Treasure

Every Sunday there is a flea market here in Koszalin right around where I live. Besides some shops selling regular goods, it is mainly a place for people to sell their useless junk.

Although it might be garbage to some, it can still be awesome stuff to me. Scavenging through loads of old computer hardware, video tapes, power supply adapters and giant cable balls, I unearthed myself a little treasure: A Canon Canonet Junior camera, built in 1963. Except for some discoloring of the top plastic and a non-working selenium electric meter, it is in a good condition. It still needs some cleaning, but I am convinced that it will work just fine for some experimenting. Quite an amazing find!

Even more to my surprise I noticed there was still a film inside. I rewound it when I got home. As soon as I am back in Germany, I will get the film developed. How old is that film? Does anybody know when AGFA-Gavaert produced CNS2 135-36 (ASA 60) film?

Sanctimonious

As I had been ill last week, I was not able to go to Gdansk. This weekend I caught up with my plans and spent a day in the old part of the city with a friend.

Gdansk is definitely a nice town - old buildings, relaxed atmosphere and around this time of year the number of tourists is diminishing. Nonetheless, there were many tourists - in particular elderly Germans - who loved the guided tours. One of the tour guides we passed by sounded very familiar. I listened in for a second and, yes, he did sound a bit like Hitler doing one of his infamous speeches...

A favorite of mine was St. Mary's Cathedral in the heart of the city. Although the white painted interior was not to my liking, it had some impressive art work and a beautiful organ. However, putting all that energy and money into 'a house of God' seems very stupid to me. Couldn't that money have served better purposes? Couldn't the church have helped the poor? The church remains one of the richest institutions in the world and in the middle ages, when the Cathedral was built, it also must have had an almost unconceivable amount of wealth. So why waste it on the glorification of God, if God is supposably so just and merciful and good and helpful? This is probably one of the reasons I never really got Christianity or religion in general.

We were starving when we arrived in Gdansk, so we hurried down to the old town and looked for some touristy restaurant. We ended up in some small bistro near the Cathedral. It wasn't too bad, but I would recommend searching a bit longer for a nicer restaurant if you have enough time.

On another note, the trains here in Poland are somewhat uncomfortable and make my ass hurt...

Military Idiocy

About 2 months back - shortly after I had arrived in Poland - the local AIESEC chapter invited me to a military parade in a town called Darlowo. Boy was I in for a surprise.

Walking to the city center I quickly realized this wasn't really an army organized parade, rather it was a bunch of amateurs who - dressed up in army uniforms and all kind of medals - paraded their gear and vehicles around.

The first 30 minutes or so were quite enjoyable and fun, but then I saw the first guys in Nazi SS uniforms. Swastikas and Totenkopf symbols everywhere. I was quite shocked. Why anybody would want to look like a mass-murdering bastard is beyond my imagination. Also, it is quite illegal to sport these symbols of destruction and genocide in Germany and I have therefore not seen these symbols around - except in movies, theater plays and other art which normally serves as a reminder of the terror and bloodshed we have caused.

There were Polish Nazis, German Nazis, hell knows where else they came from. On every corner was a Nazi. Nazi symbols and uniforms were on sale everywhere. It was despicable...

Work: five days left

Yesterday, I mentioned the greatness of my company's urinal cakes. Although these are clearly the highlight of my daily work routine, there is one more thing that gets me excited: our coffee machine.

We have an Astoria coffee machine which makes delicious coffee from real ground beans. Since I had been stomach sick last week, I stayed away from coffee for a while, but before that blow of fate I enjoyed a fresh, nice smelling cup of coffee, espresso or latte macchiato every morning. Perfect to turn the zombie-me into loyal, obedient worker-me. I've added a new entry to my things-I-have-to-do-before-I-die-list: 'Buy a high-quality coffee machine for your everyday oral pleasure.'

Work

In my last post about Poland I mentioned I have been living in Koszalin for the past 2 1/2 months. Of course, I've not just traveled around, but most of my time I spent at work. Not just any work, no!, the most mind-numbing and idiotic work I've had the pleasure to do so far in my life.

There is not much (positive) to say about my company, but as you can see the employees (including me) like to pee on the urinal cakes, melt them to giv 'em weird shapes. If it weren't for the urinal I would've lost my mind already a long time ago. Thank god, it's only six more days until my contract expires. Well, sometimes you just have to fight through the shit yourself, 'til the bitter end...

Ahoi Polloi

It's time for Art and Sausages. The internets - this array of tubes - are full of art-filled blogs. I would like to introduce some personal favorites in this category.

Let's start off with ahoi polloi (German only). Hoi Polloi posts an interesting sketch from her (or his?) notebooks every day. These cartoons are usually commentaries on some political or social news of the day and most of them are witty yet subtle. I especially enjoy ahoi polloi's political incorrectness, something that is not seen often enough these days. If you speak German you should definitely take a look.

Mielno

Although I have been living in Koszalin for the last 2 1/2 months, this is my first entry about Poland.

Koszalin is great in one respect: It is close to the seaside and when the weather permits it, my roommates and I hop on a bus and go to the beach. Recently it has been quite cold and sometimes rainy, but even though the water might be too cold to swim, it is nonetheless enjoyable to sit on the beach or go for stroll alongside the sea.

The water itself is quite cold - it was even cold when it was still summer here and quite nice and sunny. I was told the Baltic Sea is generally quite cold, but 14-16°C is freezing.

The reason why I enjoy the beach so much is probably that I have never lived close to a sea or ocean. People here in Koszalin just see it as something normal, something that is there whenever they feel like going. However, for me this is exciting, I love the sea, the sound the waves make, the seagulls, the sand and the smell of the air. To be honest, it would probably be hard to enjoy Koszalin - a city which is basically void of any entertainment and feels 'dead' most of the time - without the ability to be at the beach in less than half an hour.