Tag Archives: Poland

Destination Krakow, Poland

My first trip to Eastern Europe led me to the beautiful city of Krakow, Poland. Dianna Fisher, the20160416_102628 director of Open Oregon State, and I were presenting on the OSU Open Textbook Initiative at Open Education Global 2016. OSU is a really new member of Open Education Consortium, the global network for open education.  Attendees from all over the world were in attendance.  Most U.S. participants are from community colleges since in our country they are at the forefront of open education adoption. This is not a library conference so there weren’t a lot of us in attendance.  That said, it is clear that faculty outside libraries are looking to academic librarians to be partners.

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AGH Library interior

The host institution is AGH University of Science and Technology, obviously a technical university, established in 1913.  Other campus libraries always interest me so I did peek into AGH’s but you’d have to have an ID to get much further into the building.

Conference Highlights:

  • All the plenary panels were excellent; these sessions demonstrated not only the global nature of the OE movement but the huge successes across Europe. Both the opening and closing panels were strong. The opening keynote panel on “Opening Up Poland” had reps from across government, higher education and IT; the closing keynote featured Jarosław Lipszyc, the President of the Modern Poland Foundation—quite a charismatic guy.
  • Learning about the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), the first open and distant learning institution in the West African region;
  • A lab/workshop on advocating for open education through the Open Government Partnership;
  • Caleb Green’s report on the Creative Commons 2016-2020 Strategy and their 2015 annual report; this is a session that I could likely expect to hear in the states but I don’t get to the more focused conferences as I often as I once did.
  • Another terrific lab/workshop on the Open Research Agenda—this was not on how to “open up” research but where the research energy investigating OE issues ought to be focused. It occurs to me that this is a pretty good approach to leveraging your efforts and FTE so you aren’t spending time investigating dead ends.

Dianna Fisher and I had good attendance at our session (about 20-25 in attendance); we were joined by a couple of other presenters. After our presentation, someone came up to Dianna and told her he liked our presentation. This person also told her that we weren’t nearly as pompous as most Americans. At some point, I hope to put our presentation in ScholarsArchive.

Other Trip Highlights

Krakow as a destination exceeded my expectations. Compared to other places I’ve visited in Europe, it is quite inexpensive. My partner and I rented a great 1-bedroom apartment for about $75 a day. Polish cuisine is wonderful and a meal that would cost you $50 in Portland is about $25. Of course, I am not afraid to try new tastes:  delicious soups: borscht (beet soup), horseradish soup, sour rye; pierogi or filled dumplings; fried lard with fresh baked bread. Bagels originated in Poland and you can find them for sale all over the city. Even the conference food was outstanding. The opening conference reception offered a feast with various Polish dishes and we were entertained by a young Polish folk dance group.

My sightseeing included:

  • Rynek Glowny or Grand Square, the main square in Krakow with loads of activity;

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    Rynek Glowny at night

  • St. Mary’s Basilica, the location where a trumpeter plays five-notes from a Polish anthem from the church tower;
  • Kazmierz or the Jewish District where thousands of Krakow’s Jews lived before their forced move by the Nazis just a bit south across the Vistula River to Podgórze;
  • Podgórze, which became known as the Jewish ghetto, is the location of Schindler’s Factory; we also visited the exhibits here made famous in the Spielberg movie Schindler’s List.
  • A guided tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the concentration camps located about an hour from Krakow.   I am not sorry I did the tour though I am not sure I need to expose myself to another one in my lifetime. Both my partner and I agreed that going with a guide was the best option. I am not sure how we would have gotten through the tour without the guide pushing us along.  Scenes below include belongings of the camp’s victims like shoes and dinnerware.
  • Wieliczka Salt Mine which is actually pretty close to Krakow. The mine features lots of statutes and chapels carved out of rock salt by the miners themselves. This mine and its sister mine as well as Auschwitz-Birkenau are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
  • Wawel Castle–the amazing residence for Polish kings for centuries; it’s difficult to photograph because it encompasses multiple structures (cathedral, residence, state rooms), courtyards, gardens.
  • Nowa Huta, a suburb of Krakow which the Soviets planned after they occupied Poland in the post WW2 era. Nowa Huta was planned with the idea that folks from surrounding rural areas would move there to work in the steelworks. Given the Communists’ dismissal of organized religion, they did not plan for building churches. This was apparently a critical mistake and the local workers’ push for churches was a significant underpinning of the Solidarity movement. Karol Wojtyla, whom we know best as Pope John Paul II, was then archbishop in Krakow, and he was a big supporter of the trade union as well.

Richard Sapon-White had suggested I read A Long, Long Time Ago, and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka.  I am glad I took him up on this suggestion.  Often in my travels, I endeavor to read a book set in the location where I am headed. Much of Pasulka’s novel is set in Krakow right after the communist regime has fallen. There is a parallel and interlinked narrative about a young couple set in the inter-war years leading up to WW2 and through the period just after the Nazi occupation of Poland. Pasulka really brings the city to life. I would recommend this book even if you aren’t planning a trip to Poland anytime soon. Since I am a fast reader, I also read a short book on a black German woman who discovered that her grandfather was the commandment overseeing Podgorze. He was the evil sadistic character Amon Goeth that Ralph Fiennes portrayed in Schindler’s List. The book is My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege. Teege’s book was an interesting look at how descendants of Nazi war criminals have dealt with their ancestors’ horrific crimes against humanity. Since I’ve been home I have also read a terrific short young adult novel, Anna and the Swallow Man.  Highly recommended.