Sunday, March 15, 2009

A bit of love to Cracow

More history and a bit of love to Cracow.
No doubt, that in spite of her adventurous spirit Amelia often missed her hometown. A lot of memories from her childhood and adolescence came to her mind and she got nostalgic.
"I only I could return to Cracow for good and be a child once again...", she thought.
When she lived in Cracow, she was pretty sure as a kid, that it is the most beautiful city in the world, picturesque and full of life. Much later she visited Moscow, Tibilisi, Budapest, Paris, Luxemburg, Brussels and London. Then she understood that there are many wonderful, amazing places all over the world. But for her, Cracow was still an important city, full of attractions such as unique and historical monuments. Who hasn't heard about the Wawel Castle-where the Polish Kings and Queens lived? Many tourists from all over the world come to Poland to see the amazing churches being the pearls of medieval architecture, the Jagiellonian University, many museums and parks. Amelia wondered, how many people know that the city originated in the 9th century, so it's pretty old, isn't it?
Nowadays Cracow is one of the greatest and the largest cities in Poland (the population: about 800 thousand inhabitants) divided into 18 districts. It's the cultural capital of the state. No doubt, a very vital place in Europe...visited by thousands of tourists from other parts from Poland and from abroad. It's a unique city, arousing admiration among those, who can see it.
No wonder that Amelia has always loved Cracow very much and has regarded it as the most special in the whole world.
You're welcome to Cracow, dear bloggers. Amelia also recommends Wieliczka, a small town situated a few miles from the city, where you can visit a very old salt mine. If you wanted to see some photos of Cracow and Wieliczka, wait for the next post - some links will be included...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Silver town

As you may remember, Amelia worked not only in Nowy Sącz (it was a part-time job),but also in a high school in Olkusz ,a provincial town founded in 1299 by the Polish king Kazimierz the Great. This place used to be called a silver town, due to some silver mines situated a few miles from it. Undoubtedly at that time it must have been quite a rich place, but because of some events, like the wars and economic changes in Poland, the town has lost its position and hasn't developed economically very much. Nowadays, Olkusz is inhabited by 40 thousand people and many of them are unemployed...

When Amelia came there, it was September 1994. At that time the Republic of Poland was 5 years old, Poles seemed to be happy - they had lived in a free, democratic state for five years. The could work in international companies, go abroad, visit the whole world and express their political views without any problems. Unfortunately, some Poles weren't satisfied, there was a big rate of unemployment, what's more an issue of inflation became so threatening, that most people had an impression that money doesn't count, at all. You could earn millions of PLN, but you weren't a millionaire, in fact. Can you believe that all the money could be spent during a few days,as the prices of food, clothes etc, were very high?

In spite of the difficulties and obstacles, Amelia cherished the hope that the life in her country is gonna be better for her and the rest of Poles. She was patient and knew it was worth living in this small European country.

She saw many perspectives for herself, "I can live a wonderful life here, I needn't leave Poland .", she thought. Why was Amelia an optimist? Maybe it was a question of personality and upbringing? It doesn't matter...what really counts is the fact, that Amelia wanted the personal and professional success and she tried to achieve it in an honest way!!!

To be cotinued soon...