Family visit, All Saints', 'on your bike', 'no, tak!' and more cake.

As you can tell, the blog has been left a bit dormant recently in terms of updates, over a month now, so I'll start many weeks ago to Thursday 28th October...

Pizza in Warsaw

My dad, mum and younger brother arrived into Łódź on 28th October. A first for my brother and dad, though my mum had been to Poland nearly 18 years ago, in search of a friend's relative's grave, albeit her visit this time probably contained more tea and cake. Other than visiting the musts in Łódź, this time around being; Manufaktura, Cinematography Museum, the Katedra and Orthodox churches on Piotrkowska, the Textile Museum and enjoying the many bars on Piotrkowska we also made a day visit to Warsaw. Initially, getting lost on our way to the Warsaw Uprising Museum, the tired legs were a small price to pay for this great museum. Unfortunatley, I don't have the time, space and extensive knowledge to explain the full extent of the Warsaw Uprising, Wikipedia gives a good run down and I gather Norman Davies' 'Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw' is one of the best accounts on this significant piece of contemporary Polish history. The museum employs a great wealth of; knowledge, first hand accounts, reports, videos, photos, interviews and reconstructions to document the heroic, yet bitter event.

Warsaw Uprising

We made a quick visit to Warsaw's old town (stare miasto) and marvelled in the great feat of reconstruction work and beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Finding the Warsaw Uprising monument and statue, we found it had placed on it candles and wreathes in anticipation of the upcoming All Saints' Day on November 1st.

All Saints' Day

All Saints' Day is a national holiday in Poland and celebrated in similar ways in many Eastern European countries. A Catholic tradition in which there is an encouragement on remeberance for those that have died. Be it family, friends, heroes or historic figures. Graves and cemeteries are littered and overflowing with candles, wreathes and flowers. Yet with my lack of religious faith, I understood the day's significance and would be happy to do something similar, wherever I am next year on this day.

Wednesday 10th November was the national Comenius Assistants meeting in Warsaw, for all those European Assistants working in Poland. This was a chance to; learn more about the Polish Education system, meet other assistants, share experiences, thoughts and feelings, learn some Polish and create links for further communication. And the day was just that! I was lucky enough to meet people from; Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Turkey and Romania. And to many people's puzzlement, I am the only British Assistant working in Poland.

Comenius Assistants

The following day, 11th November, was another national holiday for Poland, this time being Independence Day. Arguably, Poland's most signifcant day in the calender, it is also a time to reflect on Poland's turbulant history. On Tuesday 9th, different groups of pupils from the school did a short history of Poland presentation, which was a delight. They provided a short history lesson with; singing, drama and speeches, including the school anthem, something I've never known of in British schools. For one of the classes I did a small presentation on Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom; remebering the war dead, the two minutes silence and poppy wearing. I also made sure to mention that many people wear white poppies in a hope to end all wars in the future.

Homework from the pupils

I also did a small lesson in different ways of saying yes and no in English. From; of course, certaintly, help yourself, without a doubt and no problem to; I doubt it, maybe later, unlikely, I don't think so and on your bike. Safe to say they were amused and the following week they gave me the same lesson in Polish. See the photo attached. Jest spoko i jasne! No baa!

One rule to remember when visiting Poland is that no means yes. You will often people hear people saying 'No, tak,' in agreement, and it still confuses me.

Poznań

Poznań

It is also key to note that during a national holiday of grand importance, it is often not the best time to travel long distances on public transport. With a great travel companion, we started our epic journey to the western city of Poznań. Our aim was to see Icelandic musician, a friend, Olafur Arlands and sight see some of the city. First downfall came with the buses from Łódź running at different times to the ones stated on the timetable. Secondly, we got on a train which we thought was going to Kutno, for our connection to Poznań, ending up west, but south west, and on the wrong train. After my friend had a feverent discussion in Polish with the conductor, he let us pay the difference and suggested an alternative route to Poznań. On our arrival to city, with the name I forget, we discovered that our connection to Poznań was going to be at a later time. Due to the national holiday. In a vain attempt to get there quicker, we tried a spot of hitchiking. My friend had acquired a Polish flag and we wrote 'POZNAŃ' in bright green pen on white section.Though this didn't help us either, the only attention we got was from passers by telling us to move to better spots. Back to the train station, we eventually made it to Poznań, slightly later than expected. We still manged to see Oli and the majority of his set, the several encores and to meet him after the gig to talk about; music, touring and mutual friends. Further crystalizing the feeling that the world is getting smaller and smaller. We also had a few problems with accomodation, but luckily we were saved by a very lovely and hospitable Couchsurfer, who cooked the most incredible food. Very impressive for a self proclaimed vegan cooking virgin.

CAKE

The following day, November 12th, we saw some of the old town, the famous goats and another spectacular chruch. One of the highlights was a bite to eat at the Eco Cafe (Eko Wiarnia), a cosy, homely, lovely little place selling a delicious range of vegetarian and vegan food. Including some incredible oat, chocolate and raspberry cake, see photo attached. And, yes, it's vegan.

End note:

Olafur Arlands (Iceland) and his lovely group of musicians (one of them from Chorley, very nice!) play touching and haunting modern minimalism, with emphasis on simplistic harmonic lines and phrases. With the live show including sampling, syncopated glitched beats and animations. His recent album, '...And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness' is rather nice indeed. Check out 'Haust', from one his earlier albums, 'Variations of Static'.