IT HAD BEEN ONE OF MY DREAMS...

Waking up in the morning, looking through the window and see snow had been one of my dreams until last sunday, when by 4:00 am, I woke up in Krakow (Poland) and looking down from my hotel room on a 9th floor, I saw it was snowing heavily. Hardly could I believe my eyes! I made myself ready and stepped out the hotel to take photos and let my eyes be delighted with such a beautiful scene. Despite the low temperature, my sleepy eyes and my lack of experience with snow shots, I could never miss that unique opportunity. On the way to the airport, the snow was falling so heavily that I wondered whether the airport would be closed in the meantime. Fortunately, not. I stopped over at Munchen airport and snow was there welcoming me, in stark contrast with a warm sun shining at my arrival in Lisbon. Late in the evening, as I was watching the news, it was announced that Polish airports were closed. How lucky I had been, I thought!

 

MY VISIT TO CRACOW (POLAND) #6 ... THE END OF THE SLIDE-SHOW SERIES

I was told that just over two decades since the demise of communism, Cracow’s shops are unrecognizable from those of 1989. The shelves are full, the queues are gone and malls have mushroomed like neon toadstools throughout the city. I don’t think we can call Cracow a shoppers’ paradise, yet I saw interesting items: diversity of handicrafts ranging from embroideries to wooden toys.

I had the opportunity to see a private collection of Polish handicrafts that was waiting for the good chance to be displayed at a proper facility. Despite the conditions, my eyes were delighted by the variety and quantity of items.

The Cloth House, once a trading center and today a museum on the first floor of an architecturally stunning building, has a complex of stalls selling gifts and souvenirs, permanently crowded with tourists, mainly.

Amber is an especially renowned raw material in Poland. It is a fossilized tree resin that ranges in color from cream through translucent yellow and orange to rich brown. It is considered to be the symbol of the Baltic, a precious gift that many contemporary designers continue to cut. The translucent material is turned into jewelry. Extremely renowned are also traditional ceramics, especially the white and navy-blue crockery lavishly decorated with either flowers or circles.

Poland has also a long tradition of high-quality cut glass-widely known as crystal. There were beautiful wares with delicate patterns on perfectly transparent glass. I had fun doing some window shopping in those narrow streets, crowded with locals and tourists, perhaps avid of finding something special.

As All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) was off the corner, there were candle lanterns of every colour and size on sale, at small markets and stores close to cemeteries. The metal covers of the lanterns help to protect the flames from the wind. Polish people bath the graves in flowers and light. On that night, cemeteries become illuminated landscapes. 

The growing tourist industry will certainly not stop the expansion of Polish crafts…

Of course, Poland still has a far way to go, and next year when they join the European Union changes will certainly come even quicker… I'm curious to learn what will happen….

~~ Thanks for having joined me on such a fantastic visit ~~

MY VISIT TO CRACOW (POLAND) #5 .... SLIDE-SHOW

I think I can say that Polish people have a passion for meat and cabbages. Chicken and pork are very common and generous helpings of vegetables are served with main dishes. Meals usually kick off with a soup, and these encompass with everything from beetroot barszczc to zurek, a white rye soup, sometimes embellished with sausages and potatoes. I had both, and though they were a bit heavy, I did like their taste.

Pierogi, known as dumplings but actually a form of ravioli, are essential in Polish cooking. They can be filled with meat, cheese, cabbage and mushrooms. They tasted good. The same I would not say about smoked cheese made of salted sheep milk. Extremely salty!!!

There are many restaurants, cafés and bars, everywhere. Most of them looked very inviting. Many Poles, of course, have already parted with tradition. Pizza and sushi restaurants are easily found either or not in the city center. Water was often served with a slice of lemon and one or two mint leaves. It looked nice and smelled welcoming. Polish are said to be great consumers of alcoholic beverages but I didn't see anyone drunk. smoked cheese known as oscypek Traditional Polish smoked cheese known as oscypek on barbecue

I believe Poland is a nation with a sweet tooth. There is a wide variety of sweets and cakes but all were sooo sweet. Artificial sweeteners were not common at all. However, I could find them at supermarkets but at a much higher price than in Portugal.

I went to three open-air small markets but they were not very appealing to my wallet.

There were kiosks everywhere, selling from tobacco to vegetables and fruit. Daily shopping must be a hard task, considering that shops are not very much concentrated, which implies time consumption. I was told there were some large supermarkets but I had no opportunity to visit any of those but small ones, only. At the cashier, no plastic or paper bag was given, the reason why, I suppose, I saw everyone carrying a shopping bag. Consumers awareness of environment pollution? Not sure about it...

 

MY VISIT TO CRACOW (POLAND) #4 .... SLIDE-SHOW

Polish people survived a lot of damage: partitions, WWI, only twenty years of freedom and then WWII, years of planned economy (planned with great deal of help from "their friends" - Soviets). It takes and it will take lots of time to finally catch up with West Europe. But people don't want to wait and that's why they leave Poland. There are as many Poles living in Poland as abroad. The Polish diaspora (Polish community abroad) amounts to 40 million and is thus the second largest diaspora in the world, next to that of China. In Poland, the minimum wage is about 6 Zloty (about US$1.8) per hour. I found some products cheaper in Poland than in Portugal, but the products of international companies cost the same everywhere. So, moving abroad means higher standard of living.

Polish people are fair skinned as they belong to the Slavic family. I noticed they have a certain muscular and skeletal formations in their faces that designate a Slavic/Eastern European descent: high cheekbones and a prominent brow with light colored eyes, perhaps an effect of the environment (windy highlands with less sun).

They seemed to be very hearty, sociable and friendly. The younger generation speaks English fluently but older people don’t. They are kind to foreigners and I was often given a seat on the bus or tram. The one characteristic that stood out was how loud they were when talking to each other and the tone of voice used. It sounded like they were having a massive argument when in fact they might be simply talking on trivialities.

The distinctive aspect of the Poles is that the young women seemed to dress to kill (tight jeans, high boots, short skirts). By contrast, I saw many young men dressed like hooligans, and old people all looked like tired (alcoholics?).

I was surprised with the enumerable people walking their dogs. I wondered they did it as a way to maximize their exercise potential or they did it to minimize their loneliness. Anyway, they must be dog lovers and not very fond of cats. In one week, I could see one single cat!!!

All races have their good and bad sides…

MY VISIT TO CRACOW (POLAND) #3 ... SLIDE-SHOW

I loved so much the Jewish district of Kazimierz that I strolled through it twice. Each time, I could almost hear the history of Krakow and its Jews whispering from every corner of this neighborhood: the layout of narrow streets and market squares, little buildings, synagogues, etc.

After the Second World War and the massacre of Jews by the Nazi invaders, Kazimierz was abandoned and for decades fell into ruin. However, thanks to Steven Spielberg, who shot his Oscar-award-winning Schindler’s List here, Kazimierz has emerged as Cracow’s bohemian social life.  It’s a place particularly appreciated by lovers of antiques and by all those who like to discover by themselves the extraordinary character of a district in which for hundreds of years, two nationalities and two great religions coexisted in harmony.

I had time to step into Klezmer-Hois (The House of Klezmer) whose décor and artistic atmosphere evoked the ambience of the pre-war tradition of Jewish Kazimierz.  Nowy Plac, colloquially called ‘the Jewish Square’ is a colorful trading place, with stalls selling from fresh fruit to household products. There is no shortage of places to grab a drink or eat something. Kazimierz has lots of lovely cafes, bars and restaurants.

I passed by the shopping mall, but didn’t go inside it.  I saw some ruined houses in the surroundings of Kazimierz. Each of them surely held a history of people who constructed it, lived there and abandoned it for some reason…

 

MY VISIT TO CRACOW (POLAND) #2... SLIDE-SHOW

   

Today, let's go a bit farther from the old town and visit Nowa Huta (New Steelworks), built from the ashes of World War II. It's everything the Old Town isn't: the result of an absurd political decision to build a steel mill on a fertile land on the outskirts of Cracow. The new socialist city - now integrated in Cracow -  was, among other things, to cause the disintegration of the social structure of Cracow, which was regarded as being on the "landowner/petit bourgeois" model. Air pollution was so high that it was said that when a person walked down the streets in a white shirt, he would return back wearing black!

Walking through this vast Socialist Realist 'gift' from the Soviet Union and constructed to house 100,000 newly-born communist citizens, was an extraordinary experience and so was the dinner at a kind of a local legend, which had been recently refurbished in the original style. Aged over 50, the restaurant once had a statue of Lenin outside. Nowadays, you can see a small one inside. 

Nowa Huta boasts two splendid churches: the monumental St. Wenceslas Church and Cistercian Monastery, dating from the 13th century and the only wooden church in the city, Bartholomew's Church, originally built in the 15th century.

Parks displayed gorgeous autumn colours. Magpies and crows were permanent noisy residents, making me think of the varying degrees of fortune they might bring to people who see them...

 

MY VISIT TO CRACOW (POLAND) #1 ... SLIDE-SHOW

 

After a few hour-layover at Munich airport, I arrived in Cracow, welcomed by a cloudy sky and a low temperature. The airport is not a big one and its original name - Balice - was changed to John Paul II, who spent many years of his life in the city. Mind you, Polish people are very much Catholic and Cracow is dotted with over one hundred churches.

Despite my main purpose of travelling to Cracow - participation in a 'Mind Gym' workshop, sponsored by the European Commission - everyday, I skipped lunch and tried to make the most of the 3-hour break to visit the city. 

Wow, what a cool city! The main Market Square (Rynek Glowny) in the city's Old Town is considered the largest medieval square in Europe. There were easily several thousand people in the square, day and night, eating in cafes, shopping in the stores, taking old-fashioned horse-and-buggy rides around town, and listening/watching the many street performers. It was so much fun just to hang out there!

Of course I visited the Kazimierz, the old Jewish district of Cracow, where there are still many old/preserved synagogues, dating back to the 16th century. I liked it so much that I'll post exclusively about it, soon.

My last evening was spent at the Philharmonica Hall, located in an attractive, historic building. The Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra can be counted as one of the best in Poland. It was the  first philharmonic created in Poland after the Second World War in 1945. An elegant evening to end a fantastic trip!