Polish Christmas Season

It's official, Christmas season 2010 is shaping up to be one of the most memorable in my life!

The first week of December winter truly arrived in Poland. Unfortunately, I can't brag about having more than 17 inches of snow, but I can say that it's been cold! The average temperature has been about -10°C (or about 14°F). I thought that being a true Minnesotan the cold wouldn't bother me, however these past few weeks have been quite a learning experience! Never before have I had to be out in the cold so much. I've come to realize that having the ability to drive everywhere in freezing temperatures makes the weather not a huge factor in one's life, but having to walk everywhere in the cold makes the weather quite important! So I'm learning how to wear layer upon layer of clothing, how to walk fast while outside and I guess I'll come back a more experienced Minnesotan!

I started my Christmas festivities in Warsaw, the first weekend of December. I had an incredible time in Warsaw, my first time actually spending time in the city and not just passing through. Warsaw is the capital of Poland and is located about 3 hours north of Kielce. It's the biggest city in Poland and I find it has quite a different vibe than many other Polish cities. Warsaw was completely destroyed during WWII and since then everthing has been rebuilt. While great care was taken to rebuild the rynek and old city as historically accurate as possible, the rest of the city was very influenced by communist era architecture and thus there are blocks of high density apartment buildings and much of the city is very gray. It's completely different from the beautiful Kraków or personable Kielce.

Despite the relative ugliness of the city, it hums with energy and my weekend there was full of wonderful activity! I made sushi, visited the old town, explored the Christmas market in the rynek, sipped hot chocolate across the street from the Presidental Palace, made and sold Christmas cookies for a church fundraiser, went ice skating and had a private tour of the Polish T.V. station Fakty TVN. With the fresh snow and all the Christmas decorations, it really made the start of my Polish Christmas season special!



I arrived home to Kielce to find a bag of candy that had been delivered by Święty Mikołaj (Polish Santa Claus). In Poland, children are lucky enough to be visited by Święty Mikołaj on December 6th as well as Christmas Eve!

Tuesday and Wednesday passed quickly and on Thursday, December 9th I departed again, this time I headed west to the Polish city of Wrocław for the Rotary Christmas meeting. Wrocław is about 6 hours west of Kielce, close to the Polish border with Germany. In fact, Wrocław has only been part of Poland since the end of WWII and the re-drawing of Poland's borders, its previous German name was Breslau. Though fully Polish now, Wrocław still has a very German feel. It is a very old and beautiful city with a large population of university students.



Again, my weekend here was busy. As a large group all the exchangers in Poland did some sightseeing in Wrocław, seeing the Racławicka Panorama, the Cathedral and the rynek. The Racławicka Panorama is a huge circular panorama painting depicting one of the battles during Poland's Kościuszko Uprising. It is extremely realistic and when standing in the middle of the panorama I almost felt like I was present at the battle.



We also attended the annual Christmas meeting for the Wrocław Rotary Club. There were carols, blessings by various religious leaders and the sharing of oplatek, a thin wafer traditional at Polish Christmas events. I got to meet Cardinal Henryk Cardinal Gulbinowicz and was gifted with his 60th jubilation coin.

This is a link to a video about the event - if you're interested!

http://wroclaw.gazeta.pl/wroclaw/10,88292,8802214,Wigilia_Wielu_Narodow_w_Starej_Gieldzie.html

During the weekend I also was able to visit Zamek Książ, one of the largest and most beautiful castles in Poland. We took a tour, but that barely scratched the surface of the huge castle! One of the most interesting places we visited were secret tunnels built during WWII. Part of Project Riese, a secret Nazi program, these tunnels underneath the Sudeten mountains were built by concentration camp prisoners. Abandoned right before the wars end, the purpose of the tunnels is unknown and the tunnels are one of the greatest secrets of WWII.



It was another wonderful weekend, full of great sights and people. It was amazing to see all the other exchange students again, to celebrate Christmas with them and to reflect upon on how much we've done since our last meeting in September. I have now been in Poland for 4 months, something I can't believe. Time is going so fast and I'm trying to savor each day, especially during this Christmas Season. I only have one Christmas here in Poland and I plan on experiencing it to the fullest!