So I am traveling through Central and Eastern Europe with my IES-EU study abroad program. We left early Friday morning, caught a plane out of Stuttgart and then touched down at an airport in a small city 45-minutes outside of Krakow Poland.
I started work on a poem on the plane flight. The poem was inspired by a general feeling of jovial conviction in a grounded belief that there’s a creator of the universe. These feelings were then enforced by a particular passage in a John Updike novel, Rabbit, Run, but, like every poem that I’ve ever written, the poem changed many times and has gone through many drafts. My visit, a few days later, to Auschwitz, a former concentration camp, eliminated much of the jovial spirit of the poem. And now it takes more of a Deists perspective toward the Creator of the universe – one that acknowledges God as the creator, but with little interventions in the affairs of the world thereafter.
I wonder now if people raised Presbyterian, under the doctrine of John Calvin and John Knox, tend to see the world in a Deists point of view – whether they know it or not. It seems like the next logical and sensible understanding of faith. For instance: Ben Franklin was raised Presbyterian and he also subscribed to the Deists perspective. But I don’t know if I can ever completely believe in Deism, I’m too superstitious.
Oh, and I would post the poem here, but I’m too superstitious to present a poem before its completion.
Well, the first day was full of travel and I felt exhausted and hungry as we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. The hotel was a few blocks away from the city center in a neighborhood that seemed to be built about forty or fifty years ago. The buildings were all blocks, made of cement, with dark windows. I can say with some confidence that these buildings were designed by a Soviet committee with only the lowest common denominator in mind, no creativity, color or innovation. The aesthetics of these buildings was not helped by the early sunset and snowing skies. The winter weather and buildings in Poland was a stark contrast to the spring of Freiburg. A certain song, from a certain Mel Brooks movie, came to mind.
But the hotel we stayed at was quite nice. As far as I could tell, the building was only about ten years old, and the rooms were spacious and neat. Next to its neighboring buildings, it was an all too obvious contrast between the western and the eastern eras of the Cold War and post-Cold War.
So after getting settled into the hotel room, I went out with a small group of people to the city center. The city center was gorgeous. The buildings are built during the height of Polish civilization. Before World War Two, Krakow had been the cultural center of Central Europe. Its buildings from the 17th, 16th and 15th centuries still stood tall and its castle still stands at the highest point in the town. Krakow has over 100 Catholic churches. The Polish peoples are very Catholic. Poland had been conquered numerous times since the 18th century, so often that the only constant institution in Polish life was the church. Not a few moments went by where I didn’t see a Catholic nun or monk.
Well that night we decided to go to dinner at a Southwestern restaurant called The Sioux. The place was decked out with cowboy and Indian décor and its waiters and waitresses were dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. Even in California and my travels through Arizona, New Mexico and Baja Oklahoma (Texas), I have never seen a place so Southwestern themed. It was over the top.
I ate a beef fajita, but it wasn’t very good and the beer was only mediocre. The waitress took forever to bring us our bill and then when we finally received it, she wouldn’t allow us to pay separate. In every other restaurant that I’ve been to in Europe, I was allowed to pay separate. We weren’t prepared to organize a bill. So after about twenty minutes of calculating and breaking bills and such, we were finally able to put the money down and leave.
After dinner, I went to a pub that was across the street from my hotel with Kyle, a guy from the IES program. We wanted to check out the pub because it looked so ominous. The pub was in a large, four story building, made completely of cement it seemed. As I opened the door I was greeted with a cloud of smoke. A thick haze made the light seem even dimmer than it already was inside the small room. We both ordered a beer and then found a small table, there was nothing but small tables, and watched a soccer game until we were done with our beers. The glass my beer was served in had an interesting label of two Polish people dancing. I decided to purchase the glass, sort of figured it makes a cool souvenir.
The next morning was full of lectures about Poland and her relationship to Russia. The Poles are obsessed with Russia. From the tone of the lecture you’d think the Russies are docking their ships off the Northern Polish shore in the Baltic Sea with their nuclear arsenal aimed at Warsaw. In my opinion, these two historic enemies need to patch up their relationship. There is no way in Hell Russia invades Eastern Europe anytime soon. It would be too disastrous for everybody, it just doesn’t make sense, but it is the perspective that we receive from the Poles. I guess that’s what happens when a nation fights another nation almost non-stop for nearly 300 years. The professors that travel with us were quite frustrated with the Polish perspective, but then again, it is the Polish perspective, one that we, as students studying the EU, should hear.
After the lectures, we took a Krakow city tour. It lasted about two hours. We received a lot of information about the history of Krakow. The city center was beautiful. All of the buildings were built before the dark Soviet years. There were statues and pretty normal looking European streets. It contrasted sharply with the sector of town our hotel was in.
I went shopping at the Krakow market, bought some gifts for Leah, Mom and Kelly, and I was able to purchase a nice chess board for about $10. Most of the items in the Krakow market were cheap, but of decent quality, so I figured to buy gifts and; when else will I be able to purchase a nice chess board? It has the pictures of all the Polish Kings on the board.
That night I went out with some of the people from my program to a traditional Polish restaurant. It was much better than the Southwestern themed place I ate at the night before. I order beef stew and dumplings, es war gut! A three-piece Polish band played traditional Polish folk songs.
I started work on a poem on the plane flight. The poem was inspired by a general feeling of jovial conviction in a grounded belief that there’s a creator of the universe. These feelings were then enforced by a particular passage in a John Updike novel, Rabbit, Run, but, like every poem that I’ve ever written, the poem changed many times and has gone through many drafts. My visit, a few days later, to Auschwitz, a former concentration camp, eliminated much of the jovial spirit of the poem. And now it takes more of a Deists perspective toward the Creator of the universe – one that acknowledges God as the creator, but with little interventions in the affairs of the world thereafter.
I wonder now if people raised Presbyterian, under the doctrine of John Calvin and John Knox, tend to see the world in a Deists point of view – whether they know it or not. It seems like the next logical and sensible understanding of faith. For instance: Ben Franklin was raised Presbyterian and he also subscribed to the Deists perspective. But I don’t know if I can ever completely believe in Deism, I’m too superstitious.
Oh, and I would post the poem here, but I’m too superstitious to present a poem before its completion.
Well, the first day was full of travel and I felt exhausted and hungry as we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. The hotel was a few blocks away from the city center in a neighborhood that seemed to be built about forty or fifty years ago. The buildings were all blocks, made of cement, with dark windows. I can say with some confidence that these buildings were designed by a Soviet committee with only the lowest common denominator in mind, no creativity, color or innovation. The aesthetics of these buildings was not helped by the early sunset and snowing skies. The winter weather and buildings in Poland was a stark contrast to the spring of Freiburg. A certain song, from a certain Mel Brooks movie, came to mind.
But the hotel we stayed at was quite nice. As far as I could tell, the building was only about ten years old, and the rooms were spacious and neat. Next to its neighboring buildings, it was an all too obvious contrast between the western and the eastern eras of the Cold War and post-Cold War.
So after getting settled into the hotel room, I went out with a small group of people to the city center. The city center was gorgeous. The buildings are built during the height of Polish civilization. Before World War Two, Krakow had been the cultural center of Central Europe. Its buildings from the 17th, 16th and 15th centuries still stood tall and its castle still stands at the highest point in the town. Krakow has over 100 Catholic churches. The Polish peoples are very Catholic. Poland had been conquered numerous times since the 18th century, so often that the only constant institution in Polish life was the church. Not a few moments went by where I didn’t see a Catholic nun or monk.
Well that night we decided to go to dinner at a Southwestern restaurant called The Sioux. The place was decked out with cowboy and Indian décor and its waiters and waitresses were dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. Even in California and my travels through Arizona, New Mexico and Baja Oklahoma (Texas), I have never seen a place so Southwestern themed. It was over the top.
I ate a beef fajita, but it wasn’t very good and the beer was only mediocre. The waitress took forever to bring us our bill and then when we finally received it, she wouldn’t allow us to pay separate. In every other restaurant that I’ve been to in Europe, I was allowed to pay separate. We weren’t prepared to organize a bill. So after about twenty minutes of calculating and breaking bills and such, we were finally able to put the money down and leave.
After dinner, I went to a pub that was across the street from my hotel with Kyle, a guy from the IES program. We wanted to check out the pub because it looked so ominous. The pub was in a large, four story building, made completely of cement it seemed. As I opened the door I was greeted with a cloud of smoke. A thick haze made the light seem even dimmer than it already was inside the small room. We both ordered a beer and then found a small table, there was nothing but small tables, and watched a soccer game until we were done with our beers. The glass my beer was served in had an interesting label of two Polish people dancing. I decided to purchase the glass, sort of figured it makes a cool souvenir.
The next morning was full of lectures about Poland and her relationship to Russia. The Poles are obsessed with Russia. From the tone of the lecture you’d think the Russies are docking their ships off the Northern Polish shore in the Baltic Sea with their nuclear arsenal aimed at Warsaw. In my opinion, these two historic enemies need to patch up their relationship. There is no way in Hell Russia invades Eastern Europe anytime soon. It would be too disastrous for everybody, it just doesn’t make sense, but it is the perspective that we receive from the Poles. I guess that’s what happens when a nation fights another nation almost non-stop for nearly 300 years. The professors that travel with us were quite frustrated with the Polish perspective, but then again, it is the Polish perspective, one that we, as students studying the EU, should hear.
After the lectures, we took a Krakow city tour. It lasted about two hours. We received a lot of information about the history of Krakow. The city center was beautiful. All of the buildings were built before the dark Soviet years. There were statues and pretty normal looking European streets. It contrasted sharply with the sector of town our hotel was in.
I went shopping at the Krakow market, bought some gifts for Leah, Mom and Kelly, and I was able to purchase a nice chess board for about $10. Most of the items in the Krakow market were cheap, but of decent quality, so I figured to buy gifts and; when else will I be able to purchase a nice chess board? It has the pictures of all the Polish Kings on the board.
That night I went out with some of the people from my program to a traditional Polish restaurant. It was much better than the Southwestern themed place I ate at the night before. I order beef stew and dumplings, es war gut! A three-piece Polish band played traditional Polish folk songs.
I would have liked to spend more time exploring the Krakow night life, the city center was lively each of the two nights we were there, but I had to wake up early, by 6:30, the next morning for the bus ride to Prague.
No comments:
Post a Comment