Goulash not like “what mother used
to make”
Traveled to Eastern Europe, visiting the
cities of Warsaw, Krakow, Prague and Budapest. We went with Mary and Norm’s
“Travel With Friends” group. We had a great time meeting wonderful people we hope to travel with again.
Out trip started in Warsaw, the capital
of Poland. The Nazis in World War II invaded Warsaw as well as the other cities
we visited. The Warsaw Uprising (when the underground resisted the Nazis) resulted
in the complete destruction of Warsaw, except the section of town where the Nazis lived. Nazis forced the Jews into the Warsaw
Ghetto, a 3 square mile area for 300,000 people. The few that survived emigrated to Israel, United States and other countries. Only a few thousand Jews are found in Warsaw today. An excellent
movie, The Pianist, is about the Warsaw Uprising.
When the Nazis left Warsaw the Russians
moved in and Poland became a Communist state. Some parts of the city were rebuilt to their original state, but many buildings
were rebuilt in the Russian architecture of drab concrete. As a result of the great influence of the Catholic Church, a Polish
Pop, and the labor union strikes led by Leck Valesa, the Soviets left in 1989.
A Socialist faction of the democratic government
now controls Poland. Graft and corruption are found in all levels of government, police, medicine (pay to have your operation
moved ahead of another person), and teachers (parents give teachers gifts to help insure better grades, I should have done
that with our kids).
On our way from Warsaw to Krakow we stopped
in the old Jasna Gora Pauline Monastery, site of the “Black Madonna”. It is a pilgrimage site visited by millions
of people, with masses conducted continually and 10-20 priests hearing confessions all day.
Krakow, our second stop was the capital
of Poland for 500 years until 1596 when the capital moved to Warsaw. Krakow was the only city in Poland to escape devastation
in the war, and it is one of the few places where you find the country’s authentic medieval past. Krakow is a city with
many universities, cathedrals, castles, 80 existing churches, including the cathedral where Cardinal Wojtyla, now known as
Pope John Paul II, preached. Market Square, the center of Krakow life for more
than 700 years is an elegant plaza ringed with churches and regal medieval buildings housing restaurants and shops. The city
is surrounded with a high wall with many towers built into the wall. During a siege each tower was defended by a different
guild from the city, the cabinet makers guild, the stone masons guild, and the most feared, the butchers guild.
There are eleven universities in Krakow,
1 of 8 residents is a university student. Schools are very advanced in Poland and when you finish high school you are automatically
accepted into college. Based on need, college education is free or very reasonable, highly supported by the government.
We visited one of the oldest towns in Poland,
Wieliczka, where a salt mine dating back to the 11th century is located. There are 2,000 caverns on nine levels
with statues and chapels carved out of salt. You descend into the mine in total darkness packed into a very small elevator
used by the miners. The walls, floors, ceilings are all very hard rock salt. If you lick your finger and touch the walls you
can taste the salt. The mine still produces 700 tons of pure salt per day.
Another day we visited the town of
Oswiecim, better know to Americans by its German name, Auschwitz, the largest of the World War II concentration and extermination
camps. In this place from 1940 to 1945 the Nazis murdered approximately 1.5 million people, primarily Jews from all the occupied
countries of Europe, as well as Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities. The Auschwitz camp
consisted of three main parts, Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II Birkenau, and Auschwitz III. It was very upsetting to see the camps
and hear the experiences of an Auschwitz survivor who spoke with us for over an hour.
One night we ate dinner at the home of
a local Polish family. It was interesting to see their home and speak with them about their experiences under communism and
now with democracy. Another night a small group of us attended a Chopin piano recital followed by dinner at a restored manor
house outside Warsaw. Everywhere in Poland you hear that Chopin composed and performed there. It reminded me of “George Washington Slept Here”.
Polish people are very formal, they do
not call each other by their first names until permission is given by the older person to the younger person, by a woman to
a man, etc. If you smile at a Polish person on the street they will not smile back, but put their head down and wonder why
you are smiling at them. Poles don’t celebrate on their birthday, but on their name day, the birthday of the saint they
were named after. Giving flowers is a very common practice. Men give flowers to women, women give flowers to men, women to
women, and men give flowers to men. It is bad manners to give an even number of flowers (2,4,6), they always give an odd number.
Lill’s quote as we left Poland was,
“Thank God my grandparents emigrated to the United States.” She would have been making pierogies and dancing the
polka.
We had a near tragedy on our last day in
Krakow, “Lill’s curling iron died”. We had a High Mass at one of the many cathedrals and buried it with
much ceremony. Even with electrical converters our electrical appliances do not work well on 220 current. So in Prague we
bought 220 V appliances for our European trips.
Our third and favorite stop was the city
of Prague in the Czech Republic. Prague’s position at the crossroads of
Europe has made it a magnet for foreign traders since before recorded history. During
the Middle Ages Prague enjoyed a Golden Age, growing into a magnificent city, larger than London or Paris.
The city is divided by the Vltava River
with the Old Town central square built in the llth century on one side of the river and the castle district on the other.
While other European capitals were leveled
during WW II, Prague survived virtually intact. WW II brought occupation by the
German army, followed by four decades of Communism ending with the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989.
The Royal Place of Prague, the seat of
the president of the Republic, sits high above the city across the Charles Bridge. The state rooms are open to the public
only three days a year and we were lucky to be there on one of those days. It was the most beautiful building of our entire
trip.
The one problem with all the cities we
visited was pollution. They export the highest grades of coal and burn the most polluting grades, cars have no emission controls,
and everyone smokes, in restaurants, hotels, and airports. We saw and smelled many people smoking grass. In Prague it is legal
to carry one days supply of drugs on your person, grass, cocaine, heroin, etc.
Our last stop was Budapest, Hungary, called
the “Queen of the Danube”. In the 1st and 2nd
centuries Budapest was the site of a Roman city of 150,000, the furthermost eastern reaches of the Roman Empire. There are
ruins of huge amphitheaters, houses, and aqueducts that transported heated water from the hot springs to heat the floors and
walls of their homes. Now large, beautiful spas have been built over the hot springs in downtown Budapest. Budapest was originally
two separate cities on opposite sides of the Danube River. Buda to the northwest, now a modern city, and Pest to the east
with the historic castle district.
In each city we had excellent lectures
from local college professors of political science concerning the history, government and economy focusing on the transition
from Nazi occupation to communists control and now to democracy and free enterprise. All three countries will become members
of the European Union in 2004 and all three have elected the Socialist Democratic party to lead their countries. Many of the
communist leaders who were the most vocal opponents of democracy are now party leaders and the biggest capitalists, having
purchased the largest companies and factories for a song during the transition from communism to democracy.
In both Prague and Budapest we attended
performances of their philharmonic orchestras and at both there was a violin soloist. After the violinists finished their
concertos they received normal applause, left the stage, came back and received flowers to more applause. We started to go
to intermission and the audience, dressed to the 9’s, started clapping in unison, like at a football and basketball
game. The soloist came back on stage, played another piece, left the stage and the audience started clapping in unison again.
They brought him out for four curtain calls where he played at each. It was like a rock concert.
In closing, Hungarian goulash, which we
had at almost every meal in Hungary, is not like “what Mother used to make”.
(We have been traveling with Glenn and Lillian since sometime in the 1970's.
We've been to St. John, Haiti, Guadalupe, the Poccano Mountains, the Cotswolds and London, Eastern Europe, plus many
more interesting places. Glenn is into extreme sports and Lillian is an extreme sport just to survive with Glenn. You
will have a chance to meet Glenn and Lillian on our trip to Egypt.)
