Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts

21 May 1980

Visa, food and dreaming the West

Quick trip to the consulate of the Hungarian People's Republic for our visa, which we'll need as we are going to transit through the country on our way back to Italy. Ann, Andrew and I, as "locals" (because we are "permanent" students here) pay only 160 sloty, but Cathy, who is not permanent enough has to pay in dollars: six dollars to be precise, hardly breaking the bank but they want hard currency for the Western visitor.

After which we all go for yet another great lunch at Borzena's. I just can't get used to this, it's just too much. There is always a bit of a sad atmosphere during these meals, despite our by now deep friendship with the family and mutual trust. Borzena's father joins us today he has a day off work. He is a pilot. He was in the air force, but now flies small planes to spray crops in the countryside.

Her brother is a cool guy, handsome and soft spoken. He does not say much but he, too, dreams of a free life in the West. In fact our conversations at these meals are a bit repetitive when it comes to this. Our gracious Polish host do not relent in their uninterrupted litany of complaints about, well, Poland. I fully understand them, and agree with them. It's just that I feel a bit frustrated in hearing the same stories over and over again when I can do very little that is of use.



Actually maybe I can. Borzena's desire to visit me in Italy, which I will do my to fulfill, just might open the door for her (and perhaps the rest of the family?) to move to a better life in Western Europe or America. Yet their problems are the same problems of all other Poles we met in the last three months, and I certainly can't help all of them.

Lunch at Borzena's apartment

20 May 1980

Unesco hopes, car engine oil and the future of the world

Market Square

Funny episode today. I went for a walk to the Old City (Stare Miasto), which Poland expects to become a Unesco World heritage Site later this year. (Post scriptum: It will, in September.)

After parking I am approached by one of the usual illegal parking "guardians" who promises to look after my car for a tip. Same as in Rome, really. But perhaps more useful here, where petty theft of windshield wipers and light bulbs is a much more common occurrence. In fact  when you walk around you see most cars which are parked in the street have their windshield wipes removed to prevent it being stolen. It would be very difficult to replace, not so much for the cost, but because of unpredictable availability.

Anyway, after agreeing on a tip we chat a bit. Our only common language, beyond my yet way too basic Polish, is German. He tells me of his detention in German camps as a prisoner of war in 1944, where he learned the language. A grim experience but somehow he managed to survive.

He asks how much it costs to buy a car in Italy.
-What car?, I ask him.
-Well say a Polonez.
-No one would really bother to buy a Polonez in Italy - I respond, and he is not a bit disappointed - but if they did it might cost some 4-5 months' wages to an average worker.
--Really? - he is surprised - Pretty good, here it costs about eight years of wages, 400,000 zlotys. It is hard to really calculate the cost of a car in this way, but anyway I get the point.

He then starts to share his views on world history, past and future. He believes the first great empire in history was Rome, and the second that of Bismarck's Germany. The third one will be Russia's empire. Russia is economically weak today, but has great potential and will rise to rule the world.  It must be that way, there is no other possibility. He does not sound like he is an indoctrinated Communist and hopes for socialism to prevail under the leadership of the Soviet Union. In fact he does not even mention the Soviet Union at all. He speaks of Russia as destined to lead the world in the next century.

Royal Palace
I am not sure whether I should be more amused or worried, but I don't take the conversation much further, because of both language limitations and lack of a meaningful exchange. But it was interesting to listen to him. He is very helpful, I have a problem with the lubricant of Giallina's engine and he helps sort it out, for which he gets a nice tip. One of those nice people you meet along the way, share an intense moment with, shake hands and will never meet again.

After my walk about the old city I go to the Czechoslovak embassy to apply for another transit visa, we'll need it to drive back to Italy at the end of our stay. I also ask for a map of the country, I'd like to avoid getting arrested again at a military base, but none is available. Let's hope for the best.

19 May 1980

Soviet visa and duck

In the morning we drive to the Soviet consulate to pick up our visas. Of all people, who do we see driving past us as we approach the imposing building? Leonid Brezhnev, the President of the USSR and General Secretary of the CPSU. He sits, as per protocol, in the rear right-hand seat of the big black armored car. It looks like a joke but we later learn  that he is on an official state visit to Poland.

Relations between the two countries are a bit tense recently. Moscow does not like Poland's relative freestyle communism. The Polish brother party allows lots of easy contacts to the West and little ideological discipline, never mind the large room for maneuvre enjoyed by the Catholic Church, especially after the election of pope John Paul II and his triumphal visit to his home country last year.

Our visa is ready and is quickly handed over by a dour employee of the embassy. Unlike most visas issued by countries of the world, it is not stamped on our passport, but rather it is a separate piece of paper, with all of our data and a photograph. All of which will be taken away from us when we leave the USSR. Luckily, I took a picture. It is, of course, in cyrillic alphabet, and stipulates exactly where and when we are allowed to go in the USSR. For every day we have prepaid our accommodation to Intourist, the Soviet tourism board.

We are warned by Marian and other friends not to even think of exchanging Soviet rubles in the black market, an activity we have grown accustomed to after months of Poland. It would be very risky.

My Soviet visa


In the afternoon the three of us go for a round of shopping, we'd like to find some porcelain to take home but can't find anything of quality worth buying. Prices are reasonable for us but a proper set of tea cups and pot would cost an average Pole some half of his salary. At least the official salary, but as we know by now very well very little here is official, and very much is "kombinowac", the art of solving problems circumventing the law.

In the evening dinner at our first "duck place" where we ate one of our first meals when we arrived in Warsaw for this incredible experience which is about to come to a close. We called it "the First duck place" to distinguish it from the "Second duck place" we found a few days later. Good duck at cheap (for us) prices. I never had much duck before, maybe never had it come to think of it. Chicken, turkey, quail, but not duck. But I have come to like it and I will make sure I look for it when back home.

Home? What is home? Where is it? Sometimes I think about it. I am Italian, but live in the States, and now feel more and more comfortable in Poland, at home here really. I like that feeling: to feel at home where I am. Maybe I have just been lucky, to spend time in hospitable places and make good friends. Maybe I am a nomad by nature. I guess I am too young to deliver a verdict yet. We'll see.

18 May 1980

Customs controls, newspapers and cars

FIAT 126p made in Poland in the 1970s and 80s
Witnessing some creative trade with Simona. You can buy very cheap (in black market dollars) good here, like fur. And an Italian lady won't let that opportunity pass. Marian knows someone who knows someone who works at the airport customs control. FOr USD 100 they are willing to close an eye on her departing luggage.

The way it works is that after check-in and passport control ALL luggage, including big suitcases that will go into the hold of the aircraft, are visually inspected by customs officials. They are looking for stuff that is cheap in Poland because it is coming from other socialist countries (mostly the USSR) at subsidized prices. Caviar is a prime example, but also furs, carpets, and gold. It is entirely up to the official to check. If she or he is willing to close an eye, the departing passenger can get away with anything.

In the afternoon I try to call my former roommate at Georgetown, Ben, to sort out where to leave my stuff. After a long wait at the post office, over an hour and a half, I have to give up, despite the fact I had booked time for an international call.

While killing time I try to buy a newspaper: foreign papers have wildly different prices: the CPSU's Pravda costs only 20 groszy (cents of zloty), practically nothing. The Italian Communist party's paper, l'Unità, costs 5 zloty and La Stampa costs 32 zloty, perhaps because it is owned by the Agnelli family of rich exploiters of the proletariat.

Yet it is the only Italian paper available, at least that I could find. perhaps because the FIAT auto company (also owned by the Agnellis) is a big investor in Poland, where many cars are produced for the domestic market and for export. Among them the 126 model. Polski FIAT produces cars in this country since 1932, it's a long history.

There are actually a lot of cars in Poland, at least in the big cities, it is much easier to get a hold of one, even if just a basic model, than in East Germany, where the wait is measured in decades.

In the evening dinner at Marian's, where I meet Nicola.


17 May 1980

Flying back and meet Cathy

In the morning another tour of the city with Ann. Juwenalia still ongoing, but somehow not so sparkling. They just don't seem excited and are not so exciting.

Antonov 24, made in USSR
At 3:00pm departure back to Warsaw, by plane. It is a Soviet-made aircraft, quite spartan and noisy. Service aboard is basic, to put it mildly. There is a smoking section of the cabin and a non-smoking, but the funny thing is that they are not positioned forward and back of the aircraft like in most airlines. Usually I try to get a seat as far forward in the cabin so as to be away from the smokers, except that if you are too far forward and it is a small aircraft you end up just behind the smokers of business class.

But here smokers and non-smokers are assigned to the left and right of the aisle. With the obvious result that all non-smokers receive generous wafts of smoke no matter where they are seated.

In Warsaw we meet Cathy, Ann's friend who will be traveling with us for the rest of our stay in Eastern Europe and then back to Italy.

In the evening dinner at Marian and Ewa's, where I meet Simona, the wife of my cousin Nicola, a surgeon who is here for a medical conference. It is always very instructive to spend time with them, we always learn a lot about Poland.

Marian and Ewa

16 May 1980

Zakopane tour and Juwenalia

Day trip to Zakopane, a ski resort in the Tatra mountains, next to the border with Czechoslovakia. It is still unseasonably cold for May. We take a nice and easy walking tour of the town, with a tasty lunch in a local eatery. Nothing special really, it would be much better to come here in full Winter, for skiing, or in Summer, for trekking. Now we can't do either!

In one quaint shop I buy a tea set: pot, 6 cups, and milk jar for zl 2500, nice souvenir.

Dinner in the evening at the Staropolska. Our local guide, Halska, maintains this is a "typical" restaurant, but I hope she is wrong. It is really nothing special, a smoky joint with mediocre food.

Today it's the start of the "Juwenalia", a kind of youth celebrations during which college students go around asking for money. Seems like a Halloween for older kids. The make more noise and ask for money instead of candies.

15 May 1980

Dunajec river cruise and promises of liberation


Day trip to the Dunajec river, on the border with Czechoslovakia. We drift down the river for 18 km on a big wooden raft piloted by some quite deft local sailors. It is very cold and windy.

We stop for lunch at a local eatery along the banks of the river, al100 for a hearty meal of sausages and potatoes, hot soup. Cheap, tasty and filling.

During the boat ride, we often get very close to the Czechoslovak bank, and a few people here and there come down to have a look at us. It is very embarrassing to hear Pat get up on our raft and yell at them from the top of his lungs: "Hang in there, we'll come to liberate you from Communism!". Once, twice, three times... If only... He is being silly and if he weren't silly he'd be irresponsible.

People here have memories of such promises in the past, when it was Western (especially American) government agencies, such as Voice of America, that gave false illusions to the peoples oppressed by the USSR. Especially when Hungary rose in 1956, many brave Hungarians actually believed that NATO could come forward and liberate them. But it did not, and they were crushed by Soviet and Warsaw Pact tanks.


In the evening we are back in Krakow. Good lunch in a local restaurant,      always lots of meat and potatoes. Andrew and I take a walk to the Wawel, hoping to catch a night view, but it is closed and watched by threatening dogs, so we turn around and end the evening with a chat in the cool wind.

14 May 1980

Pieskowa Skala

Morning walking around town for some shopping, but as usual quantity and quality leave a lot to be desired. But I do find something quite interesting: an old Atlas, a huge book printed in Germany right after World War I, which still shows the old German Empire, when Poland, carved up by Russia, Germany and Austria, did not exist as a country.

Polish-German relations have always been touchy, to say the least. They were terrible in the first half of the XX century. It is a bit ironic to find this atlas here. A great buy for zl 2500.

In the afternoon we drive to the Pieskowa Skala castle. Quite impressive. Not so much inside though, even if I feel proud to see that most of the interior decorations, furniture, paintings, sculptures etc are Italian. Apparently the queen of Poland at the time was a Medici and tried to take as much as possible from her native Tuscany to decorate her new home.

Not much here is Polish. They even display pictures of objects which are at other museums elsewhere in Poland. We have to wear some funny slippers to preserve the tired parquet...

13 May 1980

Salt mine and fine arts

Nativity scene made of salt

Salt reproduction of Leonardo's last supper
Today an unusual trip to a salt mine in the town of Wielicka. We are lowered about 80 meters into the earth's bowels by a crancky elevator and then proceed to walk for some five km underground, along the mines shafts and tunnels.

Pat picks up a cute girl from East Germany. Two in fact. Good luck.

Then back to Krakow, to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. Many many paintings by Italian artists, among whom a madonna with an ermine by Leonardo is the most notable.

12 May 1980

Oswienczim, the Nazi Lager of Auschwitz

This morning must be the most heart rending day of my life so far, and probably for some time to come. The extermination camp of Auschwitz is now a museum and kept in pristine condition, and yet the atmosphere of death, the sinister smell and the vision of ghosts is there, inescapable for me to feel, if not to see. And the inescapable grotesque irony of the gate sign: "Arbeit macht frei", work makes you free.


Crematorium



Wall of executions

Cloth made with human hair 
Belongings of prisoners

Shoes

Hair

Birkenau

We have lunch at 4:30, we could just not get away from the museum and its sister camp of Birkenau, where more people died than at the more famous Auschwitz.

Afterwards a walk downtown to do a little shopping with Ann, but all stores close at 7 and we can't get much done.

It's been an exhausting day, emotionally if not physically, and the evening is spent in the hotel room, reading and writing this diary.

11 May 1980

Krakow visit and Moscow Olympics

Today we visit the city with Bogdan, who has hired a local tour guide to show us the sights. She is rather shy and underwhelming but we do learn a few bits and pieces of information as we go along.

Morning at the Wawel, impressive.

Excellent lunch at the Holiday Inn hotel. All meals for this trip are paid for by SGPiS, so we can let hell break loose and order anything that strikes our fancy!

Afternoon touring downtown with Ann, we'd like to do some shopping but it's Sunday and most stores are closed.

During dinner I have only a start of a discussion with Mat, our classmate from New Jersey, who is in a particularly bad mood. Always a sueprconservatives, he is especially belligerent today. Only a start of a discussion because it is impossible to discuss with him, so I let go. Despite his dislike for president Carter, he supports his boycott of the Moscow Olympics in light of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I think differently, and believe that politics and sports should be kept separate. France is sending its athletes to Moscow, and they will march under the French flag at the opening ceremony. Italy is sending its athletes but without a flag, only the seal of the olympic committee. I kind of agree with my own country this time. Mat would like to inflict infernal punishment on any American athlete who would want to attend the Olympics in Moscow.

Great meal in the hotel, then we all hit the sack early, it's been a long day.

10 May 1980

Trip to Kracow

Not sure whether to spell it Cracow with two Cs or Kralow with two Ks. Somehow I prefer Krakow, it's more Polish.

After an early breakfast we meet with our professor Bogdan and Borzena. Bogdan has organized a minivan to take us to the second most important city in Poland. We spend the whole day in the vahicle, a rickety product of Czechoslovakia, I think, but I am not sure. It's got pretty hard shock absorbers and it's pretty slow, not that you could go very fast anyway on the Polish "highways" but it does the job. Reliable and not too noisy.

Short break at Jaskinia Raj to view some pretty impressive caves of stalactites and stalagmites.

Later one lunch break at Kielce, not impressive.

We finally reach Krakow by the late afternoon. The evening starts well with an excellent dinner at the "Cracovia" hotel. Lots of tasty and hearty food, especially meat.

We then decide to try a local disco, but it's a dark and stinky lair and we run away after less than five minutes inside. Much better to take a walk around the old town. The city is full of Italians, you can hear the language everywhere. This is certainly in part because of the publicity Poland got in my country after the election of the Polish Pope two years ago. But it is as certainly also because of the reputation of Poland, among other Eastern European countries, as a place to easily trade a pair of stockings with a night of love. Not love, really, just sex.

The most fun part of the night is going back to the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage that looks like it's been taken from a fairy tale.

As we go to sleep, Andrew and I share a room, Ann and Borzena another.

09 May 1980

World War II Victory Day celebrations

Polish Army parading on 9th May 1980
It's a big day today in Poland: the 35th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Many countries suffered because of the war, but Poland can reasonably claim to have endured the worst.

Victoria Hotel behind unknown soldier monument
Poland was squeezed between The USSR and Germany, Stalin and Hitler, Communism and Nazism, whichever way you look at it, it was a pretty unenviable position in 1939.

These days, of course, it is the fight against Germany that takes center stage. And for sure that is what detonated World War II. And Germany inflicted unspeakable human and economic damage to Poland between 1939 and 1945. More so to Polish Jews. The Soviet attack that immediately followed the German invasion on 1 September 1939, however, gets very short shrift. The official propaganda sings the praise of the heroic Soviet army that resisted German aggression and then moved to counterattack and liberate Poland (and Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and Romania etc.) from fascism.

Of course, all but the most naive Poles know that is far from the whole truth. But they can't talk about it, not these days in Communist Poland where no one is a Communist but censorship, and self-censorship, are tight.


08 May 1980

Foreign policy exam

Morning at home studying, then light lunch (sort of light) with bread and sausages we got from Marian and Ewa.

There is not much meat available in Poland, not expensive choice cuts anyway. But sausages (keilbasa!) have been our best friends for many meals. Cheap and almost always easily available, they go very well with hearty Polish bread and savory butter. And vodka of course, though not today, since we have to write an exam this afternoon. Not that it will make much of a difference, give the kind of exam that awaits us.

In the afternoon, written exam of Polish Foreign Policy. Easy. Too easy, not challenging at all.

07 May 1980

More studying and eating

In the morning we get a phone call in our collective corridor phone. It's the Orbis travel agent: our Soviet visa has arrived! Or rather the confirmation from Moscow that we are going to get our visa. Good enough, I hope. Apparently we are the first Western group of students in an exchange program with SGPiS to get a Soviet visa, everyone else who tried before us was turned down.

Written exam on CMEA. Nonsense, but easy. All we have to do, really, is to praise the glory of the socialist brotherhood of nations. We also interject some mild criticism to make it more credible. What a joke.

Then another lunch at Borzena's home. Her hospitality is really incredible. Yes she obviously has much to gain from her friendship with us, but still, she goes far beyond what would be expected or even hoped for. It is difficult to think of reciprocating. Her mother almost moves us to tears every time for her efforts in the kitchen. But that is not the point.

After another pantagruelian lunch back home to pseudostudy Polish foreign policy with Ann. We then go for a cosy dinner at the Canaletto restaurant of the Victoria hotel.

06 May 1980

Exams and study

In the morning we go for our Political Systems exam, very easy.

Afternoon to study the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, or Comecon. This was once believed to be the USSR's response to the Western European Common Market. But it's always been anything but. Anyway, relations are mostly regulated bilaterally.

Moreover, many countries wanted to join the Common Market, there was a waiting list and no country ever left once they joined. While no other European country I was aware of wanted to join the CMEA, while more than one member state would have likely left already if they had had a chance to do so. Albania actually did.

Never seen so much nonsense concentrated in so few pages like in our course material.

05 May 1980

Informal lecture on the real political system of Poland

In the morning we have our history exam. The question is "Communist takeover in Eastern European Communist countries". The wording is a bit convoluted, even recursive.

In the evening I am in my room studying for the next exam on "Political Systems" when Stefan pops in and tells me not to waste any time with this nonsense. Things are not like what they teach us. He sits down and goes on for a long time with a most interesting monologue on "real politics" in Poland, ie on how the HQ of the Communist party decides everything and sends orders down the chain of "democratic centralism", all the way to the lowliest head of a small party cell in the countryside.

Most interesting indeed, even if I won't be able to use this material in the exam tomorrow. But who cares? I learned more tonight about Poland's political system than in all of our classes put together.

04 May 1980

End of an era in Yugoslavia

Full day at home studying for our exams.

Except for a longish lunch break at Borzena's. As usual, we are treated to a wide array of hard to find animal proteins, tasty bread and veggies though I try to be careful with the alcohol so as not to endanger the prosecution of my reviewing later in the afternoon.

We hear some news which is very relevant to our studies: Jozif Broz Tito, the long-time ruler of Communist Yugoslavia, has died today. Things will never be the same in Yugoslavia, and are likely to change between Yugoslavia and the rest of the Socialist camp, not necessarily for the better. I wonder whether the USSR, strong of its initial success in Afghanistan, might be tempted to reassert its control in neutral, but nominally Communist, Yugoslavia.

03 May 1980

Telephone in the dorm house

Full day at home studying with Ann for our upcoming exams. Easy stuff.

The afternoon is interrupted by Ewa's call: they need the apartment's keys back for the landlord. Oh well, too bad but I could see it coming. But we already got quite a few free days. Apparently Marian had come by the apartment in the afternoon, but we were not there. We should have been there!

We don't have a private phone in our dorm rooms of course, only a common telephone in the corridor. When we receive a call someone of goodwill must pick up and alert the person being called. Or take a message. We never pick up the phone because we hardly ever receive a call, and anyway it would be difficult to understand unless the calling party speaks English. So in a way we are phone free riders. But most colleagues seems happy to do us this favor, and guessing the content of calls makes for some good gossip among the students.

Andrew and I deliver the keys in the evening. Always a good opportunity to have a chat with Marian and Ewa and catch up on their vision of the world.

01 May 1980

1 may: International Workers' Day celebration

Unfortunately today my folks have to fly home. So they will miss the great celebrations of international workers' day, especially important in a socialist country. Preparations have been underway for several days and the city is full of fancy decorations, ideological banners, red flags and big stars.
















Andrew at the HQ of the Communist Party


Marco with the school's flag



After taking them to the airport I return to school and join the SGPiS students for a long walk to downtown. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life converge to the Marszalkowska avenue and parade in front of a grand stand with General Secretary Gierek, the Politburo of the communist party, the government, foreign diplomats etc. Stefan is with them, as representative of the students!

Warsaw is red today.

I take lots of pictures. At one point I want to take a picture of Andrew with his arms raised up in a parody of surrender in front of the headquarters of the communist party. It looks a bit ironic, we have been mocking the party aloud and maybe they heard and understood us? Anyway the zealous officer wants the roll of my camera. I am a bit upset and start arguing when Borzena comes along and persuades him to let us go. Phewww...

Romek
In the evening back to the parents flat to study for exams with Ann. At 11pm I prepare some spaghetti arrabbiata to appropriately see off a very red day! And a hot evening...