Today I will write about my homeland – Poland. Poles dream of traveling to “exotic” countries. Nevertheless, the Poles are the ones who inspire me very much.
Favorite countries to visit, for Poles, can be as follow: Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, the USA or Canada, etc. Probably I could mention probably more countries. I, in turn, often wonder if the inhabitants of the above nations have a dream of something else. I wonder if they want to come to the “exotic” Poland.
For me, Poland is:
– a place where a lot of people drink vodka and beer;
– a country where people eat delicious pickled cucumbers and sauerkraut;
– a country from which many people emigrated to other European nations after joining the European Union;
– the state whose capital – Warsaw, was 84% destroyed during World War II and then rebuilt by the citizens;
– A country that, since the very beginning, was placed between two powers (Russia and Germany) and which, however, managed to maintain its separate identity. This national identity sometimes resembling a collision of the West (we, the Poles, always wanted to be treated as a Western country) with the inalienable Eastern mentality;
– The state whose current borders and ethnicity were imposed. It happened without our will, after the II World War.
– A country that despite many historical perturbations managed to give many genius units. These are, for example, Nicolaus Copernicus, Fryderyk Chopin, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Wisława Szymborska, Pope John Paul II, Stanislaw Lem or Zdzisław Beksinski;
– A country about which I sometimes think that, in fact, nothing is unusual here. People are typical. Indeed, it is the most common and mundane place that can exist.
At the same time, after a moment of reflection, I find something contrary. I believe that I was lucky to be born in this and not another place, in this particular period.
I often see Poland as a magical, ambivalent, imbued with the contradictions country. A homeland that I love so much that I can’t imagine living elsewhere. Of course, sometimes I feel offended by Poland. How? Mainly during football matches. I can get angry when I see Polish footballers in action. If you do not know what I mean, check the results from Mundial 2018.
So, my dear visitor, would you want to visit this “exotic” place?
