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POLAND

Sunday, October 07, 2001 8:59 AM
Poland is great!

We pulled into G'dansk after a night sleeping on the train (with no real problems--just some mental fantasy scenarios by me: e.g. mental preparations for what to do if i suddenly saw knock-out gas seeping in under the door to our compartment, misty and floating up; well, i'd pee on my t-shirt and hold it to my nose because i heard that that's what some guys did in WWI to combat the gases, i think the urine won't let the gas penetrate, and then when the thief poked his head in to start plundering the passed-out passengers, i'd kick him in the head and take his gas mask. i thought that'd be a neat souvenir. but we had no trouble.)

so we dropped our luggage off in the train station and walked around a bit, and saw the downtown section of the city, and a few museums (there's a lot of nice inlaid wood cabinets, a lot of amber--carved, or raw with "organic inclusions" like tiny lizards or insects) and a huge medieval crane, and a medieval mill, and it felt like i was bleeding zloty's, spending on this and that, but then i did the conversion and everything's dirt cheap here! the hostel we stayed at in g'dansk cost about US$4 each for a night, and we got a meal of a big bowl of soup, a bun with meat and cheese, a bottled drink, and 3 polish fried things for about $2.

what's really amazing is that in a number of places we've been, things were decimated after the war and they've rebuilt it in the old style, and they look great! we visited a castle south of g'dansk which is huge and made of small red brick. we climbed to the top tower and saw some of the reconstruction process because the chapel part is still in progress of reconstructing (10 year plan). amazing stuff.

warsaw wasn't as impressive as the rest--partly because between 80-90% of the city was flattened completely after the war; in parts the rebuilt sections are great but it doesn't flow as a whole city. here in krakow--which was relatively untouched during the war--it's stunning. we've had days of sunshine and combined with the architecture and parks, it's all anyone could ask for. we walked around in t-shirts today and soaked it all in. we ate in a restaurant (just beside this internet cafe, actually) which is deep in the bowels of the earth--it felt like we were descending into a cave on these stone steps, with red brick arches above us, underneath the buildings. high on atmosphere there, except they didn't quite use it to it's full potential: they played brian adams and roxette on the speakers. the cathedrals are all still quite breathtaking, and i've fallen in love with stained glass. the one in g'dansk reputedly has a crucifix for which the artist nailed his son-in-law to a cross as a model, but it was in a side chapel which was closed to the public at the time so we couldn't see it. they all seem to have ancient artifacts in them, on the walls and along the sides.

it's also great to see all this armor and medieval arms and weapons, and the art. i found a polish artist that i really like in a warsaw museum (Tadeusz Makowski). i got my portrait drawn by a little old man in warsaw and me and pat had to hold in the laughter because it's so bad that it's funny.
later on, we were getting juice at the corner store and an old man came up to talk to us, and after 5 minutes (now that we're friends) he asks for some money, and since i don't want to just give him money, i had him draw patrick's portrait. it turned out quite well! better than mine. :)

the only gripes are relatively small--when my moustache gets caught in my teeth and when patrick snores. here's a few catch phrases that we've been tossing around the last little while,s o you can get a flavour:

"It's more food in the belly." -- used when something is unexpectedly free or very cheap, often accompanied by an index finger pointing to the stomach repeatedly. short form drops the first word, to become: ". . .more food in the belly."

"I don't mind helping the Polish economy." -- used to justify a splurge or an impulse purchase. Short forms include ". . .helping the Polish economy." or simply, ". . .the Polish economy." For instance, today we were in such high spirits we began spending all our cash on hand without thinking too hard about the fact that we'll have to carry our purchases in our packs for some time yet. Spending all our cash-in-hand, we turn to each other and say simultaneously, ". . .the Polish economy and all." no, we didn't buy anything too big, and we did manage to refrain from buying the relatively large wooden chess sets we were eye'ing. (they had a cool 3-way board, too).

oh, an interesting note: we managed to put those glasses that we "purchased" from the guy in rotterdam, who took us for 30 guilders. Patrick got lenses of his prescription inserted in the frame (for about $20!). that's all for now! we've still got a bit of a castle/cathedral to see here tomorrow.

Hope all is well, and keep in touch.

Happy Thanksgiving!

laryn and patrick