10 questions after 10 months

1. What did you feel when you arrived in Wroclaw for the very first time?

I sat in the train and saw the Wrocławskie Arkady, a huge shopping-mall, passing by. As naive it may sound – it was a big surprise for me that Wroclaw as a polish city has  4 huge shopping malls and in addition to that a big shopping park, where you can buy almost everything. I wasn’t aware of the crucial power of consumption that obtains in Poland. People seem to love shopping or at least walking through the malls to be seen and watch others.

2. What stereotypes turned out to be right/ wrong?

Two very strong stereotypes, both somehow connected with vehicles, showed up during my 10 months in Poland. On the one hand there’s probably the biggest cliché about theft and burglary. Even my mom, born and raised in Poland, forewarned me to keep my things near to me, because faster than I’ll notice I’ll be mugged. And so I faced situations with big crowds or chaos very suspiciously. That some people had an eye on my bicycle, I didn’t notice and so, after one week of having a bike in Wrocław, it was gone. Two locks weren’t hurdle enough. Nevertheless, I wasn’t really angry, because going by bike trough Wrocław anyway is too stressful for me. On the other hand there’s the stereotype of scrappy cars that were stolen somewhere and brought into the country and now plugging the streets. This cliché turned out to be absolutely wrong, it’s impressing what beautiful and modern cars are on the streets. It happened several times to me that I was walking trough a quite shady part of the city and couldn’t believe my eyes seeing a Jaguar parking in front of an old and decayed house. 

3. Are polish girls indeed as beautiful as their reputation pretends them to be?

Yes, they are. Without any envy I can admit – they are gorgeous. It seems as if polish girl care about absolute everything. From their haircut over perfect nails up the high heel shoes that match to the bag, it’s a lot of work and effort they put into their look and image. The dark side of this point stands on another page:  In comparison to Germany I saw unfortunately much more skinny and even anorectic girls on the streets. I think it’s connected very close to the strong consumption life and the believe that with the right look you’re going to be successful and happy in your life. On some days it seemed to me as if a whole generation of skinny girls was growing up, a sad and alarming experience in 10 months Poland.

4. Which aspect of polish life shocked you and why?

Besides the “Generation of skinny girls”, I was shocked by the wastage of plastic bags and how fast you get used to put almost every single thing into a plastic bag. The shops in Poland have the service that you can take as much plastic bags as you need for free. This leads to an unbelievable waste of plastic bags that no one uses a second time, because they are to thin and you know that you will get 10 for free if you need them the next time. Luckily this mentality slowly starts to change and salesclerk at least asks you how much bags you need, so they have a certain control. 

5. What did bother you?

Polish bureaucracy is terrifying and awful. I had to apply for my polish passport and after 5 attempts at different places where everyone told me different things to do, I was so lucky to get to a really nice lady who was able to manage the whole thing in 15 minutes. In general it seems to me that Poles like to work with small papers which you have to fill out and file cards although there are computers standing on other desks and waiting for their use.
Not only situations in public offices but in medical practices as well led me to several levels of desperation and anger. Very often the responsible contact person seemed to be overwhelmed by my concern and turned out to be reproachful and angry with me, in the end I had the impression to excuse myself for existing. After a while, I got used to the impudent tone and answered likewise unkind. Suddenly people started to be nicer. 

6. Wodka and lots of meat – what culinarian summits did you reach?

Indeed, Poles like wodka and they drink more wodka than probably Germans or French. But they combine it with good and rich food and like to celebrate a whole night eating, drinking and talking. Poles are very chummy people, they are open-minded and interested in different people and cultures. Polish food pattern are multisided and colorful. Recommendable are traditional polish dishes like Pieroggi, meat in every kind of preparation and the wide range of delicious soups. Flaki, a soup made of beef tripe, is a big culinarian challenge for most of foreign visitors, but if you are brave enough to try, you will have an extraordinary taste experience. 

7. The most absurd situations you went through?

Poles like to queue. I know generalizations like this are inappropriate and simplistic, but nevertheless there is some truth in it. Everywhere are queues – at the post office (the longest I’ve ever seen in my life), at the butchers, in front of the church at official holidays and nobody seems to be bothered or angry to wait. The most absurd waiting-situation I had before a concert in Hala Stólecia. This huge building has one main and two side entries. In front of the main entry at least hundred people were waiting to get into the hall trough the security check. I went to a side entry and asked why they didn’t open it, because the concert was going to start in 15 minutes. The security man opened the door and said “It is open”. The question why everybody was queuing up and didn’t try their luck at the side entry he couldn’t answer.

8. Did you go to church?

Poles are much more religious than for example Germans. It seems to me as a matter of course to go to church every Sunday even for young folks when they went to party on Saturday night. I went to church to see how it is and if the divine service varies in some aspects from german service. All the more surprised I was when I visited a service especially made for students and heard what the priest was preaching. He was talking about Adam and Eve and the Paradise and until this point everything was alright. But suddenly he started to become real mad on Eve that she was so stupid to sin and that she had no respect for Adam and so on. The old priest became more and more in rage and the young students seemed to enjoy the “show”. The big conclusion was that he would like to hit Eve in the face if he would have the possibility to meet her today and that the man/ father has to be on first position of the social system. Students almost were giving him applause. Then I went home, disaffected and mad that such conservative and flat phrases enthuse so much young and smart people. 

9. Gdańsk or Warszawa or Kraków ?

From the North to the South – I visited these three beautiful polish cities and was inspired, cheerful, surprised, depressed and much much more. Gdańsk is settled in a maritime atmosphere, here you can buy unbelievable delicious fish for so little money, you can lie whole day at the beach, take a walk through wonderful old city parts of Gdańsk and enjoy the colourful life on Długi Targ. Gdańsk has, likewise as Wrocław, a strong historical connection to Germany and you can feel the different influences and the mixture of all of them. But watch out for the car traffic in Gdańsk, the car drivers are even crazier than the guys in Wrocław.
Warszawa was the biggest city-surprise for me. Friends told me how dirty, shady and ugly this city is and so my suspiciousness was huge when I came there. But Warszawa blew me away. The contrast between old socialistic buildings and new modern glass palasts raised my young but strong love for this European capitol. Reportedly people of Warszawa are snobby and arrogant; I didn’t experience it at all. They were friendly, although always in a rush, girls on high heels run in Warszawa the fastest, I think.
Most of the Erasmusers I got to know loved Kraków the most. It is like a dreamy wonderland, the Rynek is wonderful, Wawel as well. Unfortunately a truth that thousands of tourists know as well. Of course I was pleased to be there for a while, but very fast fed up with queuing up (see point 7.), waiting and waiting and waiting. 

10. What will you miss the most?

There’s too much I’m going to miss. I love this city, I love Poland.
I felt home and welcome. I will miss the small shops where you can buy cookies singly, I will miss the cinema where you get to see every movie with original sound recording, the milk bars where you can have a whole lunch for approximately 1 Euro, the old trams where every ride is like on a rollercoaster, the smell of the old house where you see that they were beautiful long time ago, oszczypek (smoked cheese), twarożek (some kind of curd cheese) and waniliowy serek (some kind of curd cheese with vanilla flavor), I will miss the Sundays on which you can have a big white coffee and delicious cake in Mleczarnia, I will miss the Indie-sounds in Bezsenność, Verdi at the beautiful Opera, the joy detect another new krasnal (dworf) in the city, the possibility to go shopping at 21 o clock, but most of all I will miss this wonderful city, its atmosphere and the gorgeous people in Poland.
It was and will always be a home for me.