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The Odyssey of a Seahawk: |
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The Odyssey of a Seahawk: |
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Poland (or, Somewhere over the Rainbow!) |
| 4 September 1999 Decided to put my passport and car to good use today and drove to Poland. My destination was Novy Tarq, where there is a market to which many Slovaks go to buy various and sundry things. I didn't find the market, but I had a wonderful drive and found a great festival that was there and the drive was absolutely phenomenal. Poland is the one place on the planet I have always wanted to set foot on, and it was quite moving to actually cross the border and drive through the country side. I drove for about ten hours, in a 400 km circle, from Zilina, to Poland, and back to Zilina, spent a couple of hours in Nowy Tarq, and stopping here and there for a walk through a village or a cup of coffee. |
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In both Slovakia and Poland (and I imagine in most
European towns, just as in most American towns), every
town has a church, and it us usually the most important
structure in the town. The church in Novy Tarq was
beautiful. The interior was practically Byzantine! So
colorful, ornate, flowers everywhere, it made me cry it
was so beautiful. Of course, everything is making me cry
lately. Just being in Poland made me cry. I have been
corresponding with a man in New Zealand who is from
Poland, we share the same, unusual last name, and I hope
that he will be a good resource this year in my
geneological research. He says that he had relatives with
that name in Warsaw until WWII. His mother still lives
there. That's a start. There is such a juxtaposition of old and new here (and in Slovakia). Tourist and transit busses sharing the road with a horse and wooden buggy. People working the fields next to the road, bringing in their crops with a wagon/wheelbarrow-like contraption attached to their bicycles. Everything is so green and unpoluted (at least on the surface!). I am not sure of the statistics for Poland, but Slovakia is 41% forest! Amazing. |
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Images of Poland the cows are for Lindsay the babicka is for Wito |
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5 September 1999 Did the same thing today (Sunday), except this time in the Czech Republic. Drove in a 400 km circle--Zilina, to Olomouc, and back to Zilina, stopping here and there on the way. Saw a great gothic cathedral with a huge clock where on the hour mechanical statues come out and work, instead of a cuckoo! Just to drive and see the country, get out occasionally at an interesting sight or village was quite nice. I can't believe how unindustrialized and uncommercialized and completely old fashioned everything is. There are factories here and there and some cities and big monstrosities of textile or chemical factories, and I am speaking only from three little drives, I'm not generalizing (not really!) but I've said it before, it is like driving in a time machine. People, not just people in the villages and farms, people in the cities, can fruits and vegetables, make their own jellies, jams, grow their own apples, tomatoes, every available plot of land is cultivated, and not just with flowers. It is the norm here, and where we are in the States, it is the exception. Again, I am not generalizing, I am just speaking from what I know. I know there is are probably MANY people who can their homegrown veggies and make their own jams, I just don't know any. It is really wild. I discovered that Auschwitz was about 25 miles away from one part of the circle I drove in the Czech Republic. I'm glad I didn't know that when I was driving. I've been thinking that maybe I want to save that for a bleak winter day--less than two hours from Zilina. You know, to completely punish my psyche and depress me for weeks during an already depressingly cold and bleak winter.
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