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 Poland 2002 - Some Interesting InformationThe Weather in October . . .was unseasonably sunny and comfortable—even the Poles were amazed. The only discomfort we faced was a brief storm upon our return to Krakow. Wild winds and pounding rain swept through the square, and I was reminded of Kinga's story about a "little tornado," that had caused much architectural damage and some loss of life in Krakow a while back. The storm was over in a matter of minutes. Kinder Eggs Actually from Germany, the Kinder Egg is very popular in Poland. Allow me to demonstrate its appeal. Alcohol "Piwo" ("peevo") is Polish for beer. We drank much piwo on our trip. Americans will be delighted to discover that beer is served in half-liter glasses (although Guinness, when we could find it, was served in pint glasses). Almost every bar and club we visited had a Polish beer called Zywiec on tap. Poland is, of course, known for its vodka. You can pick up plenty of good Polish vodka here in the states, including a brand called Chopin, which comes in a really cool bottle. I have concluded that beer is better for bars (nursing) and shots are better for clubs (giving you more time to bust moves on the dancefloor). This should be obvious, but having seen too many Americans holding beer bottles on the dancefloor, I thought I'd point this out. If you're American, any Pole can drink you under the table. Even infants. So don't try to compete. Unless you're looking for an excuse to black out. 
Napkins
We never saw Polish people place napkins on their laps in restaurants. Napkins always stayed on tables and were used to dab at the lips as needed. Maybe I just wasn't very observant, but really, I never saw napkins on laps. Music As Mr. Lava, defender of trash, I was most excited about experiencing the Polish music scene. Poles seem to be heavily into American culture, so if you're a Yank expecting a 180 upon getting here, you will be a little disappointed. We dropped into several clubs in Krakow (the muffled "boom. . .boom. . .boom. . ." tipped us off to their locations), and found that most played house and trance. One particularly interesting Krakow bar we randomly dropped into played what sounded to my ears like 1970's Polish prog rock. In October 2002 Tatu was big in Poland; Polish rockers Wilki were also. Pop songstress Kasia Kowalska was everywhere, Eminem's "Without Me" was played in the clubs. Sugababes' "Round Round" was huge, and Nelly was all over the place. All the music magazines at the time were gushing over British and American acts, including Coldplay, whose Rush of Blood to the Head album got universally good reviews in the Polish periodicals. We even found DJ Shadow peering out from the pages of a teeny-bop magazine alongside American rappers and R&B singers. You can read about three rather different music experiences on this site: Kryjowka in Krakow, MC' in Lublin, and The Park in Warsaw. Magazines I have scanned a bunch of Polish magazine covers for you to enjoy.  TV
In Poland, English language television shows are usually dubbed into Polish—by one guy. One hears the English softly in the background while a man recites the Polish translation in the foreground. This technique raised the quality of David Hasselhoff's Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. ten-fold. I watched a lot of Polish television during my first day or two in Krakow. Many shows we watch in America have Polish equivalents. There was much hype over "Polish Idol," and there was the inescapable "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (I had seen the Romanian version in 2001).  On basic TV one can watch news in English from the BBC World Service, Italian talk shows (one of which was hosted by a rather intense man interviewing some actress or model; the camera crawled all over her body during the "interview"), and, I would assume, German and French programming as well.
Late night often features soft-core porn. It's pretty bad stuff, as its explicitness offends those who are sensitive to portrayals of sex in media, and its timorousness offends those who are used to the hardcore variety. Plus, the presence of the Polish dubbing guy makes for a thoroughly un-erotic experience. Listen to some Polish TV, beginning with Polish dubbing Movies Zemsta was the big Polish movie at the time, with a heavy advertising campaign behind it. It seems to be a big historical costume drama boasting some pretty cool haircuts (and it's prominently featured on the cover of Cinema magazine). I was fortunate enough to see the Kieslowski/Piesiewicz-penned Niebo, aka Heaven, at a cinema in Krakow. Introduction to our Poland trip Krakow (1) Kryjowka, Krakow Auschwitz Lublin (1) Lublin (2) Warsaw The Park, Warsaw Some interesting information Some useful information
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