t know before or stuff I thought more deeply about because of Sherman’s piece:

1. Treblinka: Nazi extermination camp in Poland 
2. The Polish people under the rule of Nazis. 
3. Poland divided and disappears for over 100 years starting in the late 1700s. Anne, what do you know about Polish history? 

I looked into some other texts related to Bad Bunny and/or Poland: 

1. The World’s Newest Superhero: Bad Bunny by Carina Chocano in GQ. Click here. 
2. Unquiet Days at Home in Poland by Thomas R Swick. Click here for Amazon link. 
3. Exit into History: A Journey Through New Eastern Europe. Click here for Amazon link. 
4. Milk Bar article in the NY Times click here. 
5. A sweet bun so good it inspired a national holiday. BBC. Click here. 

• From the article: As the days grow warmer in Poland, our forests teem with beautiful fruits like strawberries and plums, which we will eagerly fold into light, delicious summer dishes. By far, the most anticipated seasonal crop is the bilberry, the blueberry’s smaller and tarter European cousin.

7. The 2018 film Cold War directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Nominated for three Academy Awards and available to stream on Amazon. Click here to connect with film on Amazon. 

Some Bad Bunny tour dates: 

• Stockholm Sweden last July 11th 
• Warsaw Tues July 14th (the show Anne is going to)
• Milan Italy July 17 and 18
• Brussels, Belgium after that…

Anne’s list of content she read or watched related to her trip to Poland to see Bad Bunny.  (Add link when possible). 

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/travel/dan-brown-the-secret-of-secrets-prague.html  Prague (also going to Czech Republic)

2. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/travel/warsaw-nightlife-clubs-edm-djs.html I won’t go to clubs, but it’s an interesting read. The writer is stayed at the hotel I’m staying at. No photos!
3. https://culture.pl/en/article/warsaw-everything-that-was examining the rebuild of the destroyed city and

Thanks for checking out this Torg Stories post!