the talking bear

Stag Parties in Kraków contd.

The press in Kraków and indeed all around Poland has recently gone nuts about reporting about lagered-up Brits who are coming to Kraków and basically getting pissed and looking for whores.

I find it incredible that Cracovian journalists have only just cottoned on to this. I must admit, since the report (blog post here) that I did last August (broadcast in early September on Radio Polonia, now Polish Radio External Servce), many more bars have turned their backs on Brits engaged in stag activities.

Some recent sources:

Właściciele krakowskich klubów mają już dosyć Anglików, przyjeżdżających do miasta na wieczory kawalerskie. Podkreślają - Pijani Anglicy na wieczorach kawalerskich to żenujący koszmar. Podczas takich imprez macają po pupach kelnerki, tańczą na golasa na stołach i wykrzykują piłkarskie przyśpiewki.

Owners of clubs in Kraków have had enough of Englishmen who come to the city for bachelor parties. They state: "Drunk Englishmen on bachelor parties are a bloody nightmare. During such festivities they tap the waitress' asses, dance naked on tables and scream out footie chants."

from http://w_krakowie.tur-info.pl/p/ak_id,23941,,anglicy,krakowskie_kluby,krakow,w_krakowie,rozruby,pijani,nic_nowego,wieczory.html

and even the Women's section of the daily Gazeta Wyborcza has a whole article devoted to what exactly stag parties are. Or should that be hen parties? You can read it here (in Polish, natch).

Of course, such media representation only shows Brits in their bad light. I have actually met Brits on stag parties who were quite obviously pissed, but nonetheless tame. There's no problem in that; I mean, who hasn't gone on a bender from time to time? But surely these people should respect the fact that this city has people living in it and everyone has the right to get from A to B without being harassed by, well, anyone!

I say this: if the local coppers (both the Police and City Police, Straż Miejska) spoke English and not just turn their backs when they see stagged-up Brits, then there wouldn't be a problem. I reckon that if these men of the law didn't wimp out and took things in to their own hands, then we could have the situation under control, and life in Kraków would be that much better for it.

So I appeal to the local constabulary: learn some English and take matters into your own hands! Or, for my bredren in the force, nauczcie się angielskiego i weźcie sprawy we własne ręce! Dosyć tych pijanych Brytów na Pl. Wszystkich Świętych!

Medical Tours in Kraków

This post goes quite a long way back. It was for a news item for Polish Radio (then Radio Polonia) back in September (?), and since the organisational changes at the station it is no longer in the archive.

I uploaded the MP3 in October last year, but never got round to doing the post for it. Many foreigners come to Poland now to get their teeth done, get plastic surgery, the amusingly-named Botox and all that lovely stuff. My mate Jurek, who lives round the corner, is in the tourist business and organises trips for you western types to come and get a facelift. Check it out!
His site is at www.jorgegroup.pl

Download the MP3 here. (ca. 3,6MB)

To read the article, continue reading below...

Since Poland’s entry into the European Union in 2004, there has been a growth in tourism in the country’s southern city of Kraków. Apart from stating the obvious though, the city’s medical trade has also taken advantage of the Union’s enlargement. Already a few years back there were stories in the British press that addressed the possibility of travelling within the EU to get specialist treatment without the queues and without having to spend too much well-earned cash for the priviledge. Polish doctors have started to make a reputation for themselves, and with the opening of the job market, Polish nurses are making increasing appearances in hospitals and clinics in western Europe, especially in the UK. And of course with the advent of cheap flights to Kraków, specialist treatment is now only a few hours away and costs a fraction of what it would cost in Britain.
Jerzy Postawka, a tourism specialist based in Kraków, is pioneering a new programme for tourists who want to take advantage of Poland’s jewel in the crown. He told me more:
“It’s a medical travel, and basically it’s travelling to get some treatment like, for example, dentists, opticians, and also plastic surgery. I’m insuring the accomodation, they can pick it from different standards and different types of accomodation, beginning from hotels, also with some apartments, then I’m organising the treatment, I’m making the schedule of visits and everything, and I also support them with some attractions, trips, and all the other things they can do during their stay in Kraków. For example, I’ve rented an apartment, quite comfortable, 60 m2 in the city centre for one week, and then I set up the visits during the whole week, to make one tooth and then to make Botox treatment, to remove wrinkles. Basically I’m aiming at all people who need such treatment, and who want to see something new or to visit Kraków, or to do it a different way than usual. Usually these are people who are over 30 years old, and they are just looking for good treatment.”
The cost of treatment is probably the most important factor for people who would want to come to Kraków. Jerzy explains the difference in price, and what you would get in Kraków for the same amount of money paid for specialist treatment in the UK:
“Definitely it’s a way of saving money. I would say it like this, that to come here, including the cost of travel, including the cost of accomodation, including the cost of the other attractions, I mean Auschwitz, Wieliczka, and all the things you want to do, and including the treatment, the amount is the same for treatment abroad, in western Europe, so I think it’s much cheaper and for the same price you get much more, and you visit something and have some attractions.”
I put the idea to Max, a Brit currently on a short holiday in Kraków:
“You know I think I would, because I know it’s a beautiful city, and if you can get the same treatment done for less money here then I think it’s definitely worth it.”
The opinion of Jerzy is to get western Europeans to come to Kraków, take in the atmosphere and relax while the specialists do their thing. Leave yourself in the hands of the professionals, while not paying through the nose for it. For information check the website at www.jorgegroup.pl

International Print Triennial - II

A longer package for the 'Focus' magazine on Radio Polonia. News on the IPT and also a discussion on new methods of graphic art and Polish print abroad. Aired Radio Polonia 21.09.2006.

Read on for the transcript, or if you're not feeling up to it, download the MP3 here. (7.9 MB)

The International Print Triennial has just kicked off in Poland’s southern city of Kraków. 4500 prints were submitted by 1191 artists for the competition, and out of those, 322 works by 229 artists qualified for the main exhibiton. This the 18th edition of the event, which also turns 40 years old this year.

There is more to this year’s Print Triennial than just the main exhibition though. Professor Witold Skulicz, the president of the International Print Triennial Society in Kraków, explains more:

The programme is huge: there are so many exhibitions that it's almost frightening, and I have to be present at all of them. Please imagine that apart from the main programme, we have created a seperate event, which is organised by the International Print Triennial. 20 galleries in Kraków are taking part in the Graphic Art Days, an event we would like to see becoming an annual fixture in the Cracovian cultural calendar.

Polish graphic art is currently living its great 5 minutes, and I believe that we shouldn't waste them.

Richard Noyce, British art critic, was president of the jury at this year’s Triennial. I asked him about the preparations for the event:

The fact of the matter is that the standard of works submitted this year was incredibly high. I was on the jury again in 2003, and I thought the standard was high then, but this year the standard has surpassed that, it is really an extraordinary high standard on an international scale, so the work of the jury was very difficult indeed. Very challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. The standard of conception is very high, the standard of execution is very high, there’s some amazingly original work, and underneath it all, it’s also very, very accesible.

Ingrid Ledent, an artist from Belgium, won the Grand Prix award this year. I caught up with her before the opening of the main exhibition:

I feel absolutely spoiled, because, well, if you see the quality of the works here, I think there are so many Grand Prix winners here, but it’s me who got it, so I feel absolutely spoiled, I’m so happy.

How are these prints made, are they digital, are they traditional, or is it a mixture of both?

Well, it’s a mixture of both, the main technique is lithography, but it’s combined with digital print. It’s a real traditional litho, even printed on the big stones, so I grain them and it’s the traditional way. But the thing is I make it in a traditional way, but I don’t use it in a traditional way. That’s the thing I try to do.

How do you see the future of graphic art?

Well, I’m very positive, I think with the influence of the new media people start to mix the things, so the traditional way still exists, while I think you can still do things using the traditional graphic methods, which you cannot do with the new media, and vice-versa.

Thank you very much, dank je wel, and many congratulations once again.

Do widzenia!

The International Print Triennial, or IPT, also acts as a forum for graphic art and the direction it is going in. Following on from the previous edition is the debate on digital print, which is becoming more popular as a medium for print-making. Davida Kidd, a Canadian artist who won the IPT Grand Prix award in 2003 and who is also exhibiting her new work this year, gives her opinion on the winner’s entry and on the new techniques being used today:

The standard of art is really high, and it’s interesting because in 2003 there was a lot of digital work and some of the work was very young that you knew there was going to be a change in years to come and that people would have a more sophisticated use for it.

I think it was a really excellent choice. It shows for example just what I was talking about that her work, at first view, it’s very minimal, and you’re not sure what it is, and you find out that underneath some very intricate handwork is a computer-generated image of skin, and the fact that it is computer-generated, or scanned, is really secondary to the fact that what the piece is really about is the traces of time that happen over a human being’s body with skin and scars and wrinkles. She’s taken a photograph of skin, a representation of time, and then she’s done these very very painfully intricate drawings of fine lines done by hand that superimpose over on top of the photograph. So, the drawing is a metaphor for time, the slowness of time passing and all of the traces and lines that happen over time.

It seems that digital print is becoming more important than ever before. But to what extent is it changing the art that is being produced? Richard Noyce again:

There was some controversy at the last Triennial about the gulf between digital work and traditional work, and I expressed that hope, and I have to say I am not a practising printmaking artist, I tend to write about art more than anything else, but I expressed a hope, then, that the gap between the digital world of print and the traditional world of print would disappear. Some people thought that was close to heresy, but now artists are able to choose whatever they like and Ingrid Ledent is a very good case in point, that you can use digital, or traditional lithography, or combine them. And that is the way it has to be. Digital, for me now, is just another technique, it sits with woodcut, wood engraving, etching and lithography, and all the others. It is just another technique, it’s available to artists.

Karen Kunc is a graphic artist from the state of Nebraska in the United States. She is having an exhibition as part of the International Print Triennial, and it seems that this isn’t the first time she’s been to Poland:

This isn’t your first time in Kraków, you’ve been involved with the Kraków Triennial for a while, what’s the history behind it?

Well, I do have a wonderful long relationship with Kraków from 20 years, when I visited the first time as a guest to give lectures in Poland, I was in Warsaw and Kraków, and did alecture about my work, and I was very young at the time, so it was a learning experience about how to explain my work and I met so many Polish artists that became life-long friends, but then it took 15 years before I came back for Triennial in 2000, and then I also came back to teach at the Academy (of Fine Arts) in 2002, I believe. It was wonderful to come back and continue meeting people, I’ve followed the development of so many of these Polish artists that I met, for all of this time, and had an exhibition in the United States that I organised of Polish artists, so that was very important too, so I think there’s an emotional connection from our long history together.

The International Print Triennial is truly a feast for lovers of graphic art and printmaking. There is so much on offer, that it looks as if every building in the Old Town of Kraków has turned into a gallery for the occasion. The IPT has also signed an agreement with two other galleries to turn the Triennial into a truly international affair. The Horst-Janssen Musuem in Oldenburg, Germany, and the Kunstlerhaus in Vienna, Austria, will be exhibiting works that were submitted, although chosen by their own juries.

International Print Biennial from 1966; International Print Triennial since 1991. Has the brainchild of Professor Skulicz finally come of age? With forty years at the helm of printmaking in Kraków, we shall see in three years time when the Triennial comes round again.

International Print Triennial - I

News item for the International Print Triennial in Kraków. Account of the opening of the IPT: amazing graphic art! Aired on Radio Polonia 18.09.2006.

Read on for the transcript. MP3 can be downloaded here. (3.3 MB)

The International Print Triennial has kicked off in Poland’s southern city of Kraków. Graphic artists sent 4500 prints to the jury for the event, and from that 322 prints by 229 artists have been selected for the main exhibition of the Print Triennial. The 18th edition of the International Print Triennial also marks the event’s 40th anniversary this year, and the public is being promised a spectacular array of exhibitions by printmakers and artists from around the globe. Professor Witold Skulicz, president of the International Print Triennial Society, has no time to rest on his laurels, though:

The programme is huge: there are so many exhibitions that it's almost frightening, and I have to be present at all of them. Please imagine that apart from the main programme, we have created a seperate event, which is organised by the International Print Triennial. 20 galleries in Kraków are taking part in the Graphic Art Days, an event we would like to see becoming an annual fixture in the Cracovian cultural calendar.

Polish graphic art is currently living its great 5 minutes, and I believe that we shouldn't waste them.

Richard Noyce, British art critic, was president of the jury at this year’s Triennial. I asked him about the preparations for the event:

The fact of the matter is that the standard of works submitted this year was incredibly high. I was on the jury again in 2003, and I thought the standard was high then, but this year the standard has surpassed that, it is really an extraordinary high standard on an international scale, so the work of the jury was very difficult indeed. Very challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. The standard of conception is very high, the standard of execution is very high, there’s some amazingly original work, and underneath it all, it’s also very, very accesible.

The Grand Prix was awarded to Ingrid Ledent, an artist from Belgium who has exhibited at the Triennial before. She won with a series entitled ‘A Self-accomplishing Fact’, which was produced using a hybrid technique of digital and lithography printing:

I feel absolutely spoiled, because, well, if you see the quality of the works here, I think there are so many Grand Prix winners here, but it’s me who got it, so I feel absolutely spoiled, I’m so happy.

One of the artists to get a statutory award was Iwona Abrams, a Polish artist who has been living in the UK for the past couple of decades:

I have graduated from printmaking in 1987 in Poland, then I moved to England, where I studied at the St. Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Print was always a very natural wasy of working for me. The Printmaking Triennial in Kraków is an absolute treat for us artists. It’s one of the few remaining… I would say it’s just a celebration of the links that people establish through this kind of event, incredibly important.

The International Print Triennial in Kraków invites you to see some of the most interesting graphic art that is being produced today, and has events running until the end of November, not only in Kraków, but also in other towns across Poland.

Stag Parties in Kraków

What will the world say? This is a 10-minute report on stag parties and drunk Brits in Kraków. The official Radio Polonia version varies a little (they cut the AC/DC and replaced it with something a little more... relaxing...). Filed on 21.08.2006. Original Radio Polonia broadcast here (part of the Europe East magazine).

This week I'll be taking a look at bar tourism in Kraków, Poland's southern party capital, where every week-end beer and culture come together in the same sentence, and tourists and residents alike go out on the town.

Since Poland's entry into the European Union two years ago, cheap airlines have broken through into the country’s airspace and provided countless numbers of new destinations in Poland, all under three hours away from airports in the UK. After initial problems with the airport authorities in Kraków over service taxes charged to airlines using the airfield in Balice, where the airport is located, the bubble soon burst. The John Paul II International Airport in Balice is the country's second busiest airport after Okęcie in Warsaw. And most of the traffic is from cheap flights from a selection of London airports in particular, and many other British towns and cities on the Continent.

A new phenomenon in Kraków is the drinking culture of tourists from the UK celebrating a bachelor's ‘stag party’: I say bachelor, but not for long. Hence the celebration of these parties is becoming commonplace as more and more young Brits decide to forget about their fiancées back on the island and get slightly inebriated in the process.

The origins of the East European stag party began in Prague during the late 1990s. The Bohemian jewel was opened up to curious British and other foreign tourists, and quickly made a name for itself as being both a beautiful city and for having ridiculously cheap alcohol.

“Basically it's a lot of stag parties, week-enders, who come here for cheap beer, strip-bars and the like, they're quite boisterous and loud, but not too much trouble. I think in general, Czechs don't know what to make of them, it's a completely different culture, and they're a lot louder than the Czechs. They tend to stick to Irish bars, more so than anything, so they're not really here for the culture. They don't tend to be very adventurous regarding Czech food, or Czech drinks, you know.”

So it's pints of Guinness and all-day breakfasts...

“Yeah absolutely, burgers, breakfasts, Guinness, cider, the same as at home.”

Declan O'Brien, owner of an Irish bar in Prague for more than a decade, has seen the changes over the years. The trend is abating though. He continues:

“The stag-party trade is kind of slowing down a little bit, compared to what it was five year ago, I think the likes of British men's magazines have stopped plugging it so much, with 20p beers and things like this, so I think they're moving further east, Riga and places like this, but now it's starting to quieten down here.”

Moving back to Poland, stag parties are creating havoc for bartenders around the country. Or are they? The reactions in Kraków have been mixed to the onslaught of drunk Englishmen, but not everyone's complaining all the time, as a visit to some of Kraków's bars showed.

“They come in tours, they come every week, they visit us starting Friday and finishing Sunday. They take, I call it ‘tourism drinking’, because they start Friday evening, they visit pub by pub, restaurant by restaurant, but generally, they come here, because we are a kind of pub, this is not a restaurant, this is a place to drink.”

“Generally they are very good, they are very interesting persons, for example yesterday we had two guys from Bristol, typical English guys, and generally I can say that they have fun in here, and what they say about Kraków, they like it very much, and I think they will come again.”

Back at Balice, Kraków's airport, one of the afternoon flights has just arrived from London. Remek, who works at the information desk and witnesses the arrival of thousands of tourists each summer, explains more:

“They come here to have fun in Kraków, I think, they are young people, they got free week-ends and they need to do something with it. There were years when Prague was very popular, there were years when Budapest was popular, right now it’s Kraków, it’s normal, so they are coming here to have fun, so I think they are very happy, actually.”

Of course, there are two sides to the coin. Over the last summer, more and more people have started to complain of bad behaviour on the part of drunk Englishmen. To get an idea of the scale of trouble caused, I asked a city policeman to tell me what he knew. He refused to comment in front of a microphone. On another occasion, in a bar which has become notorious for drunken brawls often caused by the islanders, I merely had to step inside to be turned away. So there evidently seems to be a problem in Kraków with groups of British men causing a disturbance. Many bartenders criticise the English for drinking too fast: a trait caused by restrictive licensing laws in the UK, which simply do not exist in Kraków, where many bars are open until the last customer standing, which sometimes can mean seven or eight in the morning.

Bronek, a computer technician and also one-time bartender, is genuinely upset with the current situation:

“I don’t want to use hard words, but they don’t behave here, they are not very polite, I think that they come here to have a nice party, but they do a little bit of a mess. They want to make signs on the doors that Englishmen are not allowed, because they don’t want to serve beer and other strong alcohol for them because after a couple of shots and a couple of beers, they behave like animals. They are drunk all the time, and then they go back to their place, that’s all. And I don’t like such types of tourists coming to Kraków.”

So I’m on the train from Balice, Kraków’s airport, going to the centre, and I’m here with Daniel, someone who has just flown in from London. So Daniel, you tell me that you saw some stag parties on the plane. What was it like?

“Well, I was sitting next to one of the members of the stag parties itself, and I have to say he seemed the most affable of gentlemen, and he seemed to be coming to a country with more than the intention of drinking himself silly.”

This was his sixth visit to Kraków. But the story is different for those that live here, including British expats, whose number is ever growing. Aeddan Shaw, an English teacher and all-round educator, has lived in Kraków for over four years.

“I think there’s a difference between the people who come here for a holiday, or for a week-end, and the people who live here, really. Obviously, people who live here have roots, they appreciate Polish culture, they try to experience more than just beer and parties. I think it’s getting worse in terms of the number of people coming to Kraków, and their reasons for coming to Kraków. I’m a bit worried we’re becoming a second Prague. Now there are cheap flights to Kraków, when I first came to Kraków, it cost £350 to fly here, now you can fly for about twenty quid, and as long as that’s the case, people will still come here. Hopefully it’s just a stage, it’s just a phase, and then people will find somewhere more popular and fashionable place to go.”

Others expats living in Kraków mention that they feel embarrassed about the situation, thinking that the Brits that come here give them a bad name.

I went out on a Saturday night in Kraków to go ‘stag hunting’.

11 pm and the Rynek is packed with drinkers. Amongst them is a group of Brits on a stag party – the main culprit is wearing nothing but a pair of leather shorts, saying that he is in Poland to be punished…

“Basically we’re drinking loads of everything.”

Enough said… Later, at 2 am, I found a group of Londoners in the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz. This is what they had to say:

“I’m fairly drunk, I’m quite happy really, I mean, I have to say, it’s a beautiful place. Come to Kraków, the architecture, the culture, the Jewish quarter’s fantastic, the vodka, however, takes the biscuit. The vodka’s fantastic. We find most of the English people here quite embarrassing, and we like to think we’re above all that, but we’re not. So here we are, drunk again, here, in Kraków.”

Refreshing to see that the English have retained their sense of humour in all this: locals, however, do not always see the joke. Perhaps, as has been mentioned, and has happened in Prague, the stag parties will move to where the beer is cheaper and where flights still arrive within three hours of take-off. For now though, Kraków, as well as many other Polish and central European cities, has to take the force of inebriated Brits. Just a fad? Or more vodka to come?

The International Cultural Centre

Material about the International Cultural Centre, Kraków, 09.08.2006. An in-depth view on the one of the country's busier cultural centres... Radio Polonia version here.

Recently Kraków, Poland’s second city and dubbed ‘cultural capital’ of the country, has become one of the major tourist capitals of Europe. One website even lists it as the fifth best place to visit in the whole of Europe, beating other major cities such as Paris and Barcelona. The city is currently on the World Heritage Site list of UNESCO, and the roads and paths that make up the city turn time on its head, transporting you to a distant land. But there is more to Kraków than the old buildings, churches, and the street festivals that flood the Old Town and the Jewish district of Kazimierz.

The International Cultural Centre looks like any other building which is on the Main Market Square, but what lies behind the building’s façade is another matter. The International Cultural Centre, or the ICC, is one of the only institutions in Poland apart from the National Museum and National Theatre that is publicly funded. It is at the forefront of keeping intact Kraków’s heritage, as well as also engaging in debate as to the city’s future both on the local scene as well as at national, European, and even global levels. I went to the Centre to find out what it is that these people actually do that makes Kraków the beautiful city that it is today. Katarzyna Jagodzińska told me more:

This is the cultural institution and we deal mainly with cultural heritage, this is the key wordof the ICC, so we deal with cultural heritage, which is culture, which is heritage, monuments, urban planning and art, and we do this through organisingall sorts of art exhibitions in our gallery, we publish our own books, albums, research materials, conference materials, we run the educational programmes, the summer school and thepost-graduate studies, and we do all sorts of promotion work. We promote our work, the work of Kraków and work of Poland in the field of culture in the international and intercultural fields.

The conferences are very important, where we do invite specialists and researchers from various countries, from abroad, from central Europe, but not only from western Europe, from the United States, as well as from Australia, as the next year visitors from Tasmania are planned. So we do discuss, we create a forum where people can share our views, we can share our experience, which is the experience of central Europe and western Europe, and we try to find some conclusions: what next, now we have the 21st century, we had our fifteenth anniversary conference, so we are actually discussing about how should we approach the cultural heritage in the 21st century, and how can we attract the public and researchers to continue our work.

And could you tell me, how long has the ICC been in Kraków for?

Well, this year in May we celebrated our 15th anniversary, so that means that our institution was founded in 1991, it was two years after the abolishing of Communism and after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

You have a library here, what kind of books do you have here and what is it used for?

Well, this is a very specialist library, so it deals mainly with culture, it deals  with art, with monuments and urban planning, so with everything the ICC deals with. So we have over 13000 volumes, and the library is mainly visited by the specialists in the field, and by the students of art history or the Academy of Fine Arts, so there are plenty of books which we cannot find in any other library in Kraków as well as in Poland, so we do have the books thanks to the international exchange, so we send our publications to other institutions, then they send us theirs.

You told me earlier that you deal with cultural heritage, could you tell me what cultural heritage is?

Well, I woudn’t say that cultural heritage is only about the buildings, it’s all about culture, and culture is not only the buildings, the urban planning, it’s also something that decides about our identity, so this is also art which is very important for us, for our gallery, which is visible for the visitors, for Polish and international viewers, so this is art, and these are also the publications of art, the publications on everything connected to culture and cultural thought. So it’s not only the buildings, not only the buildings that we’re sitting in, which is actually very ancient, so in the basement we have Gothic, here we have some Gothic pillars, and it’s all blended with a modern style, so do not connect cultural heritage strictly to the buildings.

So, cultural heritage is all around us: Kraków’s unique atmosphere is due to the identity and the culture of its residents, and also increasingly by the people that also visit this place. So, next time you’re in Kraków, don’t just look at the buildings, but also breath in the air, soak up the atmosphere with the help of a coffee at one of the city’s many cafes, and relax. The city has a future ahead of it: we shall see in time though what that future will bring.

The ICC is open to the public, and has a gallery with seasonal exhibitions. At the moment there is a collection of Rembrandt prints on display, as well as pictures by his competitors. More information can be found at www.mck.krakow.pl.

Podcasting

As promised, I'm going to be uploading some of my podcasts for Radio Polonia. The full transcript of each 'package' (as it is called in the trade) will also be available. I own the copyright on both the audio and the script. If you want to use them, please get in touch.

The podcasts are all in mp3 format. The editing might be a bit dodgy, as these recordings are sent to Warsaw for further editing before being put on the air. The dispatches are usually about current events in Kraków, Poland, and intended for an international audience, not just from the UK or US. I hope you enjoy them and that they provide you, the reader (and listener, I hope!) with some more insight into what this place is about.

6 Month Update

You wouldn't have thought that after nearly 6 months of absence (ab-sense?) I would have bothered to update my blog. I feel it a kind of duty. I owe it to a lot of people. I may even owe it to myself. I dunno.

The last six months, and in fact this whole year, has taught me so much about what is real and what is not; what is truth (or something that resembles it), and what are porky-pies, or just plain bullshit. I suppose such emotional conflicts are something that every person has, more or less. But let us not dwell on emotion for too long, as there are things to be told.

I am still an MA student. Although at this point in time I rather I weren't. Last semester I attended class, of course, but there wasn't enough of it.

I worked as an intern at Kraków's International Print Triennial. I was supposed to learn something useful, like do a bit of PR or something. I translated instead. Oh, how I translated. Now I know this blog is about my profession also. But this was incredible. I started to figure out that I was not cut out to be a full-time translator. Nevertheless, I finished the internship after three months (the time alloted by the university), and found myself with a few translations coming in, either from the Print Triennial or from the Bunkier Sztuki, the contemporary art museum. And of course some students keeping up appearances from time to time. I trained one in English for his matura exam. My next-door neighbour's grand-son. No pressure there, then. Luckily he passed. And they say A-levels are getting easy in the UK...

I went on holiday to Italy. Beautiful. I went by train from Poland. It took me forever, because the Italians decided to strike on my ass the day I decided to travel. So I spent 14 hours in Villach, a very picturesque Austrian Alpine town on the border with Tarvisio. The way back was adventurous too, as precision Italian timekeeping, this time, made me run across Vienna station half-naked to catch my ongoing connection to Kraków. But that's really by-the-by. It was fun.

When I got back from Italy I got busy answering the phone. And making calls too. The last two months have done their business. And I've done mine. I have got two new jobs which ideally sit together side by side. At least with the timetable that I have been given. I am now a lektor at a local (Cracovian) private Catholic university, the Tischner European University (Wyższa Szkoła Europejska), teaching English as a foreign language (natch) but also a practical module for the Applied Linguistics course at the university. All pretty cool. Then a month after that I had an (job) interview at Radio Polonia, the English section of Polskie Radio's external service. Two days later I was in the studio reading the news lajw to a global audience. I got my microphone, and am now their correspondent in Kraków.

All this, and of course more. My company has finally started up. Funnily enough, it's called The Talking Bear. And I deal in translation, foreign-language teaching, and advertising. Yes, you did just read that... I have my own stamp, and what is more my very own accountant. Well, I would like to see any of you try to understand Polish tax law!

Of course, not everything is OK all of the time. My mother's best friend Zyta died just before I went to Italy. She was in a coma for about a month. So sad when shit like this happens. She was with us on our holidays in Italy last year, and I, too, have known her for my fare share of time. She accompanied me with her husband Marek on the drive down to the Abruzzo, and lay on the back seat telling us funny stories and engaging in awesome discussion, whether it was about caffè coretto or Florentine architecture. RIP, Zyta. You were truly great.

And then comes today. I'm sitting at home with a cold and a temperature. Translations from the aforesaid institutions never seem to cease, and of course I'm a little fed up with it all. And then a message: Carmen nie żyje. Carmen was a stray dog (bitch) that hung around our house in the Abruzzo. Her full given name was Carmencita (by the people who looked after the house), and she was very friendly, always hungry and extremely playful. Mum got her inoculations done, got her an Italian pet passport and while I was driving with Marek and Zyta back to Warsaw, Mum and Carmen went to Rome and attended the Angelus on St. Peter's Square. Carmen even had her own seat on the plane on the flight back. However, we knew that she was ill. It wasn't long before she became weak, not helped by last winter, with no doubt. Always cheeky and cheerful, Carmen was great company for us, and for the other three dogs in Warsaw.

In the Wawel choir too, two people have died so far this year. One bass and a second tenor.

How brittle life is: such is the way we are made, alas.

To finish for now - one thing that I have realised is this: you can't have your cake and eat it. But you can nibble at someone else's. (That's love.)

I don't know when I'll next post. The best way to listen to what I am doing is here. In fact I might even start taking my radio podcasts that I file with Radio Polonia and upload them here. Perhaps with a bit of off-the-air commentary?

Love you all, M

PS No, I haven't finished my MA. But I will. Promise.

Solidarność

An obvious title for today's post. Or it would have been for yesterday (the Wawel has just rung out the end of the day...).

One thing that I have realised over the past few hours. Solidarity has waned over the past few years. One must remember that Solidarity was not only set up as the first independent trade union in Poland in 1980, it was a means by which Poles could unite in their fight against the Communists. Unity is something that Poland seems to lack, especially now in 2005, 25 years on from Wałęsa's triumph in Gdańsk shipyard. A series of films broadcast tonight (last night, although only an hour ago) on TVP seems to drive this message home. And it is painful. This country is still run by commies. That is sad. People don't have time or the inclination to feel a unity, a bond, with each other. That is even sadder. What has happened? This country is in a state of helplessness, and a tear comes to my eye when I see what goes on in the Sejm. At the moment it is run by crooks who are robbing this country. I for one will be going to vote in the upcoming elections, if only to see the riddance of such bigoted arseholes that seem to thrive on driving this country into the ground.

Oh well. Such is life. Poland has a long way to go, but I am sure that one day it will get there. It is a free country, and democracy will write the annals of the future. Eventually.

What ramble. I'm sure my next post will be of a more light-hearted nature... Dobranoc.

Image from the Solidarity web-site.

Cracovian Architecture &c.

May week-end a success. The sun in the Beskid Żywiecki was particularly awesome, resulting in mild sunburn...

Of course, to make up for two lost days students decided to pile it in before the week was up, making me go ever so slightly mad. What one does in the name of a few złoty, I tell you. To really finish me off, I've sung every day since I got back, too. Being in two choirs is good fun, but when you have to sing endlessly it does become somewhat tiring. Practice on Weds with Olim Pueri Cantantes, Thursday Mass on Św. Krzyża (Church of the Holy Cross), Friday practice with the Cathedral and Cecylian Choirs, today a break, but tomorrow... Tomorrow is St. Stanislaus' day (Św. Stanisław), patron saint of Poland. The Mass on the Skałka is going to be televised. My boots are trembling.

Apart from running around like a total madman, I have also set up a photoset in Flickr of interesting buildings and architecture in Kraków. The set doesn't have many pictures now, but I'll soon rectify the situation. There's a lot to see, and some of the most beautiful buildings are hidden in the maze that is the Old Town. You can see for yourself here.

And one last thing. The election in the UK. I voted (by proxy). I wasted more paper for a vote that wasn't going to make a difference anyway. Time for PR in the UK? I should think so...

Anyway, in light of tomorrow, here is are the first two verses of the hymn written in memory of St Stanisław, Bishop of Kraków, who was "hacked to pieces" in 1078 by Bolesław II...

Gaude Mater Polonia
Prole foecunda nobili
Summi Regis magnalia
Laude frequenta vigili

Cuius benigna gratia
Stanislai Pontificis
Passionis insignia
Signis fulgent mirificis

Until the next time...