I went to Poland to visit Marta, a girl I met while I worked at Heriot Watt University in Scotland. She owned a lovely little flat in Łódź, which I used as my base during my ten day stay in the country. I flew directly into Łódź, which had a surprisingly small airport. It was operated by no more than ten members of staff, who manually carried the passenger’s luggage from the plane into the terminal and placed them on tables. Marta was waiting for me outside.
It was the beginning of February, and it was one of the coldest winters on record. On the way to her flat we took the tram, which was a few degrees higher than the outside temperature, but still easily as low as -5°C. Once I got settled into her flat we went straight back out again to follow the itinerary she’d set aside for the day.
Our first port of call was Izrael Poznanski’s Palace and textile factory, which I believe is the largest 19th century complex of it’s kind and has since been turned into a shopping centre and small museum. Inside the palace the rooms we got to visit had been kept very much the same as they were when Poznanski lived there. Scenarios had been set up in each room with a manikin dressed up in the relevant clothing to help one imagine the lifestyle of this incredibly wealthy man at the time. There were another two factories similar to this one, each with it’s owners palace or mansion very close by, as was the workers terraced housing. One of which was owned by Carl Wilhelm Scheibler, who was one of the most important industrialists in Łódź.
The first night we went out to a local bar, where we met up with some of Mata’s friends. I often wandered off to speak to people I didn’t know and hope for an interesting conversation. To my surprise, a lot of the locals could speak English very well; one guy was even impressing me with different accents he could replicate better than I can, namely Aussie, English and American.
I went to a number of bars while I was there, but there’s one that sticks out above the rest for a bazaar reason. At the bar there were huge mirrors the height of the ceiling and length of the bar, but behind it was the ladies toilets. It was a one way mirror, so when the ladies were in the toilet, they could see out across the bar as if it was a window; what a strange concept. Some of the guys who knew where the cubicles were would deliberately stare into the mirror, hoping that there would be someone there at the time, the desired effect to make that person think they could be seen if one looked hard enough. Indeed there were a number of girls who refused to go to the toilet there and opted to cross the road to a nearby bar instead.
On one of my last days there I took a long walk with Marta, her flatmate Jo and her boyfriend through a nearby park and forest. The scenery was incredible, snow was everywhere and kids were being town in sleighs by horses and making huge snowmen, massive lakes were completely frozen over and long roads were empty of traffic. We stopped off at a café for a bite to eat and some hot chocolate near the end of the walk to warm up and relax, what a great day.
Other places I visited:
- Toruń
- Warsaw
