Na zdrowie Kraków!

Now that I think about it, when I came back from my Erasmus I never wrote about how it was to come back. Getting used to your country again, to the old routines, and even worse, to the new routines that your people got without you, getting used to that new feeling of not completely belonging, of being just a little bit incomplete. But most importantly, I never wrote about the city that was my home for ten months, I didn’t write about it nor to it.

When you come back from your Erasmus, everybody asks you how it was, if you liked the city, if you had fun… and what can you say? Where do you start? The easiest thing is to say that yes, everything was great and you had an incredible time. So they see you thinking that you are an asshole because you don’t really appreciate the chance you got. So… and what about the culture? They ask. How is living in Poland? It must be very cold… is it pretty?

So I think about the landscapes in Kraków, its small, old, and beautiful street, covered in snow or lightened by the sun shines –great anyway- and I close my eyes and think about how warm Kraków is, even in winter, warm like homy, l mean, and its fairy tale charm. I remember how proud Kraków seemed to me, because she knows she is beautiful, and she also knows that she is underestimated by everyone except when they want to invade her streets and harm her.

Kraków has Starbucks, Hard Rock Café, big hotels and all that stuff big cities have, but it doesn’t feel like a metropolis. People walk through its streets slowly, calmly. The city may be crowded with tourist but it never feels like that. There, you always have the feeling that you are not making tourism, that you just jumped to the life’s stream, to Krakow’s routine, and it is wonderful to feel that you can be a part of a new city, that you can see life as it really is there. And I think this is because the Polish spirit is so much there that you cannot forget you are in Poland; not like Barcelona, NY, Madrid or Orlando, these cities don’t belong to Spain or USA, these cities belong to the world. And capitals should nurture the national spirit, right? They should be the headquarters of a country, but reality is that capitals attract people and become cosmopolitan, become something else, taking things from all the world. That was one of the things that I loved most about Kraków: I could break up with the past, with memories, with nostalgia… and just get used to the new things I was discovering. People believe when they move to another country that it will be easier if they have their typical food, or if they can speak their language, or if they are surrounded by people from their countries. And it is not like that, all that just make you feel farther away from your things back home, reminding you of something that you cannot have. But if you submerge yourself in something totally new, completely different, you will be so busy understanding, figuring out things, that you won’t have time to miss anything. Or at least, it worked for me like this.

And in the History Museum there in Kraków I discovered some words that explains what I am trying so hard to explain:

"Poles even from the most distant lands come here, to breathe in a gulp of the national spirit, to inhale that historical atmosphere, to revive their native traditions within themselves, and to gather strength to preserve in their tough struggle. To a Pole, every stone here speaks up in a powerful voice, telling the story of his nation and its former greatness and glory. "

It is like this, Kraków is this, is Poland, from long ago and from now.

And this is the thing about Kraków: its authenticity.

Its people may want to preserve that essence in the city, that charism, that polish identity that is in every stone. Maybe that’s why they are kind of closed with foreigners, do picky with other languages and cultures. Of course, there were polish people that as amazing, so gentle and willing to help. All in or all out. When I moved to Akropol, I had no one friend in DS7, I was really looking forward to it. I used to leave the door open so I could listen to the neighbours when they came in, and maybe I could talk to them; or even going to the bathroom just because I heard voices there –yes, I was that pathetic- So I was not sad at all to leave my first house in Poland. Not sadness nor nostalgia, but I was really worried looking at all the stuff I had to move by myself. And that was when my neighbor magically appeared out of nowhere, after all that time trying to be her friend –or anyone’s friend- she came out and started talking to me. She asked me where I was from, why am I moving out and where to, if I needed help with the things. She did several trips with me carrying many things, and it was the first time we ever talked! This marked my perception of polish there on: maybe cold and closed people, but willing to help you when you need them.

So, to all that people that asked me so much about the culture, the people…

"Here everything is Poland, every stone and every little thing. Whoever enters it, becomes himself a part of Poland, part of its construction. Here we add a measure to this body -and only now, within these walls, are we Poland ourselves".

Photo gallery