Today has been full of fun. Yes for me of course, but really it was a fun day
for university students here in Krakow. It is Juwenalia Krakowskie –
Juwenalia translates as 'Student Days'. It is a time for students to have a lot
of fun, to party hard and drink a lot.
Today students dress up in all sorts of costumes and parade around the streets,
usually in small groups and usually having drunk at least some amount before
the afternoon. Some have drunk a lot. As they move around they sing or chant a
common song about Juwenala. I meet the first group of the day as I was walking
out of Galeria Krakowska, the large three level shopping mall beside the
station. A dozen students came noisily across the square and paused ath the
mall enterence, where the males performed what could only be described as a
Polish version of the Maori Haka. I am sure any Maori wating it would
immediately recognise it.
I kept running into other groups, singing, dancing, clapping; including some I
filmed, much to their pleasure.
In the main square a rock concert was in progress, with several hundred happy
dancing students in front of the stage. I find it interesting that in each city
I have been to so far there has been a stage up and bands preforming to varing
size crowds. In fact in Lublin, I saw one stage go up and down for one concert.
But before I had left the next road crew were in the same place errecting the
next group's staging and rigging for lights. In Lublin I spent time watching
one group doing their sound check. I think they were the second of the three
groups to appear while I was there.
Well, today's band was less rock and more dance jazz with two trombones and a
trumpet to go with a drums and a couple of guitars. I don't think my music
genre is correct, but they certainly had a beat about them which had everyone
dancing. Well some had a rope and were doing limbo moves, others had formed a
long conga line and others just danced with themselves.
For the rest of the day I kept running into various groups just enjoying
themselves. It seemed fun. I gather there are several days of events, so I may
see more activity tomorrow as well.
Next I discovered a photographic exhibition which opened today. It was
photographs by British photographer, Mark Power. This is, I discovered later,
the start of Photo Month in Krakow. This year they are concentrating on British
photography.
Any how, Mark Power had spent a number of years visiting Poland and
photographing the human landscape. There were some black and white photos which
he took in the 1980's on a Magnum assignment. But he kept coming back with a
large format camera and now exhibits around 50 very large prints. Some are
distinctive portraits with the subject in full figure and looking at the
camera. Others are buildings and landscape in states of decay. While yet others
are delightful high key winter scenes with snow everywhere. I found the show
really interesting and am very glad that I found it. Over the weekend I hope to
find some of the other photo month shows as well, although they are scattered
around the city a bit.
I talked to a woman at the show who was keen to show me three of her prints
which she had with her. Nice pictures but not in the same class as the display.
She is a retired engineer and was happy to practice her English. We exchanged
email addresses.
At last the rain which had been falling most of the day in varying intensities
had finished and I was able to make my way back to the hostel in dry
conditions.
On Facebook today". I suspect he could be correct as I have only had two and a
half sunny days since I arrived. A hostel staff member said today "Of course
it is always raining and cold in Lublin". And that was local knowledge.
Finally tonight I have got Skype going again. It hasn't worked properly since
the new hard drive was installed just before I left. Well to be fair, Skype is
ok, it is my audio that is the problem, but it made Skype useless. Today I
found some small microphones at the large Saturn electrical store in the Mall.
It took over an hour of fiddling around before I got the microphone settings
giving enough volume to be heard at the other end. Still not perfect, a bit
hollow. But having got it to that stage I do not want to fiddle and more just
in case I undo it. The result was a long video chat with Robyn in her hotel
just out of Durham UK. It was nice to catch up this way rather than just be
texting.
No comments:
Post a Comment