Well, after a two hour bus ride, three hours wading through airport security, one hour waiting on the tarmac, an eight hour flight, and a six hour bus ride, we arrived at last. Hooray! Poland, the place where dreams come true! We are staying at the Sheraton in Poznan, which is one of the nicer hotels I've stayed in (ever). The showers have a wall of plexiglass instead of a curtain. You walk around the wall and step directly under the shower head, which obviates the burden of stepping ALL THE WAY into a tub and pulling the curtain ALL THE WAY across. The head is very large and thus provides a wide stream. "It is like stepping into a rainforest waterfall," says Holbrook. Indeed.
This fine hotel, a mark of American hospitality/capitalist imperialsim, provides an effective contrast to the shell of communism that surrounds it. To quote the guidebook provided at the hotel: "Poland has moved quicker than a greased goose to embrace capitalism, and few cities have done more than Poznan to ditch those clunky chackles of socialism." (As foreigner in a strange place, I was quite relieved to hear familiar phrases like "quicker than a greased goose." It puts me at ease!)
We took a jog/walk to start recovering from the flight, which gave us a chance to tour of the city in our new USA spandex. The word to describe it would be "practical." By and large, the buildings are cement boxes that need some paint, and it's difficult to tell the occupied boxes from the abandoned ones. There are several parks and all are well-kempt, but greenery elsewhere is let to run wild. Grass pokes out from the underside of buildings, climbs up fences, mingles with construction waste in vacant lots, and pushes up through sidewalk cracks. Spaces that are meant to be seen, the parks, museums, and monuments, are beautiful, but little asthetic consideration has been given to the adjacent utilitarian spaces: office buildings, ground-floor retailers, other-floor apartments, forgotten playgrounds. It looks like the industrial neighborhoods of any declining US city, but with small pockets of finery scattered throughout.
To be honest, this was all expected. The strange part is that the streets are practically deserted. It feels like the city is too big for the number of inhabitants. I am a little afraid there are zombies here. The few people we did see on our walk were friendly and seemed unconcerned, but this could be a zombie trap so we remain cautious.
After such a long journey we're using today to settle in, which means we're watching the track and field world championships. Tomorrow we'll head to the course to rig and row, and start getting sharp for racing next week.
Jake
http://www.rowjakerow.blogspot.com/
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by:
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by: