Summer Vacation, Volume One: Poland

This post is long overdue, and in the spirit of posting something rather than nothing, I'm going to break this up into three manageable pieces.  Part one, Poland.


In case you don't already know, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland.  When getting to know someone, I try to insert this casually into approximately conversation number two, because to truly know me, you have to know this fact.  My time in Poland was a big deal to me, and getting to go back to visit this summer was also a big deal.

Let me begin our photos with this one of my paradise on earth, Biecz, Poland.

That is a view of the town hall tower (left) and the parish church (right) from a hill overlooking the town.  Please pause for reverence.  Thank you.

Shocking fact about Poland: There are other towns besides Biecz!  Like Krakow, which was technically our first stop.

We flew into Krakow and were met by my former student, Olga, who was our tireless (literally indefatigable) tour guide.  Here's a pic of her seeing us off at the end of our stay.  Thank you, Olga!

This is the Krakow barbican, which used to be the entrance to the city back when the entire city was fortified by a large wall.

Below is the main square, with the Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) on the left and St. Mary's on the right.  Every hour on the hour, from the upper windows of St. Mary's, a bugler plays a short tune in each cardinal direction (north, south, east, west), but his final tune is cut short.  Wikipedia has a great explanation of the legend around this tune and its being cut short:

"According to a popular 20th-century legend, during a Mongol invasion of Poland (the invasion usually cited is that of 1241), Mongol troops led by General Subutai approached Kraków. A sentry on a tower of St Mary's Church sounded the alarm by playing the Hejnał, and the city gates were closed before the Tatars could ambush the city. The trumpeter, however, was shot in the throat and did not complete the anthem, and this is the legendary reason as to why performances end abruptly before completion."

It's a neat, sort of haunting tune, and it's also broadcast daily at noon on Polish public radio.

Below is the entrance to Wawel Hill and the Wawel Royal Castle.  

This cathedral, also located at the Wawel Royal Castle, is where Pope John Paul II served as cardinal before he became pope.

Below is the inner courtyard of the Royal Palace.

Polish soldiers at Wawel Hill.  I can't remember what the occasion was.  Maybe Olga will remind me in the comments section.

**Update from Olga: "Now, onto the soldiers -August 15 is our national armed forces day. The date is important - on August 15th, 1920 a battle of Warsaw took place between Polish and Soviet armies. The Soviets wanted to spread their revolution onto western Europe, we wanted to retain our newly reclaimed political independence. All odds were against Polish army, there was no possible way to win the battle against prevailing Soviet forces. And yet, we did it. Brilliant strategic planning, surprise element, good luck or Divine Providence – name it what you will. But we won the battle, saved our capital city and the day has been commemorated since then as “the miracle on Wisła river”. Hence military parades and other festivities in mid August, especially on Wawel Hill, where Józef Piłsudzki – the head of Polish army in that battle – is buried in the crypt of Wawel Cathedral."**

Now we are back in the main square, where tourists can take a carriage tour of the city.

This is a stained glass window in a church in Krakow.  The stained glass was done by Stanislaw Wyspianski, a famous Polish painter, playwright and poet, who is also the patron of the school where I taught in Biecz.

One of my favorite statues in Krakow, adjacent to St. Mary's.

There was a pierogi festival going on while we were in Krakow.  We got to try all kinds of pierogi -- blueberry, spinach, ruskie, etc.  Delicious!

 This is the view looking up from a new underground museum in Krakow.  In summer 2005 the eastern section of the town square was completely excavated to reveal over 1,000 years of history, which is now on display in a permanent exhibit under the main square.

This is a pic I stole from online of the excavation.  It was a huge undertaking!

 

After reading a review in the Krakow Post, we decided to try this new restaurant, Twoj Kucharz.  The food was a very modern take on Polish cuisine, and it was awesome! 

One of the things that had changed the most about Krakow was its tourist infrastructure.  Back in 1999-2001 when I lived in Poland, Krakow was largely an undiscovered gem.  Flash forward to 2015, and even the train station I remember is now vacant and sitting adjacent to the new station and mall.  Below is the old station.

This is the new station and mall.

This is a view inside the Sukiennice, or Cloth Hall.  This is my favorite place for souvenirs!

Chimera!  This restaurant was good 14 years ago and is still good now.

St. Mary's at night.

Cloth Hall at night.

After our whirlwind tour of Krakow, during which I learned more about the city than I did in the two years I lived in Poland, we headed for Biecz.

I'm about to geek out about Biecz, so get comfortable.

If you look up Biecz on wikipedia, you can read for hours about this small town, population 4,500.  In fact, the Biecz entry contains more info than most things I search for on wikipedia.  There's that much to tell!

Although Biecz is just a tiny blip on the radar of even Poles, most of whom reply "jak?" ("how's that?") when I tell them I lived in Biecz, there was a time in Polish history when Biecz was one of the largest cities in Poland.  That was back in the 1600s when it was an important stop on the Hungarian wine trade route.

There is a cool legend about where the name Biecz originated.  According to lore, there was once a terrible bandit named Becz who frequented the wine route in the spot that is now Biecz.  He stole from travelers for years but was eventually caught.  When he was sentenced to death, to save his own life he offered to use the money he'd stolen to found a town.  That town was named after the robber Becz...Biecz!  Is it true?  Not sure, but I love the story.

So why, you may ask, do I love Biecz so much?  I don't know if it's something I can adequately explain.  It spoke to me from the moment my counterpart and the PE teacher drove me into town at the conclusion of my training.  It was the physical location of the two years that truly shaped who I am.  The people I met there took me in and made me a part of their lives.  For a whole host of sentimental reasons, I will have two homes for my entire life -- one wherever I'm currently living, and one in Biecz.

Ok, let's get to some pics.  Might as well start with this one of the high school I taught at for two years, Liceum Ogólnokształcącego im. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego w Bieczu, also known as LO Biecz.

This was my grocery store.  It hasn't changed much, which is good, because change is not allowed in Biecz.  (That's my personal rule.  It's supposed to remain exactly as I remembered it.)

This is the town hall tower.  It was renovated while I was living in Biecz, and it still looks beautiful today!

There is a crazy huge church in Biecz, which is evidence that this was once a royal and booming town on the Hungarian wine route.  I spent many, many hours at this church attending mass.  This is a view up to the altar.

This is a music stand dating back to the year 1633.

Legend has it the remains of the notorious robber Becz are buried behind this relief.

 This is a view looking up in front of the altar.

This is a painting in the church.  If you look closely, Biecz is drawn into the piece, just to the left of Jesus' hip.

At one time, the entire town of Biecz was protected by an elliptical shaped wall.  This pic was taken just outside a restored portion of said wall.

View of the church from the town museum.

Statue of Marcin Kromer, one of many famous sons of Biecz.  

Inside a museum in Biecz.

Inside the scouting museum in Biecz.

This is a cottage a Biecz resident built in Scandinavian style from reclaimed wood.

Apothecary museum in Biecz.

This is another museum in Biecz, which I would like to someday buy and live in.  Isn't that an awesome room?! You can't see it, but those windows overlook the picturesque Beskid Niski, or Lower Beskid mountains.

View of the church.

This is another museum, inside one of the turrets along the original wall.

Stanislaw Wyspianski -- remember him?  He's the patron of the school where I taught, and he also did the stained glass pictured earlier in this post.  This statue is outside my school.

Joe finally got his ognisko!  Poles love to have bonfires (ognisko) where they drink, roast kielbasa, sing, etc.  They are truly awesome, and Joe missed out on one when we visited over a decade ago.

Gratuitous Biecz shot. This was taken from the other side of town.

 

During our way-too-short visit in Biecz, our wonderful hosts (more on them later) took us for a tour around the area.  There is some gorgeous countryside around Biecz.

One of our stops included an old wooden church, of which there are many in the area.  This one was particularly beautiful and well restored.  There is a great legend about this church's construction.  It's said that it wasn't actually constructed at all.  It was brought down the river by a great flood and deposited here on the riverbank.

View of the sloping roof.

View of the altar.

View looking up.

I love this interesting fact: The roofs on these churches are built very close to the ground.  This was done because at the time these churches were constructed, people would walk for hours from nearby villages to attend mass on Sunday morning.  For some people the walk was so long, they had to start out the night before, and they would sleep under the low roof, which provided shelter from the elements.

Part of our day trip included a great hike through what was once a front line of battle during World War I. This was just a short drive from Biecz.  The hike started with a great orientation from our host, Mr. Matys, a former colleague of mine and the father of our tour guide, Olga.

 This is a photo of one of their family members who fought in the war.

Another family photo.

Mr. Matys had done some painstaking research to find that there was even someone by the name of Vasicek who had fought in this area.  You can see his name below in the registry.

He further cross-referenced to find that there were a number of men buried in this very WWI graveyard who had fought with Rudolf Vasicek.  This was the grave of one of them.

This was the mass grave of more of them.

The hike took us through a number of WWI graveyards, each of which was numbered and noted on the signs.

We ran into a frog.

For your reference, this is the mountain rescue number.  I thought it was worth taking note of at the time.

This was a very basic hikers' hostel where you could sleep, eat, shower and use the bathroom.  There is now an American nickel hidden somewhere inside.

Does anyone have a downed log they're not using?  I want a planter like this!

The nickel is somewhere in this room!

Mr. Matys leads the way.

Yet another WWI gravesite.

Picking berries along the way.

Mr. Matys' hike was an attempt to recreate a hike he'd taken me, his students and another teacher on when I was living in Biecz.  In Polish high schools, each class of students has a class teacher, and that class teacher takes the kids on a trip each spring.  The teachers usually need other teachers to chaperone and help with the kids.  For reasons unknown to me, Mr. Matys chose the one and only teacher in the school who didn't speak fluent Polish -- ME!  But I'm so glad he did.  His class trip was one of the highlights of my time in Poland.

Before we get to these awesome archival photos from that epic class trip, let me say a few words about Mr. Matys, my former colleague and our gracious host for this trip to Biecz.  Mr. Matys and I always had a difficult time communicating, yet he was among the kindest, friendliest teachers at the school.  He always went out of his way to greet me and make me feel welcome.  He even invited me on his class trip.  If he sounds like a pretty great guy, well then, I'm underselling him.  Mr. Matys is a true Polish gentleman.  After no contact for 14 years, Mr. Matys invited me and Joe to stay in his home during our visit.  His daughter, Olga, who was my former student, is just like her dad.  She loves nature, scouting and her country, and she is a wonderful tour guide and host.  But let's not leave out Mrs. Matys.  She is not only a fabulous host, but a tremendous cook, as well.  I will spend the rest of my life trying to recreate her zurek.  Thank you, Matys family!

Here are some photos of our hosts.  The first is Mrs. Matys bringing in eggs for the zurek.

Here is the Matys family, including Olga's husband, Witia.

The next five photos are highlights from our class trip back in 2001.

If you read this whole thing, I'm so proud of you!  This was my longest post yet.  I'll let you give your eyes a rest before I come out with the second volume, Hungary.