Harvest Festival, Wasabi Sauce and Guy Fawkes

Sunday (19th) I was invited to a Harvest Festival by one of the teachers and husband from school and being a curious chap I couldn't refuse. Held in Spała, which is 60 km south east of Łódź. Dożynki is the name for the festival but this year it was an extra special Presidential Dożynki, with Bronislaw Komorowski who has recently replaced Lech Kaczysnki, who died earlier this year in a fatal lane crash.

The setting was a quiet rural village, with beautiful surrounding forests and lakes, plus a also rather lovely wooden church, still in good shape after 100s of years. But upon entering we were met with a seemingly over the top Police presence, which caused the roads to be closed in the area until the President had smiled, waved and said thank you to everyone, and then left. Apart from this, it was enjoyable to see the vibrant costumes and dances from representives of many districts of Poland, each district having their specific wreaths, songs and costumes (see photos for details) I managed to find some traditional vegan food, one was a type of pastry with mashed cabbage and mushroom, and of course pickles and bread. There was also a local brewery represented there, Koreb, my favourite of the two I had was the Herbowl, a dark pilsner but with rich tastes, to those of cinammon and ginger.

Monday (20th) was a return to school and becoming involved in assisting and teaching during class hours. Afterwards I met a local lover of all things fast and noisy, Tomas,  we made plans to start making a band together, discusssing Anarchism and strange music, we were at Peron 6, a small beer bar in Piotrkowska Street, selling a large selection of world beers, my favourite being the Russian Baltika.

 Warsaw Uprising shield

Tuesday (21st) I conducted my first after school class as part of the English Club. We had a lesson and made posters for Guy Fawkes night, learnt about its Pagan roots, fireworks, Bonfires and the traditions on the 5th November for this occassion. I was met with one baffling question, "Is it true that they burn babies on these bonfires?" I later met with some dudes for a session of vegan Sushi and going through the unbearable torture that Wasabi sauce can sometimes bring, but I gather it's good for you, always pleasing to see anybody pull a daft face. Plus a lesson in more (there can never be enough) Polish punk, which you can see some clips of in the post above. A poster with "Animals die to keep your fat ass alive" also made me smile, drawn by a vegan from Kazakhstan, and no, I've never known of vegans from Kazakhstan either.