My Sweet Return

Hello Poland! Jestem tu :-) *okay teraz nieprawada! But I was when I started writing this post....

At the end of June when I was leaving Poland I spent a pretty horrific night attempting to sleep in Warsaw airport before taking my flight home.   When it eventually got to the time I had to go through security I went outside for a few final seconds, just to relish being there, thinking about it all.  I wondered how long it'd be before I'd be back there again.  I thought about that when I touched down in Gdansk last Friday morning, it wasn't so long and there I was.

The first thing I did after arriving in Gdansk (and taking a bus to the centre) was to find a kebab place! The taste of Poland!  Lovely.

I took a train to Torun soon after (still got on the wrong train with the wrong ticket - will never learn) but when I finally crossed the railway bridge over the Wisla and saw the river and the panorama I felt like I'd won something, really.  It was great to be back.

I spent my long weekend catching up with my old friends zubrowka and piwo.. and a few other people.  Ate all my favourite foods, went to my favourite places, and caught up with some of my favourite people.  When I left Poland in June I had no idea when I'd go back and see everyone, but leaving this time was easier knowing it really isn't over.  Being there too reminded me to keep on top of my Polish at home, after just a short time it's already degraded quite a lot, so must get on it and stop being so leniwa!

See you soon everyone, thanks for a zajebiscie weekend xx

Finding Poland: The Search is Over

I arrived home on Saturday's very wet and windy morning.  I cried when I reached Liverpool, it was all over.

I started this blog in an attempt to maintain a diary of my time away and as a written hunt for the differences between England and Poland and the things that make Poland both an individual and a great country.  I'm happy that I'll be able to look back on all the places I visited, all the things I did and for me most importantly all the quirky little things that I found along the way.

It's too hard to try and summarise my 'findings' from the last 10 months, sometimes being away was easy, sometimes it was hard, sometimes it was the best thing that I could have asked for and sometimes it sucked!  I can't say that I wouldn't change anything, I still wish I'd got to drive that Maluch, but maybe next time!

For anybody thinking of visiting Poland, do it.  I wrote about my opinions and my experiences but be sure to explore and create your own, it would be great to hear some of them.  I know that my journey in Poland isn't over and I hope it never will be.  Luckily my thoughts remain the same as when I started this blog - the people, the history, the architecture, the beer and the food are all worth visiting, thanks to those things for making the last 10 months of my life truly great ones.

Pa pa Polska, kocham cie!

Holiday hell

There are so many holidays in Poland, it seems they have them every other week!

Today is Corpus Christie, so once again the whole of Poland is closed for business.  In a way I'm glad that they hold on to their religion and traditions by marking all of these holidays, but it really is impractical.  I for one have no food in and nowhere is open for me to go and buy any!

Last weekend there was a similar situation; I headed off to Bydgoszcz all geared up for a girly shopping day and found the shopping centre closed for yet another religious holiday.  Bardzo annoying at the time as we had absolutely no idea there was a holiday and were perhaps slightly overexcited at the prospect of spending all our wages on clothes, thankfully consolation beers on a boat bar made everything better.

At least I knew about this one and I'd already planned a day in cleaning and getting organised, but I am slightly hungry.

Nearing the end

Yesterday I finished my contract with the school I've been working at in Torun and now there are literally only a couple of days to go before I leave here and return to England.  Mixed emotions are the only two appropriate words that I can use.

I was glad that it was the end of the school year, I've had so many ups and downs in this job, many things that I wasn't prepared for or really wasn't happy about.  I didn't come to Poland to be a teacher, I became a teacher so that I could come to Poland.  I wasn't looking for a career in teaching at all but I've enjoyed learning and seeing my own progress and that of my students and I've met so many lovely people along the way and I hope that I made some difference to their English speaking lives.  I didn't expect to say this when I arrived but I think and hope that I'll keep teaching in some capacity in the future.

I really do hate goodbyes and now is the time to start saying them to people which is very hard.  I've had a truly awesome time particularly over the last few weeks which we seem to have crammed so much into.  It isn't time to go quite yet but today I took out my suitcase and it's half full already, today is the perfect day to get all nostalgic and teary.  Must get on with my packing, it's nearly time to go home.

Fort XI

 A couple of Saturdays ago a few friends and I went to visit one of the old forts around the outskirts of Torun.

There are about 15 forts in total which were built in the 19th Century under Prussian rule initially to defend Torun from the Russians (they were apparently useless).  Later though, many of the forts were used in the Second World War as POW camps.  Fort XI was one of these camps.

Before heading to the fort we met Piotr our guide at his museum hidden in the back of a school in the centre of Torun.  Piotr is the German teacher and the museum is his and a few of his students' work in progress.  It was quite a small room but packed with remnants from the war and we got plenty of stories about different soldiers who had survived the war and about life in the POW camps.

Comparatively speaking it seemed that British and other soldiers were treated considerably well by the Germans, they had food packages, footballs, chocolate and cigarettes and so on, whereas the Russians were forced to eat grass to save them from starving and had a pretty rough time of it.  There were also stories of a few soldiers who had managed to bounce around countries and fight in as many as 5 different national armies to survive, incredible stuff.

It was also interesting for me to see pictures of Torun under occupation during the Second World War which is something obviously I'd heard about but never seen.  It was strange to see Nazi flags hanging from the Town Hall tower and soldiers marching on the square and in places that at the moment I visit in my day to day life.

At the museum we also met a woman whose father had been a British POW and was imprisoned in the fort we were due to visit.  Putting a face and a name to such things always makes them seem so much more real so it was quite interesting to hear her (dads) stories along with Piotr's historical research.

After the museum we headed to the fort to explore.  It's now private property but luckily still open for people to sneak in to and have a walk round.  We met Piotr at the fort who had brought with him another personal addition to our tour; a guy who had played with the soldiers at the fort when he was a child and it was a POW camp.

He could tell us a lot about what went on in and around the fort including things like where the boxing ring was and where everyone went to play football.  Seemed he had quite happy memories of it and he brought a lot of photos with him too.

Inside the fort we saw a lot of graffiti that had been left by the POWs.  There were these cool drawings all over one wall but mainly messages of anger and hate at the Nazi's by prisoners held there.  It made for very interesting reading and the tour was excellent; we saw the booby trapped floor where people would be dropped into a pit and killed if they tried to enter the fort, the place where the canons and arms kept guard over the outside world and the area outside which once contained all the food packages sent by the Red Cross and still had a number of old tins, packets of coffee and such like.

I would recommend anyone interested in WWII and in the Torun area to check out the fort and the museum at Toruń's Historical War Museum.  Great day!

Conspiracy?

Warsaw 5/6/11

More than a year later, questions are still being asked regarding the death of President Kaczynski who died in a plane crash in Smolensk last year.  Although the crash was ruled as accidental and it appears relations with Russia are ever improving many people still have their own opinions as to what happened.

Clearly only time will tell if the issue will ever be resolved and if people will ever get the answers they're still waiting for.

A bit more of Warsaw

Last weekend I went to Warsaw to see a bit more of the place than I'd previously seen.  I've been a couple of times and seen the old town square and of course the 100m circumference round the main station recently.  On Saturday I went to visit a friend I haven't seen for a while and his girlfriend.

I met them at Warszawa Wschodnia which really didn't seem like a place I'd like to find myself alone at night, before heading out for a meal.  Considering that we ate in a restaurant in the very heart of Warsaw the prices were really cheap, for a sznitzel the size of a pizza I was really impressed... until we got the bill and found that my bottle of water was 19zl!!  As much as the huge meal I had just eaten and more than 2 and a half times more than a litre of piwo.  We literally couldn't believe the price but we were assured it was German water and therefore justifiably 10 times more expensive than any bottle of water I could have found elsewhere.  That's capital cities for you I suppose.

I have to say I was really quite surprised and impressed with the bit more of Warsaw that I saw.  The very centre is as nice as any other place in Poland and definitely worth visiting, particularly around the old castle walls, square and Nowy Swiat area.  The old town was reconstructed after the total devastation of WW2, it looks great now and I honestly felt like I was on holiday while I was there, it kind of felt reconstructed though, but maybe I was just being a Torun snob.

I still say it's different and Warsaw becomes more and more modern as you leave the centre but it's an impressive capital and there is definitely lots to see and do there.  Hopefully it's a place I'll see a bit more of in the future, but I think I'll always come away to see more of my kind of Poland, and to buy water.

Rod

Last night Rod Stewart came to Torun and I went to see him.  I wouldn't really call myself a fan of his (I like to think he's a little before my time) and I wasn't even sure I'd know any of his songs last night but I knew it'd be a good laugh and something fun and different for a Saturday night anyway.

It was really really good!  We paid for the cheap seats and found ourselves in the front standing circle, it wasn't that full and there were lots of people hanging around the sides and eventually they let us all in.  Awesome, best 'seats' in the stadium!  I did know quite a few of the songs and it didn't matter when I didn't, we had a good boogie, Rod was really entertaining and his band were pretty amazing.  Great show, kebab and piwos to finish, great night!

Gdzie jest Wisla?

The Wisla seems to be disappearing before our eyes.  Today you could see the sandy river bottom metres away from the normal river bank and even patches of sand in the middle where the water wasn't deep enough.  It looked so shallow right the way across that you could probably walk from one side to the other.

We've had some really heavy rain recently but only in between long periods of hot, dry weather.  It's a big contrast to this time last year when the river was so full half of Poland was underwater.  Rain needed perhaps, but not too much!

Sto lat!

Yesterday I spent my 26th birthday in Poland, happy birthday me! It was an excellent day, I wasn't expecting anything special but I had a few lovely surprises.  I was met at work with chocolates and a surprise visit from a friend who rushed me for a huge ice cream before lessons and in two of my classes the students surprised me with flowers and cakes, a rendition of happy birthday in English and their Polish equivalent 'Sto lat sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam...' you know the rest!  The song wishes the songee a 100 years of life and good health.

I went out for my first traditional Polish Indian meal after work which was something a bit different; I've eaten mainly Polish food here so I thought I'd try out the supposed 'best restaurant in town' before I left.  The place itself outdid the food slightly, I thought my curry was lacking in a few spices but it was yummy anyway and the restaurant staff presented me a nice bottle of French wine as another birthday treat.  


An all round great birthday! Thank you everyone :-) 

Things I will and won't miss

Things I'll miss:

• Mushroom soup in a bread bowl
• Maluchs
• Piwos and vodkas and the people I drink them with
• The 'Another vodka' song
• Toruń generally
• Sitting on balconies
• Seeing the panorama every time I come over the bridge 
• The lack of rain
• Cellar bars and late opening hours
• Walks along the river                                       
• Sarah's light fingers                          
• Polish food
• The daily excursion to the bakery and Zabka             

Things I won't miss

• My job



Maybe I won't miss all the food...

• 9 o clock finishes
• 10 o clock teas
• Sleepless nights due to 9 o clock finishes and 10 o clock teas
• My bed
• The price of clothes
• How everything closes at 9pm (except P&P's (10))
• Walking down the street and having to stop at every red light
• Huge phone bills

It's reassuring to see that the will miss list far outweighs the won't miss list, better soak it all up, only 3 weeks to go now...

Tick Tock

The clock is ticking on my year in Poland, well 9 and a half months to be precise.  On Friday I booked my flight home for the 25th June, so I have just less than 5 weeks left here.  Time really does fly when you're having fun.

I'm happy thinking about going home, I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and spending more time with my boyfriend and my family, but thinking about leaving pains me!  I will so miss Poland, I love Torun, I like my life here (bar work of course :-)) and I've met some great people who it will be very hard to say goodbye to.

I have no idea what the next year will bring but I expect I'll be back here a few times getting my fix and maintaining my language learning, I've gone too far to go home and forget it all!  I don't know if I'll ever fully leave Poland.  Whatever happens I'm determined to make the next 5 weeks 5 of the best, and to all my friends in the UK - I will see you soon!

Kruszwica

Lake Gopło from Mice's Tower

Today I have spent an absolutely lovely day in Kruszwica, a tiny town of only 9,000 people.  It's famous for the 'Mice's Tower'; the only remaining part of the castle that used to stand there, and the legend of the mice who ate the cruel Prince Popiel after he murdered his relatives in his (failed) bid to stay the ruler of Poland.  The legend says that when he sank his poisoned relatives in the lake, the bodies bred thousands of mice which sought out their murderer who was hiding with his wife in the tower.

Kruszwica is situated on the huge Lake Gopło, which is surrounded by sporadic sandy beaches and home to the Polish rowing championships, but today there were more speed boats, kayaks and pedalows.  The weather has been lovely; really sunny after yesterdays storm, although my chest and shoulders seem to think it was maybe a little too hot.  We climbed the tower to admire the view, paddled in the lake and dozed on the beach, then enjoyed a picnic and a burnt off the calories with a long walk round the lake.  The beaches were busy and I expect the lake will be full of people come summer, this is a lovely little town to spend the day if you're not too far from the area.

Wrocław

Wrocław is apparently known as the 'Venice of Poland.'  Well I went to Wrocław a couple of weekends ago and I've been to Venice and I can't see the similarities, for a start, I liked Wrocław.  I guess it does have one canal and a couple of islands but the similarities end there; there are no (or few) Italians, no gondolas and for a major city full of tourists, quite reasonably priced.  


For me recently it's been weekends away galore, two weekends ago a few of my lovely friends from home came to visit me and we met in Wrocław.  It took me 5 hours and 70zl by train to get there, it's over 300km from Toruń.  I arrived late so headed straight for our apartment for a catch up and sleep.

We spent Saturday and Sunday walking round the old town and exploring the centre.  It's a beautiful place, as far as Polish squares go, this one is big and beautiful and buzzing, and very colourful, definitely one of the nicest in Poland.

The atmosphere was fantastic, lots of people, lots of sunshine, lots of ice cream.  There was even a chess table set up in the middle of the square for passers by to come and play, and lots of those quite annoying still people.

We went up the church tower (the one by the square) for a great view of the square and all the city, it was worth every one of the 293 winding steps that we climbed to get there, later we went up the cathedral for, er, another good view, thankfully though this time by lift.

Nordic walker

One of the highlights for us was trying to find Wrocław's krasnale; loads of little dwarf statues all over the old town and surrounding area, we found them hanging off lamposts, passed out outside pizza hut, drinking in the park etc etc.  There's also some kind of lovers bridge, full of padlocks proclaiming couples will be 'zawsze razem.'  They made really nice and unique additions to the place.

On the whole I was really impressed, the city seems so live-in-able and friendly and I hope it isn't too long before I'm back there again.  It's big enough to have loads to offer but the centre at least felt small enough that you would never feel really lost or intimidated there.  Of course, first you need to get the pronunciation right which was a real problem amongst my friends; v-rots-wav, v-rots-wav.......

A tribute to Maluchy

Maluchs are the best cars in Poland.  Fiat 126's but known as Maluchy which means 'little one'.  I love seeing them, they're so little and old and rubbish.  I think they look really cool but they're known for being quite unsafe, they say if you crash a Maluch the crash will end at the engine, but the engines are in the back of the car where modern boots are, so you have to put your shopping in the front.  I think you can pick them up for a few hundred zloty, pretty cheap as they're no longer being made, they'll be collectors soon enough.

It was my dream to drive a Maluch but it's looking less and less likely with only a few weeks to go before the end of the year.  If anyone in the Torun area has one that they want to rent out for an evening, leave a comment :-)

Making Mistakes po polsku

I've been learning Polish for a while now and of course living here and using it regularly I like to think that I've made a lot of progress.  But I still make lots of mistakes, and sometimes they're hard to forget.  I'm always a bit embarrassed when I'm speaking Polish because I'm not completely sure of it and realising I've made a mistake when I'm trying to pretend I know what I'm talking about sticks with me, especially when they're so stupid.  Here are a few of my favourite mistakes, thankfully only the first 2 of them are mine, but the other 2 were too funny to pass over.


1)  Coś jeszcze? - Tak, to wszystko.  (Anything else? - Yes, that’s everything) - cringe.

2)  When I was in the Ukraine a couple of months ago I took a bus from Lviv to Lublin.  The driver put my suitcase on at the back of the bus but when I went to sit with it a woman told me to sit further towards the front of the bus (I later realised she was reserving space and privacy for what I think were her smuggler friends.)  So I said to her ale moja szafka jest tam (but my bag is there).  The most embarrassing thing was that I was so proud of my perfect and fluent Polish I thought she would definitely think I was a Polką.  I only found out a few weeks later that szafka is actually cupboard, not bag :-(

3)  Before the Easter holidays a woman asked my friend in their block of flats if she knew if the post was coming over the holidays, she mentioned something about free days.  My friend, so excited by the prospect of a couple of days off and hearing the words 'free day' said to her 'I'm free tomorrow thank you.'  She was so enthusiastic in her response that the woman had no idea what to say, and it wasn't until later that she realised what she had actually been asked, nevermind.

4)  Ordering a meal in a restaurant, in English... 'I'll have the pork and chips... DZIEŃ DOBRY!' instead of dziękuję (Good afternoon instead of thank you) haha :)

I'm sure there have been thousands more but I can't think of them right now.  Has anyone had similar experiences?

Weather Update

Over Easter the weather was lovely, around 24 degrees, perfect weather for ice creams and going out without a jacket on.  Just a week later over the long May weekend it hit 4 degrees, it was quite a shock going back to that temperature.

Even more of a shock was the freak minus 7 we had in Torun a few nights later - I heard it's the lowest recorded temperature in May for the whole of Poland.  It even snowed in some parts of Poland and we were all back to wearing hats, scarfs and gloves... in May!

Thankfully once again the sunshine is back, it was 27 degrees today and just lovely.  It's so nice going outside and being hit by a warm breeze, fingers crossed it will be summer dresses and sandals all the way now.  Bring on Summer :-)

Tolerance

It was recently Poland week in the UK based Guardian newspaper.  As part of this ongoing feature the newspaper published a daily stereotype about Poles and Poland, for example that the women are beautiful (generally true), the roads are rubbish (most definitely true) and that they drink lots of vodka (..of course!).

Another one of those stereotypes was that Poland is a nation of homophobes.  From my experience I disagree, although the people I told about it gave mixed and surprisingly lukewarm responses; whether or not they agreed it didn't seem like such a big deal - perhaps that is telling.  On the topic a local man has recently taken it upon himself to march around the town centre waving a placard about homosexuals being evil and going to hell and handing out leaflets about it.  While of course this doesn't apply to all people, I have heard that in Poland there is a train of thought that homosexuality can, and perhaps should, be cured.

Thinking about this brought me to tolerance as a whole and I'm happy to say that as foreigner I've had nothing but a warm and friendly welcome from Poles since I moved here.  Unfortunately I've heard a few stories of people who haven't had quite the same positive experience and that seems to be connected with skin colour.  Ethnic minorities are few and far between and I expect that any problems are largely due to that fact; in Torun it's quite uncommon to see non-white people walking around so I guess they attract some attention, sometimes that's negative.  At the weekend I overheard a guy shouting at a black man asking him where he was going, using the 'n word' and telling him he was hungry, I guess that you can expect a black person is a tourist in Poland so they could be an easy target for beggars.

I don't for a second think that Poles generally are racist but I do think that racial awareness is quite low among some people.  In time as more people visit Poland there will be much more ethnic diversity and I expect some things will change.  Poland is a great place and I hope everyone that visits it is welcomed the same way I've been, a few bad eggs could leave a bad impression.

Giżycko

Hurray for another long weekend in Poland!  The combination of May day (the 1st) and Constitution Day (today) gave us a lovely four day weekend to enjoy.  I spent the weekend in Mazury, the polish lake district, in a little town called Giżycko.  I'd heard great things about Mazury, one of the most beautiful areas of Poland and the perfect setting for an activity weekend.  The weather has been fantastic lately and I was looking forward to getting outdoorsy; canoeing, cycling, maybe a bit of sunbathing and lots of walking.

Well the weather had other plans, when we arrived on Saturday it was lovely.  Giżycko is a resort town on a canal that joins two huge lakes which were busy with sailing boats.  We could see some kayaks and pedalows that we'd decided to rent the next day but on Sunday it rained all day and the temperature dropped by as much as 20 degrees, the lake was too choppy for us to rent the boats and we didn't see anywhere to rent bikes.  It seems unless you're a sailing fanatic Giżycko is a place that needs good weather.

We had a fun weekend but unfortunately in spite of the location rather than because of it.  My outdoorsy weekend became one of table hockey, man challenges, card games and breakfast pizza; bardzo fun but not what we went for.  I'd give Mazury another go but not without an iron clad weather forecast and a bicycle.  Weekend fail.

Warszawa Centralna

I think it would be cheating if I titled this post 'Warsaw', having spent only a few hours wandering around the area close to the central train station and not even making it as far as the old town square.  Despite that I have spent some time in Warsaw previously and seen a bit of what it's got to offer.  For me, in terms of my love affair with Poland, that is very little.

East meets West

Warsaw is, as capital cities tend to be, a very poor reflection on the rest of the country.  It's as big, rich and western as any capital in Western Europe, conflicting with the quaint, eastern feel to much of the rest of Poland.  Huge modern glass sky scrapers instead of high rise flats and massive junctions to replace the infamous Polish road system.  On Sunday I looked out of the window of my hotel and felt like I'd already left Poland.  How very depressing.

Don't get me wrong though, Warsaw is not a bad place.  There are certainly things to do and see there and I have it on good authority that it's an excellent place to live but I believe it's something very different to the rest of Poland.  Warsaw's Palace of Culture is a huge distinctive landmark smacking of Poland's communist past under Stalin's rule, but it is surrounded by so many western buildings, companies and influences that it's quite clear to see that the eastern feel is very much part of Warsaw's history.

Trójmiasto

After a 10 week stint in work without a break ( :-( ) Easter finally arrived a brought a 6 day respite along with it. I spent a few days visiting Poland's Trójmiasto, otherwise Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot.  The three cities could easily be one huge place; they are quite distinct from each other and all have some different to offer but they are so close and well connected by a rail network that constantly runs from place to place, you can see all three in a day no problem.

Gdańsk is the obvious 'jewel in the crown.'  The centre is really beautiful and big and buzzing, but full of tourists and therefore very expensive.  I nearly fell off my seat when a few beers, two ice creams and a soup came to 77zl, this place is not Polish wage friendly.

Gdańsk was also the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, when an electrician made a speech at a shipyard that led to the eventual overthrowing of communism and the Soviets, he was Lech Walesa.  One stop from Gdańsk central on the train you can see the exact place that that happened.

I spent a day in Gdańsk a few years ago and my first impression was that it was some kind of Eastern Disneyland, it could be one of Poland's most beautiful cities.  It was destroyed and reconstructed after the war but for me it hasn't lost any of it's charm.

Gdynia in comparison is perhaps one of the least touristy cities in Poland.  It's a nice place, home to the Polish navy and seemingly a good place to live, but it's difficult to find anything to say about it beyond that.  We took a walk down the marina and had a look at the huge ships, some still used and some old relics, and had a gofry z bitą smietaną - mniam mniam!  We didn't stay long in Gdynia, Sopot is only ten minutes away by train and much more attractive on a sunny day.

Sopot is one of the most popular seaside and spa resorts in Poland.  It's easy to see why; beautiful beach, huge pier (the longest in Europe by the way), clear sea and a lovely town centre.  Unfortunately the lovely town centre is currently undergoing a huge reconstruction, but it's going to be great when it's finished.  Being so popular it's another place that's a bit out of budget for the average Polish wage but it's a great place full of cafes, restaurants and bars and really made for a perfect break.

The sea around Sopot is sheltered by the Hel peninsula only about 30km away by sea so the water in Sopot is warmer than most other places along the Baltic coast.  Not only that but the sea in between the two is only about 150 cm deep so it's popular for watersports and could become a tourist walk in the near future.  Hel is a huge tourist attraction, although how much of that is based on the name I've no idea.  I didn't make it to Hel and back this time but it's an excellent excuse to visit the area another time and see a bit more of what it's got to offer.  With pleasure.

Wielkanoc w Polsce

Wesołych Świąt!  Happy Holidays.  Easter in Poland is a very big deal; both religiously and traditionally it's on the same scale as Christmas.  It's easy to confuse the two in some ways, I've always translated Wesołych Świąt to mean Merry Christmas, but it's a little broader and Świąt refers to holy times rather than just Christmas.  I was on the train on Sunday and somebody asked me why I hadn't gone home for Christmas..  The supermarkets are as much a buzz too as they were around Christmas time, full of chocolate!  And of course eggs, painted eggs are a must.

Every Saturday before Easter families prepare a special basket full of the traditional Easter Sunday breakfast food of white sausage, eggs, chocolate, bread, salt and so on.  The basket is taken to church on Easter Sunday to be blessed by the priest and this marks the official end of lent.  The meal is a huge feast.

I was awoken on Sunday morning by a number of loud canon blasts at around 6am, at first I thought it was thunder.  I walked into town and there was literally not another person around, I've never seen Torun so quiet.  Of course everybody was in church, by midday there were people strolling around town in their absolute Sunday best, and everything was closed (except McDonalds).

Easter Monday is a bit of a strange one though, it's called Dyngus Day or Wet Monday and is a huge excuse for a water fight.  The boys walk around town with buckets of water and soak the girls, the idea is that the girls who are soaked will marry within a year.  Your guess is as good as mine...!

Golub-Dobrzyn

After a very disappointing start to spring (I was still wearing gloves until a few days ago) we've finally had a lovely sunny weekend here in Torun.  Today I went to Golub-Dobrzyn; a small town only an hour away by bus, to visit the 14th century castle and enjoy a walk round in the sunshine.

The castle's quite small, but we had a good wander round and there's a really nice but a bit too expensive restaurant inside.  From the castle there's an excellent view of the town, or towns if you like.  Golub-Dobrzyn used to be two towns divided by the Drweca river.  Golub was owned by the German's until 1920 and Dobrzyn was Russian until 1918, they became one town in 1951 but the divide is still pretty apparent from the top of the hill.  The Golub side looks much prettier and well looked after whereas Dobrzyn was kind of a mess in comparison.  The square was a very normal, pretty Polish town square, and there were lots of people out enjoying the sun.

It's nice to get out of Torun and see somewhere new, and me and Sarah have been well entertained by Damian's jokes today.  After a good walk round it's back home for some kotlet schabowy, another traditional dish I can add to the growing list of things I can cook.  Smacznego!

Zupa piątek

Mushroom soup in a bread bowl + tylko one lesson + vodka = Friday: my favourite day :-)

A Quiet Life

I guess I haven't been up to much lately.  At least I've done nothing I've felt was exciting enough to post about, but I've found a new contentment in my quiet, day to day living.  Spring is well and truly here, the days are getting warmer and longer and I feel like Poland has never been so beautiful.  I've stopped hurrying here and there and developed a stroll.  I guess I've stopped trying, stopped searching, and Polish life has found me instead.

I'm still aware and becoming ever aware of the differences between life here and at home, but the lightening bolts of information that I had when I first arrived have become dawning realisations.  I feel much healthier than I used to and I hope when I get back to England I keep the mentality I seem to have adopted unknowingly here.  I walk every day; if there is anywhere to go it's generally my feet that take me there, and while I still snack often and pig out occasionally, food isn't the same issue here that it is in England.  I've lost 9lbs without trying.  I also drink more, much more! Which of course isn't so healthy but it certainly is Polish; piwo z sokiems and 4 o clock finishes are becoming habitual.

The differences are very subtle.  I don't feel like I'm in a strange place or able to make any strong cultural comparisons, but things seem to go at slightly a slower pace here which is nice.  Shopping on the market, buying fruit and veg from locals who grow their own food on their allotments, teenagers roller-blading along and 80 year olds on bicycles are normal, everyday occurrences.  I hope I'll always see and still appreciate these kinds of things when I come back to Poland in the future, because even though it isn't so different, I can't stop noticing these tiny little day to day things, and they really brighten up my quiet life.

The Leaning Tower of Torun

Try standing with your feet
against the wall...

Tonight I went for a meal in Torun's  Krzywa Wieża, aka, the leaning tower.  It was built towards the beginning of the 14th century making up part of Torun's defensive castle wall, but it started to lean soon after it was built because of the lack of stability in the ground.  But it's a great feature and it's now home to a really nice restaurant; thankfully tonight it seemed stable enough. 

Inside the restaurant

It's strange being inside as the floor is straight but the walls around them are all slanted and walking around felt almost like everything was moving, or maybe that was the wine?  Tonight I had a very traditional 'Torun goulash in gingerbread sauce', it was sweet and therefore strange but really tasty.  Would recommend. 

How old?

I recently learnt that when you ask a Polish person how old they are they will tell you the age that they will turn this year, rather than their age based on their birthday.  For me that's pretty strange, as it means every Pole gets a year older on the 1st of Jan every year and the day and month they were born doesn't factor.

I'm still clinging on to the fact that I am 25 for a few more months, but every Pole with my birthday is already 26.  We translate the Polish 'ile masz lat?' to 'how old are you?', but I guess the literal 'how many years do you have?' is actually more appropriate.  Weird how we do such things differently!

Spring has sprung

The last few days have been absolutely beautiful.  The sun is shining, the grass is slowly returning to a nice green colour and I have officially retired my winter coat - it was 15 degrees yesterday, the old town was really busy and so it seemed were the ice cream parlours.  I really enjoyed winter but I'm also very excited to see that spring is in the air.  I'm looking forward to the nights getting longer so I can enjoy a bit more of Torun after working hours.

Ive heard that you know it's spring in Poland when you keep stepping in dog poo; people don't pick it up and as the snow melts it gets all over the pavements.  Hopefully because we had the long thaw in January and very little snow since it won't be too bad this year, I don't want to make a mess of my new boots!  It's also known for being particularly beautiful and rapid, it isn't a gradual transition from winter to spring, the flowers and trees literally burst with colour overnight.  Spring is literally a breath of fresh air, I love it.

Sępólno Krajeńskie

I've spent the weekend visiting a friend in Sępólno Krajeńskie, a tiny little town with only 9000 people a few hours away from Torun.  A lot of Poles live in little villages like this one, although I was told it isn't a village, it's a small town - it's so small that it only takes 20 minutes to walk around the whole place.  Outside of the big cities Poland is really quite sparse, full of forests and fields with sporadic collections of colourful houses along the roadside.

In Sępólno I was surprised to see that the lake was still frozen solid in mid-March; the residents took advantage by fishing, dog walking and even cycling on it.  I've heard of a man walking on water before but cycling?

Dominika's family were lovely and they made me feel very welcome in their home.  Polish hospitality is truly second to none.  It was great for me to see a Polish family at home and enjoy some home cooked food, which was all fantastic; we had a full continental spread for both breakfast and supper as well as cooked food and cakes too.  I get the impression that family meal times are very important and I think Polish women in general are excellent cooks; it seems to be something they do often and take pride in.  I don't know if Polish men cook at all, it definitely seems to be the woman's job but a wise choice going by the food.  A big thanks to Dominika and her parents for letting me stay, I hope to see you again soon.

Ladies Day :)

Happy Ladies Day to all the ladies of Poland!  Today us girls had a lovely surprise at work.  We were called in for a very suspicious meeting in the office and left wondering what we had done wrong until Romek, our boss, and all the men at work presented us with a huge cake and a round of applause.  It was really unexpected and a lovely gesture, great for staff morale.  The cake was a very rich chocolate and cherry cake, of course I felt sick after a slice but still managed to sneak a bit more a few hours later.

I nipped into the Old Town before classes and saw so many people with flowers and gifts, the Poles really go all out for their ladies!  It's nice to be appreciated.

There are so many holidays in Poland it's difficult to keep up with them all, but I did remember that today was Shrove Tuesday, and therefore pancake day in England.  Unfortunately my pancakes were a disaster, I'll have to stick to Polish cuisine in future.

Tłusty czwartek

An excellent day here in Poland, on 'greasy Thursday' the Poles eat doughnuts from breakfast until supper. Tłusty czwartek marks the end of the carnival period in Poland. Next Thursday will fall into Lent, which is traditionally a far more solemn and sombre time in which Poles remember (as do many people all over the world) Jesus' suffering for 40 days and 40 nights.

I only ate 2 doughnuts today, a pitiful show. One of the lads in my class had already had 10+ by 5pm and he didn't intend to stop there. I think I prefer the English tradition of pancake Tuesday before Lent begins, but I guess everyday is pancake day in Poland.

Masterchef.pl

Under Sarah's guidance I am rapidly excelling at my goal of becoming a world class chef while in Poland.  I hardly cooked at home, but now I am away it's become one of my favourite things to do.  Having a tiny freezer and an oven that chooses its own temperature helps as I really can't just throw in some frozen fish fingers or something, so instead I cook.  I'm now happy enough with my soups and the various other things I make on a regular basis, but I'd stayed well away from tackling traditional Polish dishes... until now!

Last week me and Sarah decided we would have a go at making golabki, meat and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves.  It sounds simple enough, and I guess it was, you first need to boil the cabbage and strip away the leaves one by one.  Then mix raw meat with cooked rice and add some grated dried mushrooms and wrap it all up in the leaves, making little parcels.  It was quite time consuming but it was fun and we made loads, kept 3 of us eating for days after.  100% success rate thus far; 1 out of 1!

We knew attempting pierogi would be a greater challenge but we thought we'd give it a try.  It was a bit fussy, very time consuming but it was really good fun and turned out to be very yummy.  Now I consider myself to be quite the expert, here's how it's done.... :-)

First you make the dough...

...roll it out (very thinly)...

...cut out the dough and add filling :)...

...seal them (well)....

...until you have like so.

We were already very proud of ourselves at this point, they look like real pierogi!  To be honest we may have been slightly over excited.  But anyway!...

They need boiling for 10-12 minutes

until hurray!

Unfortunately, if you don't seal them properly, this happens....

that hurts :-(

On our first attempt we only managed to save 9 out of 16 pierogi, but second time round they all survived!  And I may be biased but I have to say they were some of the best pierogi I've had, go team!

So, what to cook next?

One about me

My blog is generally about Poland and my opinions, reflections and experiences while I'm here, but this blog will be just about me.  Ok, I've been tagged (whatever that is) by Amy the Wicked.  And this is how it goes...

It all started with Scottish Mum’s post:

“I have seen lots of posts about what we struggle with, or things that we like to do, and I’d like to find out a bit more information about all of you. This is my way of doing it. I am looking forward to visiting some of you on the blog hop.”

What you cannot choose. The Rules are Simple
“We all know that blogging/facebook/twitter is in our arena of what we like to do, so I am going to rule them out as one of the 5 that you can post about. They really are not very girly. Likewise, phones, computers, ipads are all out of the running. I am challenging myself to this, as I am really not a girly girly type of person, and I want to find that within myself. It’s not all about power suits, filofaxes, ipads and designer phones.

If you want to pass this along, pick bloggers that you want to find out more about, and challenge them to write up their 5 secret passions that make them feel good. The idea is to lift our spirits this week. The fact that there is a linky added, just makes it all the more worthwhile in doing.”

So, here are my five.

1.  Walking.  It sounds very simple but I love feeling the fresh air on my face and feeling like I'm heading somewhere.  I never walk without purpose, even if I just fancy a walk there must always be a destination, and I walk fast to get there; I like overtaking people.  This kind of walking can only really be done on your own, or at least in your own world.

2.  Books - fiction novels to be more precise.  This is the best kind of escapism; if I read that's all I do, it's hard to function normally outside of a novel.  I feel like I am among the characters, they become as real to me as anyone I know and I become engrossed in their stories and their lives.  This is probably why I cry so easily when I read a book, I get very emotional.  If I can't feel like this about a book, I don't read it.

3.  Hats.  I don't know why but I really like hats, I feel like they suit me and consider myself 'a hat person'.  I've never been into shoes or handbags and rarely wear jewellery, so hats it is.  I have so many, my drawer is bursting with hats and scarves (which I also like), but I love buying them, wearing them and collecting them.  My last hat was stolen which I still haven't got over, hopefully I'll be able to find the same hat on the market after payday.  

4.  Polish.  When I was at high school my favourite subjects were languages.  I wrote in my 'personal statement' that I wanted to work with languages and be something like a translator or interpreter, but I fell out with languages at college because I didn't enjoy German and I got involved in other things.  In 2007 when I came to Poland for the first time I started to pick up bits of the language and I completely rediscovered this passion.  I love learning the rules and finding out new expressions, I enjoy speaking but I find listening/understanding difficult and this really hinders conversation!  I'm aware that I have such a long way to go before I'll be able to say that I can 'speak Polish' but hopefully one day I'll become what I always wanted to be.

5.  Lying in.  Thinking of the 5th thing was really difficult, but I'm certain this is the right thing.  I don't like going to bed, I like to refuse that the day is over and just keep going, it's already 1.12am now and I'm working early tomorrow, but I have no intention of surrendering to the night any time soon.  And not only that, but when I do go to bed I often struggle to drop off; my brain is active and my body isn't tired, I'm not getting nearly enough physical exercise and I've always had a restless mind.  But similarly as I don't like getting in my bed, I absolutely hate getting out of it.  When I've slept well and I'm warm and cosy in my bed I never want it to end, I often choose to have that extra half hour, then have it again and again.  I wonder if I didn't have a job just how long I could stay in bed for.

Ok, so there you go.  Anyone else?

Health and safety, really?

Hard hat anyone?

Today I experienced (i.e. was subjected to) a health and safety talk at work.  I've found health and safety in Poland something quite different to that in England, and happily so.  Poland and England are polar opposites; we take things far too far, political correctness, the adopted American culture of litigation and generally complaining about and needing advice on everything.  The Poles, on the other hand, don't take anything anywhere at all; health and safety barely exists.

That seems all to change; under the influence of the EU the whole of Europe is gradually being standardised, and I realise I'm always banging on about it but I can see the west influencing Poland more and more on a daily basis.  Well today was one of those days.  However, if Poland wants to follow in the footsteps of it's Western neighbours when it comes to health and safety, there really is a long way to go.  Today's presentation was irrelevant and impractical, even comedic; it was nothing more than a selection of youtube videos supported by no introduction or explanation and we given absolutely zero advice on how to deal with any of the issues that were raised in the clips.  Some of the videos were so ridiculous that I've really got no idea how the woman presenting them managed to keep a straight face and I can't believe she got paid for it.

Unfortunately though, having to endure this attempt at a health and safety presentation shows the direction Poland's going in and although I still have no idea where the first aid box is kept at work, I fear I may soon find myself in another country where I have to worry about being sued if I do the wrong thing.  Oh, just another minor thing we were missing today, does anybody have any idea what the emergency number is in this country?

Enough said

Today I came across this selection of chicken feet at the meat counter of a supermarket in Toruń, Sarah summed it up nicely;

"French people are disgusting, but I've never seen a bowl of chicken feet."  Sarah, France.

Lublin

I would say to anyone considering visiting Lublin; don't bother.  After a couple of hours walking round I'm ready to get the train back to Torun.  It's not a bad place, but there is really nothing to do here, and very little of interest to see.  It looks like an okay place to live or be for a specific purpose, but not really great for tourism.

Ah well, home again home again.

Львів

I'll have a...erm...

I realise that Lviv isn't in Poland, but it used to be!  And being just a bus or train ride away from many Polish cities I think I can happily find a place for it on my Poland blog.  It's very easy to see the Polish influence; a huge Ratusza in the middle of Rynok Square lined with colourful buildings, it could easily be any square in any major city in Poland.  But there's so much more to this place than Polish, it's a real mesh of influences, not to mention the Cyrillic alphabet.  I looked at a few menus when I arrived yesterday and felt sure that I'd starve here until I found a place where I could point at food.  Interestingly enough, food is weighed before it's served, you literally get what you pay for, or pay for what you get.  Only a day later and I'm already deciphering a few street names and the most common words, it's fun figuring it out.

Lviv is a great city packed full of monuments, churches and museums, I think it would be impossible to get bored here.  I visited Lychakiv Cemetery, which is one of the main attractions, it's absolutely huge!  There's a lot to see in there; statues, memorials etc, unfortunately it was rather unkempt, some of the graves were impossible to see, but it made for quite an interesting walk round.  

Svobody street, one of the main streets, is built on what used to be nothing more than a bog and the Opera House which stands at the end was the first building in the whole of Europe built on a concrete foundation; the river here still flows beneath the stage inside.  For the equivalent of 3 Great British Pounds I was lucky enough to see a ballet there.  Inside the Opera House it's lavish, golden and intricately decorated, and the ballet was excellent.

Slava Ukraini.

Crossing the border

Today I crossed the border from Poland into the Ukraine...  I spent the night in Przemysl and took a taxi to the border, walked across and took a bus to Lviv.  The taxi cost 54PLN, I think he saw me coming, I'll take a bus next time no doubt for a fraction of the price.

Medyka, the border town, consists of nothing but crowds of people walking around with cigarettes and alcohol, it's cheaper in the Ukraine than in Poland, and you don't even have to cross the border to take advantage. I walked down a long path between tall metal fences, seeing the signs for the Ukraine and Poland/EU on the road.  Leaving Poland was simple enough, just through a couple of barriers and a disinterested border guard.  Entering the Ukraine was a little more difficult, the people ahead of me went through within seconds but I took a bit longer.  The officer thoroughly inspected my passport; my picture, every stamp and every blank page.  She asked me about what I was doing in the Ukraine, where to, how long, what for.. the queue behind me started to build up, I thought they were going to search me.  Eventually, they let me in :-)

My suitcase gave me away as a tourist and I was hounded non-stop for the duration of my 100 metre walk to the buses by taxi drivers, no I did not want a taxi; they were persistent, but so was I.  A man without about 4 teeth accompanied me and got rid of a couple of  the drivers, I asked if he was going to Lviv, but he was just there for the cigarettes.

The bus was to Lviv cost 18hrvnia, about 1.50GBP.  Outside Lviv the Ukraine seemed to be very rural, countless fields, trees and bushes, and little else.  The road wasn't much more than a dirt track with a white line, which I presume was there for show - the driver drove wherever he could to avoid the huge potholes.  It was a bumpy ride!  But here I am, so far finding the Cyrillic alphabet and cobbles quite difficult.  Anyway, there's a new country out there and I'm off to see it.

Titbits

Here are a few things I've found a little strange since coming here:

• Poles don't cross their fingers, they hold their thumbs.
• Polish dogs don't say 'woof woof', they say 'how how'.
• Polish men have three goals in life; plant a tree, build a house and make a boy.
• Polish karaoke is taken very seriously.
• Poles eat pasta with strawberries and cream but many think carrot cake is weird.
• Plug sockets aren't very firmly attached to walls and often spark when you plug something in - scary!

Anyone care to add?  Or anything you find strange about us English folk?  I've heard that us taking 2 painkillers at once is found strange, the Poles take one at a time.

Inowrocław

I go to Inowrocław every Monday and Wednesday with school.  Everybody hates going to 'Ino' because it adds 2 hours onto any working day with the journey there and back and personally I'm always complaining about only getting to eat so late in the evening; 11pm sometimes.  But I far from hate going, I have 3 great classes there which I really enjoy teaching, things always seem to go very smoothly.

Yesterday I went to Ino of my own accord (unheard of) to visit my friend Lucyna.  Till then I'd never made it past the IH School and the nearest żabka so I was looking forward to seeing a bit more of what the place had to offer.  The centre of Ino looks okay, I'm sure it's not a bad place to live but there doesn't seem to be much going on and it looks a little run down on the way in.


Today I got to see past all that and took a walk to the huge Teznie park, we walked down a long village lane to get there with every dog barking at us on the way.  The Teznie is the same stuff as what they have in Ciechocinek, but it's a lot newer and therefore much more beneficial to your health.  Unfortunately it's all turned off in the Winter. 


The area is surrounded by forest and parks, with a few health spas, a concert stage and a nice fountain made with moving lights rather than water, unfortunately that was turned off too with it being day time.

After a long walk we went for some nice healthy food; a bardzo smaczny gulash prepared by Lucyna and a strawberry smoothie excellently prepared by me :-) I have to say it was 'quite civilized' indeed!