The Beggars of Krakow

Krakow is challenge for beggars. On the one hand it’s a comparatively wealthy place with lots of even wealthier tourists, but on the other Krakowians are notoriously the tightest citizens of the republic. The inside of the average Krakowian’s wallet receives less hours of sunlight annually than parts of North Wales. There are reputed to be solid gold coins from the reign of Kazimierz Wielki (1310–70) still officially in circulation because no government department has yet figured out how to liberate them from the purses of Krakow citizens.

Rear Krakow Window

I never regarded voyeurism as a vocation, I just kind of drifted into it. Having a designated smoking window that looks directly onto a dozen brightly illuminated flats on the other side of the street didn’t help. I’m sure you’ve seen Hitchcock’s Rear Window as many times as I have. The difference in my case [...]

Bus TV

I always thought the one thing missing from the whole experience of traveling by bus was the opportunity to watch mind-numbingly dull commercials on TV. Simply enduring repeated umbrella blows to the thorax from combative old ladies is not enough these days. As if by a miracle my fantasies have been fulfilled by the advent of Bus TV. Apparently this miracle occurred some time ago but I haven’t been on a bus for a while, or at least sober on a bus for a while, so the revelation has been late in coming to Polandian.

My Polish Street: The Ballad of Pani Basia

I don’t remember the first time I saw Pani Basia, but I do remember the last. She was sitting on a battered chair on the pavement outside my building. Blue lights and paramedics were standing by, hands on hips. It looked like she’d fallen again. I didn’t see her fall, but then I didn’t see her fall the first time. We just found her on her back, struggling, for all the world like a cartoon turtle, except the splash of blood from her head wasn’t funny.

My Polish Street: Polish Graffiti

Polandian Theme Month is a cunning invention that does away with the need for me to think up a new idea every week. This month’s theme is My Polish Street, which has the double advantage of providing a framework for a series of devastatingly incisive posts on modern urban Poland as well as eliminating the need for me to walk very far to take pictures. Today: Polish Graffiti.

Early 80’s Swedish meat in Poland!

When I first saw the headline I thought “My God, an ABBA revival concert!” and started checking the listings for Sala Kongresowa!

1980’s Swedish meat
However, it turns out that this is a far more sinister plot that should have everyone who’s eaten pierogi z mięsem in a Krakow bar mleczny heading for the toilet.
Almost 200 tonnes [...]

PoS #8

PoS is back to Polandian! Yes, the holidays were hard this year! Now in September armed with tan and hotel towels we can get back to business. In this episode we sum up what was hot and not this summer.

Chopin’s birthplace – signs of life in the Polish tourist industry?

“Things to do near Warsaw at the weekend” is right up there in the list of World’s Shortest Books alongside “Great French War Heroes”, “1000 Years of German Humour”, “Good American Beer” and “Mother Teresa’s Guide to Erotic Pottery”.
If you live in Warsaw, like we do, you run out of places to “pop out to” [...]

The leaflet plague

Ah, September. Season of mellow fruitfulness, misty mornings, and fistfuls of glossy leaflets. Kids are back at the chalkface and private language schools are scrambling to snare all those eager young brains and parental wallets with visions of Big Ben and Times Square. The prime weapon in this battle is the leaflet. “Your child must [...]

Krakow’s WWII 70th anniversary ceremony: A spectator’s-eye view

I attended the ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II yesterday in Krakow. It was an understated but moving event.  Attendance was low and seemed to consist mainly of people who happened to be walking past at the time plus a gang of frenetic photographers. As we know, Poles have [...]