A new thought/insight/gripe about being an American living in Krakow: there are these trains called "tramveye" (phonetically speaking) that go all around the city. They are a great means of public transportation-clean, dependable, safe, cheap, etc. Basically really good...except for....how you buy tickets. You purchase tickets on an automated system on the train. You can buy for twenty minutes, an hour, etc. Once the machine has printed your ticket you then have to have a different machine time stamp it. So I ask you, in relation to the machine that you purchase the time sensitive ticket from, where do you think the machine that time stamps it would be? Built in or right next to it would be the correct answer if you were thinking rationally but NO NO NANETTE, you' be wrong. The time stamps are in a completely different part of the train. Now, taking into account that there are officials who are walking around checking tickets and giving hefty fines if you don't have one with a time stamp, this makes it a bit stressful on a crowded, standing room only, train. If you're lucky enough to weave your way to the ticket machine you then have to re-weave your way back through the crowd to another area to get your ticket time stamped or else run the chance of getting fined.
So to whomever thought "well, we could have the tickets output already time stamped or have the time stamp machine next to the ticket machine or separate them by the length of the train car making it nearly impossible for an olympic sprinter to get to in a crowed train much less a normal human" and then thought the last option is the best I say-Kudos to you, you win an urban planning for the rationally illiterate award.
Another interesting thing about Poland are the cemeteries. They're very big and very ornate with many graves housing a multitude of family members. Disturbing to me is when I see a grave with many names on it and there are some with only a birth date because the person it applies too is still alive but will end up in that grave eventually. Hopefully later than sooner for them. I really find that sad and depressing. I wouldn't want to visit a grave that had my name already on it. Maybe I'd feel " well, no sense in leaving, I'll just end up back here anyway, might as well get comfortable and wait it out". Maybe if could be like a bet...have the first three numbers for the death carved but a space for the last or maybe have the numbers on roller like a briefcase lock.
There's a disturbing trend I see when walking the streets of Krakow. Actually two disturbing trends (disturbi trendus).
One is that people exit buildings without pausing to see if anyone, myself in particular, might be walking by.
The other is that bicyclists use the sidewalks and pass from behind without so much as an excuse me, on your left, watch out or the ringing of a bell.
These combine to make near collisions common occurrences when out for a walk. It's gotten to the point where, if I know a cyclist is coming up behind me, I want to wait until the last second then turn around and go all Kahlil Mack on him (those of you not from Chicago or, heaven forbid, not football fans will just have to look this up). Or at least go as much Kahlil Mack on him as I could muster. Honestly it'd probably be more going all Betty White on him but it'd still be satisfying.
So, I can speak a few words or phrases in Polish but as anyone who has looked into the language realizes, how you say a word and how you imagine it to be written are often very different from the written word itself. This makes me basically illiterate when shopping, depending on maps, train schedules, etc..
That being said, I was in a grocery store recently, now I have to tell you that I rely on the photos on packaging to tell me what might ( or might not) be inside, and I bought a bottle of what I thought was grapefruit juice because it had what looked like a red grapefruit on the label. Got home, opened it and started to drink only to realize it was orange juice, one of my least favorite of the juice world. Not being too well versed in fruits as it is I never knew there was such have a thing as a red orange.
This started the day with the taste of angst so I went back to the store, got a bottle of what looked like it might actually be grapefruit juice and stood in line behind the only other customer in the store. I don’t know if you read any of my posts from our stay in Krakow last August, but if not, let me recap for you: there seems to be a conspiracy in Poland against just going to the cashier, showing your items, paying for them and leaving. The way it works here is that there must be a 10-15 minute conversation/debate with the cashier first, either talking about family, the weather, complaining that there is another store just a short walk away that has the same product for 1/10th of a cent less, etc.. (I dare anyone to stand in line to buy tickets for an event without wanting to scream).
So there I am, dutifully waiting as the person in front of me has a heartfelt discussion about a can of soup, watching my day slip away when I start to listen to what’s playing on the radio and it’s Neil Young singing “Harvest Moon”. I left the store with a beautiful song in my head, a bottle of grapefruit juice and the new found knowledge that there are red oranges and photos of them look suspiciously like red grapefruits.
One of my impressions of the sounds of Krakow is the sound of suitcases rolling down cobblestone streets.
Another insight/question-why does pretty much every city block have a dentist and a bakery? Could there be a connection?
It has been brought to my attention that my previous post regarding some peculiarities I, as an American, have found while spending a month in Poland might seem disparaging. That being said, I'd like to now show another side of what Poland, in my humble opinion, has in spades over the U.S.:
The value of education. Higher education is held in high esteem. Pretty much everyone in my wife's family have either a master degree or a PhD. At a time when being educated is viewed as liberal or suspect in the U.S., people I speak to here really value education. There was a guy, Martin, who led us on a walking tour of Gdańsk. In speaking with him we found that he received his undergrad at a college in San Diego and his masters in history in Gdańsk.
A knowledge of history and the ability to understand complex economic, political and social issues without having to dumb them down. They realize that history started long before the Kardashians.
Electric connections. If you buy a hanging lamp in the U.S. you're faced with loose wires in the lamp and the junction. You have to figure the live wire and then twist everything together, cap them and then cover it all with electrician's tape. What I've seen here is that the wires in the junction and the lamp will end in a plug. All you have to do is plug it in. This is with outlets and switches too. Brilliant!
Seats on the high speed rail are also Brilliant! As you all know seats on a plane are horrible. You've paid for the space of your seat but you sit there waiting for the clown in front of you to lean back and invade 30% of it. Well, not here. Instead of the seat backs going backward the seat bottom moves forward. The end result is about the same for the clown in front of you but he only inconveniences himself. Love it.
Windows. They have better ones. They're casement windows that open in two ways. Turn the handle 90% and the window opens vertically inward. Turn the handle 180% and the window opens horizontally-the bottom stays as is but the top leans inward. This way you can have the window open in a rainstorm. I still don't know how it'should done so I attribute it to magic.
Just sayin'
A few comments after 3 weeks in Poland:
I think ice cream must have been recently introduced to Poland. Every street has open air ice cream venders and I think every 3rd person is walking around with a cone. This is true everywhere we've been-Krakow, Zakopane, Sopot and Gdansk. If I were a more evil person than I would have made a habit of "accidently" bumping into people. I can't wait for corn dogs to make it here.
Train stations are designed to keep people from actually using the trains. Example being the main station in Gdansk. Follow the signs pointing you to the ticket seller will get you to the end of a long tunnel with signs for the ticket seller pointing right back the way you just came. Follow the tunnel back just in case you missed something but no, no ticket booth, just the first sign going pointing you in the opposite direction, again. Then you see a third sign for the ticket vendor that seems to be pointing at a florist. Ask the florist, who has a booth in the station and therefore should know something, were the ticket booth is and, if course, they don't know.
Or.... see a train sitting there, doors open. It might be the train you want going to Sopot. Clearly marked signs?-dream on little Stevie Tyler. There are other, native Polish, people milling around. A few say they're also going to Sopot so you'd think they'd know if the train sitting there is the one going to Sopot but no, dream on again. No one knows so we all wait until it looks like the doors are closing then we all get on, hoping for the best.
A transit system based on a hope.
Another thing I see is that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, can just ask for an item, pay for it, get change and move on without a 10 minute discussion with the clerk. Being behind someone buying gum is a lesson in patience (which I always fail).
The Polish language takes a whole lot of words to communicate. I think if I were evil (notice a trend here) and tossed a stone at a person sitting with a friend and the friend saw it, by the time he told the other to duck (probably about 18 words) the stone would hit the mark.
Just sayin'
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