May 3rd. Constitution Day, Poland

On our first day in Krakow we saw this fascinating parade celebrating the second oldest constitution in the world made in 1791.
John says that the Poles also made the last cavalry charge in history! That was unfortunately against the Germans in WW2! In spite of, or because of her Constitution, for most of her history Poland has been partitioned and subject to other powers.

Poland has quite a connection with Britain. The contribution made by Polish Airmen in the war is one connection. My school friend Zoa Zsjust’s dad was killed flying for Britain. Churchill, I think, made the cruel decision at the end of the war to not give fleeing Polish officers and soldiers protection and refuge from Russians in Britain. He handed them all over to Stalin who massacred the lot. Does anyone else know this story and is it accurate?

POLAND
I did no European geography at school (or British geography either for that matter). I did history up to the ‘Causes of WW2’. As a result this trip has been hugely educative and confusing for me a fact compounded by the speed with which we appear to have crossed Europe – France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic and now Poland. 1737 Kilometres or 1083 miles in 3 weeks.

We parked at the wonderful Smok Camp just outside Krakow but accessible very quickly by bus and tram.
On our last day we walked up the hills behind Smok where we wandered in beautiful forests. After some time we became unsure of our direction home. Suddenly fearful, we heard the cries and smells of beasts through the trees. We had found the donkey enclosure at the Zoological Gardens!

On our walk we passed through a mix of new well-do-do houses on the edge of a farming area. Gardens are fenced and people keep mongrel type dogs that bark a lot. The people do not smile and aren’t apparently friendly. They appear to avoid looking at you – or as John pointed out, at each other, but it is impossible to generalise and one family greeted us on our walk – even the 4 year old child chanted ‘how are you!’ in English!

I was surprised to see that Poland is strip farmed! This is an inheritance procedure that has made peasant farmers poorer and poorer with every generation. On several occasions we saw horses used for ploughing and we saw many very ancient and battered tractors. We bought local produce in small town markets. The only meat is pork – often sold in lumps. We were offered a whole pigs liver - not a slice or two.

Polish roads are a challenge. We drove down lengthwise ruts made by lorries. Our van was just wide enough to cope. On single carriageways you are expected to drive on the hard shoulder so faster vehicles can overtake you. This is okay until you see two vehicles travelling towards you engaged in the same manoeuvre and ahead of you the hard shoulder vanishes in an underpass or is blocked by a tractor or a breakdown!

We drove through beautiful forests everywhere. At many forest turnoffs we saw attractive young women – modern naiads or sylphs lying in wait for lorry drivers. Anna told me they are usually from Ukraine, Romania or Russia. It must be a very dangerous way to work. It is a shock to see the trade in women so blatantly displayed. Some roadside billboards also display blatant sexual images of women in roadside ‘hotspots’. Rural poverty is a serious problem in Poland too.