I’ve seen my share of uninspired graffiti in Poland but you occasionally get some talented graffiti artists putting their skills to use as seen below:

A few pictures from around Poland:

David Oramus

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfH3mcNoxN8

Mirek Langer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZDVnlwzpn4

Nasty Ladies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd3XOW7DaGg

Polish woman nearly gets run over

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFSaw7D9vxs

Leave the Free Running / Parkour to the French

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cZiPZOeHi8

Polish anti crime device

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YylrjjVz1Xw

People in Poland celebrate New Year’s Eve like most countries around the world do, they get staggeringly drunk.

It’s called Sylwester as each day in the Polish calender is devoted to a saint. Saint Slywester, a bishop of Rome who died in year 335, happened to be a patron of the last day in a year therefore his name is commonly used as a name of this day.

There was also a central celebration of Sylvester in Congress Hall (Sala Kongresowa) of Polish Parliament where the highest dignitaries of Polish communistic party were seen dancing with their wives. In the contrary to Christmas, which was rather avoided because of its religious connotations by communistic leaders, Sylvester was celebrated very much! In the main evening TV news we could see our main party leader to wish us Happy New Year.

The TV program was usually quite interesting, with many concerts, balls broadcasted live, interesting movies (also from Western Europe and the USA) etc.

At the very midnight the most popular television speakers were taking part in a ceremony of opening the bottle of champagne and wishing each other and all of us a happy New Year (we had just one later two TV programs in that time, so you could not miss it). The speakers were usually sitting while announcing the program, this was the only time when they had to stand. It just happened that the most popular TV speaker, Jan Suzin, was a very tall man and the most popular TV speaker, Edyta Wojtczak, was a petite woman. So, seeing them to greet each other was interesting since they had such a different size.

Picture round up of some strange things seen in Poland:

Where I come from when someone passes away we stick them in a box, heat for an hour at 2000 degrees and sprinkle the ashes around their favourite park/beach/tree.

Not so in Poland. Cremations are rare in Poaland and funerals tend to be a tradional coffin burial. Polish cemetaries have a rich variety of graves and the care that goes into looking after graves is astounding. Being Roman Catholic they believe death does not end human life and since everyone has an eternal spirit we will all meet up in the afterlife.

Many families visit graves frequently to pay respects, lay flowers, lantens and sweep away any dust. Many stones have the face of the deceased engraved into it which I find a bit chilling.

An important day in the Polish calender is All Saints Day (Wszystkich Swietych) where families visit the graves of loved ones to place candles to help the departed souls find their way through the darkness. It’s quite a spectacular sight if you get to see it.

When travelling abroad you often see amusing names for everyday objects/foods that would cause a raised eyebrow and a giggle were it ever to go on sale back in your home country.

In a country where the best selling male/female fragrances are David Beckham’s and Paris Hilton’s offerings you are likely to encounter some even worse brands and smells.

Branded fragrances are on offer but at a huge mark up to even western prices. Armani, Boss, Calvin Klein etc would all come in at around $100+ a bottle which for those on Polish wages is a very high price to pay.

I made the mistake of going to a high end department store to buy a girlfriend some Armani perfume, I nearly fainted when the cashier rung up the price of 320zl. I still bought it mind, I was fed up of her smelling of the sickly sweet Celine Dion rubbish she used to wear.

There is one particular brand in my local chemist shop that causes me to chuckle every time I see it called “Brutal” which is made by http://www.miraculum.pl  I just get a mental image of two jocks in a locker room after a shower e.g.

Jock 1: “Hey Chuck, what’s that you’re putting on?”

Jock 2: “Well Todd… this is BRUTAL”

Childish I know, but these things amuse me. So I decided to buy a bottle of Brutal to take back home for a Christmas gift. I went to the grumpy cashier, paid and put it in my bag, 10 minutes later I smell a very very strong smell of powerful aftershave and see that my bag, trousers and coat are wet in some places.

I check my bag and see that the bottle of the aftershave was not on, someone in the shop had obviously tried it and put it back in the packet without the top on leaving me smelling like I’d been dipped in petrol.

It had soaked through and got to my skin, it took nearly of week of intense scrubbing to get the smell away and an equal amount of time for my girlfriend to let me go near her.

Enjoy!

I’m sure most of you will of seen the Polish coat of arms, the white eagle on flags, signs, coins and the Polish football team’s shirts.

The White Eagle emblem originated from when Poland’s legendary founder Lech saw a white eagle’s nest. When he looked at the bird, a ray of sunshine from the red setting sun fell on its wings, so they appeared tipped with gold, the rest of the eagle was pure white. He was delighted and decided to settle there and placed the eagle on his emblem.

The image of the white eagle appeared for the first time on the coins made during the reing of Boleslaw I, initially as the Piast Family’s personal coat of arms. The stylized bird’s appearance caused dispute between scholars who could not identify its species. The most probable is the white-tailed eagle but cock, pigeon, and peacock were also taken into consideration. Since XII c. the eagle has appeared on the shields, ensigns, coins, and stamps of Piast dukes. It appeared on the Polish coat of arms during Przemysl II reign as a reminder of the Piast tradition before the fragmentation of Poland.

The eagle’s graphic form has changed throughout centuries. Its recent shape, accepted in 1927, was designed by professor Zygmunt Kaminski and was based on the eagle’s form from the times of Stefan Batory’s reign. It is worth mentioning that it was adapted to stamps or round shields rather than to a rectangular shape.