So am now in Poland at SLOT Art Festival.. and I just realised how much has happened since I last wrote a blog. It has been a week and I have explored two countries. Before I get into SLOT I will bring It back to where I left off.. Berlin.
So Berlin was a crazy time, and was great time of history and education, or even ‘historical education’. It was a big run and jump trip, and was only really there a day and a half, but it was real fun. We arrived in Berlin and after me beginning to miss the winter cool of Australia (with the great heat of Kobenhavn), we got a lovely thunderstorm to welcome us in. It was beautiful to walk in the rain and rug up. The next day we set out to do Berlin, and we did it well. We got the train into the city and went exploring for a bit, and found a free city walking tour. The tour was great and the guy leading it had heaps of knowledge and stories to share. It took 4 hours and we saw so many of the big places of Berlin. It was pretty cool seeing the Jewish Memorial and walking through it. The guy was telling us about the different interpretations of the memorial. It is made of the big blocks all the same length and width but all different heights. He was saying some people see it as the coffins of the Jew’s, who died in the Holocaust, others the soldiers marching, or the trucks. But there is one interpretation that is the one I liked, this saw the blocks as representing the Jewish ghettos and houses. As you walk through you are so disillusioned as to what is going on around your, it is so hard to walk around. The ground moves down and back up and very uneven, and the blocks grown is size as you move towards the centre. Walking around you never know what is around the next corner, and many times I was shocked that someone bumped into me as I tried to turn a corner. This is to show the feeling many of the Jews would have felt during the Nazi reign as they tried to hide and avoid being sent to the concentration camps. It was a very powerful memorial.
We also got to see parts of the Berlin Wall, classic dominating Nazi architecture, cheakpoint Charlie, and all the other big Berlin attractions. The craziest thing about our time in Berlin was it coincided with the opening of the new American Embassy, which was also on 4th July weekend. There was a massive street party celebrating all things American, with flags, balloons, and food stalls everywhere. The craziest thing was the vote for Obama balloons, all in the centre of Berlin. Quite a strange experience. My other favourite thing about Berlin was visiting the Parliament house. The architecture in Berlin is amazing. Everything has a meaning and an interpretation, they are not just buildings..
That night was real cool as I got to call my family on skype. It was so awesome to catch up with them and hear stories from home. Then next day we got ready to get the train again, this time to Wroclaw, Poland. Wroclaw was ment to be a one night stay but ended up being 3.. we stayed at a backpakers that is student housing in the uni semester and had only been open 3 nights before we arrived. it was a real missing to find the place, (took us 2 1/2 hours) and we finally arrived at 11.30pm. Esther was having stomach pains from eating too much gluten.. so we didnt take the train to krakow, but stayed another night.. We spent the day kinda exploring the city and kinda just shopping cause it was raining. We had and amazing adventure trying to cook dinner with a small fry pan, 1 plate and 2 x knife and fork. Was a great meal because of the challange. The next day we went to the train station to head to lubiez for slot art festival. Its crazy how God works things.
Ok, so one of our crazy must be God, experiences.
So we are heading to the train station to get our train at 9:15 due to many little things we missed that one by 30mins or so but we find out the next train is in 2 1/2 hours.. so we sit around, play cards, read, decide on lunch and eat it an generally pass the time till the train. The train arrives and we are just about to get on and i ask the ticket guy if its the right one.. he said no and to go to another platform (all in polish..) so we ran back to the ticket place to see who was right.. and they said we leave in 1 1/2 hours.. i was so angry cause i did not want to wait at the train station any longer, i was over it and the confusion of poland. but there was nothing i could do, it was completly out of my control so i had to just wait. we got on the old train an finally left wroclaw..
We arrived in Wolow, and Esther heard some guy talking in polish who said ‘Slot Art Festival’ and a whole big group of people with dreads and funky clothes carrying packs, and tents followed him. We decided to follow as well and found a bus station, and got on a bus to Lubiez. It was kinda fun not to have to think but just follow the crowd. On the bus we were wondering what we were going to do when we arrived, and how we would find Justin and Anna (friends from our church in Australia who’s band was playing at Slot). We had no idea the amount of people who were going to be at the festival, apparently 6 thousand, and if God wasn’t looking after us we wouldn’t have found them. But the way things work out our bus pulls up, and Justin, Anna and the kids are there walking right past the door. How amazing is that! From there we were able to register and met some of their team their. As we were standing their I noticed a girl I had seen in my sisters pictures from when she did the course with Stieger. I introduced myself and she was like ‘baby, I see it now, you look just like sarah!’ It was so lovely to see people who knew sarah, and the best ting was Gosia (the lady) was the person in charge of accommodation for international guests and was able to make a call to allow us to sleep in the same house as Justin and Anna. So amazing!
So we had found our friends, and had a bed to sleep on.. We were ready for the 5 days ahead for Slot..
So today is the last day of SLOT Fest and I have been here for 5 days and really enjoying it. For all those who don’t know what Slot is I’ll fill you in. Slot is a 5 day art festival in Poland, which draws heaps of people (mostly from Poland) to come together to learn new skills, just be a community, and experience art in its many forms. I was amazed on the first night walking around and seeing so many forms of art being presented. There was a djembe circle with people learning to play, next to a big group of people learning to twirl poi, some kids dancing all crazy, and others just chilling in the sun playing guitar. Inside you have people painting in many ways, with spatulas, water paints painting bodies, finger painting to music, etc. next to people making things from wire, or cardboard. People learning a dance, to juggle, do patchwork, make dreads, learn languages, and much much more. At night there is bands playing with 5 or so stages with reggae, doof doof dance music, acoustic stuff, little bands, and the main stage. At the end of the night (midnight), while the dance party continues you can watch some arthouse film in a big cathedral. Oh yeah minor detail, the whole festival is set in an amazing big building/castle which was once a palace turned into a monastery and now being restored, which adds so much to the atmosphere. I can’t describe it, its beautiful, and damaged, and so empty, yet full of the people. The people are a awesome mix, its about half and half Christian to non-Christian, and everyone is artsy in some way. It must be 1 in 5 has dreadlocks, and everyone has alternative clothes, and the hair oh the hair in Poland. Its so beautiful to walk around and see this amazing mix of people all free, being artsy and learning lots. I am so excited as tomorrow one of my sister’s polish friends is going to cut my hair, all polish style.
Now that is where I am, and I have been kinda involved but not heaps. I have done workshops to learn how to make flowers from wire and crape paper, stained glass style things from puff paints, Gregorian chanting, and done some painting. I’ve also been to a few seminars or lectures on different things. I have wanted to do more but the language barrier stops me doing some activities. We have also been hanging out with all the Stieger people on and off, which has been really cool. Stieger is a Christian organization, who also have a band called No Longer Music, which present the gospel to people in a very unconventional way. My sister did a course with them and knows a few of the people here so when they found out I was her little sister everyone was like.. “aww hello.. sarah’s sister, we love sarah, you are so cute, you look like sarah, we like you” ect. and been very cool. Justin and Anna (a couple from my church back home) are also in the band, so we have been hanging out with them which has been great. They got us a room in the house they are in, which is some random polish family who have rented the room to us. They speak very little English and we speak even less Polish so it is a challenge, but fun.
The festival has been a challenge as nearly everything is in Polish, something I didn’t think about before I came. But in spite of this it has grown me a lot. We went to a worship service (mini church) the other day and it was all in Polish, (except a few sentences translated). It was a real challenge to try and worship God without words or understanding of the language sung, and made you find another level. It is so easy to just sing songs to God, and go through the motions but to try and connect without words was amazing.
I have seen some great European bands at this festival. One stand out Polish band was ‘Pink Freud’ a three piece jazz experimental band with one guy on drums, one on bass, and the other on trumpet but using a distortion pedal and creating loops. I loved it! Yeah many other fun bands but ill tell you about that another time.
I love Poland. The food is so great, we have had quite a bit of perogi which is like pasta with potato and cheese in side it. Like ravioli but potato inside. They also do some amazing things with cabbage, and potato. In Lubiez, where the festival is, the tap water is not good, and so you have to buy bottled water to drink. Doing this has defiantly increased my appreciation of water. When you have to buy it, even when its only like 1.50 zl (the polish currency) which is AUD75c for 1.5L, you still value it a lot more.
Today we are resting, and tomorrow we will hit the road again. It has been good to settle in one spot for 5 nights but also I miss moving. If I feel this now I wonder how I will be back in Australia. I only have 10 days till I leave to go back to London, so we have a crazy few days planned to get us to Greece to chill a few days and then I will fly to London. It is quite sad this trip is nearly over but still 5 more countries to go to, so the fat lady aint singing yet.
I will load this when I get internet, it is weird going 5 days without internet too.
Love Kim
