Reflections

Some reflections.....

On krakow and poland:

Visually my first impression of Krakow was that it had a vaguely Italian feel to it. I still get that sensation walking around, perhaps it the sundrenched, simple and elegant buildings. Whatever it is, there seems to be an ease, a grace to this place. The way the poles here dress and move has also arrested me: walking around on weekdays you see remarkably sharply tailored men, wearing suits that define the body and add character. The women here dress elegantly, again in body defining dresses and tiny perilous shoes. This certainly ain't no berlin. Observing couples dancing in clubs as well, this elegance and definition comes to the fore: dancing here is not simply some kind of rhythmical stumbling. Bodies arch backwards, feet move with purpose. Again all of this has surprised me.

On the germans and the poles:

Perhaps the reason that this has all suprised me is not because I had had no contact at all with poland. Rather it was because i do have so much regular contact with 'Poland' as seen through the eyes of my students, who live and work on the germany-poland border. So many times I have gazed across and wondered what lay on the other side. Rumours of some kind of uncivilised, wild place with crazy drivers, unkempt roads, impoverished, undesirable came to me. What I found provides a contrast. Not only have a found a place that is civilised and elegant in a way that Germany never is, I have been surprised by how, in many respects german standards of civilisation are also valid here. Traffic behaviour for example has been as predictable here as it ever is Germany. Coming here has been a revelation to one who only ever saw Poland through this distorted border mirror.

On Auschwitz:

I was prepared for the room of hair, of eye glasses, the models of gas chambers: I had seen it all in documentaries over the years. I was not prepared for the suitcases with names and adresses painted clearly. Names of towns and cities in germany, mixtures of german and traditional jewish names, locations that are recognisable and familiar to me. These clearly are the places they thought they belonged in. This is what saddened and shocked me in a quite unexpected way: that a country that many of these people thought they belonged to in some way tortured and exterminated them. I cannot even begin to grasp or understand the hatred that produced this, and it is an experience I will carry with me and process for some time to come. It may take me years to even begin to understand the implications.

On gay clubs, clubs and music:

Another thing I had heard, looking through the distorted mirror of poland through germany, was that poland has a major problem with homophobia. I'm sure that there is some truth to this: different standards of public morality do seem to apply here - the professional was apparently shot many a dirty look walking around krakow with the craftsman on a sunday morning in what were clearly last night's clothes. I was cheered, therefore, by the scene in the more gay friendly than gay club we danced in on friday and saturday: those who were out were out and unapologetic. The value of tolerance, and the importance of the struggle to achieve it cannot be underestimated. On a lighter note I was surprised by the music in all the clubs we danced in: it appears to be stuck somewhere not later than 1998. Having experienced 1998 the first time round this was a source of joy to me. Curious, though, very curious.

On friends:

Friends are the best, and mine rule. I love you all.

On home:

On my first full day here, I found myself unearthed and missing Berlin. Now it is one day before I am due to return and the idea fills me with dismay. Isn't it ever thus?

Off to Nowa Huta today, perhaps I will write more after.....