Torun: a lesson for Lodz

This past weekend most of the IAESTE crowd headed to Gdansk, but having been there four weeks ago, Erin and I decided to take a day trip to Torun. The city has been named a UNESCO heritage site in 1997 and is known for its Gothic architecture as well as being the birth place of Nicholas Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) and the fantastic gingerbread treats. Having escaped much of the WWII destruction, most of the old city is actually really well preserved.

We left early in the morning and arrived just before noon. After getting some pointers at the tourist info and finding Erin a place to sleep for the night (she was heading to Malbork the next day, all by herself a very bold and brave move) we headed into town.

Some of the beautiful 'kamienice'.

The beauty of the buildings was often times enhanced by the decorative flower arrangements, which make the whole thing look simply charming.

More of the colorful 'kamienice'.

The rumors that Torun is quite a charming little city were more than just true. I would have to say that to me, Torun is the city of colours. The old buildings were many times simply stunning, and the camera could barely capture the vibrancy of the place.

The most famous building in the old square "Under the Star" (Kamienica pod Gwiazda). I was nearly hypnotized by the decorative facade. Simply gorgeous!

The gingerbread-like people cut out in the side of the building.

View of the old town hall tower as well as the statue of Copernicus.

Erin and me under the statue of Copernicus in the main square. It took a couple of tries, but we managed to find someone to take a nice picture of us.

Erin taking a shot of the frog fountain.

A close up of the frogs on the fountain.

For lunch we stopped at a traditional Polish "Milk Bar" (Bar Mleczny). Basically what it is, is a place that serves traditional Polish food that's REALLY good and REALLY cheap. It mainly services students and inside looks like an average cafeteria, but smaller. Erin and I got some pancakes with blueberries (BOROWKI) and whipped cream.... Soooo goood...

As I have mentioned many times, this summer Poland has been experiencing an extreme heat wave. As a result, the water level of many of the rivers has been dropping like crazy. This is a shot of Wisla (Vistula) from the tower. The river is at least 200 m wide, yet in one of the parts the water looked to shallow that you could almost walk from one shore to the other. You can see the extended beach as a result of the droughts.

Wisla and St. John's Cathedral; view from the tower. Copernicus was baptized here and JPII visited the cathedral in 1999 during his pilgrimage to Poland.

View of St Mary's Church from the top of the Old Town Hall tower. Inside there are some impressive frescos from the early 14th century (see pictures below), on the outside the one part of it looks like a giant barn.

More shots of the city, this time from the top of the tower. Kind of looks like Gdansk from this angle, doesn't it?

Close up of my favourite kamienica.

The amazing frescos in St. Mary's Church. They are very well preserved and still quite colourful.

A really weird fresco in St. John's Cathedral. It's supposed to be a monk battling with some dark evil spirit, or the devil or something like that. I still fail to see where this so-called devil is supposed to be...

The house where Copernicus was born.

I really like this photo, so though it's a bit random, I decided to throw it in. This was right beside the Copernicus museum; a dog was hanging out on the balcony among the flowers. This in itself was a bit comical, but what put it over the top, was a little black dog that was running down the street trying to keep up with its owner. The two spotted one another and paused for a quick greeting. Not sure if you can see it, but the bigger dog was beaming with joy. I just finished taking a picture of the house so I had just enough time to capture the moment. Hehehe, sooo cute.

I never saw the leaning tower of Pizza when I was in Italy, but as it turns out I had a chance to see A leaning tower. This used to serve as a defense post that was build in the 14th century. Due to the shifting of the foundations, the tower leans 1.4 meters from its old vertical position.

After all the sight seeing, I hopped on the bus and headed to the station to catch my train (I had plans to visit some family on Sunday and thus needed to head back to Lodz), while Erin headed back to the hotel for a quick rest. I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive leaving Erin by herself, but despite traveling alone by both bus and train the next day, in a country where not so many speak English, Erin made it home on Sunday night without a hitch.

On Sunday, I went to Czestochowa for the day to say bye to my family. It was a bit sad, since I know that I won't see them for at least 2 years, but hopefully they will make it down to Toronto for the wedding.

This weekend IAESTE is planning a trip to Warszawa for us, so we are taking Friday off and heading to the capitol. Should be lots of fun so stay tuned!

Chinese in Poland?

This is a bit of a random post, but I thought that I would share it nonetheless.

I mentioned before the fact that I've been missing the fact that in a city like Toronto you can get any type of food you might desire. Here in Lodz, not so much. They do however have a Chinese restaurant and since Erin and I were craving some Asian food pretty much since we've set foot in this city, we decided to give it a try.

Normally back home when order Chinese the portions are huge. You can then order a few different things and share each one with the others. The decor in the restaurant seemed authentic so for some reason I assumed that the portion sizes would be as well. As you might be guessing by now, this was not the case.

Liz, Erin and I not very impressed with the portions. "I'm still hungry!" - Liz

I was also very hungry after round #1. But the little bowls are quite cute...

I guess we should have expected it, each portion was only 6 zl ($2). Though small, 3 out of the 5 things we got were quite tasty (and spicy!) and after a few more orders we were quite satisfied.

Though the decor was trying to be authentic, there is just something wrong with having a Rod Steward concert play on the restaurant TVs. Wait, since when do restaurants have TVs? And white Polish men dressed in Chinese traditional clothing serving drinks behind the bar? Oh well, if anything it was a curious site to experience.

So there you go, my experience of Chinese food in Poland. Ten years ago you'd be hard pressed to find any Asian food in Poland, and now there's a Wook just around the corner. Globalization is an interesting thing...

Happy Birthday Oli!

Last Monday, Oliver turned 25. Naturally, we decided to go out and celebrate accordingly. The evening began with some fantastic traditional Polish food at an excellent restaurant; Karczma pod Chocholem. Not only was this place air conditioned (a luxury considering the weather conditions over the past month) but it serves some delicious food. It's the closest thing to a meal made by my mom that I've ever eaten. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure:

All of us right after the food arrived (note the big smiles). We ordered two Polish platters which had everything on it starting from meat prepared in every possible Polish way and ending on pierogi as well as a whole assortment of salads (sukowki). Absolutely delicious!

"Nunat, are you going to eat all of that food?" - Monika
"Maayybeee..." - Nunat

Oli raising a toast to good friends, great food and fantastic beer. Apparently in the German tradition when it's your birthday you treat everyone to dinner. This is very backwards to how we do things back in Canada but despite of trying to impose our traditions on Oliver, he ended up getting his way. Thanks for the treat Oli!

Bert and Nunat joining in the toast! Prost!

After dinner we went back to the Dom for some birthday 'cake' and then headed out to play some pool and foozeball. On the way to the pub, we walked through my favourite park in Lodz (the one where I was bird watching a few weeks back). This park is a home to a pretty cool tree which, due to its coolness, is all lit us at night. We climbed the tree and lingered for a while enjoying some cold beverages. I was a bit obsessed with this tree (I really liked the lighting, though I don't know enough about photography to take full advantage of it, some day though) and I took a bunch of pictures.

Just chilling on the tree.

Everyone say 'cheese'!

Monika at work

As was pointed out to me, my week in Lodz post did not include anything about my place of employment. Hence, I decided to devote a whole post to my work. I apologize in advance, since I do not consider this to be all that interesting, but some people are VERY curious about the conditions I work in.

I hope this little photo journey through my lab will suffice. Enjoy!

A look into my lab from the doorway. On the main floor in the back you can see the lab while the stairs lead to the "loft-like" accommodations upstairs where we have the office.

After walking through the door, on your left there is our storage and glassware area. Notice the emptiness... Also, all of our chemicals (except for the ones that might polymerize, those are stored in the fridge) are stored in these wooden cupboards. That's right, all the flammable, poisonous and sensitizing materials are kept here. This is in violation of soooo many Canadian health and safety practices it's not even funny.

A close up of one of the bottles. Not sure if you can read it, but the label clearly reads BENZENE (in Polish). You can see the flammable and poisonous labels right on the bottle. Notice also the spotless conditions in which we store everything (top right corner).

Ah yes, the non-electronic scale from the year 1978. Its operation is quite time consuming and it's very unreliable, but we cannot afford a new one so alas we made due with what we have.

This is our lab. You can see the 30 kg liquid nitrogen tank sitting on the ground. We pack this thing into the back seat of a FIAT which belongs to one of the PhD's in our lab, secure it in place with the other front seat and drive across town to get it filled. Then we put it back in the back seat (note that I'm in the back seat as well and FIATs are small) while this thing is evaporating away. Combined with Polish roads and Polish drivers, it always makes for quite an interesting experience.

This is my experimental set up. The little box thing is an oven which runs at 650C and the coil on the far right side is around 120 to 145C. Add into the mix a pump that gets quite hot and a non-air conditioned building and you get an idea of my work conditions. Luckily no one minds if I wear a tank top and shorts :)

A close up of the chamber where I coat samples and also the cold trap. You can see the liquid N2 bubbling away.

Having taken care of the downstairs, let's see the office area shall we.

This is the view from the stairs down into the lab. Exciting, isn't it?

This is what you see once you reach the top of the stairs. No one sits in this area right now, but it's all equiped with desks and Internet hookup. You can see our lab fish on the left. One of the postdocs left to Japan and donated them to the lab. Two have already died because of the heat; we came back once after the weekend and the water temperature was 36C...I guess they were not THAT tropical of fish.

When you turn around and walk the other way, you get to our sitting area. My desk is one with the giant computer screen on it.

And finally, a view of my desk, all the stuff that's on it, and the view that I get to admire while working there. Lucky for me, I don't have to work on the computer that much and if I want to use the Internet or do some more serious writing work, I go to the computer lab down the hall. As you can see the set up in not very ergonomically friendly (Katie you'd love this set up :) ) As some of you have noticed there is toilet paper on my desk. Reason? Well, here in Poland at the university there is no toilet paper in the bathrooms (very normal) so each must supply their own.

So there you have it. I hope that you all enjoyed the tour and that your curiosities have been satisfied.

Weekend in Lodz

As I mentioned before, this past weekend was supposed to be all about Lodz. And sure enough it was. We kicked off Friday night with a sushi dinner. I have been longing for the food variety that's available in Toronto and that I've gotten so used to.


sushi! You can see the little boats with plates of sushi floating by. Though not the best I've ever had, it was just the kind of comfort thing we were looking for (some of us anyway).

After sushi we headed over to the theatre (yey air conditioning!) to watch Pirates of the Caribbean II. The movies in Poland are played in English with Polish sub-titles, so there was no language barrier. After the movie we called up some people and headed over to.... a gas station?

Ah yes, drinking in public places, though technically against the law (it's a 200 zl fine apparently), is a pretty much accepted thing in Poland. And since you can buy alcohol pretty much everywhere, including the gas station, for cheaper than at the pubs, people purchase their beverage and loiter around the nearest park or doggy parking lot. Why go any further, you might need another beer in 20 minutes. It just so happened that right next to this station there was a little park with a perfect little brick wall to sit on. So when in Rome do like the Romans, right? We bought a few beers and hung out for a while, until the police came by to break up the party and we decided to call it a night.

SATURDAY
Saturday we decided that it was time to cool off. So we managed to find a fairly clean outdoor pool (not an easy thing to do in Poland I hear) at a near-by hotel. The water was great and refreshing and we had an amazing time just relaxing in the sun.


The boys and Erin trying to catch some sun. Some need it more than others :)


The boys had a race, and as Vlatko is indicating in the photo, Pawel won.

After the pool we headed back to the dom to get ready for the evening festivities. The plan was to go to a foam party at a gay club in Lodz. Having never been to a gay club nor a foam party, naturally I was curious. Now, if you know anything about Poland, you might suspect that the gay scene is very underground. And sure enough, we were led down into a very doggy and dark looking part of the city by some of the locals, to a club in a random old-looking factory.

The boys were a bit scared at first and some suddenly got an intense urge to learn a bit of Polish:

"Monika, how do you say 'I'm not gay' in Polish?" - Javi
"Nie jestem gaj." - Me
"Nie jestem gaj. Nie jestem gaj. Nie jestem gaj. Ok, thanks." - Javi

Despite their initial reservations they loosened up and got into the party once the foam started.

Overall I have to say that the foam party was one of the most odd, fun and yet disgusting things that I've ever participated in. At the end of the night all I wanted to do was to get clean. You just never know what's lurking out there in the foam...

SUNDAY
The next day, we slept. Despite the dance music blaring out of room 304 and the church bells, we slept till noon. In the afternoon we visited the Lodz's old Jewish ghetto as well as the Jewish cemetery. Here are some shots:


A church of Our Lady of Assumption on the grounds of the ghetto; like many places of worship, during the war it was turned into a storage area during WWII.


Walking up to the gates of the cemetery.


Many people that were important in the development of the city are buried in here. The largest grave (which looks more like a small chapel) belongs to the Poznanski family who were rich factory owners.

After all the sightseeing, we just chilled in the evening (but only till 10:00 p.m.) and got ready for another week of work. Next weekend most people are heading to Gdansk, while Erin and I are planning a day trip to Torun, the birthplace of Kopernik (Copernicus). More pictures and crazy adventures are sure to follow, so stay tuned!

The randomness and reality of my everyday life in Lodz

This past week I decided to document, through a photo journal if you will, my life here in Lodz during the regular work-week. There are a lot of amazing things and places that I have been fortunate to see in my life already, and I will admit that Lodz does not make this rather exclusive list. Despite not being the most beautiful city that I've been to, it gets bonus points for the fact that I'm here with IAESTE.

The IAESTE experience, has at times been frustrating and disgusting, but for the most part something that I will always be glad I was a part of. Despite the little annoyances and our usual dose of complaining ("Why is it so freaking hot outside?") I'm sure that I will miss the little quirks of Lodz when it all when it's over. So without further delay, let me take you through some of my experiences.

DOM STUDENCKI IX

As I mentioned before this is our residence. This is the place where nearly all of the trainees stay during their work term. Isn't it beautiful?

Our place of residence. We bring out tables and eat dinner outside and chill in the early evening on the stairs.

Erin and I live on the first floor, which in Poland is actually the second floor. In the picture our windows are being blocked by the little roof above the stairs.

Like any residence, this one come with its own set of quirks:

1. Dozens of stray cats, little ones like this one, and big ones as well. There are literally DOZENS of them running around the yard and since they all look very much alike, it's hard to say just how many there really are. Now, you might be wondering, "How do these cats survive?" Ah, that brings us to quirk #2.

2. The crazy cat lady and her SUPER fat dog Misia (and I though Kicia was fat...). In fact, she's not crazy at all, she's quite a nice lady. She does however feed the cats each evening (picture to follow): she gives them food, water and milk (Polish style). I'm pretty sure she names each of them as well, but don't quote me on that.

Misia and the "cat lady" walking past The French.

Now, what's the harm in an older lady looking after some neighbourhood cats, you ask? Well the problem is that she leaves food everywhere, and you know who likes food? La cucaracha!! Roaches!! Ah yes, every evening Erin, me and a number of other girls get super creeped out as tens of these little suckers come out onto the grass near the bowls of cat food. Sometimes they congregate together into what Erin has deemed as "The roach orgy". A sample of the disgusting infestation can be seen below.

Apparently they like beer... This little sucker is enjoying some Tyskie.

We have also spotted these in the basement on our way to the laundry room (Virginie warned me about seeing "little things" in the basement on my first day) so needless to say we venture down there only when absolutely necessary.

3. As you can imagine with almost 100 trainees in Lodz, we try to find some way to pass the time. Since beer is VERY cheap at the store (~2.50 zl/ bottle = less than $1 CD) we usually buy a cold beverage, bring out some tables in front of the building eat dinner and generally chill.

Javier trying to crack open a coconut, in the background people chilling.

This chilling often lasts into the late or rather early hours of the morning. 100 people are tend to make a bit of noise, that's unavoidable. It does however, irritate our neighbours; on the South side of Dom IX our neighbours are the priests of an Anglican Church, who many times have voiced their displeasure with our noise making. It got to the point that this past Friday I came back from work and was greeted by the following notice on the front door:

This brings me to quirky thing #4 - Engrish. Honestly, attention foreigners? His magnificence? Erin and I had a good laugh at that. I think that Chris' response was the best though; "Don't they have a dictionary over there or something? Who writes these things?" Yes, you would think that someone would proof-read the text, but alas you walk over to the list of all the trainees' names and their country of origin (which is posted on the board in the Dom) and you quickly realize that this is not the case:

I sure can't wait to visit Chiny Land!

Just an FYI: After meeting with "his magnificence" and informing him that we're not planning on moving, and if forced many people threatened to leave home early, we were given another chance: no one is to be loud outside after 10:00 p.m. or else.... Hence, this brings the end to evening chilling at Dom IX.

SIGHTS OF LODZ

I try to take my camera where ever I go, so as to never miss anything exciting. Here is a display of some random photos from this week:

Some shots of the pride-and-joy of Lodz known as Manufaktura. It's basically a bunch of old factories that have been renovated and turned into a big mall. The red brick is really nice, and in general the structure reminds me of the distillery district in Toronto. Liz and I went shopping for some bathing suits and jeans last week after work.


The complex features Europe's (or was it the world's?) longest water fountain. On the hot days (which in this case are all of them) kids have a blast splashing around in the water.

Another shot of the gorgeous red brick in the setting sun. You can see the main gate of the complex in the background.

On my way to work I pass through a small park. One morning I noticed a pigeon flying back and forth between a tree and a pile of sticks. He would land, pick up a stick, fly away and return a minute or so later. Being a bit obsessed with bird watching, I decided to pause for a while and observe. I couldn't get a shot of him in action, but after he was done, he started doing some odd yoga-like moves on the ground. Too bad my zoom is not better...

There is a small park really close to our Dom (there are a lot of parks in Lodz) and I took this shot one night during our walk. We live right next to that first church that you see in the picture. A little further down the street you can see the cathedral. The white building is an old factory which houses the city's textile museum.

One of the nicer buildings on Piotrkowska. On the city website they claim that Lodz is the city of colours... "What colour is that, grey?" - Erin

An old palace of one of the prominent factory owners in Lodz. Now, the office of "his magnificence".

POLISH MEN AND THE FASHION FAUX PAS

I don't know why, but here in Poland 95% of the time when a man wears sandals, he will wear socks. It may be 50C outside and he may not be wearing a shirt, but he will wear socks. And it's not just older men, teenagers, little children; all of them socks and sandals... I just don't understand it. Being the kind of person who wears her Birks until mid-October I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to wear socks when it's so hot outside.

I was very determined to get proof of this phenomenon, but how do you discretely take a picture of a strange man's feet? I got an opportunity yesterday while on the tram, and voila! Just to prove that I'm not making it up!

So there you go, a week in Lodz. Stay tuned for the pictures and stories from the weekend!