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Riding-wise, this was a very simple and easy day. But emotion-wise, it was a bit of a roller-coaster. The day started off wonderfully: I was extremely excited to get into Poland. I was to be the first person in my family to return to the Old Country since everyone left. Here's the border crossing I took at a completely deserted spot, fairly deep in the hills:
I thought about what my grandparents and great-grandparents would say if they knew I was heading into Poland. Probably something along the lines of "What the hell, Ben, do you know how hard it was to leave that freaking place? And now you're going back?!?!?". And here I was having a frivolous bicycle holiday.
To be fair, I was crossing into Silesia, which wasn't really part of Poland until after the war. But still, it meant something to me. All my life, "Poland" has been something of a myth, not an actual place that you can visit. Obviously, like anywhere on the planet, it's just a place, with it's own set of things that are great and things that are not so great.
Some things that were great: the scenery, the storks, the over-abundance of cash machines, the easy-to-follow maps and roadsigns.
Some things that were not so great: the stares I got from everyone, the horrendous road quality, the lack of shoulders on the busy roads.
I spent the night at the Hotel Bolkow. My plans were to have breakfast with a guy that I met off of a bicycle touring mailing list in the morning. He was going to lead me to his place near Wroclaw and I would start the Polish leg of the trip from there. That night, I was in a bit of a mood, feeling very foreign and lost and unsure as to whether I had the gumption to actually spent the next 7 weeks trekking through this country.
Actually much of Upper Silesia was part of Poland during the interwar years. The rich industrial region was highly contested between the new Polish and Czechoslovak states as well as the then current landlord, defeated Germany. The league of nations awarded Poland a large part of the region even after the Germans won a 60% majority vote in a plebiscite. Historians are still arguing about the results, ie Poles staged “spontaneous “ uprisings and Germans bussed in voters. Because of the ethnic mix and political considerations, Upper Silesia was an autonomous part of inter-war Poland, with only defence and foreign affairs governed by Warsaw. It even had its own Silesian Parliament. There is a small movement to declare itself autonomous once more, but it is basically an excuse to drink beer and complain about Warsaw.
ReplyDeleteYou were right though, you entered lower Silesia which fell from the Polish orbit centuries ago. Regarding people staring, they are not hostile, just curious. After all you are a rolling attraction to villagers. Years ago an American friend and his better half rode with me (and my boy in a burley) for several weeks . Often they wore matching Micky and Minnie Mouse jerseys, they looked freaking Goofy and from Pluto. Talk about stares then! You will like Poland, people are friendly after you break the ice a bit.