KRAKOW / LONDON INTERLUDE

KRAKOW / LONDON   INTERLUDE

I had 24 hours in Krakow, a city I love. It was Sunday morning.

I strolled around the green belt that encircles the old town center.

back past the theatre

to the Barbakan (barbican!), which is also a cultural center

and opposite the Art Academy where I had arranged to meet

Adam.

Being Rector of the Academy,

Sunday morning is the one time of the week Adam gets to spend in his studio, overlooking the town. Shortly after we got there, a friend of Adam's arrived and we passed two or three hours nibbling biscuits, drinking coffee and talking, talking, talking. Delightful. Adam is always full of energy and eager to show you things, pictures, references.

I took a couple of timid snaps, but was too shy to photograph the man.

Afterwards, when I told him, he laughed and said "next time!"

Then he drove me to the Jewish quarter and left me to wander.

It was a little late for the market, but there was still much to see

The fruit stall, the pecking pigeons, the young people at the snack bar -

I was feeling hungry

 

Fortunately, restaurants in Poland do not close during the afternoon as they do in France, so I could take my time and look around

 

  The "tired plates" didn't inspire me but I

was tempted by the "leafy" ones

this street is very famous

no rush ...

apparently Spielberg shot some of "Schindler's List" here

AH, now the Cracow Sop didn't grab me but I spotted something else ...

Yes, a salatki with dried tomatoes ...

with some white wine, perfect ... now, those notes ...

and afterwards, remember

mind the tram!

though I'm not sure where I am

oh, there, OK,

well I think I'll head for the river and walk lunch off

past the castle (lots of bricks)

remembering to be watchful for bladers on

the cycle path

and grateful to INFOKRAKOW for telling me where the TOALETY were

then back to city center to see what folks were up to there

along the way I noticed that French electricity is supporting Polish culture,

good good good, (EDF = Electricité De France)

ah, I see it's time to get out the traditional costumes

and Adam isn't the only one who carries a dachshund around

and of the poor and lonely I saw very

little, whether by scarcity or regulation

I know not

among the exhibition panels outside the university I noticed

an image that jogged my memory

but I was reassured by the cycling first-aid team

tomorrow London ...

where I got to see two of my boys,

Justin and Otto, a real treat,

though poor Otto was having a relapse, the nephrotic syndrome had

taken off again and he was in a bad way, putting on

something like 20 kilos in ten days (water)

booked myself on a flight back to Poland for the Hucisku symposium

then over to see friend Fawzi to work on the translations of his poetry from

Arab to English, with a deadline for the Salzburg University's Poetry Review

Like Adam Wsiolkowski, Fawzi Karim is witty and intelligent, charming and

generous. I am very lucky to have friends with these qualities. I wonder if it has anything to do with the modest backgrounds we share?

 

This is a photo of Fawzi (on the left) with his brothers, taken in Bagdhad.

Besides the poetry, he has used his memories of Bagdhad as the

source for his paintings

and after toiling with words and savouring Fawzi's cuisine,

there is his dainty English garden with the Bramley tree he planted,

thinking it was a variety of eating apple

there to put my bare feet in the grass

before departure