Game of two halves, for Mr. Keith Jenkin

Cracovia are the oldest active sports club in Poland. Above is the traditional hymn sang at the beginning of every home game and in my first game at Blonia Park it soon became apparent how passionate the adulation of the fans was for this historic football club.

People used to play football in Cracow since the 1890's originally at the location known as Jordan's Park, however these games were merely recreational in nature and the rules were interpreted freely.

In the first game Czarni Lwow played against Przodownicy - a team of Cracovian high school students. In another match, students from Lviv, ( now in modern day Ukraine ) faced a line up consisting of members from the public - Akademicy. This event acted as a catalyst to the growth of football in Cracow. On June 13th, after a classified advert in the ' Nowa Reforma ' had been posted to encourage people to join in, Akademicy had their first training session. This is how the legendary club in Polish football was born. In September 1906 Akademicy took a new name, Akademieki Klub Footballowy Cracovia. At the same time , Przodownicy, received an official name - white, reds - because of their two coloured shirts, which is why their nickname is the ' Pasy ', or ' stripes ' in Polish.

To the left is Jozef Kaluza, Polish footballer and later coach, one of the legends of Polish sport. As a striker in the 1920's, he was one of the very best and he spent his whole career with Cracovia, winning in 1921, the first historic Championship of Poland.

In its first international game against Hungary, Cracovia had seven players selected to play for Poland. In 1948, Cracovia completed the season by winning the league title for the fifth time after defeating Wisla , thier arch rivals, in a play off. A year later sports clubs were reorganised the Soviet way and Cracovia became Zwiazkowy Klub Sportowy Ogniwo Cracovia and in 1949 the authorities made Cracovia give up the red and white striped shirts. It was not until 1955 that it would regain its old name.

The sports reorganisation by the Soviets was not only about interfering with the clubs' traditional names. Sports clubs were placed under the the command of unions. Cracovia club was at first subordinate to the MPK, ( the Municipal Association of Public Transport ) and later to a consumer cooperative. Things began to slide and in 1954 they were relegated to the second division and then promoted again three years later. This became a bit of a pattern. From the second to the third, back again to the second and so on and therefore a promotion to division one in the 1982-83 season was considered a great success.

However, success was short lived and in the 1990's there were only three seasons when the ' Pasy ' didn't play in division three. The club was grappling with severe financial problems and in 1997 Cracovia were turned into a sporting joint-stock company but insufficient funds were still the main issue. Nevertheless, 'Pasy' were saved from imminent bankruptcy by the fans who came to their rescue. The famous demonstration in front of the Building of Voivodeship, on Braszlowa Street, took place in 2001 which resulted in a financial rescue package supplied by the ' Group of 100 '. Soon after this Cracovia attracted a sponsor - Comarch -, an I.T. specialist and at the end of the 2002-03 season they were promoted to the second division and a year later to the first. After many years the ' Pasy ' were back where they belonged.

The first season in the top division was a success and Cracovia came fifth and were very close to qualifying for the Intertoto Cup. Financial stability resulted in new transfers and the extension to the training facilities and the level of football led to call ups to the Polish National Team. Cracovia then hit the doldrums and had a long period of mediocrity until Wojciech Stawowy was once again appointed and he steered them back to division one in his first season as manager.

Warming up with a cold one

Cracovia were hailed as a sensation in the first part of the 2013-14 season. The team did so well that they narrowly missed being champions. The ' Pasy ' began the 2014-15 season under a new coach, Robert Podolinski, however his tenure was short lived and he was replaced in the April of 2015 by Jacek Zielinski and under his guidance Cracovia won seven out the last nine games. The unbeaten run continued into the 2015-16 campaign in which they finished fourth and ensured them a place in the Europa League for the first time in their history. 2016-17 saw them finish just above the relegation zone and in June 2017 Michael Probierz was appointed new head coach. 2017-18 saw them finish tenth while 2018-19 saw them reach fourth. Currently after sixteen games they are second, one point behind leaders Pogon Szczecin with Michael Probierz still at the helm. 

No talk of Cracovia would be complete without mentioning their bitter rivals Wisla Krakow. The stadiums are a mere half a mile apart and on derby day there are often vicious battles between rival fans which are well documented on YouTube. I have chosen not to document any of that here.

Now, on to my first game at the Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Stadium, 25th November, 6pm kick off. What struck me first, was the size of the stadium. Small but beautifully formed with a 15,000 capacity. Amanda had agreed to come with me for the first game to show me the ropes so to speak ( she was a steward at Lechia Gdansk for a while ) It was a bitterly cold evening and so I decided to have a cold beer instead of a steaming hot pint of tea, for the princely sum of £1.60! The stadium itself was very impressive and reminded me of a mini Highbury, the main difference being that my ticket to watch Cracovia cost me £8 and £2 for Amanda...yes they have a discriminatory pricing policy in favour of the fairer sex!

To be fair the attendance was only about 8,000 but the crowd still managed to sing a rousing rendition of the Cracovian hymn at the start of the game. This was made even more poignant by the announcement that the daughter of the famous striker, Jozef Kaluga, had died at the age of 95 and that there would be a minutes silence in her honour. It was observed immaculately.

Amanda translated some of the P.A. announcements for me, the most amusing being that the Cracovia manager Mr. Probierz had better behave  as he had acquired seven yellow cards already this season! We were sat beside an enclosure full of some hard core fans and and it was strange to hear all the familiar football songs sang in another language. I wasn't however too familiar with the one about a particular part of the male anatomy being shoved in the mouth of the w....r in the yellow, ( linesman ). Iv'e missed live football. Anyway I was left to my own devices for the second half as Amanda quite understandably went home to warm up and I managed to have a sort of conversation with the people around me and will probably see them again next time.

The Marszalek Pilsudski Stadium, named after the legendary Polish Chief of State, was finished in late 2010 and meets the criteria for EUFA Category 3. The stadium has often been recognised for its fine architectural design features, winning several awards for this.

The game itself was rather pedestrian until the last twenty minutes or so when we ( notice how I slipped effortlessly into the first person plural ) scored twice to ensure our position remained second in the league. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed my first game and am looking forward to the next match.

Whilst researching this post I came across an amazing coincidence. As many of you know I have supported Arsenal for nigh on fifty years. A tenuous link to the ' Gunners ' of course, would be the fact that they play in the same colours.  However, far more incredible than that, is the fact that Cracovia won the Polish league in 1930, 1932 and 1937, the very same years that Arsenal won the league in England! How very strange is that. Maybe I was destined to be in Cracow, cheering on the ' Pasy '.

Next up is a look at the Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz

A quick note from the author

My apologies for some inconsistencies in the formatting of some posts. I am not particularly experienced at presenting these documents and as such have been very close to hurling my laptop off the tenth floor of ' Romeo ' on numerous occasions. Amanda has learnt some new swear words and I certainly would never check my blood pressure after writing one of these posts but I am trying my best. Thanks. 

Food and drink, part 1

As many of you will know, I have been involved in some form or another with the hospitality business for most of my working life. Whether it be as a bar man, waiter, assistant manager, relief manager, sous chef, line chef, breakfast chef, head chef or private chef, I have experienced the whole gambit of this crazy profession.

For this very reason I find it fascinating and very educational, when in another country, to observe how others perform their various jobs in this industry and how important they consider the idea of service, menu design, staff courtesy and professionalism when dealing with a very demanding general public.

My experiences so far here in Krakow have been very good.The main reason for this I put down to the lack of corporate chains. Thankfully, you will not find any Harvesters, Beefeaters, Prezzo, Nandos et al, serving up their ubiquitous formulated menus, served by robotic kids who are taught to say ' enjoy ' instead of actually constructing a meaningful sentence when talking to you.

It is a very interesting fact that apart from a few very few up-market restaurants, the Poles do not seem to think it necessary to have their staff dressed up like they are going to a boxing match. No white shirts and black bow ties. I have often thought that in the UK, far too much emphasise was always given to the staff uniform, rather than to the calibre of the staff. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten have been served by staff in jeans and a shirt and indeed the restaurants, bistros, roadside eateries and vans I have frequented, have often been in the less salubrious areas of town. 

In Phnom Penh, the fried chicken on St.52 was some of the best I have ever tasted, eaten by the road, with beggars everywhere. In Kampot, the pork ribs, cooked on an open fire outside the Rusty Nail Bar are world famous and are without a doubt the most succulent I have ever tried. On a dusty road in central Kuala Lumpur, the nasi lemak was sensational and people queued for hours every morning to partake in this traditional breakfast fayre. Anyway I digress... my point being, that it is advisable to look beyond what we, as English folk, perceive to be the most important thing about eating out, and experience the different traits and customs that make eating out abroad so different.

In Krakow there are many very old restaurants that either date back to, or are housed in, very old buildings, sometimes from the 13th, 14th, or 15th centuries and these of course do have a dress code of sorts and are rather magnificent in their decor, appearance and quality of service. I have already written about Pod Aniolami in an earlier post and there are a few other restaurants that are worth a mention.

Restaurant Sasiedzi in Kazimiersz, the Jewish Quarter, is housed under a 14th century apartment house and each chamber has its own unique decoration and it also offers an all year round garden for you to use. The menu is quite simple but offers the usual Polish favourites such as dumplings, beef tartare or mountain cheese, for starters. Soups are borscht with dumplings, traditional Polish sourdough soup with white sausage and a chef's special . Mains are traditional Polish duck with apples, confit goose leg, bigos ( a sort of hunter's stew of chopped meat of various kinds, stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage ), pork knuckle, beef tenderloin, lamb chops, rabbit in cream sauce or pike/perch. Most of these dishes would be served in a traditional Polish restaurant. I have not actually eaten here but it is on the rather long list of places to go. More restaurants to follow in subsequent posts. 

Eating seems to be a national past time in Poland and for those of you with a sweet tooth you are in for a culinary delight as there are hundreds of cukiernia  ( pastry shops ) selling a vast array of desserts, pastries, bread and cakes.

Above are just a few of the numerous cukiernia and the top picture was one of the stalls in the main square at Easter time. There are even public holidays associated with food , one of the most amusing being ' tlusty czwartek ' or ' fat Thursday ', which is the last Thursday before Lent. Traditionally it is a day dedicated to eating, when people meet in their homes or cafes with their friends and relatives and eat large quantities of sweets, cakes and other meals not eaten during Lent. Among the most popular all-national dishes served on that day are paczki which are fist sized doughnuts filled with rose hip jam and faworki, French dough fingers served with powdered sugar.

Shopping for food is more of a pleasure than a pain for me. I have always loved food shopping anyway but it takes on a whole new meaning here. There are so many places to choose from we are spoilt for choice. A ten minute bus ride away is the French owned hyper-market Auchan and the scale of this place is quite amazing as are the prices and the quality of the goods.Here are a few pictures.

It is difficult to gauge the size of this hypermarket but I would say the Mall in Plymouth would probably fit inside of it. Auchan is actually only a part of the Bronowice Galleria (Mall), which I think is the one of the largest in Krakow.

Apples are enormous and as such I was worried that they wouldn't be too tasty but oh, how wrong I was. Possibly the most delicious apples I have ever tasted and I was sure I had put the wrong code into the machine to weigh them because they worked at 40p for three huge red apples! No wonder apple pie spiced with cinnamon and cloves is a staple dessert here both at home and in restaurants. Fruit is used often as an accompaniment to pork dishes as well.

Red peppers are used in many Polish dishes and as such there are always plenty on offer and the cheapest way to buy them is 'luz' or loose. Things are made a bit easier for the shopper as every item of fruit and veg is numbered so you simply put it on the scales, select from the pictures the item you are buying and the ticket will be printed which you attach to the bag. Today I bought three very large red peppers for £1.

The ubiquitous Polish sausage, ' kielbasa '. More often than not smoked and usually made from pork meat, these are everywhere and the picture to the left show only a small section of the choices on offer here. Eaten in a variety of ways, one of the most delicious is in the traditional Polish soup Zurek, which is a traditional Easter breakfast soup and in this case a spicy white sausage is used in the soup that is made from soured rye flour. There are limitless variations of this soup and some call it ' Polish Hangover Soup!! '. The healing quality of this tangy, fortifying soup comes, ostensibly, from the fermented sour rye stock known as ' zakwas '. The hearty combination of root vegetables, kielbasa, pickles, sour cream and hard boiled eggs make this soup a meal.

The fish counter had so many species of fish that I have never heard of, however I did try pike and perch, both of which were very tasty. Customers stand behind the cordoned off area whilst an extremely knowledgeable assistant talks you through the vast array of fish on offer. Wonderful.

Below are some pictures of the banks of freezers containing approximately 70-80 products, all loose and you simply take as much or as little as you want , bag it up and weigh it. From shell fish to strawberries to broccoli, pastries, whole fish, fillets of fish, pasta etc. What a great idea.

Paying in this hyper-market is always pretty simple with about 100 checkouts. All in all, as I said, it is a pleasure to shop here. I realise I have not included any information about drink on this post but I will leave it now for a subsequent story :)

Food, part ll and Drink, part 1 will follow later. Next up is a football post about my first match at the Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Stadium to watch my adopted team Cracovia FC. 

The Katyn Massacre

In the shade of Wawel castle in the centre of Krakow, is a memorial cross to the victims of the Katyn massacre of 1940.

Between April and May 1940 approximately 23,000 Polish officers were shot in the back of the head, in a forest outside the small village of Katyn, just west of the city of Smolensk, Russia. Are you wondering why you have never heard of this atrocious act of mass murder? Was there a reason that we were never taught about this at school or university? Quite possibly there were reasons to keep this 'under wraps' for as long as possible during and after the Second World War. First let us look at the details of yet another shocking and dreadful chapter in Polish history.

In 2010 Poland was traumatised by the loss of it's ruling elite in a plane crash. Ironically they were on their way to commemorate the massacre of 23,000 Polish officers, known as The Katyn Massacre. Only then did the full truth of what happened emerge and why Britain and America, chose to turn a blind eye.

Executions normally take place hurriedly but in this case the killers were in no rush.The victims were taken from their prison camp and put on a train fro two days without food or water. When they arrived at their final destination, they were bundled onto coaches with windows smeared with cement to obscure their view. After a short drive, the men were directed one by one to the rear door of the vehicle.

As each man stepped into the gloomy light of the Russian forest, he would have had no doubt as to his fate. Ahead lay an L-shaped pit with the fresh corpses of his fellow Polish officers. Before the full horror could have set in, he would have been grabbed by the arms of two strong Russian soldiers wearing the uniform of the Soviet secret service, the NKVD. If he struggled his hands would have been tied and a choke knot applied to his neck. Others had greatcoats tied over their heads; some had their mouths stuffed with sawdust. Those who still tried to break free had their skulls smashed or were repeatedly bayoneted. There could be no escape. 

The Katyn Memorial, Krakow

Many were simply led to the edge of what would imminently be their grave. Held on either side, the victims were approached from behind by an NKVD man equipped with a German Walther 7.65mm pistol. The relatively small recoil, compared to that of the heavier Russian pistols, made the task far easier on the executioner's wrist, an essential requisite for a killer with so many men to dispatch.

The shot was fired at the base of the man's skull, and if the job was done correctly, the bullet would have exited through the forehead. Death was instantaneous as one by one the Polish officers filled the mass grave.

The location was a forest outside the small town of Katyn just west of the city of Smolensk. It was here and at two other sites that Stalin's killers shot some 23,000 Polish officers, who together constituted the cream of Poland's military elite.

For years, the blame for the killers was alternately attributed to the Germans and the Russians, both of whom were all too capable of brutality on such a scale. Added to this were stories of cover-ups by the British and American political establishments, and there have been the inevitable slew of conspiracy theories. Today however, we can be broadly certain of what happened, thanks largely to the excellent historical investigations of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, headed by Janusz Kurtyka, sadly one of the victims of the 2010 air crash. In addition a book called Katyn 1940, by Polish author Eugenia Maresch also collects together much documentary evidence about how the Western powers reacted to the murders. As a result we can at last form a near-complete picture of what took place at Katyn - and its aftermath.

It is often forgotten that when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Stalin followed suit just over a fortnight later. Faced with the combined might of a twin attack, it was impossible for the Poles to hold out, and by the end of the month the country was carved up by two of the world's most brutal regimes.

As the Germans started enacting their infamous horrors against the Polish population, the Russians were embarking on a similar campaign of brutal suppression. In October, Lavrenti Beria, the head of the Soviet secret police, issued an order that officers should be separated from among the hundreds of thousands of Polish PoWs. One of the officers was Zdzislaw Peszkowski, a 21-year-old who had just graduated from the military academy. Shortly before he died Peszkowski was interviewed and he was able to recall the events of 1940 with astonishing and moving clarity.

' We were packed into cattle trucks and sent off ', he said. ' In mine there were about 70 of us, and we were in that truck for one month. One of my friends with me had been a Russian prisoner before, and he told me that if the Russians gave us herrings , I should not eat them, because if you do not drink water with them, you are in trouble because of their saltiness. '

' However some of my comrades did eat herring and it was a disaster. The men's lips were so dry that they bled as if they had been cut with knives '

The officers did receive water at the occasional stop, during which they were able to gasp in some fresh air and dispose of the bodies of those who had died. Eventually in early November, the convoy arrived at a large church in Kozielsk in northern Poland, where Peszkowski and some 4,000 other officers were quartered in a PoW camp. The prisoners sat there for months, afraid of what was going to happen, but few guessing their true fate. As Peszkowski said: ' We did not think it possible that the Russians would kill us without mercy. '

In Moscow in March 1940, the men's fate was finalised. That month, Beria sent a memorandum to Stalin, proposing that the officers should be shot in order to crush any potential insurrection.The Soviet leader agreed, and scribbled his expansive signature over the top of the paper. His approval was endorsed by three members of the Politburo, all of whom added their names under that of their leader.

The Beria memorandum

The Russian eagerness to slaughter Poland's military leadership was not simply born out of savagery. Many believed that Stalin reckoned that such ruthless tactics would permanently weaken the Poles, and make them easier people to subdue.
With the acceptance of the Beria memorandum, events moved swiftly, and at Kozielsk as well as other camps, the officers were despatched on trains.

' They started to send groups away every few days ', Zdzislaw Peszkowski recalled. ' For a while, these departures were celebrated, as we were given the idea that they were being sent off to a new kind of life in a very good place. ' This optimism was increased by the fact that the Russians would cynically inoculate the prisoners against diseases such as cholera and typhus. However, when the empty trains returned after a few days, the prisoners started to wonder where their comrades had really gone.

Peszkowski remembered how a woman who worked in a local hospital started crying when she spoke to one of the prisoners.  He asked her what the problem was, and she said: " They are lying ". The next day the woman disappeared.

Accounts of what exactly did take place at the execution sites are understandably scarce. Few of the Russian soldiers who took part ever spoke of what they had done. But Janusz Laskowski, a Pole who later lived in London, recalls, as an 11-year-old-boy, one of the Russian executioners had been billeted at his mother's house. Every evening Janusz had listened as the Soviet soldier taunted him by describing his day's work. We now know that after being transported into the forest in trucks, the Polish PoWs were discharged into a barbed wire cage, which acted as a temporary holding pen. From here they were taken in groups to the edge of the killing pits, their hands bound. In the broad , deep pit lay the bodies of their comrades. Those around the edges had been packed tightly, head to toe, like sardines in a tin, while those thrown into the middle were tossed in a disorderly pile. Russian soldiers were trampling up and down on the corpses, dragging their latest victims into position like butchers in an abattoir. The new arrivals soon joined the dead, a single bullet shot at point blank range through the back of the skulls.

A diary later found on the body of Major Adam Solski, shot at Katyn on April 8th, records the creeping horror of the victims as they realised the fate that awaited them.

' A transfer in the boxes of a black maria ( it's frightening ) ,' reads the final entry. 'We were brought somewhere into a forest like an out-of-town resort. We were searched thoroughly. They ( the Russian guards ) were interested in my wedding ring and took away the roubles that I had, and also my belt, my penknife and my watch, which showed the time to be 6.30.... '

They were the final words he would write.

Only when the last of the Polish victims had been dispatched did the executioners turn their hand to a more mundane task of shovelling soil over the bodies, smoothing over the ground and then planting conifer saplings over the site to hide their gruesome handiwork. It was a clinical operation, but awesome in the scale of its savagery. Soon there were just 250 men left at Kosielsk and a further 182 at other camps. Some 23,000 had been massacred. ' I always think, why not me? ',  said Zdzislaw Peszkowski, one of the few survivors.

One of the mass graves, Katyn,  1943

Away from Katyn, events were moving fast. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Poles and the Russians were forced to set aside hostilities to become, instead, the uneasiest of allies.

Desperate for all the support they could muster, the Russians released the remaining PoWs to join an army being hastily assembled under a Polish commander, General Anders.

' He came to us in prison to tell us we were free, Peszkowski recalled. ' We asked him: " General, where are the others? ". He said: " We are trying to find out ".

In fact, the world was not to find out what had taken place at Katyn until April 13th, 1943, when the Germans announced their unearthing of the mass grave in the forest. For the Nazis, the discovery of a war crime that had been committed by the Russians was a propaganda coup - and they soon sought to exploit as much capital from it as possible. Unsurprisingly, the revelations caused huge international tension. Two days after the German announcement of their find, General Sikorski, the prime minister of Polish government-in-exile, discussed the murders with Winston Churchill. According to the Polish record of the conversation, Churchill told Sikorski that he thought German claims that the Russians had committed the massacre were ' perhaps true. ' ' We know what the Bolsheviks are capable of and how they know how to be cruel ', said Churchill. However there was little he could do. His suspicions were outweighed by his determination to maintain the alliance with the Soviet Union and defeat Hitler. That policy was crystallised by the head of the British Military Mission in Moscow, who reported back to the War Office in August 1941 that ' We have got to keep out of the affair as much as we can, and when we do intervene we must remember that Russia can help us to beat Hitler, and not Poland. '

Katyn memorial, Zakopane

Some have since taken this missive as proof of Britain's connivance in concealing the horrors of Katyn but at the time, Polish leaders recognised that political and military pragmatism had to dictate the response of Britain and America. Others were concerned about the reliability of documents that had been found on the bodies linking the Russians to the massacre, and some suggested that they may have been forgeries planted by the Germans to frame the Red Army. This led Sir William Malkin, the senior adviser to the Foreign Office, to write: ' We are not likely ever to know the truth about this, but it should at any rate justify a suspension of judgement on our part. '

Even after Hitler's defeat, this policy was maintained by the British throughout the Cold War. For some British and most Poles, the whole episode stank of a shameful cover-up. Even some Germans suspected that the whole Kaytn affair was little more than an invention of Goebbels, the German propaganda minister. As one former German soldier wrote to The Times in February 1971: 'We German soldiers...knew very well that the Polish officers were despatched by none other than our own .'

It was not until the 1990's that the truth finally emerged , when Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev finally admitted that the NKVD was responsible. In 1992, his replacement Boris Yeltsin, sent the Poles documentary proof, including the notorious Beria memorandum signed by Stalin.

As a result of these revelations, new exhumations were carried out at the killing sites and one of those involved was Zdzislaw Peszkowski, the former officer who had so narrowly avoided death, and had become a Roman Catholic priest and the chaplain for the relatives of those massacred at Katyn. ' I wanted to make the exhumations sacred, ' Peszkowski said. 'We had Mass every day at 12 o'clock. The diggings were like opening the wound of our nation. '

I have had the privilege to visit a few of the most notorious and horrific sites in the world that show the extent of man's cruelty to his fellow man. Whilst reading about Katyn, a subject I must admit I was woefully ignorant of, I drew some parallels with the genocide exercised by Pol Pot in Cambodia from 1975-79. Similarly, it was not only the hierarchy of the military that were murdered but teachers or anyone working in a professional capacity and indeed, intellectuals in general. However, the manner in which the Katyn massacre was carried out, makes it in my opinion, an atrocity encompassing such evil aforethought, equal to any other act of mass killing in history. The film Katyn ( 2007 ) directed by Andrzej Wajda is a shocking and brilliant account of the massacre. It is very distressing but covers a subject that very few of us ever knew had happened and as such should be watched.

On a lighter note, the next post will be about my favourite topic of food and drink.

Apartment Life, Part 1

' Romeo '

To the left is is ' Romeo '. Let me explain the context of our building being named after one of Verona's favourite sons.

As you will undoubtedly have realised, if you are reading this blog, I now live in Krakow, Poland and not in Verona, Northern Italy. Adjacent to ' Romeo ' is......have you guessed......yes, indeed, it is ' Juliet '. Out of site, to the left of this picture ' Juliet ' is the twin building of the development known as Terasy Verona, Kolowa 7, 34-134, Krakow, Poland. Terasy in Polish means ' terraces ' and the wags who built these apartment blocks decided to call one of them ' Romeo ' and the other one ' Juliet ' . Hence, the address is Verona Terraces. There, the Shakespearean analogies end, although we do have a balcony, two actually, but both are substantially bigger than the famous ' Juliet ' balcony in Verona. 

Entrance from the road is through a secure locked gate with video screen visitor access linked to our apartment so we can see who wants to be let in. There is a 24 hour manned reception and two lifts service the 12 storey high apartment. The communal areas include a children's play area, a gym with table tennis table, a jacuzzi, a sauna and a 12m swimming pool. These facilities are open from 6am to midnight, Monday to Friday and 8am to midnight Saturday and Sunday. They are closed daily from 11am to 2pm weekdays for cleaning and maintenance. Yes it is a lovely place to live, the only slight downside being the noise from the main road in front of the development. However all things considered, for the rental price, it is exceptional.

November dawn

Dawns and sunsets have been pretty spectacular so far due to the unusually warm weather for this time of year and clear skies early in the morning and at dusk. We are a 40 minute walk to the Rynek Glowny ( the main square ) and most days we can see the twin Gothic towers of St. Mary's Basilica and the chapel dome and cathedral tower of Wawel Castle. To the right of our lounge balcony we can see the Tatras mountains and Kosciuszko's Mound ( remember him? ) We are 50 m from a very frequent and efficient bus service to town centre (15 mins plus 10-15 walk) and going in the opposite direction we are 15 mins from the Bronowice Shopping Mall, Ikea, garden centre etc and 35 mins direct to the airport.

New foliage screening

One of the main university campuses is 500m up the road towards town, so we are blessed with several smaller supermarkets and shops selling everything one could need. There is a doctors surgery opposite and should one run out of 6.5% beer at midnight there is a garage directly below ' Romeo ' which is open 24 hours a day.

I do have a slight fear of heights so I have put some screening up on the lounge balcony which makes a huge difference. In the Summer I am sure there will be many an evening spent out there when we have some furniture and a bit more greenery around.

Just a few minutes walk from here we stumbled across a small square which had about ten small huts selling various produce. There was a fishmonger, deli, several fruit and veg stalls, cheese and dairy  shop, butcher and a Thai street food stall! I visited the fish monger on my own the next day, armed with a sheet of paper listing various types of fish in Polish and a couple of useful phrases. The man who I assumed to be the owner served me and we had a sort of conversation which led to me buying some halibut and herring, both of which were extremely delicious. On my return the following week, he offered me a homemade fishcake which he had just cooked and a herring with a dill cream sauce as a freebie. This was rather lovely but he then insisted on trying to chat with me whilst a queue of about eight people had formed. They didn't seem too impressed about their wait and I sheepishly left aware that I was certainly the topic of the conversation. I have returned on many occasions and the owner always offers me something to try and although I could buy fish much cheaper in a nearby supermarket I will continue to support this very amiable chap. Tonight for the first time I had Perch. It was firm, not unlike Monkfish and I had it simply baked with chilli, ginger and soy ( I am still addicted to chillies )

November 18th dawn

This is my first experience of apartment living and I must admit I am enjoying it. It has its own nuances and vagaries which perhaps are more highlighted than living in a house, because of the proximity of the other occupants. On the one hand it is like living in ' splendid isolation ', with several neighbours who you never see except occasionally in the lift ( I still think that one day when the lift door opens I am going to be confronted by Hans Gruber of Nakatomi Plaza fame ) and on the other hand it is like a smorgasbord of intrigue.

I'm sure that guy lives on the 3rd floor but I keep seeing him kiss the woman goodbye when he gets out on the 9th?...... the woman with the big dog seems to be moving furniture in the middle of the night......I can hear the high heels on the landing, the door opens, the alarm is switched off, there is whispered chat, a phone call received, raucous laughter. Ten minutes later the door opens and a 'visitor' is welcomed......intrigue or my over active imagination? Either way it is all rather endearing and I am warming to it. Oh and yes, you can definitely hear the occupants of the apartment above having sex on a Sunday night!!

Good night, good night!

Parting is such sweet sorrow,

That I shall say good night till it be morrow. 

Act 11, scene 11 ( lines 188-89 )

Romeo and Juliet.

William Shakespeare

Keep an eye out for Apartment Life, Part 2, coming soon.

The Kosciuszko Mound

The Kosciuszko Mound

The city of Krakow is home to four man made hills or mounds that honour some of the country's greatest leaders. One of the more recent mounds, the Kosciuszko Mound, was specifically created to mimic its more ancient inspirations, but cuts a no less impressive image of the Krakow skyline.

Completed in 1823, the Kosciuszko Mound is a well manicured corkscrew of a hill, surrounded by a brick fortification at its base. The mound was created to honour Polish nationalist Tadeusz Kosciuszko who was renowned and beloved for his battles against foreign powers in Poland.

No other historical figure has been so unanimously respected and even worshipped in Poland as Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The impact of this storied engineer, military general, and statesman, however spans much further. You will find streets named after him in every Polish town and village, of course, from the Tatras to the Baltic. Monuments to him stand across Poland, but also in West Point, New York and Solothurn, Switzerland. Australia's highest mountain bears his name as does this distinctive mound of earth just outside of Krakow.

Why is Kosciuszko so beloved in Poland? What made his glory spread so widely? And last but not least, how do you actually pronounce his name?

Tadeusz Kosciuszko was born in February 1746 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, near Kosow ( now Kosava in present day Belarus ) . Although he came from a petty noble family he had a close affinity with the local peasant families and his respect and empathy for their hard life probably came from this period. He may also have been influenced by the ethnic and religious diversity of the commonwealth, which afforded a doctrine of religious tolerance.

While still a boy Kosciuszko became an avid reader of Cornelius Nepos' work, in particular, 'Lives of Illustrious Men ' , his favourite being Timoleon of Corinth. This fourth century Greek politician who had disinterestedly liberated his country from tyrants influenced Kosciuszko's character and later actions. For him the fatherland became the ultimate good, for which, he was prepared to sacrifice everything. 

After two years study in Warsaw, Kosciuszko went on a royal scholarship to Paris, France in 1768. There he audited lectures and frequented the libraries of the Parisian military academies, where he learned engineering and fortification construction. At the same time, Kosciuszko pursued his interest in drawing and painting and took private lessons in architecture.

Gunner on tour

On returning to Poland in 1774, Kosciuzsko had little chance of finding a post in the Polish Army, despite his burgeoning reputation, as he could not afford to buy an officer's commission. Instead he took the position of tutor to the family of a magnate Josef Sosnowski and fell in love with his daughter Ludwika. Their elopement was thwarted by the young woman's father, who found Kosciuszko an ill-suited match for his daughter. ' Turltedoves are not for common sparrows and magnates, daughters are not for petty nobility', Sosnowski reportedly said. This event has been linked with Kosciuszko's discomfort with all forms of social division. In the aftermath of this lost love, Kosciuszko decided to emigrate, but Ludwika remained the love of his life.

In June 1776, Kosciuszko arrived in America, when he decided to join the American Revolutionary War. He would spend the next eight years serving as an officer in the ranks of the American army. He made his name as a brilliant engineer and builder of fortifications. He designed the blueprints for West Point, the key American military fortress. The plan for the battle of Saratoga was his, and it became the turning point of the American Revolution. In 1784, Kosciuszko returned to Poland, but despite his experience and fame as a great general, he once again failed to get a commission in the Commonwealth's Army. In 1789, however, he finally received a royal commission as a Major General. In 1791, the 3rd May Constitution was signed, which attempted to reform the country in the republican spirit of democracy. The next year, Kosciuszko, led the royal army to war in defence of the Constitution, but had to emigrate to France in the aftermath of losing the war. French revolutionaries subsequently made him an honorary citizen of France.

Part of the lower fortification

In March 1794, Kosciuszko returned to Poland. He announced a rebellion on 24th March in Krakow. This would become the first in a long line of Polish national uprisings against the occupying powers of Austro - Hungary, Russia and Prussia, from 1772. In the midst of the insurrection, Kosciuszko issued the so called Uniwersal Polaniek ( Manifesto of Polaniek ) , which attempted to eliminate serfdom and promised that peasants would own the land they cultivated. Peasants did join the national cause, enrolling in Kosciuszko's army. Kosciuszko also made sure that other social and ethnic groups joined the insurrection. For Jews, another disenfranchised group of Polish society, Kosciuszko was a ' messenger from God '. The cavalry unit formed by Berek Joselewitz during the insurgence is often considered the first exclusively Jewish unit since ancient times.

' Poland is finished! '. This one of the most famous quotations attributed to Kosciuszko, is most likely false and contrived instead by Prussian propaganda. Kosciuszko was supposed to have muttered the words - strangely, in Latin - in the final stages of the Battle of Maciejovice. He was taken captive and the uprising eventually lost it's momentum. Even though Kosciuszko denied having said the phrase, it became part of his legend. A year later, in 1795, the Third Partition erased Poland from the map of Europe.

The corkscrew path up to the top of the mound 

In August 1797, Kosciuszko, now in exile after having been released from the Tsar's prison arrived in the United States once again. Here, he authored a document that some historians suggest may have changed the course of American history. Kosciuszko's last will and testament stipulated that the proceeds of his American estate - granted to him by Congress for his eight year engagement in the Revolutionary War - be spent on freeing and educating African American slaves. This included those of his friend Thomas Jefferson, who was named as the will's executor.

Throughout his life, Kosciuszko stood up for the rights of many social and ethnic groups. He became friends with Agrippa Hull, for example, a black man who served as aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War. Kosciuszko's regard for Hull was regarded as very unusual at the time but it furthers the belief that he had a liberal and tolerant empathy with a wide cross section of society.

In 1798 Kosciuszko returned to Europe. Led on by false promises of the French government, Kosciuszko believed that Poland had finally found an ally. He met with Napoleon twice in 1799, but the two failed to reach an agreement, Kosciuszko disliked Napoleon for his dictatorial aspirations and called him the ' Undertaker of the French Republic '. Eventually Napoleon's rise to power dashed Kosciuszko's hopes of a unified and free Poland and he began to distance himself from politics.

He died in Solothurn, Switzerland, on the 15th October 1817 at the age of 71. His embalmed body was deposited in a crypt at Solothurn church only to be transferred to Krakow the following year. Eventually it was placed in a crypt in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral, among a pantheon of Polish kings and national heroes. Shortly before his death, Kosciuszko wrote up his last will and testament related to his Polish estate. In it, he stated that the serfs of the village of Siechnowicze were to be freed after his death - a wish that never came to fruition as it was disallowed byTsar Alexander.

On the top and suffering a wee bit of vertigo

To Poles, Kosciuszko soon became a saint-like figure. Portraits of him adorned the drawing-rooms in many polish houses and businesses. For several decades in Partitioned Poland, children were named Tadeusz, a manifestation of the patriotism of their parents. The name even made it to America, where Thaddeus Stevens, the most radical American abolitionist politician, was named after Kosciuszko, as a hero of the American revolutionary War.

Kosciuszko also appears in Jules Verne's novel ' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ' ( 1869-70 ). His portrait hangs in the cabinet of Captain Nero on board the Nautilius, among others of historical figures who sacrificed their lives to a humanitarian cause.

In the decades that followed his death, physical monuments were also erected to honour Kosciuszko in places ranging from America to Australia.  One of the more astonishing representations was built here in Krakow, within a few years of his death.

In the tradition of the Mound of Krakus and others in the area, in 1822, the people began to build a memorial hill. Funding was provided by Polish residents from all over the country and other outlying Polish settlements and people came from all over, bringing soil from their towns and villages to add to the mound.. Unlike the older mounds that had been built centuries earlier, which were simply rounded hill forms, this new mound was created with a distinct path winding up to the peak where a commemorative boulder had been placed.. Decades after its completion, a brick fort was built around the base while the elevated peak was used as a strategic military position.

The path to the top

We came here rather fittingly on Polish Independence Day, 11th November and I must say once I had read a bit about this monument I became obsessed with this wonderful story of a great Polish patriot. Part of the joy of being here is exactly this sort of outing. I must admit I did not think when it was explained to me that we were going to see a 'mound' that it would unveil such a fascinating story. A word of advice if you are to visit the Kosciuszko Mound...wear comfortable shoes....walk up from the very bottom...it is a great walk through a wood and afterwards try the tradition zurek soup in the cafe, it was delicious.

Now, finally, if you have problems pronouncing or spelling Kosciuszko's name, don't worry. President George Washington did too - he reportedly wrote Kosciuszko's name eleven different ways. As for the pronunciation, anything close to 'Kos-CHOOS -ko ' is fine. You can also take the easy rout e- like Me - She - Kin - No - Quak , Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Indians, who visited Kosciuszko in Philadelphia. He later told his tribe that ha had made friends with a righteous white, who he called ' Kotcscho '.
Anyway, whether it is ' Kotcscho ' or ' Ko - CHOO - ko  is not really important. What is important however,  are the achievements and humanity shown by this great and humble Polish national hero.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko