Warm weather lifestyle

When I stop and think I have to envy myself the lifestyle I lead lately. It is now spring in full swing in Sydney and I still vividly remember spring in Poland which finished for me only three months ago. Maybe I do not envy as it is about myself I am thinking about but I should and I do feel grateful that I am able to live two springs a year. 

I am not a skier, hence I do not miss the cold weather, red nose, frozen hands and feet or snow in its slosh consistency. I can live very happily without it. Sure, there are some beautiful winter landscapes, there are times when snow is fresh and white making the world so quiet that you feel like wrapped up in cotton wool. Only if you think that in Poland winter lasts five to seven months and the beautiful white snow lasts maybe one or two days during the whole period you get less enthusiastic about living through the full four seasons.

This is a good version of Polish winter, but, boy, it was cold!

At the end of April the Northern Europe wakes up with colours and smells of spring. First come pussy willows as the symbol of future change in weather. You can get them in flower shops and they are also sold in streets by small entrepreneurs running their not fully legal small businesses at street corners.

My Polish favourite spring flower - lilac

Reminiscing I recall the time when walking though still a snowy park in Warsaw I was stopped by a reporter needing a spring picture for a newspaper. It was March, rather cold and I was wrapped up in a sheep coat. I was handed in a bunch of pussy willow branches, asked to smile,somebody took a picture of me, I got a nice thank you and the next day the 22nd or 23^rd of March, the first day of spring I saw my picture on the first page of an equivalent to Sydney Morning Herald with the caption “Warsaw spring, still in a heavy coat but already with bunch of pussy willow branches”.  What glory days they were... I wish I kept the newspaper cutting.

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Coming back to reality and 2014 in Australia, I returned from Poland at the end of August and was able to welcome Australian spring on the 1^st of September. I like the simplified way of starting seasons here. One does not have to remember if it should be  20ies, 21^st, 22nd or 23rd of March. Astronomy does not practice simple solutions. This year 2014 Northern spring equinox was on March 20, but I had to check it to make such a statement. 

Travelling through Australia this year I saw spring at its best, the Southern Hemisphere style. Wattles, in my mind, are an Aussie symbol of spring and I saw many of them this year. The suburban streets of Sydney are lined with azaleas and my favourite wisterias.  Different flowers, different smells, different beauty. I am so lucky I can observe and enjoy both of the spring editions.

My Australian favourite spring flower - wattle

After a break

After such a very long break in posting as mine it is very difficult to resume.  It is time thought. I am not sure if anybody missed my writing, but I did. This is a good reason enough to start again.

I am back in Australia, my home. It is really emotionally complicated for me having two homes, two home countries and loving them both even if in a different way. Some of my friends consider me lucky to be in such a situation. And I am grateful that I can taste and understand the two so different cultures. Poland is always more dramatic and the current situation is not, what I call, safe for Poles. There are many good things that happen there if one forgets Mr Putin for a while.

Some time ago I wrote about the Polish Prime Minister. I am very proud now that he will be the President of the European Council for the next five years. Great and well deserved recognition.

This is just a “let’s get me going again” post. I even do not have a proper subject for my writing today. I just wanted to make a move in the right direction. 

Remembering Warsaw Uprising 1944

I am still in Poland and a lot is happening here but I was sidetracked by some health issues so I am writing with some delay about a very complex Polish historical issue. I am not quite sure if I managed to sort it out for myself already but my thoughts are a bit more clear. I am talking about the Warsaw Uprising of the first of August 1944. This year is a big anniversary and a big discussion on the subject. I was brought up on literature, films and propaganda presenting images of those horrible times. There were many years when communistic propaganda did not allow true presentation of the events and their meaning. Home Army was the Polish resistance movement in German-occupied Poland in allegiance with Polish Government-in-Exile. They organised and fought in the Warsaw Uprising. The communistic regime was on the other  side of political spectrum and very critical about anything related to the Home Army. This is putting it very mildly as there were times when people associated with the Home Army were considered an enemy of the communistic system and were savagely persecuted after the war the same  as by Germans during the war.

The uprising started at 5pm (W Hour) on the 1^st of August 1944. Every year sirens of Warsaw joined by hooting cars lament in memory of the tragic times. Actually more and more towns freeze for one minute to remember and pay respect to those who so willingly gave their lives in attempt to free Poland.

                     

For many years I just thought it was patriotic, tragic and unsuccessful but I did not judge. Later I became angry that the Uprising was called at all. It was doomed to fail and the young people, children really, were called to form an unarmed army. They were sent to a certain death by politicians in London and Home Army superiors. I was angry that 200,000 people died in the senseless fights, that they were so young, many in their teens, that Warsaw was destroyed in carpet bombing to punish the nation. I was angry at the willingness of Poles to die in romantically patriotic senseless uprisings. There were many of them in Polish history. All but one lost. 

                                     

I still am angry at that, but I have learnt to see the need to pay tribute to the people who gave their lives and I do not protest any more that there is so much fuss over the anniversary of the 1^st of August. 

Thank you Poland!

This is how the president  Obama closed his speech  he gave in Warsaw the last week. It was in front of the Royal Castle on the 25^th anniversary of Poland’s Freedom Day. It was a very special speech for many Poles and it includes me. The celebrations were broadcasted almost the whole day. I watched and listen and wondered if I heard Obama right. I never expected so many positive words being addressed to Poland and her people. Suddenly the nation bacame better than sliced bread. Not that I think it was not deserved. I always thought that Solidarity had not got enough credit for demise of communism in Europe.  I think what Obama said was sincere even if political in its nature. But what else could have been coming from a politician. The speech was really well written with deep understanding of Polish psyche and history. Every word of Obama resonated with sensitivity of Poles. Mine as well. Poles are sentimental and emotional (among other more practical characteristics). The speech pleased those sentiments. Watching the event and seeing President Komorowski visibly moved and teary I thought about my father who was a very strong and practical man but he would most likely cry a bit if he could here Obama. Tears were definitely in the Polish president eyes even if discrete. It was even more evident in the case of the president’s wife.

                           

                                  

                             

Back to the speech. It started here! Obama said. Yes, I always thought that abolishing of Communism started in Poland, specifically in my newly adopted home town, Gdansk. But the Berlin Wall is better known and became a symbol of the new political beginning. Now, Obama gave Poland credit. It may not be long remembered by the world, but for me it was important to hear such words from the American president. There was an event in Polish history called Miracle at the Vistula. It was when Poland defeated the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw, an event that have halted the advance of the Communism into Europe and forced Lenin to revise his expansive plans. Obama referred to it and called the events of 25 years back another Miracle at the Vistula. Vistula is the main Polish river running from very south of Poland to Gdansk at the north.

Obama’s command of Polish accent was impressive. You would not say about Polish the same as someone unjustly said about Danish - is not a language it’s a throat disease. But you cannot accuse Polish to have easy pronunciation. Mr Obama said many Polish words in his speech with impressive correctness.

It was a very emotional and happy day for many Poles not only because of the speech but...

Thank you President Obama!

Life in Polish Spa - Busko-Zdrój

 

Coat of arms of Busko-Zdrój - it has reputation of being a sunny place 

Busko-Zdrój is a Polish health resort. The health resorts are very different in Poland to what an Australian person may imagine, unless the person has read some novels about spa life in the XIX and beginning of XX century. Health resort here is about slow, non-sporty life. There are tennis courts but I have not seen anyone playing on them as yet. Mind you, I have been here only four days.

When I think about a spa I imagine ladies in flimsy dresses, hats with big rims carrying lacy umbrellas. In my imagination, they either take a walk down shady alleys protecting their complexion from unwanted sun, sipping their spa waters. They are surrounded by admirers or sit in coffee places smoking cigarettes in long cigarette holders, drinking their aperitifs. To me an old fashioned spa is flappers territory. I am not sure if my romantic imagination did not take me in a wrong direction, though. Spas were also places to cure people who were not well or at least thought they needed extra attention. Leaving my imagination populated by beautiful, flirty flappers aside, I will move on to my observations and experience of the last four days.

Current Europe, Poland included, is more egalitarian than in was in the period between the World Wars however there are two social categories of guests here. People who stay in elegant and expensive sanatoria and people who stay in rented rooms belonging to the locals. The first group eats in their canteens which are sometimes elegant and sometimes not so much. The second group has a choice where they want to go for their meals or they may want to prepare some of it themselves. However what two of the groups have in common are health treatments. All guests take sulphide or iodide-bromide baths, drink curative waters from natural springs, take inhalations, massages, compresses, water jets and similar. This needs to be supervised by a doctor, so the first day in a Polish spa starts with a visit to a doctor who chooses appropriate treatments. Typically people are prescribed 2-4 treatments per day. A day here starts early, my day today started with a massage at 7am, it was followed by a sulphide baths which is supposed to be good for one and cures many ailments then inhalations completed my today’s spa program. It all finished before 9.00 a.m. Obviously, I had a good planner organising my treatments.

I am here with my friend who has some health interest in this particular spa. I accompany her for fun mainly as I do not have problems Busko specialises in curing. Its waters and climate address different problems. However, I am here in a good company, having fun with my student friend and I was not about to miss out on the Busko routine while here. Just in case any of the readers think of curing some rheumatic or bone related problems, Busko-Zdrój is the place to do it.   You can have cure and fun for two weeks for less than $200. Plus accommodation and food which may vary a bit but averages $400 for a fortnight.

More exclusive sanatorium option is under $2000 per fortnight.

As I will be here for a while, I will continue with the spa subjects a bit more later. You may wonder what one does with the rest of the days here. There are walks, plenty of restaurants and coffee places to visit, dancing at night and chatting with neighbours or people met at various sanatoria. I expect that there is a degree of gossiping as holiday romances flourish.

Pleasures for older generation

And for the younger ones

I have not mentioned that, age average of the spa visitors is definitely 50+.

Linden trees are in bloom!

It is only lately that I started to notice beauty and details of nature. Trees and flowers open up a new way of experience to me. Well, it is the time in my life to smell the roses. This could be it. Now, that I spend the most beautiful months of the year in Poland I notice its nature in a different, more profound way.

Lindenstrasse today

I suppose I always liked linden trees as they are typically lining up streets making them look like alleys. This effect I always admired. However, I have learnt to notice more than that. Right now linden trees are in bloom. The flowers are not very showy as far as the visual side is concerned but they smell divine.

The street next to the house I stay in when in Poland used to be called  before the II World  War Lindenstrasse. At that time Gdansk was called Danzig and was The Free City of Danzig, half Polish, half German.

The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (today Gdańsk) and surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920^[1][2] in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

The German name of the street was fully justified  by the presence of the trees and I am sorry that the name has been changed after the war to the name of Julian Tuwim, a Polish poet. While I love Tuwim’s poems, I would much preferred the exact translation from the old German name. More appropriate in my opinion as the linden trees are still  it their old place.

It is nice and warm at the moment in Gdansk and my windows are open most of the time. The smell of the trees comes to my place which is perfumed with linden fragrance. Lovely...

Poland and the 3rd of May

Poland and the 3^rd of May

So I am in Poland, came yesterday and am still going through adjusting to the new time, the new place, new customs, new language and a new situation all together. I woke up at the proverbial 3:00 am but for me it was still Australian 1pm, the time difference is 8 hours now. And a nice surprise, at least for me as I like white nights. It was light already! This will be improving, meaning the light will last longer and longer till 23^rd of June.

Sometimes my important life events coincide with globally important days of my nations Poland and Australia. I arrived in Australia at the Australia Day, some years later I became an Australian also on the 26^th of January, returned to Poland on the day when the country joined European Union and this time I arrived on the very long weekend of the 1^st of May, The Day of Polish Flag and 123rd anniversary of Polish Constitution. Some more history  on the subject from Wikipedia.

The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was drafted between October 6, 1788, and May 3, 1791, when it was adopted as a "Government Act" by the Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch).

The constitution sought to supplant the prevailing anarchy, fostered by some of the country's magnates, with a more democratic constitutional monarchy. It introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It banned pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which had put the Sejm at the mercy of any single deputy who could choose, or be bribed by an interest or foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by that Sejm.

British historian Norman Davies describes the document as "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other historians call it the world's second oldest codified national constitution after the U.S. Constitution, which had come into effect on March 4, 1789. The 1791 document remained in force for only 14 months and 3 weeks. Yet, despite the King's capitulation, the Second Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1793), and the 1795 demise of Poland, the Constitution of May 3, 1791, was seen over the next 123 years as an important step toward the eventual restoration of Poland's sovereignty. In the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, it was "the last will and testament of the expiring Country."

I woke up this morning in an unfamiliar,familiar place, straight to the kitchen to switch my small TV on and: YOU GET UP, WE INFORM! My favorite TV channel TVN24 and my favorite journalist Jarosław Kuźniar, even dressed the way I like it, sports shirt and a jacket, relaxed and suave. This morning he is sporting Polish colours in his lapel, it is the 3^rd of May after all. The day started well!

Next to me a big bunch of tulips and a cup of tea, life is good even when I am in Poland.