Starting my Polish Holiday

Changing realities is a bit disorientating. I have done it few times in the last two weeks. I may be using too grandiose term for my situation, but this is how it felt for a while. Leaving Sydney, I stepped into a “being in the air” bubble.  This is how I feel when I travel between Australia and Europe – I step into a different reality than my usual day to day life. This is my way to cope with a very long flight.

When I landed in Warsaw I entered another world. This was the world of my dear friends who took care of me in the first week in Poland. I was fed five times a day (much too much by my standards) and I enjoyed the indulgence forced upon me. I ate plenty of bread and potatoes, food that is very seldom on my menu in Sydney. This may not sound very special, but it was to me.  Sure, there were many other things to choose from, but they seemed less attractive than the forbidden fruits of fantastic Polish carbohydrates.

I was socialising 7X24 (or close to it) during the time in Warsaw. This was another substantial change to my usual life style. And again, I enjoyed the change very much even if at times it was a bit tiring (tiring to both sides, I imagine). This seemed to be another reality to me.

A week later I was on my way to Gdansk, yet another reality. I have been here for less than one week, but it feels “normal” already. Looks that I got accustomed to changing environments even if the beginning was quite disorientating.  So, I am back in my Gdansk place, the place I will call home for the next three months. I feel happy here and I intend to make the best of my stay here and promise myself to stay away from those tempting carbohydrates.

I love my life in Australia and my real home is there, and yet being in Poland touches some nostalgic strings and makes me feel that many of my important interests lie in Poland. This revolves mostly around cultural issues. I love atmosphere of old towns, their architecture including churches. For many people churches are boring, but not so for me. They typically contain architectural gems, paintings, sculptures, frescoes and such. It all adds up to this specific churchy atmosphere that I love.

I also notice a little different attitude to music, books, theatre and social life. Some of it I very much like the Polish way. I see more reverence for cultural life in Poland than I observe in Australia. It may be only superficial, but I like people dressing up for theatre, concerts or opera. I admit, there is some formality about it. This maybe unnecessary, but for me it is nice even if on two recent occasions, I was the one who was under-dressed.

During my two weeks in Poland I started strongly my cultural life and attended two events. One was the Closing of the Season Concert in the Warsaw Philharmonic and the second Nabuco by Verdi in the Gdansk Opera House.

The place seemed smaller than I remembered it

                         

When I entered the Warsaw Philharmonic the memories came back with the strength. I used to be a regular concert goer and this was the place I visited most often. Memories of my past concert companions brought some nice feelings and some sad ones. So many people disappeared from my life…

The view of Warsaw Philharmonic still moves me when I approach it

                                  

The first part of the concert was a little disappointing as the Cello Concerto of Elgar was played not as well as I had expected.  Gustav Mahler’s early cantata was a different story. It has been many years since I heard Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and I think we both, the choir and I, matured over the years. The choir even got a Grammy Award the last year. Looks that my maturing was of a different kind, as there are no awards in this discipline. It was a great concert finishing with a lot of clapping, flowers, speeches to farewell the retiring musicians and celebrating the famous choir. Great evening to file in my memory.

I did not intend to write reviews of concerts or operas, so I stop here. I only wanted to illustrate some aspects of my life during the Polish holiday.

This post is really to mark my returning to blogging, so soon I will write more.