Kazimierz

I still have some time on my hands so I decided to do some more exploring today and headed for the Kazimierz district of Krakow. Kazimierz is best known for being the Jewish district of Krakow until the end of the Second World War. Kazimierz is not far from where I live however getting there does involving crossing the occasional road, a sometimes difficult task in Krakow. Crossing the road here can be a daunting experience and even the locals never look 100% comfortable when doing it. Most road crossing work in a kind of zebra crossing style, except the onus is very much on the pedestrian to make the first move and start crossing rather than the driver stopping to allow you to cross. That coupled with the way most people drive here means you can be waiting for quite a while before you get the opportunity to cross. The constant sound of revving engines, screeching breaks and car horns don't encourage most pedestrians to take the iniative. The situation is at its worse when it comes to crossing large roads which can have two lanes going in both directions as well as a tram lane down the middle of the road. If you are lucky enough to come across a crossing that has a red and green man style system, your still better waiting for someone else to cross first as most drivers wont stop until someone has actually started crossing the road, and even then they might not!!
Anyway I’m digressing. Although no longer home to a large Jewish population Kazimierz is full of constant reminders of its Jewish past. The Jewish part of Kazimierz is actually quite small, probably 10 or so streets but within it there are numerous synagogues, museums, Jewish restaurants and monuments. I visited one of the synagogues come museums and actually learned quite a lot about Jewish culture. It’s a strange feeling though walking around the streets of Kazimierz which contain so many Jewish temples, monuments and buildings. You realize your in a Jewish district but something is missing, Jews. The only people you see seem to be tourists or everyday Poles and that is a real shame. It is then that you realize that the effects of World War II are still much more visible and relevant in Poland than they are elsewhere in Europe.

MONUMENT COMMEMORATING THE 65,000 CRACOVIAN JEWS KILLED BY THE NAZIS DURING WORLD WAR II

Wisła or Cracovia?

One thing has been bothering me since i arrived here, which of the local football teams should i support? I had some free time today, so I decided to go for a walk. Being a big football fan, my walk took me to the stadiums of Krakow’s two football teams; Wisła Krakow and Cracovia. You could say that Wisła Krakow and Cracovia are the Dundee and Dundee United of Polish football, the reason being that their football stadiums are separated only by a stretch of grass. In fact the stretch of grass that separates them is a small field where people go jogging, cycling, walk the dog and apparently the site where the pope gave his public mass last time he was in Krakow. However the distance between the stadiums is no more than one hundred meters and were it not for a line of trees in front of the Wisła stadium, you would be able to see one stadium while at the other. The walk to the stadiums from my flat took less than 10 minutes and the first stadium I arrived at was Cracovia’s. I suppose that makes Cracovia my local team. Their stadium, named the Pope John Paul II stadium, is strange looking ground. It is impossible to go right up to the main entrance of the stadium as there is a huge metal perimeter fence the whole way round the stadium. From the street you can see the red and white seats of the stadium, which have clearly just been laid over an existing standing terrace. The stadium looks like it belongs to a club with no money, who when forced to upgrade their stadium in order to join the premier league have just flung seats over a terraced stadium. The strange thing is that the seats don’t go all the way round, they stop behind one goal where terracing remains and then start up again at the other side of the pitch. Every stand in the stadium is a different size and looks like its from a different era of football stadiums, with the most recent era being somewhere in the 1980s. Around the stadium there is broken glass and graffiti of the Cracovian hooligans, however despite all this there is something quite romantic about Cracovia. You are left with the impression that they are the football team of the real football fans in Krakow. You get the impression that their fans have always lived in the shadow of their city rival, enjoying little success, but still supporting their team regardless. In fact it seems to be true, I discovered that Cracovia’s last championship win came in 1948 and the last big thing they had to write home about was the reaching the semi-finals of the Polish cup in 2007. However they did finish an impressive fourth last year, higher than their city rivals Wisła.

THE ENTRANCE TO CRACOVIA STADIUM FROM THE STREET AND THE THREE STANDS WITH THE TERRACING IN THE DISTANCE

The gulf between the two clubs is evident when you cross the field to Wisła’s staduim. Even the Wisła side of the field is nicer to look at than the Cracovia side. On the Wisła side there is line of trees that block your view of the stadium from the field. In between the trees there is a new tram line with fancy new trams moving silently up and down it. The Wisła Stadium, as it is known, looks similar to your average SPL ground. It has the same style of stands that you would find at Rugby Park or Tyncastle. It holds roughly 15,000 but there are plans to upgrade it to 32,000 in order to qualify as a potential host city of Euro 2012. Despite the nicer facilities it lacks the history of Cracovia’s ground. Like Cracovia’s stadium, you cannot get very close to the stadium due to the perimeter fence. So once again I had to look at the stadium through a fence, surrounded by fallen branches from the trees caused by a hurricane which hit Krakow last week.
After seeing both stadiums I decided to try to see both teams play. Both clubs appear completely different. Cracovia seems to be the more traditional Polish team, with its red and white colours, a squad comprising entirely of poles and its Pope John Paul II stadium. Wisła on the other hand seem more cosmopolitan club, with a squad that includes 2 Brazilians, 2 Australians, an Argentinian, a Moldovan, a Czech and a Nigerian and fancy new “western style” stadium. I suppose only after watching both of them play and sampling the atmosphere at both stadiums can I say which one, if any, is my favourite.

THE WISLA STADIUM AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM STILL FEELING THE EFFECTS OF THE HURRICANE

"They’re all coming here and you’re going there"

By far the most common reaction I have received when telling people I am moving to Poland has been "They're all coming here to work and you're going there". There is of course a lot of truth in this statement, I read recently that there are officially 32,135 Eastern European migrants registered to work in Scotland and vast majority of these are Poles. A lot has been written on Eastern European migrants, some of it positive and some of it negative. There has also been a lot written by Eastern European migrants, their thoughts and experiences of living and working in Scotland. However seldom do you read a story about the reverse, about a Scot or Western European living in Poland. I suppose the Daily Mail would classify me as an "ex-pat", which has an altogether more positive sound to it than migrant or immigrant, but essentially I am no different from a Pole moving to live and work in Scotland. I have therefore decided to keep a blog of my experiences as Scot living and working in Poland. I have lived and worked abroad once before, in Catalonia, and one of my biggest regrets was not keeping a record of my thoughts and experiences while there. I have never done anything like this before and so it's all a bit of a mystery as to how well it will work but the sort of things I am hoping to write about are my thoughts on Polish culture, the language, the food, the people and reports on any trips I make around Poland and Eastern Europe in general. So in a nutshell that's about it, here's hoping it works out.