Continuing Observations...

Having recently discovered the website to buy train tickets in Poland, this week should have seen us exploring Gdansk. However, a spur of the moment invite from Dear Luisa put that plan on hold...

so I continue to report observations. They are not necessarily earthshattering but I find them amusing. Hopefully you will, too.

Dogs. Lots of Dogs

This city seems to be a dog loving place!

One can hardly walk anywhere without encountering members of the dog-loving population parading their pets.

Much to their credit, the animals all seem well cared for and very well behaved, trotting sedately alongside their masters: big dogs, small dogs; fluffy dogs and frisky dogs.

Some wear sweaters and some don’t; most seem well fed – a tad on the plump side, even. Once, I witnessed a woman breaking off chunks of carrot that her (pudgy) black lab was eagerly snapping up.

I wonder if those carrot treats (as opposed to biscuits) were given on the advice of a vet...

Curiously enough, I’ve found more vetrinarian offices here than human doctors.

Maybe because it is hard to mistake the word ‘vet’, combined with the fact that I wouldn’t yet know the Polish names of medical specialties well enough to recognise a human doctor’s office. Still, I can aver that pet doctors abound in this city!

Someone in our building has a dog who cries all day.

Typically, a dog will whimper and maybe howl for a few minutes after its owners’ departure and then settle in for a long nap.

This poor pooch wails... for hours!

I had occasion to meet this dog and his owner recently.

As I came down the last few stairs to the building’s foyer, a man squatted down in front of his dog, his back turned to me, stroking the animal and talking to it in gentle tones.

‘How nice!’ I thought; ‘man loves dog and dog loves man’. My thoughts about the poor pup crying all day turned a little more charitable... 

Man had misjudged how fast I might clear the stairs and make my way out. Thinking I was well on my way, he stood up... and the dog dashed around him, all bared teeth and ferocious growl.

Luckily, he was muzzled and still leashed! 

Still, it is evidently a much loved dog, as they all seem to be, here.

The Smoking Population

You would think that, after seven years in China, where people smoked everwhere, even in the hospitals!, I would hardly bat an eye at smokers.

Perhaps that would be true were it not for the fact that smoking is so very prevalent here. I find female smokers are especially remarkable, perhaps because so few females (openly) smoke in China.

There are even ultra skinny cigarettes meant for elegant women to smoke!

A telltale sign that smoking is ingrained into this culture is the public ashtrays. Remember those trash cans I reported were every 50 meters? Each one has a built-in cigarette end repository.

I’ve seldom seen one empty.

It’s an odd contrast: in the States, outside of larger cities (and even in larger cities), one can hardly spot pedestrians and woe to the one who dares light up outside of a designated smoking area!

Here, people (including me) go out walking for the fun of it – Szczecin is a very walkable city! They puff along as they stroll, carefully extinguishing their cigarettes in the provided ashtrays.

I’ve seen hardly any discarded cigarette ends on the ground. Is that because of the diligent street sweepers or conscientious smokers who only chuck their butts into the provided ashtrays?

Feeding the Pigeons

It is a rather iconic view in New York City: an old woman on a bench in Central Park, tossing birdseed for the pigeons flocking around her.

Admit it! You’ve seen that scene in more than one movie, right?

I’ve seen it too, in real-time, right here in Szczecin. What’s so odd about it is that 1. there are so many pigeons and 2. the number of people fighting to feed them.

On Bench 1: elderly lady with bag full of bird seed! Bench 2: beret-wearing gentleman smoking a cigarette, reaching into the shopping bag at his feet!

It is downright comical to see the pigeons flock from one part of the park to the other and back again as the competing feeders sprinkle ever more food.  

Perhaps it is the pigeons’ contribution to the war effort that compels elderly gents and ladies to feed these feral birds. Or maybe those people are just far more humane than my uncharitable mindset.

Because I live on the top floor of the building, pigeons like to try their luck roosting on my window sills. During the cold snap I was rather more kindly disposed toward them; why not let them absorb the heat my windows lose?

But then, they started squabbling on my window sill and streaks of droppings appeared on the windows themselves: an untenable situation!

Now, when a pigeon lands on my window sill, I throw a small bean bag at the window to startle it. Let them go roost in the park, where they get fed and cooed at daily. 

It’s YOUR Day!

Have I wished you happy New Year? If not, I apologize for the oversight. Please accept my belated greeting and best wishes!

New Year went off without a hitch but with plenty of fireworks. So many that it was hard to tell whether the haze hanging over the city was due to the explosives or the typical winter fog.

I marked the new year by buying a new wall calendar. Not exactly an earth shattering event but what I discovered was remarkable!

It seems that, in Poland, every day is dedicated to somebody. Alongside the date, my calendar features two or three given names: Alexandra, Piotr, Agnieska...

At first, I thought it was a fluke; something featured only on this expanded, elaborate calendar but, come to find out, it is actually endemic to the culture here to for each day to be dedicated to a handful of individual names.

It makes sense, when you think about it...

The Catholic religion dedicates each day to one or more saints: St. Catherine, St. Bartholomew... 

The Polish tradition originated from Catholic one – Poland is a deeply religious country, after all.

What’s curious about it is that, traditionally, Name Day is more celebrated than one’s own birthday! The phenomenon even has a name: imieniny. (pronounced ee-mee-eh-nee-neu).

I will celebrate my Name Day on February 13^th. Would you like to know when your Name Day is?

You should beware, though: some popular names have more than one day. Krystyna is celebrated no fewer than five times; poor Kasper only gets revered for one day.

Piotr takes the record: 36 times that name is celebrated! Woe to those who name their child Piotr; they would have to buy a lot of presents and cake!

I grant you, Poland in general and Szczecin in particular are not a crazy as China was but, by this accounting, there are still things to marvel over!