More Berlin planning and party

Socialist econ lass at SGPiS

Our usual morning lesson in socialist economics. The professor is rather shy, and sticks pretty closely to the party line. Even if I am really interested in trying to find out how they want to do away with the inescapable laws of demand and supply, this guy is just plain boring.

Afterwards we try, and fail, to buy our train tickets to East Berlin. We need to bring our passports, our visas and the receipt for our official money exchange. We'll have to come back another day. Can't believe they want all this paperwork just to sell a train ticket to a "brother" socialist country.

In the afternoon four hours of foreign policy classes at the Center for International Studies. As usual quite official and bureaucratic. However I get the definite impression that some of the professors speak to the limit of what is considered politically acceptable. I am sure they would say more if they were free to do so.

In the evening there is a party in Zbiszek's room. Nine men and two women, so it's not so interesting after all. Borzena is quite pretty and also the most friendly and open Polish girl we have met so far.

Planning a trip to East Germany

In the morning we drive to the East German embassy to pick up our visas. Have to pay USD 6 per person for a double transit visa: we'll be able to travel into the DDR from Poland and out to West Berlin, then return the same way.

In the afternoon we are invited by two Cuban students to have some coffee in their room. Cuba makes excellent coffee of course and they claim to have some of the best. Well, it's OK but not great, though of course we appreciate the offer and it is in any case better than what is available in Poland.

In the afternoon I go with Christopher to a piano concert at the Chopin academy. He tells me that he knows two lady friends in East Berlin, and would like to introduce them to us. He is sure they'd be delighted to have contacts with Italians and Americans but he fears for their safety should they be seen haning around with non-authorized Western company.

Wadim and Marco

In the evening we have a few drinks in our room. We meet Wadim, a jovial if somewhat shy fellow student, and Romek, a cool guy who speaks good Russian, French and German and some English. He says he taught English to himself because that is the language he will need in the future. Has experience abroad, having worked in the USSR and France. Very confident, he feels the system in Poland is a real straightjacket to opportunity and growth.

Another good dinner

Today we meet Larissa, a friend of a friend. Elegant and pretty lady, our age, speaks enough English to have a basic conversation. She is obviously interested in making our acquaintance.

Dinner at the Canaletto restaurant. We finally get to try their famed Chateaubriand steak (we had asked for it a few times but it was never available) and red Italian wine, Grignolino d'Asti. With dessert, it come to 500 zloty per person. About five dollars. So cheap, for us.

Struggling to get visas

After the usual morning classes we go and have lunch at the Ambassador restaurant, good as usual.

Then we are off to the Soviet consulate for our visa, there is still hope to get it but it's not yet there for us. We'll have to go back one more time.

Then to the Polish visa office: if we do go to the USSR, we'll need a re-entry visa for Poland, as the one currently stamped on our passport is valid for one entry only. And in any case it is going to expire before we return from the USSR, because it was only meant to last until the end of our study program, so we have to extend its validity as well.

By the end of the afternoon we have filled out a dozen forms in three different offices. And it's not over, they all tell us to come back in a few days. I manage to squeeze in a phone call to my folks in Rome from the post office. Everything is fine and they will try to plan a visit next month.

In the evening Marta comes over once again, she is really determined one has to admit!

Elections for Parliament

Morning walking about Sandomierz without any particular goal in mind. By lunch time we say goodbye to Elzbieta's family, but not before we are treated to another pantagruelic meal.

It so happens that today is election day in Poland. People are called to vote for the new Parliament, the Sejm. There are few political posters in Sandomierz, I guess because there is no need to campaign, really. The outcome is well known in advance. One poster does exhort voters to participate: "Support the party: vote!"

Just for fun, we go and have a look at a polling station. People walk in, take their ballot and drop it in a big box. Not one of them goes into a small booth to mark anything on the ballot. Not that there would be much choice. Only the Communist party and its allies are allowed on the ballot. A blank ballot is taken as a vote for the list of communist candidates printed on it. And anyway, in Poland, Parliament's role is maily to rubber stamp the Party's decisions.

We then set off to Kazimierz, a small medieval town with a pretty castle on top of a steep hill. We climb up the "Hill of Three Crosses", on top of which there are ...three crosses and from which we can enjoy a great view of the town. It's very cold.

Tartars and Lenin in Lublin

We spend the morning walking about the old town. There is not one single restaurant that is open for business. Also, most shops are closed so we can't buy a funnel, which we would need to fill our car's tank with the black market fuel we carry in the trunk.

In the afternoon we drive to Sandomierz, where we contact the family of Elzbieta P., our colleague at SGPiS who is the resident "przewodnicząca " (a kind of student/administrator) in the Sabinski dorm with Ann. They are extremely welcoming and of course absurdly overfeed us.

A young lady called Ulla offers to take us around town. We visit the Cathedral, whose walls are largely covered with bizarre paintings of horror scenes depicting the repeated Tartar invasions during the XIII century. People gutted, quartered, eviscerated. The friendliest thing the Tartars apparently did to the locals was to behead them. There is also some depictions of Jewish ritual murders of Christians. A bizarre Church indeed.

After a while a friend of Ulla's shows up. He tries,unsuccessfully, to make a few moves on Ann, but then resigns himself to showing us around the Lenin museum, overflowing the images of the revolutionary leader during the various phases of his rocambolesque existence.

The last highlight of the day is a long tunnel, about 420 meters, that was used by the local population to hide from the Tartars.

As we go to sleep it comes to mind that Lenin was of partial Tartar descent.

Lenin the part-Tartar (www.saveyourheritage.com)

Off to Lublin

After our classes at the Central School the three of us go for lunch at the Warszawa hotel. We order appetizers but for some reason each of us is served two portions. We ask but there is no explanations, we just get to eat double today.

In the afternoon foreign policy classes at the Center for International Studies for three and a half hours. Again, very official, stiff teaching by the professors who just push the party line.

In the later afternoon se set off to Lublin with Giallina. The "highway" is pathetic, no guardrails, lots of potholes, bumps, narrow turns, a mess. Truck drivers make things worse by using their high-beams very liberally, a coupld of times I risk an accident because I am totally blinded.

Lublin is rather underwhelming and unimpressive. The old town has been restored but still... too neglected, dirty.

I am at the same time a bit ashamed and a bit proud of the many times we broke the law today. Silly and unjust laws perhaps, at least some of them, but still laws. Bought fuel on the black market, moved it in illegal plastic tanks, drove into a pedestrian area of town, paid with Polish zloty for the hotel room that, as foreigners, we should have paid in dollars at the official rip-off exchange rate.

Class in Polish foreign policy

First lesson in Polish foreign policy. It is not held at the university but rather at a think tank run by the ministry of foreign affairs.

Our teachers are former Polish diplomats. The tone is very formal, official and while they are likable and reasonable people they stick to the party line. Let's see how it goes but we get the definite feeling that they sometimes don't really believe what they tell us.

Hope for travel to the East

Another visit to Orbis gives us some hope, apparently, for some reason, we are now likely to get an individual visa to the USSR and we'll be able to travel with Giallina and stay in various hotels and camping sites. We'll have to decide on an itinerary and not change it a bit after the visa is issued, but apparently we are on!

Evening at the restaurant "Under the Pigeon", pretty good and sooo inexpensive. (We did not eat pigeon.)

Tour organization for DDR and USSR

After our usual morning classes we spend the afternoon touching base with the respective tourist offices and consulates to organize our trips to East Germany and the Soviet Union. It seems we'll have quit a lot of problems in both cases. Especially in the case of the USSR: we are told at the ORBIS tourist agency that apparently all the Western exchange students who tried before us were refused a visa.

Marta again returns to try her luck with me and Andrew...

Evening in Stefan's room with a few friends. We all eat various cuts of meat, red beans and peppers. Everyone is so kind to us it is almost embarrassing. Even with those who dont's speak much English there is no problem of communication.