Three cities, three reunions, one great trip

Due to some unforeseen events I suddenly found myself with an unscheduled Easter weekend two weeks ago. With tickets to the Netherlands prohibitively expensive I impulsively decided that Poland could make for a nice destination for the long weekend, in order to spend some time with friends I hadn´t seen in way too long. What I hadn´t realised is the significance of the Easter celebrations in Poland, which made for a deep dive into Polish culture with grandparents, aunts and uncles suddenly finding a tall Dutch lad at their Easter lunch. How generously I was welcomed by my friends and their families is a token of Polish hospitality and it is with a warm and happy feeling that I now look back at a great long weekend that has just come to its end.

Katowice & Edyta

Whereas the last time I had seen Edyta was ‘only’ about a year ago, that get-together took place in Wroclow. Now, in Katowice, where I spent 4 of the best months of my life in an Erasmus exchange in 2006 (bloody hell), the venue was perfect for reviving the past and enjoying the present. Our Ligota dorm appeared virtually unchanged from 9 years ago, with even the same old lady occupying the reception at the main entrance, blatantly defying a ‘no smoking’ sign on the wall behind her while puffing away a package of cigarettes. As she allowed me to wander around the dormitory for a while I checked on the kitchen where Stefan and I used to make our potato & salmon dishes, passed by the toilet out of which I had to free myself by kicking in the door after the lock had jammed, and lingered in front of room 408 where Marisa, Delphine, Stefan and I used to spend most of our evenings. Despite the current-day Erasmus students still occupying the place, living in Ligota isn’t the same anymore as Kwadraty (the basement club) had recently been closed, in an effort to instill some peace and quiet on the area during week as well as weekend nights. Such a shame.

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2007

Apart from visiting Ligota I paid Silecia city centre a visit Friday afternoon while Edyta was working from home, buying myself a nice pair of leather shoes that are nigh impossible to find in Dublin, and checked on Dworzec PKP. The train / bus station used to be a bulwark of concrete and steel, with ramshackle old buses bumping along the pothole-filled roads in and out of the open air terminal. Even though Edyta had warned me that the place had undergone a complete transformation, it took me a while to realise that I was actually at the same place when looking for a tram to the Silecia city centre. A shiny new mall borders the newly paved pedestrian area that leads up to the entrance of the completely renovated train station. The dark and moist interior, with its fair share of homeless people always occupying the corners and empty beer cans littering the floor, has given away to a shiny new area with neat shops, vending machines and ticket corners. While the transformation is definitely an improvement I couldn’t suppress a sting of nostalgia when thinking of how the place used to look when I changed from bus to tram every day on my way to university.

With the ‘new Kwadraty’ which Edyta initially had had in mind being closed on Friday night because of the Easter break, we opted for the jazz club which appeared unchanged from my last visit nine years ago. On two big soft chairs, with generous cocktails in a dimly lit corner, it almost felt like nothing had changed in all those years.

Poznan & Olga

After 5 hours on the train I arrived in Poznan at around three in the afternoon on Saturday. While I hadn’t seen Olga since a sunny Friday afternoon in 2010 when we met in Antwerp for some drinks, it felt more like five months rather than five years since that last encounter. TIPC part I (total immersion into Polish culture) started shortly after Olga picked me up from the train station as we were due to attend a family lunch at her parents’ place. Funnily enough I had been to her parents’ house before, shortly after our summer university in 2007 when Piotr, Piotr, Olga, Domenika, Lauryna and I organised a reunion in Poznan. The traditional Polish dishes prepared by Olga’s mother, who even seemed to remember me after all those years, were mouth-watering and I tremendously enjoyed the wide variety of food that was spread out over the table. After a small glass of home-made sherry liquor I bade my farewells to Olga’s family and we made our way into town.

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2007

Despite the temperature being in the lower single digits, Olga’s repeated references to a wide variety of supposedly great-tasting ice cream had actually led me to look forward to a cone, so you can imagine our disappointment when finding out that the place was actually closed (not because of the weather but because of the Easter break). Well, I guess I’ll have to come back for that one another time! After a walk in the park and a cup of tea with slices of mango at Olga’s apartment we headed for the city centre, which appeared unusually quiet for a Saturday night. The three bars we attended for three craft beers were all great places to hang out, even though ‘the Dragon’ was admittedly my favourite, with bare brick walls, non-matching chairs and tables, floor luminaires, and a dragon’s head sprouting from the wall above the bar. These great venues in even better company made the option of missing my bus at midnight a very tempting one and it was with great reluctance that I made my way to the bus terminus shortly before twelve o’clock. As both bus Polski and I were on time however I did find myself in a semi-comfortable chair shortly after midnight, trying to find a position which would allow me to catch some sleep, as another full programme was awaiting me on Sunday in Gdansk!

Gdansk & Karolina

As with Olga, Karolina and I met at an AEGEE summer university. Curiously however, after having spent the FinEst Fairytale 2009 together, both of us (without knowing it from one another) applied and were accepted for the 2011 summer university in Messina, Sicily. Now, four years after our last encounter, and for the first time in a non-AEGEE setting, Gdansk was the venue for another reunion. My 5 hours spent on bus Polski didn’t make for the best of nights' sleep and I was delighted to find a bed prepared for me at Karolina’s (amazing, new & spotlessly clean) apartment when I arrived at 5 in the morning. Two hours later I was woken up with sandwiches and tea (save the appetite for the family breakfast in an hour’s time) and off we went to the cottage where Karolina’s parents and brother spent the weekend. 

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2011

The cottage is about an hour’s drive from Gdansk and has a lovely view over a lake with forest in the background. Again I was spoiled with delicious traditional Polish dishes, including Karolina’s first attempt at making zurek (which was very tasty but had a slightly different flavour from the conventional variant) and a wide variety of meat and pastries. Some fresh air and kite-flying at the shore of the lake after breakfast completed the morning whereafter Karolina showed me around Gdansk. An old Hanze town, Gdansk has a gorgeous old city centre which, despite the destruction of WW II, has retained its old glory. After roaming the streets and learning about the city’s history we agreed we had deserved a break from the cold and sat down in a cosy and warm tea house which served super tasty and significantly over-sized apple pie, especially considering what we had already eaten that morning! 

After some further sightseeing we stocked up on alcohol for the night, which started off with a house party not far away from the city centre. As with all good house parties the neighbours starting complaining early enough however they were convinced not to call the policy which saved us a 500 zloty fine. The night came to its zenith at Absinth, a cool albeit slightly alternative club in the old town, with huge windows overlooking the square. Dancing on the tables we could see the snow raging outside which made for a curious sensation as temperatures inside were understandably high and rising. It was late enough when Karolina finally convinced me to call it a day, the consequences of which I had to bear 3 hours later when she woke me up for my taxi to the airport. Not being able to get more than a bite of bread down my throat I might still have been drunk rather than hungover but I managed to keep it all in during the long long way home to Dublin. Karolina, thanks for the lovely stay, our next reunion will be sooner than in four years’ time!