A weekend trip to...

Hi,

I would like to tell you about my last trip. I have found a really high discount on tickets to one of Polish bus lines (you know which one ;) ) so I decided to visit Wroclaw, the largest city of the Lower Silesia. The trip took about three hours and a round-trip ticket costed 10 zloty so I did not hesitate. My boyfriend was my trip companion. We like long field trips so we planned every hour of our departure. We was also so lucky that the accomodation we had booked was also very cheap. Being a student, I paid 31 zloty per night. The condition of apartment was also very well. We slept in a dormitory of University of Environmental and Life Sciences in district Midtown.

Wroclaw made us impressed a lot. It is a city of nearly 100 bridges. These are everywhere. Wroclaw lies on a few islands which are incorporated. It is quite a big city, in which live about 635 thousand people. The public transport is well-developed. There are many tram lines which come in nearly every part of the city.

The Old Town is full of colorful tenement houses, fountains and churches. One of them gave us a possibility to benefit from a really high tower, from which we were able to admire a panorama. The view was breathtaking! Wroclaw is famous from gnomes. Small figures are located in many parts of the Old Town. It was challenging to find them ;)

Wroclaw has not only the impressive Old Town but many sport centres as well. One of them Centennial Hall is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the perspective the hall seems to be enormous but in fact it is not. Close to it there is located a fountain, which becomes colorful every evening at 9:30 p.m.

A totally new item for me was a Japanese Garden, in which we was able to admire many kinds of bushes and flowers. This place is really well-neat and gives a possibility to show something different from that we have in our parks and gardens.

I was also impressed by a building of the Slask Wroclaw football stadium, which was one of the places where played footballers during the Euro 2012. The stadium is located on the suburbs, close to the highway. There is simple to get there because we can take one of two trams or train, the station of which is really next to the stadium. The building is big but a little bit to grey but the surroundings is safe. There are subways which gurantee a safe way from the station to the stadium.

What special did I notice in Wroclaw was the people who are really open-minded and like spending free time together. During a weekend close to parks, halls and the stadium there are organised outdoor events with concerts, markets and plays for children. The inhabitants of Wroclaw take part in them with pleasure which I noticed seeing how many car drivers wanted to park their cars the closest to the event place they were able to.

I really recommand you to visit Wroclaw, which for me is a city different from every other Polish one.

Italian Culture Days

Hi everyone,

This week at my university took place a very impressive set of events. All were related to Italian culture and lasted from Monday to Thursday in classes of Neofilology Department. Students from Italian faculty prepared a really special schedule.

The first full day was addressed to Italian wines. One student told us some facts and curiosities about wines, its production, types etc. Then ,there was organised a wine tasting at one restaurant in the center of the city.

The second day started with a singing event. During this meeting our Italian colleague presented the history of Italian song, describing various types of music and places of its progress. Then, there was a while to present students' talents. Five girls sang more or less familiar Italian songs. I gave them respect because I appreciate every person who can sing because I cannot.
In the afternoon it took place a meeting with an opera singer who told us about her job and passion for the opera. One student also presented us information about opera, what it is and why it is worth to like it. There was organised a food and drinks with Italian cakes and sweets. Students and lecturers did their best to prepare time-consuming and really delicous delicacies.

The third day was related to colors and more precisely to blue and red one. There were two lectures dedicated to various depictions of colors, its importance in culture, books' plot and our life. There were also two other, which presented a television language and how Italian press consider events taken place in Poland.

On Thursday students of Italian filology organised a debate, the main idea of which was job with Italian language. There were invited three guests who told us about their job, perspectives on the job market and gave us plenty of good advices. The debate was really impressive and also interesting.

The next Italian Culture Days will be organised next year !

Night of Museums

Hello,

I would like to tell you about a cultural event I am going to participate.
This year in my city Night of Museums starts on Saturday, 16 May at 5 p.m. It is a special day in which plenty of museums, galleries and other cultural institutions open their doors for everyone for free. The whole sightseeing takes place in the late evening up to 1 a.m. Besides the art, every visitor can take part in workshop, concerts and food and drinks. Moreover, that day there is an opportunity to visit places and parts of one museum which are not easy accessed other days.

It is the international event which was initiated in Berlin in 1997. Today in Night of Museums participate about 120 Polish cities. Unforunately, not every museum or gallery of one city is open during the event but for sure the selection is very considerable.

This year I am going to visit the Museum of Instruments, Henryk Sienkiewicz's Literary Museum, the Museum of Motorization. I am also intending to sightsee exhibitions of Institute of National Remembrance, which presents a few of them strictly related to the position of Polish women in Polish People's Republic. There are many other places to admire but unfortunately limited time does not let us participate in more than three or four exhibitions. I hope it will be an exciting day :)

Gomorra

Hi there,

Today I would like to tell you about the latest book I have started to read. The inspiration to begin was born during one of the classes when my group tried to translate a fragment from Polish to Italian.
The book named Gomorra, (in Italian Camorra), written by Roberto Saviano, was published in 2006. Its author is an Italian writer and journalist, who gained a fame after the publication. The book turned out to be a real bestseller, translated in forty languages and sold in ten million copies.

The main topic described in a plot is the activity of Neapolitan Mafia Camorra. Saviano tried successfully to enter inside the group to observe its rules, structure and illegal business which Comorra runs in Neapolitan harbour. The whole story comes around the illegal benefit related to smuggling textiles from China without paying taxes. The author presents Italy not as a paradise, which everybody wants to visit, but as a country fully-controlled by mafia. The book suggests that Comorra is the organisation that influences people's life in apparently invisible way. After the reading this point of view changes.

The whole book consists of eleven chapters. Roberto Saviano was written a really fascinating piece of art, which put him in a dangerous position. He realised that mafia dislikes his attitude through its attivity and the content of Gomorra as well. As a result Saviano had to hide himself in fear of vendetta. He moved out many times from place to place, living under pressure and got help from Italian government related to security.

On the book was based another appreciated piece of art, the movie Gomorra, which won many prizes, one during Cannes Festival. In 2014 Italian television Sky Atlantic broadcasted a TV series called Gomorra,  which also turned out to be a blockbuster.

I fully recommand this book for those of you who like tipically narrative books and would like to discover different point of view. 

The long weekend of May

Hi,

how are you? I am fine, especially because now there is a free time called the long weekend of May.
In Poland this period is related to three days in a row, every of which has its own characteristic features. The first of them is International Worker's Day or Labor Day. As the name suggests, this holiday is commemorated internationally. In Poland the first celebration took place in 1890. There were organised a lot of demonstrations against conquerors of that time, who occupied Polish lands. The organisers were people from left parties and workmen. After the Second World War, the communist authorities of Poland established the first of May the national holiday, free of work. During the period of communist system there were also organised plenty of processions and marches in nearly every Polish town and city. That kind of celebration was invented as to show the force of communist authorities, communist system and artificial impression of prosperity and contentment.

The second of May, though is not a free work day, it is also related to respect given to one of the most important symbol of Polish country, the flag. The Day of Polish Flag is quite a young holiday in Poland. For the first time it has been celebrated in 2004. The second day of May was checked not by accident. That day is also the day of Polish emigrant, What is more, in the second of May 1945 Polish soldiers, celebrating the victory over Nazism and the end of the Second World War, hoisted one Polish flag on the Victory Column in Berlin.

The third day of May is one of the most important national holiday in Poland. That celebration is related to the first Polish Constitution ratified the third of May 1791. It is a free work day. Genesis of this holiday is strictly related to independence of Poland. The first Polish Constitution was the first one ratified in Europe and the second in the world. The day was celebrated from 1918, the year in which Poland gained the independence. After the Second World War the May 3rd Constitution Day was celebrated up to 1946 when the communist authorithies forbad the celebration. The holiday was re-established in 1990.