Mailing It In

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

It’s a presidential election year. How’s that for stating the obvious? It has been a remarkable year for me as I watch the whole process from Poland. Since the conventions this past summer, I have seen no television commercials. No, “I approve this message.” No smears, no bragging, no huge promises. My view of the presidential race has been limited to what I see on CNN, EuroNews, and the internet. In other words, unless I WANT to hear/read about the race, I don’t have to hear/read about the race. Added to that is that the coverage, even on CNN is not overwhelming. It is reported daily but it is not the only news story or even the most important one. The current financial crisis has taken more news time than the election. That is not to say there has been no coverage. There have been specials to introduce each of the candidates for president and vice president. The conventions were covered in depth. Each of the debates was aired at the time it happened and replayed later for those of us not keen to watch television at 2:00 am.

I have been intrigued to listen to the reporters on EuroNews as they discuss the US presidential race. They, obviously, have a different view of American politics than American citizens. For some, curiosity seems to be paramount and those are the reporters I enjoy listening to most. They seem very even-handed in their coverage—compared to some CNN reporters who seem to indicate their preferences as they report the story.

Besides what I see on television and on the internet, I have spoken with a couple of Polish citizens about the election. One person, in particular, had very strong opinions about who should win and some fear about who would win. In fact, that has been one of the more interesting things about watching the race from the “outside”; listening to people from other countries discussing our presidential race.

Easel and I have done our part to participate in the election process; yesterday we mailed our absentee ballots. It was very strange. First, we ordered the ballots with some help from the American Embassy. We received the ballots within a few weeks. On Sunday, we each marked our ballots and slipped them into the envelopes. Monday morning, I walked to the local post office to send the ballots back to Missouri. There was a difference between this post office and one “back home”. I went in and in my poor Polish told the woman behind the counter that I wanted to send my ballots by priority mail. She immediately weighed them, got out appropriate stamps, put priority mail stickers on the envelopes, told me the price, took my money, and handed the envelopes back to me. So, for a second, I’m standing there like a fool, looking around for a place to drop them! Having expected the postal worker to keep the envelopes, I was unprepared to deal with them. I finally discovered the mail drop box OUTSIDE the post office. The learning process continues!

This election year, it has taken a little more work but I still feel like an active participant in the American democratic process. (And NO political ads!!!)

Malbork Castle

Monday, October 13, 2008

I think I’m beginning to like traveling more than I ever have before. We made another little trip this past weekend. We rode the train from Warsaw to Malbork. We had a four-hour trip and we only planned to stay one night. Great! We each packed in our backpacks, hopped the tram, boarded the train and we were off! We arrived in Malbork and walked from the train station to our hotel—approximately two kilometers or 1 ¼ miles for Americans. The weather was beautiful and just right for a little walk. Our hotel was the Hotel Zamek. (Zamek is a Polish word for castle.) Our hotel was part of the castle complex that we had traveled to see and was at one time a hospital. The inside of the hotel was very nicely done, although we didn’t spend very much time there.

The castle complex itself was very much what I had pictured a castle to be. Although I must say it was much larger than anything I had imagined! This place was huge! Before I get into describing all the things we saw, I should mention a little bit of history.
The castle at Malbork—in German it is called Marienburg—was built by the Teutonic Knights. I won’t go into their history other than to say they started out as a “hospitaller” brotherhood in the Holy Land during the crusades and became a chivalric order a few years later. They were invited to help defend a duchy in Poland from Prussian invaders and by 1276 were beginning construction of their castle. They were a great power until they were defeated in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.

This place was absolutely amazing! On the river side of the castle, there were at least four walls between the river (part of the defensive system) and the “High Castle”. On the land side of the castle there were at least five walls that I could count and I believe there was another around the town of Malbork. If someone made it to the main gate through the outer bailey, they still had to get through five gates and doors and a portcullis or two. If they managed that, they were only in the courtyard of the “Medium Castle” and still had a drawbridge and several more doors and gates to get into the “High Castle”. The castle was never taken and stood for about 500 years, until methods of warfare changed.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the castle had fallen into disrepair but in the 1800’s an effort began to restore it. A great deal of time, money and effort went into repairing great halls that had been used as granaries and bringing back the Gothic beauty of the castle. It was a grand attempt to return the castle to some of its former greatness. Then the world went to war. In my pictures, I have two photos that show the devastation done to the castle during World War II. It is so exciting to see all the restoration work that is going on at the castle. Everywhere you go, there are glimpses of the past and of the lifestyle of the Teutonic Knights.
Easel and I walked around the outside of the entire castle complex on Friday (including our trip from the train station, we walked about 5.6 miles on Friday in Malbork) and then spent several hours looking at the inside of the castle on Saturday—paid admission plus the charge for taking photos! We had a great time. Breakfast was even a fun thing because we were among very few other people staying in the hotel—three tables were set for breakfast. No one else entered the dining room while we were there so we very much enjoyed our cozy breakfast for two served by a friendly waiter.

While seeing the castle was the focus of this trip and we enjoyed that tremendously, we had a couple of things happen that were very nice and one thing that was not so nice. We came across a cashier in a small store who was very friendly and smiled at us! We had dinner at a restaurant in town where the owner came and spoke to us and was very friendly! Those were unexpected bonuses on this trip because we have come to be surprised by smiles and friendliness from cashiers, waiters, or shop owners. The “not so nice” thing happened on the train home. Easel had ordered our train tickets online and, following the instructions on the website, had printed out our tickets—one for going and one for returning. On the way home, after the conductor had checked the ticket, another conductor entered our compartment to reprimand me (it really was my fault, I was stretching my leg and had my foot resting on the cup holder space between two seats) and then asked Easel for our tickets. Easel handed him the form and this conductor immediately began to fuss at Easel demanding tickets! Easel said, “That is the ticket.” The conductor said, “No, this is the reservation! Tickets!” It took a few minutes but Easel was eventually able to convince this man that we were, indeed, paying customers. Amazing. He didn’t care that the other conductor had stamped the form. I’m not sure he even saw the stamp. Apparently, this was his first encounter with an “e-ticket”. Oh, well.