Mike Conley's Blog

June 30 – 8:53AM (Poland Time)

We’re on the road, on our way from Wroclaw to Warsaw.

We had gotten up at 5:30AM, said goodbye to Una, Linn, Tara, Tom and Sonia (they were staying behind in Europe), packed, and boarded the bus.

We’re making good time – there’s light traffic and good weather.  We’re at a rest stop for breakfast:

3:07PM (Poland Time)

We arrived at the airport in Warsaw around 1PM.

We hung around, got our bags checked, and eventually said goodbye to Tamara.  She’d be traveling home sometime later.  Thanks so much for the great trip, Tamara!

Security was no fuss.  We killed time in the duty free waiting for our flight.  I bought a chocolate bar with my last 10z.  We board at 4PM.

We’re all really anxious to get home.  I think we’re all pretty sick of traveling now – and we have an 8+ hour flight ahead of us.  Just look at these faces.

We just want to get home.

Eventually we boarded the plane:

7:05PM (Poland Time)

We’re already an hour into the flight.  Somehow, this plane isn’t giving me too much confidence.

The safety video (on a single screen at the front of the plane) kept flickering in and out, and I think I missed a lot of important information.

There were several instances where music would start to play for a few seconds in the cabin, and then abruptly stop.

Ryan and Jiv just noticed that there’s water dripping on them from above the overhead compartment.

My headphones don’t seem to work unless I hold them in.

And there’s masking tape holding part of the wall together.

A Lapse in Writing Cohesion

At this point in my journal, my writing really started to deteriorate.  The timestamps have less and less meaning as I travel across time zones.  I think my pen was starting to run out of ink, I was exhausted, and the boredom of the flight was starting to drive me nuts.  I’ll do my best to translate the scrawl that ended my journal.

8:50PM (Poland Time)

No idea where we are, so no real clue on what the actual time is.  Still, it’s pretty bright out.  Looks like mid-afternoon outside.  This is going to be the longest day of my life.

I’m trying to read Guns, Germs and Steel, but I just can’t concentrate.  I can’t wait to be home.

10:20PM (Poland Time)

Hannah Montana is the inflight film.  SHOOT ME.

The minutes are crawling by.  3 or 4 more hours.  Pen is starting to fail me.

11:45PM (Poland Time)

Still bright out.  Spooky.  About to get our second meal!  Surprise:  it’s a sandwich.  And the Nutcracker Suite just came on in my headphones again.  That’s 6 times in total now.

12:55AM (Poland Time)

Just filled out declaration card for Canada Customs.  There are lots of confused people who don’t speak English on the plane.  Lots of passengers standing up, and gesturing to one another frantically.  Wish I could help, but I don’t speak Polish.

1 hour remaining.  Can’t wait.  Flying over Québec.

Final Entry

Got off the plane.  Buzzed through customs.  Luggage was late getting onto the carousel, but it eventually showed up.  Said lots of goodbyes to people.  Jiv’s family offered to drive me home, and I gratefully accepted.

Noticed plenty of garbage on the streets on the drive in – though I had imagined more.

Eventually showed up at my apartment in Toronto.  Said goodbye to Jiv and his family.

Went inside.  Fingers barely worked.  Made contact with Em, the guys, and my family to let them know I was alive.

And then collapsed into bed.  It was good to be home.

Click here to go back to My Poland Journal: Index

Click here to go pack to Part 16: Last Full Day in Poland, and THE TEMPTATION OF QUIET VERONICA

June 29 – 12:10PM

Today is our last full day in Poland.  We’re leaving for Toronto tomorrow.

To be honest, I’m kind of glad.  I like Poland just fine, but I really just want to go home now.

I slept in this morning, and then had a big breakfast of crépes with Jiv, Ryan, Reid, Yev and Alexi.

With my stomach full, I set off for one last solo-tour of the Wroclaw square.  I went into some shops I hadn’t seen yet.  I revisited some ones I was already familiar with.  My pen was starting to run out (my journal is almost full!), so I bought a new one and am using it right now.

I sat in the square and listened to people speaking different languages.  I enjoyed the weather.  It’s a nice day today.

12:55PM

I’m back at the hostel.  This place is in really good condition, and nicely decorated.  The beds and bathrooms are pretty nice, and a dream compared to what we dealt with in Poznan.  The staff (a family, I believe) seem a bit rude and resentful – like they really don’t enjoy running a hostel.  I’m almost afraid to ask for the key at the front desk, as it’s usually accompanied by a rolling of eyes and some attitude.

Pro tip:  hostels are a good place to donate old computers to.  As somebody who has now been in a few hostels, I can’t stress how important basic Internet connectivity is.  Just a thought.

I think I’m starting to get over my cold a little.  I seem to be over the worst of it, anyhow.  Others in the group are starting to get sick though – it’ll be good to get everyone home and rested.

We were going to see a Pina Bausch talk-back session today, but it was canceled due to sudden health problems (Pina Bausch unfortunately passed away on June 30th, a day after this entry was written).

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  We’re waking up at 6AM.  Then, a 7 hour bus ride to Warsaw.  After that, an 8-9 hour flight to Toronto.  Both Yev and Jiv have offered me a ride from Pearson Airport back to my apartment – I’m grateful, and at this point I’ll climb into the first car I see.

I’m not sure what the best course of action is jet-lag-wise, so I’ll probably just try to stay awake for the entire trip home and see if that works.

When I get back, I’ll take a few days to rest.  I’ll hang out with Em and the guys.  I’ll write a few blog posts.  I’ll upload photos.  Then, I’ll be back to work on MarkUs (I wonder how Nelle and Severin are coming along?).

10:30PM

After hanging around the hostel for a bit, Alex and I left and walked around downtown. We chatting about the trip, and what we were going to do when we get home.

Eventually, we headed to the theatre to see a film recording of a Krystian Lupa play.  I tried my best to enjoy it, but I really couldn’t get into it.  Like I mentioned earlier, video recordings of plays often don’t work well at all for me.

I think I napped through a good chunk of the film.  Eventually, it ended, and I caught up with Alexi and Yev as they were leaving the theatre.

And it was absolutely pouring out.  Buckets.  Torrents.  Huge rainfall.  I was scared to take out my camera for a photo in case I damaged it, so I can only describe it:  lots of rain.

We went back to the hostel to rejoin the rest of the group, and then purchased tram tickets for the next (and final) theatre piece of the trip:  The Temptation of Quiet Veronica.

THE TEMPTATION OF QUIET VERONICA (or KUSZENIE CICHEJ WERONIKI) directed by Krystian Lupa

Maybe it was the exhaustion.  Maybe it was the fact that my body was starting to rebel against this trip.  Maybe I’d just seen to much theatre these past two weeks.

Whatever the reason, I just could not keep my mind on the show.  The only remarkable thing I can think of happened just as the play was beginning.

I’m sitting in between Ryan and Alex.  The stage is still dark, and the audience is buzzing.  Ryan looks at us and says, very seriously, “I swear to god, if I see one more naked person, I think I’m going to flip out.”

The house lights started to dim.  The stage lights lit up.  And guess what was standing there, spread-eagle in the middle of the stage?

You guessed it.

For the rest of the show, all I could really focus on was Ryan’s hand, gripping, white-knuckled, on to my knee.

The Last Supper

It was our last supper together in Poland.  We decided to head back to that same place we’d eaten at after seeing CLEANSED, and what our tour guide called “the oldest restaurant in Europe”.

It was an important dinner.

This trip marks the end of an era for me. I’ve known the people I’m traveling with pretty intimately for about 4 years.  We’ve acted together, studied together, sweated, presented, and complained together.  It’s a tight group, and when this trip is over, it will signal the end of my time studying at the UCDP.

Glad to go out with a bang, though!  We bought Tamara a cake with an explosive on top:

It was a good dinner.  Afterwards, we all headed back to the hostel and went to bed.  With layovers, tomorrow was going to be a 20 hour trip home.

Click here to go to Part 17: Homeward Bound, Final Entry

Click here to go back to Part 15: Back to Wroclaw, Suzuki, FRAGMENTS, and NEFÉS

June 28th – Early Afternoon

I awoke all stuffed up, miserable, and sore this morning.  Really didn’t sleep well.  I know I’ve been complaining a lot lately about this cold, but I’m actually pretty lucky that it hit me at the end of the trip, as opposed to the beginning.

After breakfast, we got on the bus and drove for 2.5 hours back to Wroclaw.  Tried to nap on the bus, but no luck.

It’s good to be back in Wroclaw, and around relatively familiar surroundings – it’s probably the closest thing I could call to home out here.  Compared to Poznan, Wroclaw fits me like a pair of comfy running shoes.

We’re at a different hostel this time.  I like the decor.  I think Em would like it, too:

After unloading our stuff at the hostel, we went to go have dinner.  Guess what we ate?  Pirogies!  I have to admit, I was getting a little sick of eating pirogies day in and day out, but I figured it’d be a long time before I had authentic Polish pirogies again, so I ate up.

2:55PM

I’m at a theatre, watching a talk session with Tadashi Suzuki, the famed Japanese theatre director/philosopher, and founder of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training (not to be confused with the training technique for music).  So, what’s the Suzuki Method of Actor Training?  Hard for me to say – I’ve never taken it.  But my movement instructor learned Suzuki during a sabbatical, and my girlfriend Em ended up learning it in her class.  From what I’d heard, it’s a lot of leg-work, feet-work, stomping, etc.  Here’s a description of a Suzuki course to give you an idea:

Suzuki is a powerful physical training technique drawing from ballet, martial arts, Kabuki and other disciplines. Focusing on breath, the center and the lower body, with stomping, slow movement and explosive gestures, Suzuki brings attention to the voice and its connection to the body.

Anyhow, I’m watching him during this talk-back session, and it’s a pretty interesting interview process.

You see, I don’t believe Suzuki speaks English or Polish.  The interviewer speaks both Japanese and Polish, but only Japanese to Suzuki.  Suzuki responds in Japanese, which goes through his personal translator, who speaks it in Polish.  A fourth guy on the edge then translates the Polish into English to give us poor Canadian sods an idea of what’s going on.

I must admit, I welcome the opportunity to zone out a bit while I wait for the English.

Here’s a shot of the linguistic circus:

The talk seems to be centered around modern technology, and how Suzuki believes it is damaging our collecting ability to remember our history.  Interesting, but I think I’ve heard that one before.

After the talk, I got up, realized I was exhausted, and headed back to the hostel for a short nap.

Late

I woke up at 5:52PM with a start.  The hostel was empty.  I’m groggy, and I have the faint suspicion that something is wrong.  Unable to fathom what it is, I put on my clothes and stretch.

And that’s when I notice my ticket for the next show:  it’s supposed to start at 6PM.

I have a lightning fast consultation with the hostel computer for directions to the theatre, and then a quick chat with the hostel desk girl for advice on shortcuts, and then I hit the street.  I sprint to the theatre at top speed.

And somehow, magically, I make it.  I was lucky – the theatre was pretty close to our hostel.  I enter the building and eventually find my comrades who had had no idea that I’d been sleeping when they’d left.

I didn’t even know what show I was seeing, until I looked at my ticket again…

FRAGMENTS By Samuel Beckett, Directed By Peter Brook

Wow!  Samuel Beckett and Peter Brook!  Now those are two names I definitely recognize.  I had studied Brook in both highschool and University, and Beckett in the latter.

I even saw Peter Brook that night – I walked past him in the lobby.  He was in the middle of a conversation with someone else, so I didn’t interrupt (I don’t even know what I would have said if I had…”you do great work”…?).

He’s shorter than I thought he’d be.

Anyhow, the show was absolutely awesome.  I loved it, back to front.

Fragments is a series of shorts originally written by Samuel Beckett.  The set was very sparse, containing only what was necessary.  The costumes were simple.  The acting was fantastic.

What was it?  Well, pretty black comedy is what I saw.  Gallows humour.

A one legged beggar and a blind beggar try to strike up a mutually beneficial relationship.

A lady in a rocking chair speaks hypnotic circles while waiting (and yearning) for death to take her.

Two men wake up in burlap sacks.  One goes through his day, “worldweary and bemused”, with every possible obstacle in life causing him to groan and sigh.  The other man goes through his day (and the same obstacles) with unbelievable energy and optimism.  Both end up in the same place at the end.  Classic Beckett, and wonderful clowning by the two actors.

Those were the three shorts that stood out for me, anyhow.  I really enjoyed them.

After the show, we all rushed out to the opera theatre…we had another show to see.

NEFÉS by Pina Bausch

Wow!  Another name I recognize!  From what I know about her (which, admittedly isn’t much) Bausch’s name is synonymous with incredible and original choreography in modern dance.

And that’s what we saw.  Incredible dance.  Incredibly choreographed, and incredibly executed.

I won’t lie – I’m a sucker for contemporary dance.  I lapped this show right up.

This, despite a partially obstructed view (the old opera theatre was gold and gorgeously ornate, but had some unfortunately placed pillars).

I can’t even begin to describe the dancing.  This clip is the best I can do:

Anyhow, thumbs up.  Here’s a shot of the curtain call:

After leaving, I grabbed a few slices of pizza and chatted about the show with Ryan, Sonia, Chantelle and Una.  It was generally positive reviews.

I went back to the hostel, shaved, showered, and hit the sack.  Tomorrow would be our last full day in Wroclaw, and in Poland.

Click here to go to Part 16: Last Full Day in Poland, and THE TEMPTATION OF QUIET VERONICA

Click here to go back to Part 14: Guerilla Walk and CALIGULA

June 23, 5:10AM

At 5:10AM, a huge clap of thunder woke us all with a start.  Groaning,  moaning, and uttering expletives… we tried to go back to sleep, but the thunder storm and heavy rain raged all around us.

And then, eventually, the storm moved off…finally, we could sleep…

…but before it could happen, one by one, our alarm clocks started to go off.  It was time to leave.

Grumbling, lights flicked on, and we headed to the washrooms and showers…

6:12AM

A few people reported that there was some food missing from the hostel kitchen.  Tom and Tara reported half a carton of chocolate milk had been pilfered, and half of Linn’s salami was missing.

Apparently, some of the guests thought we wouldn’t mind sharing.  Or there was a mix up.

Either way, it didn’t improve anyone’s mood.

Not long after, we packed up our stuff, got on the bus, and left Wroclaw for Krakow.

10:27AM

We had been on the bus for a few hours, and I had been trying (unsuccessfully) to take a nap.  I eventually gave up, and I joined in with a bunch of the group who were quizzing each other on Canadian provinces and U.S. states.

It turns out that I know relatively little about Canadian provinces, and next to nothing about U.S. states.  Hmph.

Eventually, we pulled over at a rest stop.  I took the opportunity to try some of the local junk food, and purchased two chocolate bars – a “Corny Big” and a “3Bit”.  They tasted better than they sound.

Tamara also took the opportunity to tell us how the rest of the trip was going to work.  She also lightly condemned the last hostel, which was clearly not to her liking.

While talking about the rest of the trip, she mentioned that she had arranged for us to visit Auschwitz for the next morning.  The group got quiet.  Tamara also said that she had left open the possibility of visiting the Wieliczka Salt Mines after Auschwitz, but that it would really depend on our mood.  We would probably be upset after Auschwitz, and would want to go home and rest.

12:30PM

We arrived at the hostel around 11:30PM, and man, what a difference!  The place was absolutely spartan, the rooms were gorgeous, the views were incredible… we were quite happy, as you can see:

Yes, it was a welcome change.  In case you’re interested, the hostel was called “Cracow Hostel Apartment“.  You can see more photos of the place if you click these words – but having been there, it’s pretty clear that these photos try to make the rooms seem bigger with lens effects.

So we had nice rooms.  But guess what?

Peter got the pent house! The lucky guy got the hostel apartment!  The room was incredible!  It was too bad we were only staying a few nights.

The hostel was particularly awesome because it was in the Market Square.  Here are a few shots of the view from the common room window:

Wow!  (Looks a lot like Wroclaw, doesn’t it?  That’s what I thought, too.)

If it isn’t clear from the photos, it was still drizzling out.  But that didn’t mean we weren’t starving.  After unpacking and cleaning up, we hit the pavement to try to find some lunch.

1:06PM

This was lunch:

And this was where we ate it:

The place was called Chimera.  Interesting concept for a restaurant.

1:41PM

After leaving the restaurant, Tamara took us on a walking tour of the surrounding area:

The rain had stopped, and the air was left dripping with humidity.

We stopped by a church called Bazylika Sw Franciszka Z Asyzku XIII W.  Hm.  Maybe I wasn’t hearing right, but apparently there was some stained-glass work by Adam Mickiewicz there…

Here are some shots from the church.  Not the greatest shots I’ve ever taken, but hey – it was dark in there:

I don’t know if Mickiewicz did the stained-glass – regardless, here’s a shot of one of the pieces:

2:07PM

We left the church, and meandered through the streets.

Eventually, we found ourselves at an outcropping called Wawel – home of Wawel Castle, which was to be our next stop.

Here’s a window dog we saw on our way to the castle ramp.  It breaks the narrative, but I can’t resist:

And while I’m breaking narrative, here’s Alex posing in front of a Bauhaus poster:

…and eventually, we found ourselves climbing the ramp up to Wawel Castle:

Here’s a view from one of the castle turrets:

At the castle gate, we bought tickets to enter, and to see the “Dragon’s Den” underneath the castle grounds.  We were stoked.

2:45PM – Wawel Castle

High security.  Metal detectors.  Armed guards.  This place wasn’t taking any chances.  There was a very strict code of conduct in there – no sitting, no leaning on walls, keep quiet, and absolutely no pictures.  So I just took notes.

So I can’t show you what it was like inside, but I can try to describe it:

It was a museum.  Stone and hardwood floors.  Quiet like a tomb.  Marble staircases.  Wooden cabinets, uncomfortable looking wooden chairs, wooden tables…tapestries, beds.  Old paintings.

Tamara told us a story about how when the Germans invaded, relics and artifacts were smuggled out of Europe.  It turns out that some relics from Wawel Castle eventually found themselves holed up with a cloister of nuns in Canada.  Go figure.

Everything was ornate, and gold rimmed.  Even the ceilings were covered in gold.

Oh the hell with it – so I couldn’t take any photos: that doesn’t mean I can’t scrape some from off the Internet.  Here’s what I was seeing, care of this website:

There, that’s better.  I’ve always been a visual kind of guy.

Check out the ceiling on this room:

You probably can just barely see them, but those are human heads carved and painted into the ceiling.  Just staring down.  And one has his mouth gagged.  It was creepy.  Apparently, those heads were carved by Sebastian Tauerbach back in the 1500s.

3:55PM

The castle wasn’t the only thing on Wawel Hill.  Inevitably, there was a church – Wawel Cathedral.

So, interesting theatre connection with Wawel Cathedral:

There was a theatre artist who wanted to do a show in the cathedral.  His idea for the play:  that all of the tapestries and statues would come to life on the night before Easter to demonstrate the resurrection of Christ.  It was like Night at the Museum, but with 100% more Jesus.

Anyhow, that play was called Akropolis, and would eventually be staged by Jerzy Grotowski in the 1960′s. Grotowki’s spin on it was to stage it in Auschwitz instead of the Wawel Cathedral.

Anyhow, Grotowki’s Akropolis caused ripples in the theatre world, and was a shining example of the “poor theatre” that he was striving to achieve.

For the people who don’t study drama, Grotowski, Poor Theater, and Akropolis are a pretty big deal.  I’ve seen a taping of Akropolis a few times…it’s one of the few recordings of Grotowski’s work.

Anyhow, that’s the connection.  We were inside the cathedral where that whole thing began.

4:02PM

Walking through the cathedral.  Once again, I couldn’t take any photos.

Description:  high ceilings, gold, tapestries, stained glass.  Gothic architecture.  Gold alter.  Chandaliers.  Ornate, dark woodwork.  Coffins and tombs.  Sarcophagi.

There was a narrow, claustrophobic staircase that led up to the cathedral bell tower.  It was windy up there, and the bells were absolutely massive.  Huge cast-iron things.  Mother of all bells.  I couldn’t help myself – I whipped out my camera like a gunslinger, and snuck a shot:

Yeah, I know – doesn’t look that impressive.  It’s due to lack of size reference points.  You’ve just got to trust me.

There were tombs in the basement.  Thick marble slabs, stone… there were some disturbingly small sarcophagi too.

The tombs got more modern the farther through we went – towards the end, we saw tombs with the occupants’ firearms strapped to the wall.

Maybe I’ve seen too many Indiana Jones movies, but I couldn’t help feeling that there were probably secret passages all over the place.

4:30PM

Finally, we got out of the catacombs into the fresh air.  We hung around outside, and waited for stragglers.  I took the opportunity to take a photo of some kids who were clearly disobeying the “don’t step on the grass” rule:

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

4:50PM

Remember the Dragon’s Den?  That was our last stop on Wawel. We took a narrow, twisty flight of stairs down…down…deep…down…wayyyyy down into the cave beneath the castle.

It was…a cave.  Kinda underwhelming, but I don’t know what we were expecting.  A real dragon?

The lighting conditions weren’t ideal, so here are my crappy photos of the cave:

And here’s Tom filling up the cave with some dragon presence:

We eventually left the cave.  We took the time to sit, rest our legs, and stare up at this dragon monument that was outside the exit:

The Dragon

Now, I don’t know how the rumour got started, but apparently, every hour, that dragon was supposed to breathe fire.  So the bunch of us stuck around for about 15 minutes, waiting for the fireball.

Evidently, the group of us make enough of a crowd to cause other people to wonder what’s going on, because more people from off the street started joining our group, staring up at the dragon, waiting.

And then the hour came…and went…and nothing happened.

Jiv went to talk to a local street vendor.  It went something like this:

Jiv:  Isn’t this thing supposed to breathe fire every hour?

Vendor:  [Look of confusion]

Jiv:  [Mimes breathing fire, and points at dragon]

Vendor:  [Shakes head vigorously]

Disappointed, the crowd dispersed.

5:35PM

Tamara had led us into the Jewish Quarter of Krakow.

The storm was really threatening now – dark clouds, and rumbling that was closer than before.

Rain started to fall.  It was time to get indoors.  As a torrent of rain started to come down, we found a restaurant, and took shelter.

And then it started to hail for a bit.  Strange.

6:52PM

The restaurant we had chosen was pretty fancy.  I ordered what eventually turned out to be chicken shish kabab.  For the price…not that great.  But whatever, we were inside and dry.  And I was full.

The group was pretty tired at this point.  The lack of sleep from the night before, and the long tour of the day had worn us out.  After we had finished eating, Tamara told us that we had the rest of the day to ourselves.

A pack of us left the restaurant to explore the Jewish Quarter.  Eventually, we found ourselves back in the Market Square, where I promptly ordered myself a lemon sorbet.  I missed the ice cream from Wroclaw, but the lemon sorbet was amazing.  Sonia took the opportunity to buy some zapiekanka.

Have I told you about zapiekanka?  I don’t think I have.  Polish equivalent to a hot dog.  Long half of a baguette, topped with melted cheese and mushrooms, and a long strip of ketchup.  I liked ‘em.

Some of us went back to the hostel.  I hung around the Market Square for a little bit and snapped a few photos:

Here’s Adam Mickiewicz again!  What a guy!

And a giant head:

The very center of the Market Square was a…market.  Lots of little booths selling trinkets.  Religious figurines…amber… a high number of chess boards, which I found strange.

And wouldn’t you know it, I also found some miniature copies of those creepy head sculptures that I’d seen in Wawel Castle!

At this point, I was pretty tuckered out.  I walked back to the hostel, and eventually went to sleep.

We would be getting up early the next day to go to Auschwitz.

Click here to go to Part 11:  Journey into Auschwitz, and Adventuring Alone in Krakow

Click here to go back to Part 9:  The Halfway Point

June 22, Morning

During breakfast, I found out that it was another free day – once more, Wroclaw was our playground to romp around in independently, followed by another version of Hamlet (HAMLET. SILENCE FROM THE BODY by Roberto Bacci) that night.  It was also our last night in Wroclaw – we were going to leave for Krakow early the next morning.

The deal was even sweeter when Tamara handed us a 250z cash-infusion.

So what did I do?  Did I hit the town, and eat at restaurants?  Did I go sightseeing?  Did I go shopping?

Actually, I did laundry.  Yep, I had accumulated quite a collection of dirty laundry at this point, so I stayed back at the hostel, and slammed some dirty clothes into the washing machine.  While waiting for my clothes to get washed, I hung out in the hostel kitchen with Chantelle.

While talking with Chantelle, I learned that a few of the ladies in our group had noticed that men in Poland were a lot more obvious when “checking out” the women around them.  Chantelle told me that a few of them had even felt uncomfortable at times, and that it was almost as if some men wanted them to notice.  I told her that I wondered if it was just a European thing, and she said that she didn’t know.

I also took a time out to play with the Hostel Dog:

2:15PM

With my laundry air-drying on a clothing rack in the hostel, I eventually left to go exploring on my own.

It was chilly, rainy and grey out.  I also wasn’t sure where everybody was – we seemed to be all scattered about.

I eventually bought some postcards and a calling card – I was going to call Em later on that day.

2:55PM

I ran into Tara, Tom, Alex (or was it Alexi? My writing is a bit sloppy), Sonia, Ryan and Jiv at the milk bar we had originally seen during our tour of Wroclaw.  I had something to eat, and then we all left together.

Eventually, Ryan, Jiv, Alex (Alexi?) and I split off and walked through some of the small artisan shops.  We talked with a shopkeep, who told us about a major flood in Wroclaw that had happened about a decade before.  Apparently, flooding in the area was quite common.

We thanked the shopkeep, and left.

4:15PM

Somehow or another, I had gotten back to the hostel, and started writing postcards.  I also took the opportunity to call my girlfriend Em, and tell her how I was doing.

After the phone call, I felt a little Wroclaw-ed out, and felt I needed some downtime to recouperate.  I went into the common room and watched some BBC News.

Finally, I got up, and went out again for something to eat with Tom, Tara, Ryan, Alex, Una, and Linn.

6:33PM

If it hasn’t become clear already, the bunch of us became expert restaurant-hoppers.  Choosing restaurants, however, could be a bit of a chore.  Often, there were times where we’d travel the entire square several times before deciding on something we could all agree upon.

And for that night, the restaurant was a Greek place called “Ready’s”.  This is what my guidebook says about that restaurant:

Paper napkins and plenty of plasticky bits and bobs greet you in what rates as a very poor man’s Sphinx.  Eating is just a means to an end here, with plates of kebab meat, fries and chicken being the core dishes.  You may enjoy Ready’s, but only after a dozen beers.

Maybe it’s my attraction to no-frills stuff, but I enjoyed this place.  I’d eat there again.

In fact, we were enjoying our meal so much that we lost track of time!  We paid our bill, rushed out, and tried to figure out how to get to the theatre to see Bacci’s HAMLET.

7:45PM

After a failed attempt at walking to the theatre, we decided as a group to try to take a cab.  Eventually, we were able to hail one down, but only four of us were able to take it.  After a quick discussion, Ryan, Alex, Una and Linn hopped in, and the rest of us tried to hail another cab.  Tom, Tara and I were doubtful that we’d make it.

8:00PM

Luckily, we were able to hail a cab.  After flailing some arms, and gesturing wildly at our maps, we were able to communicate to the driver where exactly we wanted to go.  I think he knew we were in a hurry, because he floored it.

He pulled up right to the theatre entrance.  We paid, hopped out, and rushed into the theatre.

HAMLET. SILENCE FROM THE BODY Directed by Roberto Bacci

When we got inside the theatre, the show was just about to begin.  There was no seating left, so I sat in the aisle.

The lights came down, and the show started.

This version of Hamlet was spoken in rapid-fire Italian.  There were English and Polish subtitles projected on a surface above the stage.  Half-way through the production though, the English subtitles stopped.  They just stopped coming.

I think this was a good thing though, since it allowed me to focus on what I was seeing and hearing on stage, as opposed to flicking my eyes up to the screen every few seconds to get my place in the story.

So what did I see?  This version of Hamlet had the cast (with the exception of Hamlet himself) dressed in fencing armor – masks and all.  I thought the masks helped them pull off some nice sleight of hand, since it allowed them to “dissappear” characters into the anonymous chorus, and have them re-emerge elsewhere.  Actual fencing was performed on stage as well, which was exciting to see.

The stage was panelled in wood, giving it a very red, and earthy tone.  The major set piece was what appeared to be a large, rusty frame or scaffolding, somewhat like a jungle-gym.  This apparatus was climbed upon, walked through, and even had “drawbridge” doors on either side of it.  It was a neat contraption, though I was worried for the actors safety when they were climbing it at some points, since it seemed to have a very high centre of gravity.  I also wish they had used it more – it seemed to have a lot of potential.

The acting was decent.  I had a conversation with Tom about the show afterwards, and we seemed to agree that this was a pretty “meat and potatoes” Hamlet.  It did the job of telling the story, and it told it pretty well, but nothing blew our socks off.  Tom said that Bacci’s Hamlet was “like a Soul Pepper production, if they had hired a kind-of experimental director.  Pretty strong, but nothing special.”

We talked about Hamlet for a bit, and then walked back to the Hostel.  I hung around in the common area for a bit, and then I went to sleep early – we had to wake up around 5:30AM to get ready for our bus trip to Krakow the next day.

Click here to go to Part 10:  Journey to Krakow, Wawel Hill, and The Dragon

Click here to go back to Part 8:  A Boat Ride, Eating, Videos, AJAX, and More Eating

June 21, 10:00AM (Father’s Day)

After I woke up, had breakfast, and cleaned up, Tamara offered us the opportunity to go on a boat ride down the section of the Odra River that runs through Wroclaw.  I was interested in going, so I watched some European music videos while I waited for the others to get set.

It was going to be Yev, Jiv, Chantelle, Ryan, Tamara, Peter, Alexi, Sonia, Una, and myself on that boat.

A few minutes later,  and we were underway.

11:30AM

It was an absolutely gorgeous day – sunny, warm, and beautiful.  Perfect for boating around Wroclaw.

We chugged down the Odra, and then turned around.  It was very pleasant.

We also took the opportunity to ask Tamara about the racial/cultural tension that we thought we had picked up on the night before.  She told us that she thought it had much to do with the racial monolithicism of Poland.  Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Peter Brook said that the Polish audience was the most racially monolithic crowd he’d ever seen.

The boat trip finished.  We docked, and the group conversation eventually sizzled out until it was just Tamara and I talking, as we all walked down the streets of Wroclaw.  I mentioned how I have never really had the business-end of racism in my face before, and have never had the experience of being the “other”.  Tamara responded by telling me that I was very lucky to have grown up in Canada.  I agreed with her.

Deciding that we were all hungry, the group split off into smaller groups to find something to eat.  The group I was in eventually settled down at a very nice crepe place.  I got a crepe with chicken, cheese, spinach and corn.  Totally hit the spot!

1:43PM

After eating, we had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we pleased.  As had become custom, we spent our time hopping from restaurant to restaurant, sampling this and that, and watching the locals.  Una, Sonia, Chantelle, and I eventually found ourselves at “Pomazanka”, which our guidebook promised would provide the “widest selection on ice cream, cakes and pastries on the Rynek.”

Sonia had apple cake.  Chantelle had chocolate cake.  Una had marzipan cake. I went for strawberry gelato, and we all decided that our choices were very good.

1:51PM

Had an interesting conversation with Sonia about the gay culture in Poland.  When asked for her impressions, she told me that from what she saw, since Poland is highly religious, it stands to reason that the gay culture is probably carefully hidden from plain sight.  I told her that I agreed with her – at least for Wroclaw.  Warsaw seemed a bit more relaxed.

There’s a lapse in my journaling for a few hours here…from memory, I know I eventually went back to the hostel and phoned my Dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day.

My journal picks up again here:

4:20PM

At this point, I was in the middle of watching one of the optional films for that day – MADAME DE SADE directed by KRZYSZTOF WARLIKOWSKI (yep – the same fellow who directed CLEANSED).  Yikes.  Granted – this was a videotape of a theatre piece, so it was weakened right off the bat.  Anyhow, the camera was too far away, so the audience never got to see the actor’s faces, and the sound was just awful. If theatre is a medium for communication, this video fell way short.  I fell asleep.  Instantly forgotten.

5:26PM

It was a double feature for videos that day – the next video was a version of MEDEA by ANATOLIJ WASILJEW.  It was a one-woman piece…the video was from a presentation that looked like it happened in an art museum.

How to describe this piece?

Two words:  Enraged, and Naked.  Props to the woman for the effort and the work she was putting in.  She was clearly committed, and working hard.  However, watching a naked woman yell at me from a chair for an hour is not how I like to spend my time.  I just wanted it to stop.  If it wasn’t so loud, I’m sure I would have fallen asleep there too.

Video recordings of theatre pieces always fall flat for me – even if they’ve been edited well, and recorded with video in mind.  There really are some things that only live theatre can do.

Why didn’t I leave?  True – there was nothing keeping me in the theatre.  However, I hate leaving bad shows halfway through – I always have this little bit of hope that maybe they’ll save themselves towards the end.  Still, I’m usually let down.

Anyhow, we shook off the two videos, and walked back to the hostel to pick up our tickets for that nights live show:  AJAX, THE MADNESS by THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS.

AJAX, THE MADESS by THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS

Here are some dark and blurry photos of the whole gang getting ready to see AJAX:

AJAX was a heavily ritualized Greek performance/meditation on the Ajax myth.  The show promised murder, guilt, madness, and war satire.

Like I said: heavily ritualized performance/meditation.  It was like a 20 minute mantra that was repeated 3 times.  There were 3 actors, each taking turns leading the mantra, and each putting their own spin on it.

The first guy was my favourite.  Total commitment the entire way.  The mantra involved lots of repeated physical actions, and this guy put his whole body into it.  I knew he was working hard.  How did I know?  Because he was sweating buckets.  And he never swallowed – saliva just gushed out of his mouth for his entire 20 minutes.  The man must have lost 2 litres of body fluid over the course of the show.  It was unbelievable.  I was blown away by the energy and commitment of that guy.

It went downhill for me from there.  The second guy had this highly reflective knife that he kept shining into the audience, and it was really annoying.  By the time the third guy went up, I think I had the mantra under my belt.  It was nice to see the little differences that each iteration had on the last, but it didn’t really grab me.

And the war satire was kind of weak – at least for me.  It almost seemed tagged on, like an afterthought – jetfighter fly-over soundcues, and this image of a processional of coffins.  I think I heard a Roger Waters tune tucked in there too.

Anyhow, it was OK.  Not great, not terrible.  It was awkward for the curtain call though.  The audience gave the cast some real good applause, and they were bowing, and that was fine.  But then they wouldn’t leave.  And because they wouldn’t leave the stage, the audience felt compelled to clap more.  So they stayed.  And then the director came out, and we clapped for him too.  And I could feel the applause dying down, but then they’d come up to centre stage and bow again, and people would keep clapping in an attempt to avoid awkwardness.  It was almost like they were drawing applause out of us, as opposed to letting us give it to them.

Somehow, the vicious cycle eventually ended.  We left.

Saw some interesting sculptures on the street on the way out:

Not sure what time it was, but from the photos, it looked like it was starting to get dark out.

On our way home, some of us decided to get some midnight snacks at the grocery store.  I got some orange juice (a respectable kind, with an expiry date that I felt good about), and some waffle cracker things.  Our shopping finished, we walked back to the hotel to eat what we bought.

While eating, we watched David After the Dentist:

and some more Dave’s Farm.

Then, because we weren’t tired yet, we went to Wizard Hat for an hour or so, and then went back to the grocery store for more midnight snacks.  I got orange filling Jaffa Cakes, and shared them with Sonia.

Finally, we went back to the hostel for the last time that night.  We chatted for a while in the common room, and then I had a shower and went to bed.

Click here to go to Part 9:  The Halfway Point

Click here to go back to Part 7:  An Official Tour of Wroclaw

June 19th – 10:00AM

This day started out amazingly.  First, Tamara handed us our second 200z installment of cash.  Second, she told us that besides seeing the festival show that evening, the rest of how we wanted to spend our day was up to each of us.

Total freedom in Wroclaw.  Excellent.

So, while chewing on some bread with jam, and playing with the Wrotswog the Hostel Dog, I mentally went over my to-do list:

1. Get an international phone card, and call home
2. Get some postcards to send home
3. Find some souvenirs
4. Do laundry!

So, I slammed down my toast, got cleaned up, walked out into the warm and humid Wroclaw air, and hit the streets with a few others.

As usual, our feet eventually led us to the market square.  On one street, with large stone spheres as dividers, some booths were set up where people were hocking their wares.

There were lots of little knick-knacks, but I actually didn’t see much that I hadn’t seen at other similar markets in Toronto.  I was looking for gifts that were unique to the area, and it took me a while to eventually find them.

Here’s a shot of us checking out some wares:

One highlight was a booth where a German man was selling hand-made wooden puzzles.  He was a good salesman (though I’m pretty sure he was hitting on Linn the whole time), so I bought one of his puzzles.  If you’re interested, and you read German, here is his website.

Here we are trying to solve some of his puzzles:

Very perplexing.

After a bit more shopping about, we decided to get some lunch.

1:10PM

I was about to get my first plate of pierogi since landing in Poland, and I was starving.  After glacing at the menu,  I ordered “pierogi ruskie” (basic potato, cheese, and onion pierogi), and a Sprite.  Linn was upset because the waiter told us that they were out of the meat pierogies, and didn’t have any without cheese (Linn is lactose intolerant).  So, she ordered fries instead.

Her fries showed up.  Our pierogies didn’t.

Something like 30 minutes passed.  Eventually, the waiter came back and told us that they were fresh out of pierogies.   Devestated, and famished for real Polish pierogi, I finished the rest of my Sprite, and we decided to try someplace else.

Ironically, Linn was the only one who ended up getting a meal there.

2:00PM

We found another restaurant that looked good, and sat down.  Unfortunately, there were no pierogies on the menu (was there a pierogi shortage?  In Poland?  Impossible!), so I ordered “penne spinaci”.  It was relaxing, sitting out there in the market square under the tent.  A couple of musicians with guitars and accordions played for us.  We got into a conversation with a local.  It was heavenly.  And it felt good to know that there was no rush to do anything – we could play the day however we liked.

And that’s pretty much how the afternoon went – we’d go to some restaurant, sit down, eat and drink for an hour, and then wander around until we got hungry and found another restaurant.  It was awesome.

It was also during that trip that Ryan and Jiv found what we would eventually name “Wizard Hat” – a bar near the Wroclaw University that sold 5z pints of beer.  This would eventually become one of the main watering holes for our group while we were in Wroclaw.

Here’s why it’s called Wizard Hat:

See it?

After chewing on some of the gummy candies that Tara had bought at some booth in the market, I decided to head back to the hostel on my own to see if I could find a way to call home.

Outside of our hostel was a convenience store, and somebody in our group had told me earlier that I could get a phone card from there.  So, I walked inside, and (after a lot of gesturing) was able to purchase a 20z “card” (really, just a receipt with a code on it).

So, I walked back up into the hostel, borrowed the hostel phone, and after some trial, error, and help from Tamara (the instructions were all in Polish!), I managed to phone home.

And nobody was there.  Nobody was at my girlfriend Em’s place either.  So, I put it on my “to do” list to try calling again that night after the show.

Putting back the phone, I walked into the common room, where the BBC was reporting on events in Iran.  Riots on the streets, total news blackout (except for social media)…our group watched the news in Iran carefully, especially Tara, who had planned on visiting there after Poland.  It wasn’t looking good.

6:13PM

A few hours passed.  There’s a gap in my journal, so I don’t really know what I did.  All I know, is that at 6:13PM, I was in a theater about to see TEBEK-JARAN (“The Stabbing of the Horse”) by the Gambuh Desa Batuan Ensemble; a Balinese troupe.

So how was The Stabbing of the Horse?

Hypnotic.  I found a YouTube clip posted by someone who was recording the show.  Check it out:

It’s really quite fantastic what she’s doing with her body – very precise, very controlled.  It was impressive.  The whole company moved like this.  It was really other-worldly…I felt like some kind of scientist watching an alien ritual.  Quite incredible.

But, at the time, I have to admit my eyes got pretty heavy after about 20 minutes of that music and movement.  I didn’t understand the language at all, and had no idea what was going on even though they’d handed out a piece of paper explaining the story.  Plus, it was super warm in the theatre.  I won’t lie, I had to struggle to stay conscious.

And then they brought out the horse!  Which was awesome – it was clearly just some actor in a horse costume – but it was freaking hilarious.  The horse came out, played with the audience for a bit, and that perked me right back up.

And then they killed it. They stabbed the horse, my favourite character, just as it was getting good.  But I shouldn’t have been surprised – the title of the show was The Stabbing of the Horse.  What did I expect?

Hrmph.  Maybe if I knew more about the culture, I would have gotten more out of the performance.  Oh well,  I gave it my best shot.

After the show, Tamara gave us the option to see a performance of Macbeth.  Personally, I was completely drained from the last show, and decided to head back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, I successfully called both my parents and my girlfriend Em.  It was good to hear their voices, and totally crazy to think that it was only 3PM back home.  It was like time travel.  My mind boggled.

Eventually, we met up with the people who saw Macbeth – and apparently, it was incredible.  I’d write more about it, except that I didn’t see it.  But according to them,  it was awesome.

After we met up with them, a few of us stopped by a Greek restaurant for some gyros.  We discussed the shows a bit, and I heard more impressions about Macbeth.  After our discussion, we left, and started heading back to the hostel.

We were just walking through the middle of the market square, when all of a sudden, it hit me:  I didn’t have my camera on me.  I’d forgotten it at the gyro restaurant!  I peeled out, and flew back to the restaurant.

The restaurant was empty – it looked like they were about to close.  And my camera was nowhere to be seen.  Finally, the European thieves and pick-pockets that I’d been warned about had struck.

And then the manager came out and gave me my camera back.  I felt like quite a shmuck.

11:52PM

After thanking the manager, I left the restaurant, and ran smack dab into another group of my fellow travelers who had taken a different route back from Macbeth.  They were hungry, and I was up for hanging out, so we stopped at another restaurant.  This one was a fancy Italian place.

Have you been keeping track?  Let’s count how many times I sat down to eat that day:

1. Breakfast at the hostel
2. Failed pierogi mission
3. Penne spinaci, with accordian music
4. Wizard Hat
5. Gyros at the Greek restaurant
6. Fancy Italian restaurant

Holy smokes!

So there we were:  Jiv, Ryan, Una, Linn, and Sonia, sitting at this fancy Italian restaurant, being loud and obnoxious, as per usual.  It took us about 20 minutes to finally realize that we were sitting in a restaurant geared towards romance, and that many of the couples around us weren’t appreciating how much noise we were making.

So we paid our bill and left.

And we went home.  And slept.  I hadn’t bought any postcards, and I still had laundry to do.

Oh well.  Plenty of time for that.

Click here to go to Part 7:  An Official Tour of Wroclaw

Click here to go back to Part 5:  Exploring Wroclaw

June 18 – 10:19 AM

It had been an easy sleep.  At this point in my journey, my jet lag appeared to have mostly worn off.  I woke up, and had two bowls of Cocoa Puffs.

Fun fact:  Cocoa Puffs seem to be very popular as a hostel breakfast cereal.  Almost every hostel we went to invariably had Cocoa Puffs.  It was nice knowing that no matter what kind of situation I got into in Poland, I’d always have Cocoa Puffs there to bail me out.

Dry Cocoa Puffs though.  Because frankly, the milk I tasted in Poland was too strange for me.  It was thick, and tasted…bleh.  Apparently, I’m not the only one to notice differences between North American milk and European milk.

Anyhow, after breakfast, Chantelle, Reid and myself decided to go grocery shopping to see what the local produce was like.

Food in the grocery store was remarkably cheap after conversion to Canadian dollars.  Reid and Chantelle loaded up on local fruits, vegetables, and dairy.

During our exploration, I learned how often I feel the compulsion to say “sorry”, and how frustrating it is to not be able to do so.  So, I learned how to say it in Polish:  przepraszam (psheh-prasham).  I kept practicing it, ready to whip it out next time I accidentally bumped somebody or something.  Unfortunately, when my opportunity arose (I think I accidentally cut off some old lady in the supermarket), I said dziekuje (thank you) instead.  Awkward moment.

Another awkward moment was when I bought a jug of orange juice.  Check out the expiry date:

Holy smokes – this unrefridgerated OJ expires in 2010.  Sounds like a boatload of preservatives to me.

I opened the jug, and took a swig.

It took a few swigs to realize that something was bugging me…I’d missed a step in the process.

And then it hit me.  The seal had been broken.  The seal had been broken off of some strange unrefridgerated 2010-expring OJ that I had just bought in Poland.

I hate waste, but I hate getting sick more.  I threw the jug out.  Poland: 1, Mike: 0.

1:10PM

After we got back, the whole group decided to go exploring all together.  We streamed out en masse onto the streets of Wroclaw.

The first place we went to was St. Mary Magdalene’s Church.

According to my guide book:

During the Reformation it was taken over by the Protestants and was not returned to the Catholic church until after WWII.  It’s most striking feature is a 12th-century Romanesque portal that was moved here from the Benedictine abbey.  It is considered to be Wroclaw’s most valuable relic from this era.

We didn’t manage to see the portal, though.  I imagine they wouldn’t just have that out and about for tourists to gawk at.

I was starting to get used to the majesty of the high, arched ceilings.  I had seen so many churches that they were beginning to blend together in my memory.

But this church had something else to offer:  The Witches Bridge.  The Witches Bridge connects the two tall towers of the church.

We paid the 2z, and started our climb.  And it was quite a climb – it must have been something like 200 steps.  And there were spooky landings on the way up:

But the view was worth it:

We spent a good chunk of time up there, taking snapshots, and enjoying the cool breeze.  Eventually, on shaky, tired legs, we walked back down.  Some of us poked around other parts of the church.  A bunch of us eventually went back outside and talked some more about UR-HAMLET.

And then (it was inevitable), somebody got hungry.  We left Mary Magdalene’s, and went to the market square to hunt down some food.

The group was divided on diets, so we split up.  I decided to go with the vegetarians to the same place as the day before.  The soy chops were delicious:

If you go to Poland, try the ice cream.  There are vendors everywhere, and it’s delicious.  In Poland, it’s called “lody”, and it’s b”lody” awesome.  I eventually had one almost every day that I was in Wroclaw.  Mmmmm….

Anyhow, slowly but surely, the group reassembled.

It was at this point that I got hit by a reality check:  a tiny Romanian girl (couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5) came up to us to beg for change.  Absolutely heart-breaking.  I gave her 50z, and then watched her run over to 2 older boys (brothers?) and walk away.

There were a variety of opinions on what happened.  Some felt that by giving her change, we’re just making the problem worse.  Others argued that if she didn’t go back with some change, she might get beat up by the people she was with.  Personally, I was happy to give her the 50z.  I hope things work out for her.

2:45PM

My friends back in Toronto are really into this hobby called Geocaching.  Without going into to much detail, it’s essentially GPS-based global treasure hunting.  It’s a cool idea.

Anyhow, the reason I brought it up was because there are probably some AWESOME geocaching sites here in Wroclaw.  Nooks, crannies, and history,  is strewn about everywhere.

Click here to read the Wikipedia article on Geocaching.

While we were walking, we saw what might be the world’s ugliest car:  a Fiat 1st generation Multipla.  Check this monster out:

Holy smokes.  Barf.

We kept exploring Wroclaw.  Our next stop was the University of Wroclaw.

Funny story about this last guy:  according to Tamara, legend goes that this man was playing cards, and lost everything.  Everything.  Everything except his sword.  I guess the University is showing us what can happen if you gamble…?

We kept moving.

Photo Shoot

While we were walking, we saw this killer piece of wall graffiti.  It looked like something BLU might do.

We decided to do a photo shoot in front of it.  I didn’t get any shots of the guys, but here are the ladies:

Our photoshoot over, I finally figured out where Tamara was leading us:  Cathedral Island, Wroclaw.  Not surprisingly, the “island” was festooned with tall church towers and monuments.

This statue is of John of Nepomuk, the national saint of the Czech Republic who refused to divulge to his king details of the queen’s confession.  You can read more about John of Nepomuk here.

Our main stop was at Wroclaw Cathedral.

The inside was nice, but I was more interested in the view from the towers.  It was a pretty steep climb, and even then we had to take an elevator part way.  But the view was worth it:

Oh, and here’s me:

5:17PM

The show that night was OCZYSZCZENI (CLEANSED): a Sarah Kane play directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, and it was starting at 8PM.  So, after climbing down the steps of the tower, and a short stop for a drink at a local cafe, we decided to split up for dinner before we met up at the theatre.

I’m not sure what I did – there’s a big blank spot in my journal.  I probably went back to the hostel to get my ticket for the show and had some food.

CLEANSED Directed by Warlikowski

I knew going in that this show was going to be dark:  it’s Sarah Kane, what did you expect?  It’s also 2.5 hours with no intermission, so prepare to get rocked.

And, well, I found it underwhelming.  Maybe the sadistic violence of this brutal love story blew all my circuits and I went passive – it happens.  Either way, I didn’t feel much of a reaction from myself.  To be completely honest, I wasn’t entirely certain what this show was trying to communicate to me (or if it was communicating to me), so in that regard, the experience was a bit of a failure.  There were some interesting lighting choices, however…

This is a shot of the CLEANSED curtain call.  Notice how some people are standing up, and some are sitting down?  Says a lot about this show, because this was one that a lot of people disagreed about.  The whole load of us discussed it and hashed it out while we slowly walked to the market square.

And we sat down at a restaurant, ordered some drinks, and hashed it out even more.  Some people got nightmares from it.  Some people got angry by it.  Some people found it hilarious at points.  Some people thought it was genius.  I neither liked it nor disliked it – I was indifferent.

But I liked sitting down and talking about it with everybody, hearing what they got out of it (if anything).

Here are a few shots of us discussing CLEANSED:

And then we walked back through the market square, went back to our hostel, and eventually turned in for the night.

Click here to go to Part 5:  A Taste of Total Freedom

Click here to go back to Part 4:  To Wroclaw

Here’s your Polish lesson for today – how to say “thank you”:

dziękuję – pronounced, “djienh-COO-yay”

It’s probably the word I ended up using the most over there.

Anyhow, where was I?

June 17 – 9:08AM Local

Nobody really had trouble getting up (especially poor jet-lagged Yev, who had gotten up around 4AM, and started exploring Warsaw on her own).  After breakfast, we tossed all of our stuff into the green bus, and got on our way.

The original plan was to pick up Sonia, another UCDP student who was coming a day late from Toronto due to prior commitments.  However, it turned out that her seat had been double-booked in Toronto, and that she’d have to come later.  It was a bummer, but it also meant we could start our journey to Wroclaw right away.

Wroclaw.  Look at that word.  Looks like it should be pronounced “RO-claw”, right?  Totally wrong.  It’s actually pronounced “VROT-suave”.  I never would have guessed.

It was a long bus ride – about 7 hours journey from Warsaw to Wroclaw.  We were able to stretch out on the seats, and relax.

There were about 15 of us in the huge coach bus, so we weren’t afraid to spread out a bit.  I shared some of my journal notes with Chantelle, who is also keeping a record of our journey.  I think Alex is too.  I’m really glad I took this notebook along – I think I’ll do this on all of my big trips.

11:50AM Local

Our first rest stop.  A lot of us are feeling restless and cramped – we’ve been doing a lot of sitting for the last few days.  We all pour out of the bus, and run around.

The weather was great!  Nice and sunny, but with a cool breeze.

Rural Poland looks a lot like rural Ontario.  I guess farmland is farmland.

After some supplies (I grabbed some orange Fanta, and some kind of Lindt chili pepper chocolate), we got back onto the bus, and kept going.

We get about half an hour at the rest stop, and then we get back on the bus and keep going.

1:10PM Local

We stopped again to walk around and get some lunch.

But not at a gas station.  We stopped at a very interesting, and historically important monastery that once withstood assault from the entire Swedish army.

According to Tamara, we were in Czestochowa, and the monastery was the Jasna Góra Monastery. According to Tamara, there’s a very special picture of the Virgin Mary at that monastery. She also told us that during WWII, the painting had been hidden inside a secret compartment in a large table in the monastery, to keep it from falling into the hands of the Nazi’s. It sounded very Indiana Jones.

I was intrigued.

Unfortunately, we had less than an hour to tour the grounds. I snapped as many photos as I could.

While I snapped my photos, I thought to myself: “It really can’t be easy to worship here while surrounded by the inane buzz of tourists.”

And with that thought, we left.

6:10PM

By this time, we had reached our second hostel.  We would be staying at this one for about 5 days, so we made ourselves comfortable.

It was a pretty nice place – it was called Cinnamon Hostel.  Not as good as the previous hostel, but I was totally happy with it.

We had an hour or so to settle in and freshen up.  During that time, I also read some interesting things about Wroclaw in one of the free guidebooks that was lying around.

Ever heard of Project Riese?  I’ll quote my guidebook:

It was here in 1943…Hitler ordered the undertaking of a massive, top-secret underground complex known as Project ‘Reise’ (Giant).  One of the Fuhrer’s most ambitious and maniacal schemes, the exact nature of which remains unclear, Riese remains one of World War II’s greatest mysteries, about which suspiciously little is known over sixty years since.

It sounds like Hitler started a mystery mole hill near Wroclaw, and never got it finished.  We didn’t visit it, but it was interesting to hear about.  Another Indiana Jones moment.

You can read more about Project Riese here.

7:15PM

Eventually, we left our hostel, and started to explore Wroclaw.  We were going to be in the city for a few days, so we wanted to get our bearings straight.

Squinting into the sun, we headed towards the market square.

It turns out that the market square seemed very similar to the one in Warsaw:  large open space for walking around.  Outdoor patios.  Buskers.  Pigeons.  Churches.

Oh, and gnomes.  Did I mention the gnomes?

Let me back up.

Warsaw had it’s particular symbol – the mermaid.  Well, for Wroclaw, it was all about the gnomes.

Anj took it upon herself to start a gnome count.  I think I stopped at one.

Festival Guests!  And then food.

While we were in Wroclaw, we would be seeing shows as part of the “The World as a Place of Truth Theatre Festival“, which was being put together (I believe) by the Grotowski Institute.

Somehow, word had gotten through to the people running the festival that we were coming, and that we were rabid students who were eager to devour good theatre.

So wouldn’t you know it, they gave us free tickets for pretty much everything.  We were given “festival guest” status.

Here we are, getting our free swag.  God, we were spoiled rotten.

BIG thank you to the people running the festival.  Dziękuję!

After getting our tickets, we headed to a nearby vegetarian restaurant to fuel up.  I had some kind of samosa perogi.  Not bad.

Waiting for UR-HAMLET

Our first show for the festival was happening that night – UR-HAMLET, directed by Eugenio Barba.  We killed time until the show by hanging out in the market square.  Some of us smoked.  Some of us shopped.  Some drank coffee.  I had strawberry gelato, and watched the sun set.

UR-HAMLET

And then we saw UR-HAMLET.

I’m not going to go into a big, deep analysis of the play.  I’m no theatre critic, but I know what I like.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed it:  where else could I watch an African Hamlet in tiger-stripe pants wipe out his Balinese family with the help of a Samurai sidekick?  And do it with the seriousness of an ancient ritual?  Despite the chilly weather (it was an outdoor show), I dug it.  I had never seen Balinese theatre before, nor heard the music, and this was my first taste of it.  A very interesting, intricate style.

There was also a Balinese commedia-dell’arte-like dumb show for the first 20 minutes, that had the audience roaring.  Hamlet Sr.’s ghost had more stage time than Hamlet himself, and ended up hooking up with Ophelia in heaven.  It was awesome.

There was also a moment where bodies were being loaded onto wooden skids.  Then a forklift came on stage, hoisted a skid with 5 bodies on it about 6 or 7 feet up in the air, and peeled out on to the bumpy stone walkway to take them out of the playing space.  I was sure somebody was going to fall and break a wrist.  Luckily, it didn’t happen.

Funny story:  so it’s (what I believe to be) the climax of the show, with Hamlet wiping out his family with his Samurai sidekick.  Balinese men are being stabbed.  They’re going down.  The music crescendos.  The last man falls.  The music stops.  All silent.  My stomach chose that moment to release the loudest growl in my life.  Like…monstrous growl.  I got a few dirty looks from the international audience sitting around me.  It really killed the moment.  It was awkward.

Anyhow, we hurried back to the hostel to get our jackets (it was freezing out!).  And wouldn’t you know it, but Sonia was there waiting for us!  She’d taken a later flight over, and trekked all the way to our hostel to meet us!  Our travel group was finally complete.  After a round of hugs, we headed to the “U.S. Artist Initiative mixer party” that we had been invited to earlier in the day.

It was also Alex’s birthday, so we had no excuse but to have a good time.

Much dancing was done.  It was fantastic.

And then I went back to the hostel.  I had a shower.  And then I went to bed.

Click here to go to Part 5:  Exploring Wroclaw

Click here to go back to Part 3:  Our Day in Warsaw

Did I mention I’m going to Poland?

If I didn’t, well, now you know.

On June 15th, at approximately 5:30PM EST, I will be hurling through the skies at absolutely tremendous speeds with a collection of fellow University College Drama Program folk.  We will be traveling to Poland, where we will meet other UCDP folk who are already there.  We will be there for 15 days, doing tours of Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, and Poznan, and seeing plenty of theatre – including shows that are part of the Malta Festival.

Oh, and did I mention that the UCDP is footing the bill?  That includes flights, train trips, lodging (European hostels, here I come!), and food!  Wow!  Thanks UCDP, thanks UofT.  Thanks.  What a way to cap an undergraduate career.

Oh yeah, by the by, I got word back from UofT – I’m good to graduate.  I’m scheduled to convocate on the 16th of June…unfortunately, I will be in Europe.  Single tear.

So that’s that.  I’m pretty much all packed.  I’ve got reading material, notebooks, my camera, and an exciting itinerary.  No laptop.  No cell phone.  I will be mostly out of touch.

But who knows – if I do happen to stumble across an internet café while I’m out there, I might write up a blog post recounting some adventures,  and upload some photos.

Either way, it’ll be business as usual when I come back on the 30th.

Do zobaczenia wkrótce!  (Thanks, Google Translate!)

Click here to go to Part 1: Departures and Arrivals