Słowiński National Park

After a 2-hour drive from Sopot to Zwartowo and dropping our luggage at the hotel, the group headed out again for the sand dunes at Słowiński National Park, Łeba. The national park is well-known for its moving sand dunes. The sand dunes have been moving towards the forest and are slowly destroying it.

With the sun out, the group took out their cameras.

The Dunes

Over the weekend, May 29 and 30, the group went to Słowinski National Park in Łeba (Słowiński Park Narodowy) The group trekked through the "moving dunes" on the edge of the Baltic sea. The constant wind moves the dunes 10 to 30 feet each year. After wandering through the dunes with pants rolled up and shoes in hand, we walked back towards the car along the beach.

We headed back to the hotel where there was a bonfire waiting for us. The students from the photography school in Sopot also joined us on the weekend trip.

Zusia

The bit of free time in the mountains provided a unique opportunity to spend some time with the grandchildren of the couple providing us housing.

Zusia is six and currently attends a full day 0-class, similar to the American kindergarten.  Full of curiosity and enough words to fill a library, Zusia invited me to see her life the first night we arrived.  She lives with her mother, father and brother, Antek in a small apartment within the house were were staying.  Ushering me into their space she showed me the bedroom where she sleeps a couple feet from her parents and brother.  Noticing my camera, she showed off a pink toy camera from her drawer of toys, the whole time bombarding me with questions and comments in Polish.  Her mother entered soon after, and attempted to explain to her that I only spoke English as I tried to politely excuse myself from their space.   

The next day, Zusia invited me to go on a walk with her. For a solid hour, I got a tour of her playground, the forests and hills up the street from her house.

Despite her knowledge of the language gap between us and my blank stares and shrugs, she rambled on and on in Polish, telling me where to take pictures and dragging me to where I needed to be when I didn't understand.  Throwing rocks into the stream and making daisy chains, her curiosity, determination, mischievousness and sense of adventure shone through the communication barrier.

The Obstacle Course

On our first full day in Kroscienko nad Dunajcem, a town nestled in the mountains of Poland, the group stumbled upon an outdoor amusement park, ABlandia. The obstacle course positioned high in the trees caught the groups attention from across the street. Wooden bridges and zip lines were calling our names. Upon further investigation, one could take the blue-line obstacle course, which would take about 45 mins. If, however, you are feeling adventurous, you could attempt the red-line which is more difficult and take about one and a half hours. Pawel and Pantelis decided to dare the red-line. ABlandia also has swimming balls, or huge, inflatable plastic balls that float on water. The rest of the group couldn't resist getting in while waiting for Pawel and Pantelis to finish.

Greg Pierzga is pictured helping Karuna get into one of the swimming balls. He has been the manager at ABlandia for two years. Pierzga previously worked as a photographer at a Kraków newspaper.

Highland Shepherds

The Górale people, commonly translated into Highlander, are known for their artisan crafts which include leatherwork, moonshine production and a variety of sheep cheeses. This flock of approximately 400 sheep graze in the hills above the village of Grywałd in southern Poland.


The sheep are milked three times a day and in the spring produce about 70 liters a day. As the summer progresses the amount becomes lower.

 The sheep are brought into the corral for the evening milking.

The family make three different types of cheese from the milk. The most famous is Ocypka, a smoked and decorated cheese that is unique to this region.

Brynza is a soft, spreadable cheese and Bunc is a firmer white cheese.

Most visits to a home, even when it is simply to buy some artisan cheese, include a shot of homemade alcohol.

The Mountains

One of my favorite experiences from the trip was our stay just outside a tiny town in southern Poland, Krościenko nad Dunajcem. Our accommodations for the week were much different than the hotels we had stayed in previously in Sopot and Kraków. We were staying in a large house (pictured) in the country with two other Polish families. Not as many people spoke English, none of the people we lived with did, and we had to walk 15 minutes to a restaurant for any sort of internet access.

There were tons of sheep, which meant plenty of fresh, delicious cheese made only from sheep's milk. Our first day there we all hiked up the mountain road, Biały Potok,that ran by the house we were staying in. The view as amazing and there was something very refreshing about not being as surrounded by people as we had been in the cities.

During our days there we would explore and take photos. We were able to cross the boarder into Slovakia one day where we visited a monastery in Czerwony Klasztor. We also visited a national park museum and some castle ruins. At night we would critique photos and watch various Polish language films, Blanc, Dzien Świra, and Katyn.

The home-cooked meals were a nice change from usually eating in restaurants and the fresh eggs from the chickens the family kept were delicious. Without all of the modern attractions of the cities it felt as if we had almost stepped back in time and were really able to experience Poland in an entirely different way.

Streets of Kraków

After a 8-hour train ride, we arrived in Kraków while the rain was pouring hard. We set out the next day to enjoy the scenes in Kraków and take pictures. Tourists crowded the streets in Kraków. The Square was full with people - tourists buying souvenirs or little trinkets from stalls; people basking in the sun while having a cup of coffee; street performers having their pictures taken by tourists and so on.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Due to the closure of Auschwitz from flooding, we decided to alter our plans and visit another historically significant attraction in the Krakow Area, the Wieliczka Salt Mines. One of the oldest and largest in the world, the Wieliczka Salt mines have been continually mined from the early thirteenth century until 2006, when they were forced to discontinue excavation because of low demands and expense. We ventured forth on the city bus line, escorted by Pawel, a teacher from the Sopockie Szkoły Fotografii. Wieliczka lies about 10 miles outside of Krakow and it didn't take long for us to reach this small touristy town. While waiting for our English tour it was interesting seeing the diversity of the people gathered for this subterranean historical hike on a sunny Thursday. Large groups of young Polish students sat gathered on benches under trees while waiting for their own group tours.

At the time the tour was about to start we were packed together with about fifty other tourists and gently squeezed towards the entrance of the mine. Following in the steps of the million visitors the mine receives annually, we descended 378 wooden stairs, arranged in 54 steep flights. Slightly dizzy and disoriented at the bottom, we gathered around our guide ready to set out on the 3.5 km hike around the mines.

The Wieliczka Salt Mines official website has a thorough online tour of the various caverns, displays and cathedrals we saw. Trying to grasp what the tour guide was saying, through accent, echoes and the mere size of our group was rather challenging, though the sights and vastness of the carvings and tunnels made more of an impression than I think her words would have.

One of the most spectacular sights the mines have to offer is the Saint Kinga’s Chapel, built and decorated over a period of 100 years. Everything, from the floor to the chandeliers, is crafted from rock salt. Adorning the walls are shallow relief scenes from the New Testament, chiseled carefully from the salt walls. We were lucky enough to enter the chapel during the closing song to a private mass. The acoustics in the chapel are both haunting and gorgeous, with voices echoing in the vast chamber.

Photomonth in Kraków

May 2010 brought in the 8^th annual Photomonth in Kraków, this one was dedicated to British photography with eight monographic and three joint exhibits around the city. Two of the exhibits were The Sound of Two Songs, Photographs by Mark Power and Facts of Life, an exhibit encompassing work by ten different photographers.

The Mark Power exhibit was located in the International Cultural Centre. It contained his photographs of the different aspects of Poland since 2004. He used his photographs to make something of a photographic portrait of how he, as an outsider, saw Poland.The Facts of Life exhibit was located in the Main Building of the National Museum and consisted of British documentary photography from three different decades. The photographers whose work was included were: Chris Killip, Chris Steele-Perkins, Jem Southam, John Davis, Paul Graham, Tom Wood, Martin Parr, Anna Fox, Richard Billingham and Tom Hunter. Many of them are well-known Magnum photographers. The focus of this exhibit was a variety of portrayals of the various aspects of British life and society.

This picture is from the Paul Graham portion of the Facts of Life exhibit.


This photograph is from the Tom Hunter portion of the Facts of Life exhibit.

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle, having deep roots in Poland's political history, holds the bodies of the countries past kings, military leaders, and national poets. The complex, in Poland's southern city of Krakow, consists of a castle, cathedral, and various fortifications.

The recent death of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and plans to bury him in Wawel led to divisions across the nation. While the country was largely unified in it's mourning of the President's death, some questioned whether he

was worthy of being buried amongst kings. With campaigns against the decision and protests in the streets, others claimed that Kaczynski would not have been considered for Wawel if he had passed under natural causes.

Despite the resistence, Lech and his wife Maria were eventually buried in Wawel castle.

PBS DGA

PBS DGA is a marketing research agency based in Sopot, Poland. PBS stands for Pracownia Badan Społeczny or Social Research Laboratory in English, they do market research for both private and public companies in a variety of different fields. One of their newer research directions involves tracking trends on the internet. Agnieszka Burska (pictured) has been using innovative methods to track consumer habits and opinions for a while now. A few years ago she did a project where she gave consumers cameras to take pictures of their things and then analyzed the results. Currently her interest has been tracking the demographics of the two most popular social networking sites in Poland, Nasza Klasa, or Our Class in English, and Facebook.

Burska explained that Nasza Klasa is used more by older generations who are more concerned with showing their former friends and classmates their current lives, it tends to be more about local social networking. She said common pictures for this site are ones showing children, cars, houses, and vacations. In contrast, Facebook tends to be more popular with younger generations who are more focused on being trendy and using more of a global approach to social networking. Their profile pictures tend to be more artistic and stylized.

Nasza Klasa has been more popular with people in Poland with over 14 million users while Facebook only has 2 million. Recently however, Facebook has been gaining in popularity since becoming available in the Polish language. Nasza Klasa has been trying to implement new features, many of them similar to Facebook. However, many of the newer features of Nasza Klasa have been unpopular and seem to be driving members away, so the title of most popular social networking site may be up in the air.

Day 4

The pace of life in Sopot is relaxing. A lot of locals take walks in the morning and evenings. Around 4:00 p.m. people were out and enjoying the sun as it has been cloudy and rainy for the past few days.

The Canine

While exploring Sopot, you cannot help but notice the amount of dogs in the city. Owners bring their dogs out for walks during the day. Dogs are required to be on leashes while they are out about in the city and in most cases they are. In Sopot most people live in smaller apartments, by American standards, and the dogs are often small too.

The Workshop

Tuesday, May 18 we had a studio-lighting workshop with Pawel, an instructor at Szkolafotografii in Sopot.

Pawel demonstrated how to move soft boxes around the studio to manipulate light on the model's face. He also taught us how to use the light meter (pictured).

After his demonstration, we put his techniques to work. We split up into pairs and photographed each other, working on the lighting techniques he taught us. The hands-on approach really enhanced the experience and reinforced what he said. When we were finished shooting portraits of each other, Pawel projected our works on the wall and did a short critique.

Day 3

Krzysztof, a close friend of Dennis', went to Gdańsk with us. Gdańsk is larger and busier than Sopot. Instead of posters for local cultural activities, there are posters for the movie - Robin Hood. Sopot also seems to have a more relaxing atmosphere than Gdańsk. One can see people walking their dogs at anytime of the day in Sopot but in the center of Gdansk there were not many people on the busy streets with their dogs.

After visiting the Solidarity Museum and getting to know more about the recent history of Poland, we visited the Old Town city center. It is the part of town where the buildings are from a different century. Gdańsk was part of the Hanseatic League of cities and the architecture looks a bit like what you see in Amsterdam. According to Krzysztof, the original buildings were destroyed at the end of World War II, but the town was rebuilt to look like it did before the war.

There was a huge crowd in Old Town Gdańsk. There were a lot of children in the streets and a group of children were feeding pigeons near the Neptune fountain in the main market square . There was another group of children buying ice-cream from a Gofry stand. Some children were taking pictures and looking around. It was lively and full of sound.