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Published: December 4th 2006
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What role models?!
We were disgusted to find soft toys acting so inappropriately at an "adult" party! Sometimes you can spend ages psyching yourself up to do something. Then just as you're about to bite the bullet, Fate shows up, says "Scratch that, i've got a better idea" and you find yourself on a completely different path.
I had big plans, a grand Slavic loop that would take me through southern Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, and back to Prague in time for New Year - I'd decided to ignore the minimal daylight and even more minimal temperatures and make the most of my freedom. First stop Wroclaw (pronounced Rock-slav), 70% destroyed during WWII and "one of Poland's most attractive cities", then on to Krakow, 4.5h southeast, with the horror of Auschwitz and amazing underground salt mines...
I'm on the train to Krakow now (making this a loco-log? - sorry, bad pun), the only problem is almost two weeks have passed since I arrived in Wroclaw and I'll be back in the same place in time for Christmas! My plan was going fantastically well, I walked over the border, found a nice old lady in the nearest town to help me find a bus stop, then got nicely smashed with a young rasta as we sat chatting
Find a dreddie
Tomic (my reggae bus friend) and Joanna (awesome host) for an hour in the cold bus station waiting for Joanna (Asha), my host to show up. Asha and I spent the first couple of days discovering (and for her re-discovering) the sights of Wroclaw..
We went to galleries, churches, museums.. the usual. Probably the most interesting thing (aside from a 15m high 360deg painting) was the recent history, and scars or war that still mark the city. Logic dictated that the occupying German army should spend the last months of the war destroying the city they were occupying while the "invading" Russians stood back, watched, and waited. While the roofs of the somewhat monolithic brick churches have been repaired, stonework in some of the old buildings still sport the scars of the madness.
The tourist thing done, staying with someone is a great way to see the real culture and inner workings of a place. Among other things, Asha plays violin in a punk band.. the bleak rawness and enthusiasm of punk really fits with the feeling of the city (at least at this time of year). Winter has really taken it's toll on colour, and despite being a cultural centre, the Catholic country is still shaking
Central Wroclaw market
If you look hard enough you can sometimes see patches on the roofs the confine of 44years in communist Europe. What better way to experience a city like this than to hang out with the musicians who're writing and performing in it!? We all went out for a few drinks and table soccer in the weekend, there aren't so many studs and ripped t-shirts these days... they're a really tight group - most have lived in Wroclaw all their lives, and known each other for much of this time.. They're also incredibly friendly and, as always, the more everyone drunk the less language was a barrier. An invite to come and watch some of the guys practicing in another band in their garage/studio took care of another evening.
In the socialist world it was said each person needed just 10m2 in which to live. This lead to very cramped conditions and has left apartments very small and rather impractical by todays standards - not many eight-person flats here! With such limited communal space (and an inexplicable scarcity of bars) Asha and her friends have bought a "garage" near to a squat in the centre of town. It came complete with a bar and they've added a recording studio & $20 000 mixing
Band camp
Rodger, Cezar and others room. Aside from the one extravagance, it's very basic and a little rough - I felt right at home.
(As an aside, the Polish translation of "record" is "black plate" or "analog plate".. much cooler than our ambiguous English. I've found it interesting travelling through countries preserving minor (?) languages. it's important to keep them growing - with local words for modern items. however, many lanuages don't have the flexibility of English - words created for new things can often translate comically, my personal favourite is "small packaged thingy" in Slovenian for CD! )
Anyway, to help pay for the garage everyone was organising a big party for the following Saturday night. I felt I at least owed them my drunken company 😊 and it was going to be much easier to travel to Krakow afterward, not having to rush back to Wroclaw.. without so much as the threat of a twisted arm I agreed to stay for another few days.
Now I find myself partied out and on another train. There's been a Frenchman sitting accross the carriage from me as I write this. He's travelling back home now, but visits friends in Wroclaw for a
week of every month, the city has really got under his skin. He's also started to learn Polish. As he left at the last stop he turned round to me and said "Beware of the girls here, they're beautiful" watching the look on my face, he added "After all, even Napolean got caught here". I'm staying at least till the New Year 😊
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