What do you know???

The Polish president will veto two of the three controversial laws, the laws that would have finally buried Polish democracy.  Wow, I am shocked! This is a very quick and emotional post. I am just leaving for a spa in few minutes, no time for writing and even no time for thinking. It makes me happy though. Can I trust this verdict? We'll see, but my choice for now is to feel positive about the event.

Time to shake off the blues

Frankly, I cannot see any changes in the circumstances I was bothered by, the other day writing my previous post. So, I thought that I ask my stoic bible for advice. I do not like this feeling of sadness and lack of control and I want to change it. Will it work? I hope so.

Mark Aurelius said that we do not have to give in to negative feelings like sadness or frustration. We may not have influence over the circumstances, but we have influence over our feelings and reactions. OK, I know the theory and I agree with it, but to make this necessary change is rather difficult. But if I do not make the necessary change in my mood, I am told that I am not true to myself, that I do not use the opportunities that are just at the stretch of the hand. That I waste opportunity to live better. Hmm…

Another thought, this time Seneca is the author of the wisdom, is that a wise person must not wait for the external bad circumstances to be resolved before the happy life can be lived.  It is shameful to wait with leading a happy and full life till whatever is bad at the moment passes or gets resolved. It is silly to expect that there will come the moment when everything is perfect and then we can spread our wings. This will never happen and we would waste our life waiting in vain for a perfect situation.

This is the theory, I intend to apply to my day and practice it. Will I manage? Maybe?? I feel a little better already.

Things look a little bleak

I have not been posting for a while and this is not because I do not have time to write. I have not been in the best of spirits, and this is quite an understatement. There a number of reasons for it. The weather is not uplifting to say the least. This has had impact on my mood and my well-being. Generally speaking, I do not feel well.

The political situation in the country is very depressing and there is no hope for a change. Polish government is doing its best to upset the EU and force Brussels to impose penalties on Poland. This most likely will eventually lead to Poland either being expelled or leaving the Union on its own accord claiming that it does not intend to be ruled by foreign powers. Political events are moving like a tsunami changing the old democratic order dramatically. As of yesterday, there is no independent jurisdiction. Today, we all woke up in a new reality. Sad, very sad. I can imagine the consequences of the current event and it looks very bleak to me. The people protests are massive and very moving, but in my opinion futile.

The Chain of Light protests outside the Courthouse in Warsaw. The light represents respect and sadness for outgoing democratic rules and hope for the future

                          

This is rather marginal and inconsequential, but few days ago the visit of Mr Trump in Poland was another reason to feel depressed. The visit was considered by some a great success, everything worked very well and the presidents of both countries were happy with the outcome. Mr. Trump laid superlatives towards Poland and Polish history so thick that it was too superficial even for American standards. Of course, he did not mean any of what he was saying and most likely even did not understand it. The sad thing about it is, that Polish crowds were lapping it up, cheering enthusiastically thinking that Poland and its history are eventually appreciated and understood. As the country is falling down some see it as uplifting future. I want to be the one who is wrong. How much I would like to be the one to be in the wrong!

While I have no influence on weather and politics and not that much on my health situation, I have all the control over that I read. And here, I made a wrong choice some ten days ago. For an while, if not for always, I read books to find answers to the questions: What is it all about? How to live well?  The most uplifting books I have found so far are books based stoic philosophy. This time I chose The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Bad choice. Not that the book is bad, far from it, but it is so dark in its mood and conclusions that it will take some effort to shake all the negativity off.

                                                                 

I do not intend to write about the content of the book this time, but I would like to write about the reason why I decided to read it. It was a fashionable book some years ago, but it somehow did not appeal to me then. Medieval times did not turn me on, they are still not my favourite times in history. I see too many frightening similarities between those times and some aspects of the current days.  As I perhaps mentioned earlier, books in Poland are published with much more care than their equivalents in other countries. I found this beautiful book in one of the many books stores in Gdansk and I could not resist buying it. The next step was to read it. The first 100 “boring” pages were intended by the author to check out the reader and his intention to go beyond the crime story that the book is known for. I passed the test and got sucked into the gloom and doom, cruelty, fanaticism, falseness of religious intentions and all that negative stuff. Mea Culpa! and my depression.

There is a Polish radio program where they always ask participants two questions: what is good and what is bad in the current situation. I have answered the second question comprehensively, the first one is a bit trickier today, but I have an answer! The conversion rate from Aussie dollars to Polish zloty improved in my favour! 

What Poles Drink Today

Poles always had reputation of being excessive drinkers. I agree that there was a lot of over drinking especially among people with insufficient financial means and education. One could often see in the morning “yesterday’s men” struggling from one lamp post to the next. Perhaps the last night they were drowning their sorrows or celebrating some occasion. I sometimes think that they drunk that much to forget the reality too difficult to cope with when sober? Difficult to say. Maybe the climate? Maybe the Slavic soul?

I just finished the fifth part of Knausgard’s My Struggle. This is a material for another post perhaps, but for now I just wanted to write about Scandinavian drinking or rather over drinking. Young Karl Ove, the author, in his twenties, is almost permanently drunk and so are his friends and colleagues. In drunken fits, they behave in a way that so called civilised society would definitely disapprove of. They are all educated and sensitive people without any real financial problems. Their protective government takes care of that. And they drink, it seems, more than proverbial Pole. Existential angst? Climate? Youth? I am defending the reputation of Poles a bit and perhaps quite unnecessarily, especially that this is not what I want to write about this time.  Anyhow, for the last few years I have not seen in Poland a man with a visible hangover. Maybe the drinking problem is solved or maybe drinking moved into homes and now in invisible.

Being curious (maybe not exactly insatiably, but curious nevertheless) I started to wonder what Poles drink those days.

I observed that they drink more wine and with a better understanding of the pleasure wine may bring. I still have some problems with being served white wine that is too warm for me or any wine that is not really dry. I may be served semi-dry wine because I am a woman and “ladies prefer more delicate taste”?  Still, the wine culture is already here and there are many real wine connoisseurs around.

There are specialised shops selling alcohol, but any small supermarket or even a little corner shop typically is licenced and has a comprehensive selection of wine, bear, vodka, whisky etc.

Loyalty cards are quite popular here so I have my Polish selection of such cards. There is a wine shop card among them. I noticed that sales people in Poland are typically more knowledgeable in relation to what they sell than their Aussie counterparts, so I started to ask for advice and opinion quite often. Doing some alcohol shopping in my friendly wine shop, I engaged into a little discussion with the salesman. He told me some interesting stories about wine making in certain regions and at some stage I have asked him the question “what people drink in Poland those days and what is really in fashion”. The answer came immediately and without hesitation: PROSECCO and PRIMITIVO. Both Italian wines, hmm… This is in Poland loving France and French since forever… 

                                

This explained why Aperol Spritz is on the menu of two little restaurants around the corner. I must say that I live in a quiet neighbourhood not known for restaurants. The first day in Gdansk going to the local restaurant of a suggestive and worrying name Italian Job I noticed to my surprise Aperol Spritz on the menu. Since one of my Sydney friends, Karon, tells me and all her Facebook friends, that the day when she has an Aperol Spritz is a good day, I thought that it would be proper to make this day good one for me as well. I ordered the drink. After some minutes, distressed waitress comes to our table saying that they ran out of Aperol, but tomorrow they will definitely have it. I have not tested it yet, but I might, even if I doubt  the preparation of the drink will meet my standards. Or rather Karon’s standards that I share.

                                                   

I also found out from my young Polish friends that whisky should not be any Johnny Walker or even Jack Daniels thing. It should be a single malt whisky with some serious years of maturing!  Obviously, this is not a drink to get drunk on as a Pole, unless money is not an object. But even than one perhaps is not anybody who’s anybody. Times have changed…

                                                    

So Prosecco, Primitivo and single malt whisky! This is what Poles drink today.