Lublin, Poland
Thursday, May 18, 2000
Too much has been happening and we get too tired - it's impossible to keep up a journal. We have just arrived in
Lublin - in a rock-bottom hotel near the station. The Lonely Planet makes Lublin sound pretty bad and notes the inconvenience of the station being two kilometres from town. But the area around the station is like a town in its own right. We walked around and bought fruits at the market, and had a good Polish dinner in one of the little milk bars you find everywhere here. This one was better than most we've experienced. We're gradually learning how to order the food we want. I had a very nice shaslick and the best cottage cheese pancakes I've had yet. Luckily we saw a little girl eating one and were able to ask what it was. Similarly, Yoong saw a man eating a bean and sausage soup and got him to write down the name so she could order it. So far I've managed to avoid getting tripe. We have been to many wonderful concerts in Poland, beginning in Torun, where there was a Pro Baltica Festival based (in honour of Copernicus). Musicians from several Baltic countries performed there and in
Gdansk, Warsaw and another town we didn't go to. Strangely, the same concerts that played to packed houses in Torun were poorly attended in Gdansk. We suspect some regional rivalry. The tourist office did not mention the Pro Baltica concerts when we asked what was on. We were part of an audience of six for a wonderful saxophone quartet. Other concerts in the series were a string quartet with classical guitar soloist and an organ concert (free) which we heard twice, once in Torun (using two organs - one for the baroque pieces, another for the romantic) and again in
Gdansk. It was nice to hear the same pieces in different environments, both beautiful old cathedrals. In Warsaw we heard an organ and trumpet concert in yet another cathedral and an excellent performance of three Bach cantatas in a Lutheran church. The best, however, was an orchestral concert in
Gdansk where we heard a brilliant young violinist playing a Sibelius concerto - and an amazing encore designed to show off his technical skill. The Brahms symphony after interval was very good but could only be an anti-climax after that performance.
I have not written about Cologne, Hamburg or
Berlin. It's all so long ago now. Berlin was great. We stayed at the excellent Circus Hostel and did the walk with Terry Brewer - supposed to be five hours, but it actually took nine and has been known to go on much longer. Terry is a very knowledgeable and passionate guide who was involved in the events of
Berlin over many years. We saw good museums and galleries and some of the sites from the Nazi era and the State prison from the Communist era. We also went to the opera - Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, complete with Can-Can. Hamburg also had good museums and, of course, the famous Reeperbahn, where we visited the Museum of Erotic Art. In Cologne, the main memory is of the huge Cathedral, where we attended Easter mass, an interesting experience even though it was all in German.
Raymond's Travel Page
