Poland?

Poland morning...ugh
Originally uploaded by josiebeth.

Yes, Poland.

What an unreal experience.

I have been in a lot of places but Poland takes the cake – it’s just not the chocolate cake – it’s the cake that has been put in a cupboard and forgotten about for a couple hundred years…

What is inexplicable to me is the obscene amount of tourists here.

“Hey honey! I have a couple of days off work – what do you say we cash in those frequent flyer miles and take that trip to Poland we’ve been talking about all these years!”

I don’t even know how or where to begin.

My first morning here I looked out the window of my hotel, the Novotel Centrum, Krakow, and saw a lovely castle perched high on a hill top in the not to distant distance. Not too shabby.

Krakow is often referred to, in Poland anyway, as Poland’s historical & cultural jewel. From what I can ascertain, this is mainly due to the fact it is still standing.

To be fair, Krakow is jam-packed with beautiful buildings like the castle – complete with it’s very own dragon legend, a cathedral dripping in wealth, and one of the largest town squares in Europe.

The weather in the summertime, while extremely dreary in the morning, burns off quickly to bright sunshine, moderate heat and low humidity.

The currency, the zloty is pleasantly conducive to gift buying with an exchange rate of 3.4 zloty to one American dollar. (but I wrote that yesterday and today it’s 3.1PLN/1 USD – what’s happening here? Is this because of Katrina?) The food, if you are a meat eater is surprisingly good and the desserts are to die for. If, however, you do not eat meat or sweets, Poland is the world’s greatest diet. Unfortunately for me I do not fit into this category. Surprisingly enough, the best meal I have had here was Italian. Go figure. The apple strudel also deserves an extremely honorable mention. I have had one almost every day – can’t seem to get enough.

Fortunately the Novotel Centrum comes with a fitness center to offset the pastries they serve here…

The problem I am having with Poland is the depressing-ness of it. This country’s been torn by war, communism, harsh winter weather and stunningly brutal atrocities against human kind. You can see the result of this history where ever you look. Blood everywhere – except, of course, in the churches, which somehow survived both the Nazis and communism with astonishing grace. You can see it in the people’s eyes, which often look as if they are made of glass, and in every weathered brick of every meticulously preserved building.

I didn’t walk into this blindfolded. As the granddaughter of survivors from Poland I flew here well aware of Poland’s history and fully expecting it to be frozen in time and horror. It has been quite a difficult experience for me to be here, be Jewish, and have a good time in the process. To be accurate it has been impossible.

To make matters, if not worse, more bizarre, the movie that is being filmed here takes place in a war-torn 1940’s Poland, complete with a slew of extras dressed as clergymen, nuns, period towns folk and Nazi soldiers so as I walk the streets of this historic town, these characters add to the chilling reality of this places historical terror. The disconcerting image of Nazi soldiers walking through the cathedral’s private courtyard with their lady friends, laughing it up and taking pictures, actually makes me feel ill. I understand this to be irrational, but I truly feel frightened by it, and as a result have spent the bulk of my time within the safe confines of my hotel. The modern day Poles do not seem much happier than the period extras, and the older folk do not dress much differently either. For example:

In Italy – they know you are a tourist as soon as you open your mouth to speak.

Here in Poland, you’re outed as soon as you crack a smile.

I am not kidding.

Don’t get me wrong. I have managed to cover quite a bit of territory here – seen a lot of things. My first full day here I went to see “Lady with an Ermine” one of the three da Vinci oil paintings on the planet. The painting is ugly, but of course, masterful. The lady holds a ferret so ugly it makes your skin crawl – but it’s a da Vinci, and any painting that can conjure an actual, physical response is worth a serious gander.

I have also had access to areas not generally seen by the public because of my association with the movie shoot. The movie, apparently, has been given almost unrestricted access to some of the most historical places within Krakow because of it’s subject matter – the Pope, John Paul II – the Polish Pope is a hero here and the people credit him for their liberation from communism.

I have seen hundreds of registered artworks, what feels like twice as many places the Pope once slept, countless churches and even more camera stores for some reason no one can seem to explain to me – since they don’t appear to actually manufacture cameras here in Poland. Despite having really “done” Krakow, I still feel very uncomfortable in my surroundings. Tomorrow I will board a bus to go and visit Auschwitz and Birkenau – the ladder of which is the largest of the Nazi death camps. After that, I will be glad to cross Poland off my list – been there – done that - and ecstatic to board my plane in the wee hours of the morning, and head back to the good old US of A – It really is, sometimes, so easy to forget how good we have it.

I could never feel at home here…