In the morning, after class, we go downtown, to the CENTRUM shooping area. There is very little to shop. I was looking for Summer clothing, some shirts with short sleavees, but no luck. What is available is cheap but so depressingly dreary that even someone like me who knows little about clothing and cares less ends up not buying anything.
In the afternoon it's foreign policy classes again. Usual propaganda nonsense. But the professors, retired diplomats, are very polite and kind. One former ambassador to the UN asks politely whether we would mind if he smoked. Andrew immediately says of course it is not a problem, and we all nod. I am not too happy but what to do? We are guests at his office. He then starts to light up a long, uninterrupted series of really awfully strong cigarettes for the whole duration of the class. Poles are on average heavy smokers, here there is nothing like the relentless campaigns we have in the West to raise awareness of the negative health consequences of smoking.
Later we are invited by Pat, an American student at our same university, to go to the American Embassy for a drink at the "Marines' bar". A strange place where "Eastern" people are not admitted and marines get drunk mostly among themselves since they are not allowed to socialize with local girls. I politely turn down the offer, though the others go for a drink and meet a certain Michael, a diplomat in search of adventures.
In the evening it's tea time at the home of Larissa, Borzena's best friend. She is quite well off, the daughter of a successful diplomat, and lives alone in a three-bedroom apartment in Lazienki, a (relatively) posh neighborhood of the capital. Not quite what you would expect from the daughter of a diplomat of a socialist regime but whatever, she is a pleasant young woman and we spend an enjoyable evening together.
18 April 1980
16 April 1980
Mail and telephone
By chance, we meet Stefan at the university. He looks at our books on the economics of the socialist bloc and says: "All lies". Succint and to the point.
In the evening I wanted to go and visit Ewa with Borzena. As I pick her up at home, I am invited to another - you guess - unnecessarily large dinner. We drive to Ewa's but she is not at home.
Private telephone lines are not always to be taken for granted in Poland, even in the capital. Therefore sometimes the only way to communicate with someone is to go to their home and if they are out for the evening, well try again another time! And international calls are even more difficult. I have to go to the post office every time I need to call Italy. I could be wrong but don't think it is a matter of cost, but rather of control: if everyone had a phone line it would be impossible to bug them all!
Even sending letters abroad is not easy. This morning Ann and I went to the airport to ask someone, anyone, traveling to the United States to post a letter once across the Atlantic. We find a cooperative gentleman in the check-in line for the flight to New York. Posting from Poland might take ages and many letters are "lost".
In the evening I wanted to go and visit Ewa with Borzena. As I pick her up at home, I am invited to another - you guess - unnecessarily large dinner. We drive to Ewa's but she is not at home.
Private telephone lines are not always to be taken for granted in Poland, even in the capital. Therefore sometimes the only way to communicate with someone is to go to their home and if they are out for the evening, well try again another time! And international calls are even more difficult. I have to go to the post office every time I need to call Italy. I could be wrong but don't think it is a matter of cost, but rather of control: if everyone had a phone line it would be impossible to bug them all!
Even sending letters abroad is not easy. This morning Ann and I went to the airport to ask someone, anyone, traveling to the United States to post a letter once across the Atlantic. We find a cooperative gentleman in the check-in line for the flight to New York. Posting from Poland might take ages and many letters are "lost".
15 April 1980
Meals, music and socialist toilets
Morning classes and afternoon homework. Sort of. This program is not very hard, really, much less so than our courses back at Georgetown. But that is not the point. We are here to experience much more importantly than we are here to learn. And we sure are experiencing beyond expectations!
Dinner again at Borzena's, where we are, as usual, hopelessly overfed. Her family hospitality is beyond imagination.
We then all go to the Sala Koncertowa for a concert by the orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a famous London chamber orchestra. They make a triumphal performance and are called back by the public for five encores.
After which, do I need to add, we go back to Borzena's for a little night snack: cheese, cold cuts, vodka, bread (excellent Polish brown bread) and butter...
Back at the dorm we meet Stefan who is just back from the USSR, Armenia to be precise. He went there to represent Poland at some event for the socialist youth organizations of the East bloc. He gets to travel a lot in his capacity as head of the communist youth organization at the university.
He recounts as the student dormitory where he was housed in Yerevan did not have toilet paper, in fact no toilets, just holes in the ground. No hot water, only cold water three hourse per day. He did find one toile for his use before returning however: at the airport, and it was reserved for foreign travelers only!
Why is this is beyond our understanding: the only explanation is that, toilets being scarce, one does not want to look dirty to foreign capitalist imperialists. But toilets can't be that scarce, or expensive. It is a refrain we'll encounter often in socialist countries: the hated (by the regime) foreigner (ofter a capitalist, though not in this case) gets "privileges" the locals don't even dream of.
He sees the pamphlet "Facts about Poland" which we have been given at school and comments drily: "Not a word of truth in there".
Dinner again at Borzena's, where we are, as usual, hopelessly overfed. Her family hospitality is beyond imagination.
We then all go to the Sala Koncertowa for a concert by the orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a famous London chamber orchestra. They make a triumphal performance and are called back by the public for five encores.
After which, do I need to add, we go back to Borzena's for a little night snack: cheese, cold cuts, vodka, bread (excellent Polish brown bread) and butter...
Back at the dorm we meet Stefan who is just back from the USSR, Armenia to be precise. He went there to represent Poland at some event for the socialist youth organizations of the East bloc. He gets to travel a lot in his capacity as head of the communist youth organization at the university.
He recounts as the student dormitory where he was housed in Yerevan did not have toilet paper, in fact no toilets, just holes in the ground. No hot water, only cold water three hourse per day. He did find one toile for his use before returning however: at the airport, and it was reserved for foreign travelers only!
Why is this is beyond our understanding: the only explanation is that, toilets being scarce, one does not want to look dirty to foreign capitalist imperialists. But toilets can't be that scarce, or expensive. It is a refrain we'll encounter often in socialist countries: the hated (by the regime) foreigner (ofter a capitalist, though not in this case) gets "privileges" the locals don't even dream of.
He sees the pamphlet "Facts about Poland" which we have been given at school and comments drily: "Not a word of truth in there".
14 April 1980
Visas and ice cream
After our usual morning classes we must once again to to the government visa office: our last Polish visa was cancelled because we left the country to go to Berlin. Why? Who knows, but must there be a reason? Maybe to provide a few more government jobs in the visa office. Whatever... Three more forms to fill out and two days to wait before we must return and pick them up.
The employee who is dealing with our stuff is amazed to find out that Ann speaks Polish and is of Polish origin, and starts a long conversation on Polish literature. I have a feeling Ann does not always follow all the details of the conversation, but that is not the point. It is pretty amazing to see her carry on with total control of the situation. So the visit to the visa office takes even longer than usual, but it is actually almost fun!
In the evening, after the inevitable huge meal at Borzena's home, we all go to a local park and play frisbee. Frisbees are all over the place in American universities but still a novelty over here. After having burned a lot of calories running after the disc, we go and put them back on by devouring excellent local ice cream!
The employee who is dealing with our stuff is amazed to find out that Ann speaks Polish and is of Polish origin, and starts a long conversation on Polish literature. I have a feeling Ann does not always follow all the details of the conversation, but that is not the point. It is pretty amazing to see her carry on with total control of the situation. So the visit to the visa office takes even longer than usual, but it is actually almost fun!
In the evening, after the inevitable huge meal at Borzena's home, we all go to a local park and play frisbee. Frisbees are all over the place in American universities but still a novelty over here. After having burned a lot of calories running after the disc, we go and put them back on by devouring excellent local ice cream!
13 April 1980
Walking and eating in Warsaw
In the morning we take a walk around the Wilanow park with Borzena and one of her friends. Andrew and I are thereafter invited to lunch at her place (needless to say we are again overfed with precious meats and other hard to find delicacies) and then out again for a walk in the old city. Stare miasto is always charming, it has been recontructed very well after the near total destruction of World War II.
Borzena is a very friendly and smart young lady. She clearly wants out of Poland, sees to end to the dark days of socialist depression. It is for this reason, I think, that she hangs out with as many Westerners as she can. Being smart and pretty, of course, helps her make friends. Her brother is the same, though of course has less of a chance attracting Western females.
She gets upset when, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, we tell her we are really not hungry for another meal at her home.ut there is nothing to do and we have to go and eat again. (And drink: vodka is never absent from the table.)
This extreme hospitality is not totally new to me. It is the same I found every time I visited my family in Calabria and Puglia. You have to eat everything all the time or else they take umbrage. And if you eat at the home of one relative you automatically must eat at everyone else's, lest they take offense and don't talk to you again. Which is one reason, I admit, why I don't visit my relatives as often as I otherwise might. I eat a lot but hardly have time to visit their beautiful regions.
Borzena is a very friendly and smart young lady. She clearly wants out of Poland, sees to end to the dark days of socialist depression. It is for this reason, I think, that she hangs out with as many Westerners as she can. Being smart and pretty, of course, helps her make friends. Her brother is the same, though of course has less of a chance attracting Western females.
She gets upset when, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, we tell her we are really not hungry for another meal at her home.ut there is nothing to do and we have to go and eat again. (And drink: vodka is never absent from the table.)
This extreme hospitality is not totally new to me. It is the same I found every time I visited my family in Calabria and Puglia. You have to eat everything all the time or else they take umbrage. And if you eat at the home of one relative you automatically must eat at everyone else's, lest they take offense and don't talk to you again. Which is one reason, I admit, why I don't visit my relatives as often as I otherwise might. I eat a lot but hardly have time to visit their beautiful regions.
12 April 1980
Both sides of Berlin and return to Poland
Wake up around 8. Our landlady serves us a most welcome large breakfast and while we eat she tells us stories from her fading but still lucid memories from World War II. She lived in Gdansk (Danzig) at the start of the war, on 1 September 1939, when Germany attacked. Like many older people she likes to talk and inevitably repeats herself. We heard it the other day too but it still sends shudders down our spines.
The copious breakfast takes time to consume and we are in due course taken to Berlin, where our lady was displaced during the war. Here, under relentless Allied bombing, her 4-month old child starved to death while her husband went crazy on the Russian front. She tried to commit suicide by cutting her veins but did not do a good job and survived. After taking leave from her we move back to East Berlin. here we visit the Treptower Park, with another huge mausoleum to fallen Soviet soldiers.
We leave Berlin and the wall behind for one last time.
On the bombing ot Berlin, read
The copious breakfast takes time to consume and we are in due course taken to Berlin, where our lady was displaced during the war. Here, under relentless Allied bombing, her 4-month old child starved to death while her husband went crazy on the Russian front. She tried to commit suicide by cutting her veins but did not do a good job and survived. After taking leave from her we move back to East Berlin. here we visit the Treptower Park, with another huge mausoleum to fallen Soviet soldiers.
We leave Berlin and the wall behind for one last time.
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| The old Reichstag and the wall on the right |
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| The Wall: hard to believe neighbours are now on the opposite side of the Cold War |
On the bombing ot Berlin, read
11 April 1980
Visiting Berlin
Lazy wake up call at 9:30 and long walk in the Tiergarten.
We see the Victoria tower, enjoy a great panoramic view from the top and walk all the way up to the Brandenburger Tor, from which we can see the Berlin Wall. Nearby we can also visit a colossal monument to the Soviet soldiers who conquered Berlin. However, unsurprisingly, there are no West Berliner visiting the shrine!
We also visit a history museum in the old Reichstag building, kind of boring, not nearly as much fun as the one in the East! An interesting exhibit is a collection of Deutsche mark notes from the 1920s, when Germany experienced hyperinflation and developed a sort of paranoia for expansionist monetary policies that will last many decades.
One billion mark notes seem small change. I am struck by the two hundred billion mark bank note! That's serious money!
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| Tiergarten and Victoria column |
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| Looking into East Berlin from the Victoria tower |
We also visit a history museum in the old Reichstag building, kind of boring, not nearly as much fun as the one in the East! An interesting exhibit is a collection of Deutsche mark notes from the 1920s, when Germany experienced hyperinflation and developed a sort of paranoia for expansionist monetary policies that will last many decades.
One billion mark notes seem small change. I am struck by the two hundred billion mark bank note! That's serious money!
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| DM hyperinflation bank notes |
10 April 1980
Exploring West Berlin
Early in the morning we are ejected from our guesthouse and start looking for another place to spend the night. We found a couple of rooms for rent in the house of a friendly eighty-year-old woman in Charlottenburg. It's a beautiful home if a bit tired in terms of furniture and decorations.
As soon as we arrive, and she hears we are studying in Poland, she starts telling us stories about the war. She lived in Gdansk (then Danzig) and saw the first Stukas dive bomb Poland on 1 September 1939. She also saw German battleships shell Polish territory but not a shot coming from the other direction. She is not nostalgic of pre-war Germany, but quite a bit worried about living in divided contemporary Germany, especially in isolated West Berlin.
In the afternoon we visit Charlottenburg and the big radio tower. We walk for many kilometers, I am quite exhausted by the end of the day.
Dinner at a simple Italian restaurant, San Giorgio, OK quality and cheap, what we need. Italian food abroad is rarely as good as at home in Italy, but it is usually inexpensive and filling, excellent for three students on the go!
We then walk around the city, aimlessly, hopping from one Bierstube to the next without any particular goal or target in mind. We are impressed by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, left as a reminder the way it was after an Allied air raid in 1943.
To see what life in Berlin looked like at the end of five years of Allied bombing click here to watch a contemporary video.
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| Our hostess in Berlin |
As soon as we arrive, and she hears we are studying in Poland, she starts telling us stories about the war. She lived in Gdansk (then Danzig) and saw the first Stukas dive bomb Poland on 1 September 1939. She also saw German battleships shell Polish territory but not a shot coming from the other direction. She is not nostalgic of pre-war Germany, but quite a bit worried about living in divided contemporary Germany, especially in isolated West Berlin.
In the afternoon we visit Charlottenburg and the big radio tower. We walk for many kilometers, I am quite exhausted by the end of the day.
Dinner at a simple Italian restaurant, San Giorgio, OK quality and cheap, what we need. Italian food abroad is rarely as good as at home in Italy, but it is usually inexpensive and filling, excellent for three students on the go!
To see what life in Berlin looked like at the end of five years of Allied bombing click here to watch a contemporary video.
09 April 1980
East Berlin taster and move to West Berlin
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| Hotel Stadt Berlin in Alexanderplatz |
The city center is clean and every corner is almost manicured. First things first, we climb on top of the Fernsehturm, the long TV tower that is a point of reference for anyone moving around East Berlin. Built between 1965 and 1969 it is the tallest structure in all of Germany (NOTE in 2015: it still is!) and a symbol of pride for the authorities of the Germand Democratic Republic (GDR). Unfortunately because of the weather we can't see much from the top: it no longer rains but we can see just clouds and fog.
As we descend and walk around we discover that not all parts of the city are as spotless as we thought after our first impression around the station: many streets are dirty, they qualify for the title of slums really.
A few churches are available in this most strict Communist dictatorship. Re-built after the war, they are empty shells of bricks and concrete. No decorations. Only a few pieces of low-relief sculptures are on display, recuperated from the pre-war works.
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| Cold morning in Berlin |
We then visit the Palace of Culture and the History Museum, both places replete with vicious attacks against the West in every shape or form: posters, caricatures.
We then try to cross the wall into West Berlin on foot, but we are not allowed to do so, can do only by metro, crossing at the Friedrichstrasse station. This is a unique station because it is in East Berlin but it is served by West Berlin metro, allowing for a more easily controlled border crossing.
The old pre-war German metro is still functioning but of course it is divided. Some stations had to be closed as the trains travel under West Berlin to go from one part to another of East Berlin.
The old pre-war German metro is still functioning but of course it is divided. Some stations had to be closed as the trains travel under West Berlin to go from one part to another of East Berlin.
When we arrive in West Berlin we start looking for a place to stay, and walk around the shining city for many kilometres. Very expensive for us after we have gotten used to Polish prices! Finally we find a mediocre room in the Buchenwald Pension for DM 26 per day. We are very tired and collapse soon after eight o'clock, and will sleep for a solid twelve hours.
08 April 1980
Departure for Berlin
In the evening we board our long desired train for East Berlin. It's taken us so long to get the tickets, visas and legal cash we almost gave up. But now we are on.
The train is fairly comfortable, though we don't have a sleeper bed. Before it's dark we get a glimpse of the flatlands of Western Poland, the so long fought-over Pomerania.
We fall alseep knowing it's going to be a fascinating experience but a little worried about going to a society with a reputation for being much stricter and less forgiving than Poland.
The train is fairly comfortable, though we don't have a sleeper bed. Before it's dark we get a glimpse of the flatlands of Western Poland, the so long fought-over Pomerania.
We fall alseep knowing it's going to be a fascinating experience but a little worried about going to a society with a reputation for being much stricter and less forgiving than Poland.
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