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Yeah, we know, we’re pretty crazy.
Anyways. Believe it or not, ski jumping is among the more popular Polish sports. This can all be attributed to one man, Adam Małysz (pronounced ma-wish), who dominated the sport for several years. He has four World Cup titles and two medals from the Salt Lake City Olympics. He is so ridiculously popular in Poland, his Polish Wikipedia page is longer than those of LeBron James, Angelina Jolie, or President Obama. Go check, we’ll wait.
Earlier this week, Adam took the silver in the individual normal hill. This evening, he added another silver in the individual large hill.
The sportscasters are great to listen to because they get so into the action. They say things like:
Piękny skok! (Beautiful jump!)
Daleko, daleko, daleko! (Farther, farther, farther!)
Ohhhhhh....BRAVO! (Self-explanatory)
(Imagine the level of passion of the "do you believe in miracles?" from the 1980 Olympics, when the US beat the Soviets. Like that, every time he jumps.)
Americans just don’t get that into ski jumping…
So the history department at UAM required Eric’s diploma from Missouri in order to certify it. Evidently an official transcript and notarized letter were insufficient.
Since we didn't bring it with us, he contacted the university in Missouri several months ago and arranged to have one sent to the university here.
Date of postmark: 7 DEC 2009
Date received: 18 FEB 2010
There was a stamp on it to help explain the delay:
Here’s a close up:
“Missent to Iran”
What?!?
Why did it make a wrong turn to Iran, of all countries, and why does someone even have a stamp that says that? Is this a common problem?
For the final day of our trip, we stopped to visit two popular Polish destinations. The first was Częstochowa to see the Black Madonna,a religious icon in the Jasna Góra monastery. It is safe to say that this is the spiritual center of Poland, with millions of pilgrims coming here every year. In August, over 100,000 people show up on the Feast of the Assumption to take part in a huge outdoor mass. Some of the attendees from Poland walk there. This is pretty serious stuff.
The painting is only shown at certain times during the day. You are allowed to take pictures, but I was too scared to. I took one photo that I think will explain why:
(The Black Madonna is the brightly lit spot behind the gated section.)
With all these people deep in prayer, I certainly did not want to be That Guy who marches up to the front and snaps a photo. I felt bad enough just looking all around the inside of the church, since it was beautiful. Honestly, there were all these bowed heads, and there’s me, looking up, sideways, and probably backwards. There was a whole wall covered with canes and crutches, which I’m assuming were left by people who were healed.
So instead of taking a photo, I just bought this postcard. The altar is pretty awesome.
The rest of the complex is pretty amazing as well. There were a few beautiful mosaics on the walls.
Even the entrance is impressive.
The tower is the tallest church tower in Poland.
Overall, it was a pretty amazing place. I can only imagine what it would be like with 100,000 people there.
Our next stop was in the manufacturing city of Łódź, which is right smack dab in the middle of Poland.
I will admit the name looks crazy for anyone who doesn’t speak Polish. Thankfully, the Łódź chamber of commerce has come up with a helpful video to teach English speakers how to pronounce it:
Or if this helps you remember:
Classical literature fans may prefer:
“Łódź you eat them in a house? Łódź you eat them with a mouse?” from Green Eggs and Ham.
OK, enough of that.
The highlight of Łódź is definitely the Manufaktura shopping center/recreation compound. This was the site of a huge textile mill that was finally closed down in the 90’s. In 2003, it was purchased by investors and is now a one-stop-shop for ways to spend your free time and money. The mall is the largest in Europe, plus there is a movie theater, bowling, rock climbing, laser tag, and who knows what else.
All of these are housed in the original brick factory buildings. They set up a small museum to show the history of the textile plant, which was kind of interesting. They had some of the old looms set up and before we left the museum guide fired up two of them for a demo.
It was hard to talk over the noise that two of those things made. The original factory had hundreds of these looms stuffed into a series of huge rooms. The racket must have been incredible.
We also headed down to the main square, which featured a cool looking church and a Kościusko monument.
That’s him shaking hands with George Washington. After his service in the American Revolution, he returned to Poland and, in 1794, led the ultimately unsuccessful Polish uprising against the partitioning powers. He is remembered as a hero in both the US and in Poland.
As the video mentions, there is a film school here. The city has also constructed a Walk of Fame. Did you notice whose star they showed? Roman Polański.
The video pretty much sums up all the highlights. I’m kind of glad we stopped on the way home so we didn’t waste a day trip on it.
Our diametrically opposing visits wrapped up a great two weeks of traveling. Lots of fun, but really tiring.
One of the best reasons to travel around Europe in the winter is the lack of other tourists.* We took advantage of this a few times on our way back from Slovakia.
*The worst reason is the roads.
During our drive, the road passed right by this castle.
I think Eric’s exact quote was, “Pull over! We need to go check that out!” It turned out to be Orava Castle.
Thankfully, they were open and it was the two of us and our own tour guide, who spoke excellent English. It was our own private tour! She said that in the summer, they have 1000-2000 visitors a day, with tours starting every 10 minutes.
Note the lack of a line.
This castle was among the coolest we’ve visited, due to its interesting combination of displays, architecture, and general awesomeness. All this, perched on a super high rock outcropping!
They had the requisite display of fearsome medieval weapons:
No castle would be complete without a torture room, complete with nifty tools, a noose, and a severed head:
The areas of the castle restored to show how the inhabitants lived showcased their impressive belongings:
The museum sections date from the 1950’s and hold exhibits about the local wildlife, traditional dress, and what life was like for the villagers. The weirdest part was the two-headed calf.
Random.
The weather that day was spectacular, so we got lots of great photos of the views from the castle.
(The building to the right is the chapel, which we didn’t get to see. But apparently they still hold weddings there. Awesome!)
As you can see, this was built right into the rock.
Back to work, peasants!
Our next stop of the day was back in Poland, the town of Żywiec. A couple years ago, both of us read the book Know It All, in which the author, A.J. Jacobs, chronicles his endeavor to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. He repeatedly mentions Żywiec, as it is the final entry and the culmination of 33,000 pages of reading. That “zyw” combo is tough to beat.
Everyone who has been to Poland, however, will recognize the name – ”Żywiec” is the most popular brand of Polish beer. So of course we went on the brewery tour.
The whole museum is in the basement of the old brewery, where they used to store the beer for lagering. The tour was in Polish, but thanks to Eric’s interest in homebrewing, we know many of the brewing-related words.
Unlike most Polish museums, the Żywiec museum encourages interactivity. Here is an actual quote from the museum brochure: “The museum in no way resembles typical high-end exhibitions with security guards and ladies keeping an eye on the rooms…You do not have to wear museum slippers.” Seriously, most museums here have these things.
The goal of the museum was to show the history of the brewery and the beer. Unlike American breweries, which only had to struggle through Prohibition, the Żywiec brewery was founded under Austrian rule, and then survived WWI, the establishment of an independent Poland, Nazi occupation, and Communist nationalization. They had a bunch of historical re-creations of pubs during several of these periods. There was even a re-creation of the aerial bombing raids in 1939. Because that’s fun.
The oddest part was one of the groups on our tour. There were about 10 kids, around 12-15 years old, along with their chaperone, this older guy who struggled to keep them in line. He totally earned that free beer at the end of the tour.
Up next: The religious center of Poland and the biggest mall in Europe (not in the same place.)
Remember how we had the little history lesson about the Hussars in our Vienna post?
If that failed to inspire you, Polish Hussars are this week’s Badass of the Week!
“Badass of the Week” is a uniquely original, thoroughly profane, and highly entertaining look at people who are completely, well, badass.
Other Poles to earn this singular honor include Mariusz Pudzianowski and Wojtek the Bear.
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London has a small statue of Wojtek. Here’s a photo Eric snapped when he visited in December:
