Leaving Warsaw for Gdansk

Yesterday I left Warsaw after visiting the Jewish Cemetary and the Warsaw Holocaust Memorial. It was a very moving sight and I keep asking myself how this could happen, and why it is happening again in other places. The cemetary itself was a labyrinth of gravestones huddled together in what seemed to be an unkept forest/garden. At times there was a stoneladen path through the cemetary and at other times there was just a faintly visible path. I was scratching my kippah-clad head trying to decipher the Hebrew signs, but in the end I resorted to reading donation plaques written in English, e.g.

"This walkway was donated by the Goldberg family. In loving memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis. George and Mary Goldberg, Massachusetts, USA."

My fellow @ers helped me to buy my ticket in the last minute, Maciek exchanged my Euroes into Slotyz at the local Kantor, and off I went to Gdansk! I had emailed my old trainee Adam Sikorski, but he had not yet responded. That meant I was heading off for a city I didn't know, with a contact whom I did not know how to reach. Fortunately, once I got hold of an internet cafe in Gdansk, I saw the email he had written while I was on the train, and I could get hold of him.

The acrchitecture of Gdansk seems very old, but in reality most of it was rebuilt after WWII. Gdansk was almost totally anhiliated and reconstruction was still going on in the early 90's. Most of the city was rebuilt from historical blueprints, and therefore it has retained it's old-fashioned aura. It's market square and main street are fascinating trips into the past.

While Gdansk is nice and beautiful it obviously lacks the flair and excitement of Warsaw. This bring me to an interesting point. In most of Poland there seems to be feelings of resentment towards Warsaw. Many Poles say that it is dirty, dangerous, unfriendly etc. I tend to disagree, I think it was a wonderful, cosmopolitan, melting pot kind of city! Maybe it's just a classic country vs city thing. I guess we have something similar in Sweden when it comes to Stockholm vs the rest, so to speak.

Tomorrow I will be back in Sweden. After a brief visit at my Parents' I will head of for Stockholm to attend the transition party. It's going to rock!

This is Warzaw, man!

I just woke up in a Warzaw apartment on the 11th floor. I'm staying with Maciek and Justena, two EB members from the Warzaw school of Economics. We have been partying all night, and we're all sufficiently hung over. People around here have been astonishingly hospitable and friendly. I spent all of yesterday sightseeing with Maciek, or Mack as I call him. You know, Polish names are really difficult to pronounce and remember.

Try this:

Malgorzata, is pronounced maui-go-SHATA.
Lodz, is pronounced WHUDCH.

Also, there are numerous of strange shortenings of names, e.g:

Joanna becomes Asia (ASHA)
Gosia becomes Gosiek (go-SHEK)

Gosiek however, seems to be a sweet-sounding dimminuitive, something the Polish language is full of.

Anyways, Warzaw is an amazing city. Back in Poznan most people told me that there wasn't much to see in Warzaw and that the city was ugly. Don't listen to them, Poland's capital has definitely proved them wrong. Me and Maciek saw some amazing stuff yesterday. We went to the Jewish Ghetto which has been saved and protected. The alleys are narrow and you can still see the bullet holes in the wall. All the painful history was permeating the air.

After strolling around for a while we reached the Nozyk Synagogue. Both me and Maciek put kippahs on our heads and entered the building. I have never seen a synagogue before so for me it was really exciting. In the synagogue an old man speaking a mix of English, German and Polish approaches us. He tells us about the synagogue and his own strange fate. Being born in Poland he was exiled and spent time in prison in America, Germany and Israel. The fate of the synagogue itself is as strange as anything. When the Nazis took Warzaw they turned the synagogue into a stable. I was standing there, looking at the huge David's star on the wall and it struck what an evil thing it is to turn a religious place into a stable. The symbolism of doing that is just plain evil.

Because of Warzaw's eventful history, the purpose and content of many buildings have been changed and with that the symbolism exuded. The old Communist party HQ has now been replaced witht the Warzaw Stock Exchange. The symbolism of that is just mind-blowing! In your face commies! Free markets are here to save the day!

However, all the different episodes of Warzaw history is still clearly visible in the city landscape. Not everything was remade every time the city was invaded or destroyed. All in all the city is a mix between communist boxes, postmodern glass scyscrapers and old classical buildings. And the whole picture is just very exhalirating

Warzaw, I love you!

Travelling throughout Poland

I'm in Poznan, one of Poland's biggest cities. During the weekend I attended a Local Conference. Lots of cool local member and a bunch of amazing trainees. All in all I'm extremely impressed by @ in Poland! When it comes to things like PboXes they have acocmplished things that it will take us years to do in Sweden.

What strikes me most is the time that @ers have available to spend on @. It was the same in Turkey, people are sitting days on end in the office just working. In Sweden that unfortunately not the case. Swedes are extremely rushed and when the Poles have 7-hour (no kidding!) EB-meetings, we have to finish all our business in 45 minutes, while eating lunch! On the other hand, this makes us very effective compared to Poles or Turks. But what it all comes down to is that @ in Sweden is more focused on work than on having fun.

In general Poland has surprised me. I had expected it to be colder, greyer and poorer, that is; more Soviet-ish. Even though the living standard is quite low, and the men in the street resemble Swedish skinheads, the general feeling is warm and friendly! I think that a lot of westerners (including me!) need to update their notions about Poland. It's a shame that so few people want to travel here for vacation or traineeships.

Back to my travel plans! Tomorrow I will be taking the train to Warzaw to visit the old Jewish Ghetto, enter my first Synagogue and visit the Grave of the unknown Soldier. I look forward to see all that. Hopefully I will have some time to drink some Lech beer with the local @ers!

On the 30th of June I will take the ferry from Gdynia to Karlskrona, and the morning after I will be back in Sweden. Some of you I will see at the Transition party in Stockholm!

Czesc!