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Easter in Poland

On Good Friday, my parents and I left Koszalin for Gdańsk enroute to Kraków.  We set it up so that we could spend the day in Gdańsk and then catch the overnight train to Kraków.

Gdańsk is located near the Baltic Sea and is known for its Amber jewelry.  They said that talented people are able to find the amber on the beaches, especially after storms.  There are also many beautiful old buildings and statues in Gdańsk.

As we approached the central square, we heard drums.  They were beaten by “soldiers” who were followed by a procession including a man portraying Jesus carrying his cross.  There were hundreds of people in the procession that marched through the streets of the city.

We also went into a storefront that was making ribbon candy.  The entire process was amazing and at the end, they take a cylinder that is about 8 inches in diameter and 2 feet long and start rolling the end and then pull it into long strips that are less than an inch in diameter and 3 feet long.  The strips are then cut into bite-size pieces that when completely cooled forms a very hard candy.  The cylinder was mostly white, but had a red heart, about 3 inches across, inside of it.  The finished candy had the same heart, but it was now less than a half-inch in size.

We headed back to the train station, but on our way, we stopped and got my Dad a SIM card for his American cell phone.  It cost 9 Zloty (about $3.25) but it gave him a Polish phone number and included about 10 minutes of talk time.  Most importantly, it allowed us to communicate with each other if we were separated.   My Dad said that he had to have Sprint “unlock” his phone to allow for this before he left, and it only made economic sense for calling numbers within Poland, but for our purposes it worked very well.

Our train for Krakow left at 9:20PM and arrived early the next morning.  The train ride was comfortable, but the conductors woke us up every few hours throughout the night to check our tickets.  On the way back, we were able to arrange for a cabin in a sleeper car for a 10 hour leg of our trip.  The best part about this was the cabin had 3 beds, a small sink and an outlet to keep your phone charged.  Also, the conductor checked us in when we got on the train and we didn’t see him again until he gave us a 20 minute warning that we were approaching our stop.

Kraków is always beautiful, but it was especially nice because it was Easter weekend.  There was a fair in the main square that was filled with craft and food booths.  From the food standpoint, it was like being at Thunder in the Valley or the Folk Fest.  There was just about every delicious Polish food you could imagine and it was great quality.   As far as the crafts were concerned, there was everything from Polish pottery to wooden crosses to stacking dolls.  There were also the beautifully painted wooded Easter eggs.

Throughout the square were tall poles decorated with dried grasses, multi-colored wheat and flowers.  These were giant versions of what they use in Poland for Palm Sunday.   Each of these giant poles was entered into a contest with great pride at stake.

St. Mary’s Church has the “Trumpeter of Kraków” who plays every hour.  According to the story, a trumpeter was in the tower of St. Mary’s church warning the citizens that enemy was approaching.  Apparently the trumpeter was shot through the throat by an enemy arrow.  As a result, the music stops abruptly to remember this event.

Outside of St. Mary’s church there were makeshift alters set up with baskets.  Each basket had traditional food that would be eaten the next day at the Easter meal.  The items included an egg, bread, ham, Polish sausage and cheese.  The priests blessed the baskets after Holy Saturday Mass in preparation of the Easter feast.

I’ve met many exchange students during my time here in Poland.  On Easter Sunday, my parents let me visit the home of one of them, Esteban, so I could experience a traditional Polish Easter.  His family went to Easter Mass at 6PM.  After Mass, we sat down to dinner with 10 family members and shared Polish, Mexican and U.S. customs.  My parents had brought plastic Easter eggs filled with American candy.  Esteban’s family especially liked the Reese’s peanut butter eggs and the marshmallow Peeps.  One of the Polish traditions involves the hardboiled egg that had been blessed in the Easter basket.  It gets divided into many small pieces and shared by all the family members.  Also part of the meal was wonderfully seasoned baked chicken legs, beets with horseradish, salad, boiled potatoes and rice.  We also ate traditional Polish sour soup called Zurek.  It has chunks of veggies, boiled eggs and Polish sausage.

On our last night in Kraków, we ate at Pad Aniolami as suggested by a friend.  It lived up to its expectations and was fantastic.

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