Wesolych Swiat! *

"...do they know it's Christmas time at all..."

It's impossible to ignore the fact that we are near Christmas, here in Wroclaw. As you can see, the streets, and the Rynek are fully decorated with traditional Christmas lights, and there's something in the air that announces that Christmas is almost here. Although I'll return to Portugal for Christmas and New Years celebrations, I would also like to live this "season" here in Poland. It would be nice to get to know the different customs and traditions of the polish people during this "winter main events". The good thing is that, some polish friends, already invited me to have a meal at their home, after I return in January, with all the typical Christmas and New Years celebration dishes and traditions. So I guess I'll be doing a lot of party this next weeks...

* Wesolych Swiat! (PL) = Happy Christmas! (EN) = Bom Natal! (PT)

Krakow & Oswiecim (Auschwitz)

Krakow pics (hope to return there & take some more!)

After some time of numerous attempts of going to Krakow, me & Filipa, finally made it! The two of us and some German friends manage to find some free time to visit this city, of which everyone was talking about. And what a great city it is! Full of history, great buildings, and with a great night-life! We managed to stay in a great hostel in the city center, just next to the Rynek of Krakow. We also had in mind to take this chance, and do something that everyone that is Poland for some time, should do. After one great day in the city we headed over to the concentration camps in Oswiecim (Auschwitz). We knew it would be a hard experience, but we were anxious to go there and testify, by our selves, one of the remaining "items" of the Nazi "horror era". When we got to Auschwitz I (the main concentration camp, although smaller), it was hard to realize what kind of crimes were really committed there. We visited the museum, where there was an exhibition (in the old camaratas of the prisoners), that contained, among other things, a lot of belongings of the poor souls that where trapped there. For instance, they had in one of the rooms, something like 2000kg of human hair (every prisoner should shave the head), in the other thousands of shoes, reading glasses, prostesic limbs. It was quite hard to deal with that reality.But the worst was still to come... Bierknau. When you get to Bierknau, there's a sudden' silence, as you get a glimpse of the famous tower with the trains entrance below. The same tower that appeared in the Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List". That tower, and it's gates where the last entrance for 1.5 millions of people. And when I went to the top of it, and got a glimpse of the camp itself... I lost my speech. You just can't see the end of the thing! It's huge. You can see some of the wooden houses (if it is possible to call it house...), and the remainings of the ones that were destroyed. If keeping in mind that each house had 1000 men inside, and that there were hundreds of them through out all the camp... I mean, it's quite chocking to learn it in school, and read about it, but face it, there, in front of you... It just makes you wonder, what the hell were those people thinking???... And the amazing thing about it, is that all of this occurred not even 60 years ago! I think everyone should visit this place. There you can really get an idea of what mankind is able to do, when it looses all sense of humanity.
For further information on these monuments, I'll leave you here the link to the official site of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) Concentration Camps: http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/ Take a look, you won't regret it...

Auschwitz I

Bierknau (Auschwitz II)

At the Wroclaw Zoo

Some photos I made in the zoo. Some of the animals can be really photogenic...

There's a nice big zoo here in Wroclaw! I've read somewhere before that this is one of the biggest in all Europe. Although now it's closed for winter season, I've been there before that and had a great time. Here is a collection of some photos I took there. If you are interested in further information about the zoo, here's the website (in polish...) :

http://www.zoo.wroclaw.pl/

Just a new perspective

A slightly different glimpse of the Katedra and the surroundings

Because, some times, it's better to change the perspective in order to see things better...

Karkonosze Mountains

Some photos of the Karkonosze Mountains and the Samotnia Hostel
Some of the Erasmus that went on the trip, great group

Now this was a hell of weekend! It was great! It started in really strange way, but it turned out to be great. Me and Filipa were supposed to meet the rest of the group in front of Olowek, to go on the private bus that should take us to Karpacz (the village near the mountains), but you got stuck at home... Our landlady changed the lock, and gave us the wrong keys! So she left early in the morning, locking the door from the outside... Needless to say, we lost the group bus! But Sebastian called us, and said we could make it there in a regular bus, and so we did. After 3 hours we were in Karpacz, ready to start climbing the mountain until the Samotnia Hostel. The only problem was the time: it was already 16h & something... It was getting dark, we add a 2 hours mountain climbing to do and only a small flash light! Well, at first it didn't seem so hard, but in the middle of the way we had to leave the main trail and start climbing through the woods. And let me assure you, the woods during the night, can be really scary... and the flash light, wasn't that good! After some time, some phone calls to Basia that was already in the hostel, we made it, and the vision of the small lights of the Samotnia Hostel in the middle of all that darkness, seemed like heaven on earth... When we entered the dinning room, because everyone else was already having dinner, me and Filipa had a huge round of applause, which was a great welcoming, and felt really good, along with a nice warm meal!

There was a nice small "party", after dinner, with music and beer and everyone got the chance to know themselves better. It quite a nice group of people! The next day we climbed to one of the tops of the Karkonosze Mountains. It was an amazing view from there, specially for me, because I only flighted by plain once, and it was to get from Portugal to Poland! So now I was above the clouds once again, but this time standing my both feet! I had the chance to be on Czech Republic ground once again (besides Praha!), since the Karkonosze Mountains are a part of the border line between Poland and the Czech Republic. In that night, after coming down from the top to the Samotnia Hostel, and after dinner, we had a fire outside, were we roasted some "Polska Kiełbasa" (polish sausages), with sticks, and drink some beer. Great evening! Everyone sang typical songs from their home countries, and told stories.

The next day (Sunday) we had some time in the morning to sleep a little bit later, before going back to Karpacz, to catch the bus back to Wrocław.

I wont forget this great weekend easily! From what I've heard there will be a second trip there in January, and if I can make it, I will join that one also!

Here's a nice advice from me to you: if you have never been to the Karkonosze Mountains, and to the Samotnia Hostel, you should! It's not that much expensive, and its sure worth it! If you are interested in some more information about the place, here's the site for the Karkonosze Mountains National Park and the Samotnia Hostel:

Karkonosze Mountains National Park:

http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/pnp/kark.htm

Samotnia Hostel:

http://www.samotnia.com.pl/

Language Exchange

Filipa teaching Ania some Portuguese by the candle light

(yes, there's also electricity in Poland...)

Yesterday, after my usual Wednesday polish class, me, Filipa and Martin met with Ania, one of ours dearest polish friends! We headed to PRL, in Rynek, and there we had a "kawa z mlekiem" (para os tugas: meia de leite...), which always comes with a very tasty small cake (included on the price). We were quite entertained speaking about similarities and differences between our countries, mainly language issues. After some minutes everyone was trying to speak each others language, which was quite funny... Although we had something a little bit more "informal" that day, there are some "tandem" meetings. A tandem is someone that is interested in learning a new language, and therefor, tries to find someone interested in learning his own language and able to teach the native one (usually polish, of course!...). Me and Filipa don't have an "official" tandem, but if there's someone who is of great help, that someone is Ania! We tried to practice our polish, with her help, and also teach her some Portuguese... We had a blast, and when we noticed the time, it was already 00:15! I guess that the polish saying is true: "Happy people don't count the time..."! So this post is mainly dedicated to Ania, but also to Sandra (now in the UK), that helped us since the first day we met them! Thank You!

Anthropology Class

Skull drawings by me ( they will be on e-bay shortly...)

After spending almost the all summer digging full skeletons, I thought I had some ideas about the human bones... Well, here in Wroclaw I applied for the subject of Archaeological Anthropology, and I can tell you that the professor was talking for almost two hours only about the human skull (ah... & in polish...). Jesus... They have names for every small lump we have on the freakin' skull! So, to entertain myself, and also(!) to learn something I drew some of the "Normas" (as the professor called them...) of the skulls. In the end I was quite happy about my drawings (enc the post...) and I understood I little bit more of bones.

Torun

Nicolaus Copernicus Monument and Old Town-Hall Tower behind

While I'm staying here in Poland, I'm trying to manage meeting a little bit more of the country itself, and not only Wroclaw. So at a weekend, some time ago, I joined a group of students that organised a trip to Torun. It's a lovely city full of history, of knights and castles, and place of birth for the well known and famous Nicolaus Copernicus. There's a tradition of typical gingerbread cookies from this city, and they are quite common used at Christmas all over Poland. In the lower floor of the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum House, they run a second museum dedicated to this delicatesy. There, we we're allowed to cook a gingerbread cookie ourselves, and the history of the tradition itself was explained to us. There are other lovely things to visit in the city: a Planetarium, the Rynek architecture (city center), the Old Town-Hall (with a big polish painting exhibition), a lot of beautiful churches, the ruins of a castle (that played a big role in the development of the city), and also a leaning tower. For those who are interested in further information about the city here's the link to it's official web page:

http://www.torun.pl/portal/index.php?lang=en

Gingerbread cookie I made (lost all teeth eating it...)
Leaning Tower (who cares about Pizza...)

If you have the chance to come to Poland, don't miss visiting Torun. You can do it in a weekend!

If only he could...

Dedicated to Pedro...

Saudade*

Even being a young man, longing to meet a new world, its places & its cultures, after a couple of months away from home, I cant avoid missing it. The new technologies might help us, allowing us to minimize this feeling. On a regular basis, I call home, just to check up how everyone is going there. And, maybe once every two weeks, we make a net meeting with a web-cam. Things look pretty much the same there...

Man!!! Me being away is really regretted by all back home... Can't you tell?

*Saudade (Portuguese word)
feminine noun

1. longing;
2. yearning;
3. nostalgia, homesickness;
4. deixou muitas saudades a todos - his going away was regretted by all, everybody misses him;
dê-lhe saudades minhas</EM> - remember me to him;
matar saudades - to cheer oneself by the sight of someone or something one longs for;
tenho muitas saudades dele</EM> - I long to see him, I miss him very much;
ter saudades da sua terra (da pátria) - to be homesick;

Night Life in Wroclaw

Night Life in Rynek (City Center) / Town Hall

Most (Bridge) Tumski on the way to Katedra

Nice spot in Tumski

Katedra itself

Here are some random photos of the city at night. Some of this places are on the way of my everyday ride to my Faculty, and i appreciate them a lot! Later on I intend to post some more. Hope you like this few ones. Take care!

Polski Fiat

Polski Fiat: who needs Minni's?

It's not just any old Fiat model 126! No... It's more than that: it's a POLSKI FIAT. This small car is in the heart of a lot of polish people. It's the first car for a lot of youngsters, because of it's quite cheap price, and easy maintenance (small electric part... mainly "mechanical"...). I guess it's just one more thing that still lingers on in Poland since the PRL (socialist "era"). But from what I've found out, people here in Poland, or most of them, have a special place on their hearts for this small mechanical wonder. Some years ago it was the car for the "people", a little bit like the Volkswagen Beetle in Germany. Nowadays, they still ride the polish roads every where, some with more difficulty(!), and you can see piles of them stuck up in pounds or 2º hand car sellers. Anyone can get one easily for around 50 euros (around 200 Zl PNL) !

You can find a lot of variations to this original model: some of them are quite "ttuned be the owners!!! I've seen some of them that we're good enough to be on the "The Fast and the Furious" movie!

I don't have a driver license, but if I had one... Believe me: I would buy one, for sure!

Just starting...

View from one of the bridges of the Odra River towards the Katedra

It's fresh new... I have decided to create this blog in order to make it easier for me to show my photos and experiences during my year in Wroclaw, Poland. I'm not the first, and I wont certainly be the last one to do this, because it really is a nice way of sharing this experience with my family, friends and who ever more can be interested. I've been here for maybe more than two months, but I think still on time to start this. This is my first blog, and from what I know, it takes Patience and dedication to keep one running, so I hope I can manage it. Hope you like it! Take care!