Week 5: Cultural (12/03/12 - 18/03/12)

Old Town hall

After living in Poznan for over a month now, I have developed a healthy routine. This involves going to classes, meeting with friends for drinks or coffee and playing football, basketball and volleyball several times a week. I am truly beginning to feel at home. This changed this week with the arrival of my girlfriend who was staying for a few days. I packed my bag and moved into a hotel and transformed myself into the ‘perfect tourist.’

Living like this for several days gave me the opportunity to view Poznan and its people from a different angle. Having someone by my side that had never been to Poland before certainly helped with this as my girlfriend was asking questions about things I had maybe not paid attention to in recent weeks. The most frequently question she asked was “How much would this be in sterling?” Upon answering these questions, it made me realise that I am very lucky to be based in a city which offers so many wonderful things like food, drink and tourist attractions all for an incredibly cheap price. For example, the two of us were able to enjoy two courses of food and two rounds of drink at a nice restaurant for the equivalent of £15.

Inside St. Stanislaus church

As well as appreciating the food and drink, this week also gave me the opportunity to take different walking tours. This is probably the first time that I have noticed a big difference between Poznan and Belfast. Although Belfast has an incredible history, it is not always visible from the architecture of the buildings, especially now with so many modern structures being put in place. If you want to find the history of Belfast as a tourist, you need to go to certain places and ask the correct questions to the right people. However, here in Poznan, the history is etched into almost all of the buildings, especially in Stary Reynek (the old square). Here, you will find museums, churches, and other fascinating buildings where you can freely enter and get lost in the city’s history.

Enjoying the sunshine in Stary Reynek

In doing this, I feel that I understand the Poznan citizens a lot better. At first, I believed them to be very ‘closed’ people, in a way that they keep to themselves and would not interat with tourists. Now, I know that this is the stigma following the end of communism only two decades ago, and that in this sense, the Poznan I see today is a relatively ‘new’ city. It would be impossible to describe all the beautiful sights Poznan has to offer, so if you get the chance, then please follow this link to have a closer look; Poznan: a beautiful city.

I would like to think that as well as understanding Polish culture, I should also introduce some culture from Ireland. It so happened that I chose to do this on St. Patricks day, which also happened to fall on a beautiful day boasting temperatures of 22 degrees.

Happy St. Patricks day

I gathered a crowd of eager Erasmus students who were instructed to wear green clothes. Since there were no St. Patricks day parades, we skipped to the next chapter of the celebrations of enjoying some pints of Guinness. We sat out in the sun trying to catch a sun tan and when night came, we moved to the local Irish pub where everyone (or so they told me) had a great night listening and dancing to traditional Irish music.

When my girlfriend had to leave to go home, it also meant that I had to leave my hotel and heap room service and return to my dormitory. I was sad in seeing my girlfriend leave, however, it was great to be able to show off my new home to someone from Belfast. It also gave me the chance to reflect and realise how much I am enjoying living in this city, especially now I have a better understanding of its history.