pics #638 - #687

Thursday March 3rd - Red Self-Existing Moon
There was a misunderstanding with Michał yesterday about the time I leave. It makes him late for work and not willing to hear any excuse. Not the best ambience for leaving a host. Out without breakfast, but after yoga practice, I do a minimum of food groceries in a Polish supermarket named "Lewiatan": narrow alleys, it is a different style that the western temples of consumerism in the name of the holy trinity of dollar, euro and yuan. I have breakfast sitting on the grass in Nowa Hutta -an area built as the 'ideal communist city'-, facing the fields. The weather is still clear and cold. I am enjoying again walking in the city center, I like it, it feels relaxed, space.

          Barbakan and Florianska Gate

          Mały Rynek
My new housing is a squat, I am explained by Piotr: light from candles, little electricity, gas bottle for cooking, heating with wood/coal stove. Quite rare for a squat, its tenants use no tobacco nor alcohol. At diner I feel very cold, contrast with the previous hosts who put a high thermostat temperature in their house, here the use of a pullover is highly recommended ... AND IT IS LOGIC IN WINTER! There live a group of people aware and active in all kind of movements, for tolerance, freedom. They are replacing comfort by sociability. I like the style.

Friday March 4th - White Overtone Dog
This morning I can cook my breakfast, for the first time since I entered Krakow. MY OWN breakfast. Later meeting Ania at the yoga studio where she is enthusiastic about having an agreement with the owner for next week. I discover the public library, with free internet access and a nice vegan restaurant where I two other types of Pierogis. It is time to be back on a more yogic diet.

          Irresistible sunlight

Saturday March 5th - Blue Rhythmic Monkey
On Saturday, the shops close in the early afternoon, around 15h-16h. I walk a lot in the city, from the squat in Podgorze, over the river through Kazimierz to the city center. The sun is shining in a clear sky as usual since my arrival in Krk, giving beautiful lights on the buildings. I am feeling well to walk again and again through these streets. There is a double B-day party at the squat with great food and a lot of cakes. No surprise for people who know me: I manage to taste all of them while talking with Janek, a cool yoga instructor and cyclist who organizesCritical Masses in Krakow.

          Need a native French for the cuisine?

          This bridge plays as itself in The Schindler's List movie

Sunday March 6th - Yellow Resonant Human
I am visiting Magda and Maciek, for a good chat and to get my contact-lenses sent from The Netherlands. I was back on glasses because during the crossing of the mountains, the lens-liquid froze, subsequently the use of lenses hurted my eyes. Back at the squat it is empty because they are at a demonstration for women rights. Soon Piotr comes, running away from undercover cops apparently. Besides Poland has numerous neo-nazis groups that fight against the anarchist movement. The highlight of the day is (enter the drums) : taking a shower! It is a long process: warming the water on the gas stove, then filling the plastic tin with a mix of hot and cold water and attaching it up in the bathroom to finally enjoy a warm shower. Definitely not a system to promote a daily shower, which makes me think about the people in the world for whom such a shower is a blessing.

Monday March 7th - Red Galactic Skywalker
I got the blues today (bis). Having received no news of friends being not to well, being stuck in Krakow without any advancement on the yoga teaching possibility, no progress on my knee pain. Indecision. Indeed, freedom is a burden, and I offered myself a big shot of it. And I can hear Jim asking: "Can you picture what will be so limitless as free, desperately in need of some stranger's hand ?"

Tuesday March 8th - White Solar Wizard
The blues goes on while I am doing groceries for fresh vegetables according to a book on dietetic I am reading. It is an amazing book by Adelle Davis, reedited in 1970, in which she simply describes the role of each nutrient, how a lack of one creates diseases, how this conditions are rising since the food are being refined. During processing, essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals are lost, her opinion is that government regulation (the FDA in the US) are not in favor of their people's heath. In forty years, the situation became worse, unfortunately the words of wise people do not easily get through profit oriented fog. I am going back from shopping through Kopiec Krakusa, in a natural site in the middle of the city, sitting there in the sun for a while. Iy make me feel better and it gets my ideas back in place. I decide not to teach yoga classes in Krakow and to leave the city next week. This decision releases me from the blues and after two hours of Primary Series, a smile rises in my heart.

Wednesday March 9th - Blue Planetary Eagle
A walk in the city, diner in the squat, later meeting couchsurfers in a pub. Even in Poland, I do not avoid the "you speak good English for a French" remark. Do you know what I think of the close-minded ones who think through stereotypes? Well the answer is in the question.

Thursday March 10th - Yellow Spectral Warrior
With a strong determination to start building an efficient daily routine, I decided yesterday to stand up when the alarm clock rings, and refrain from giving me extra 10 minutes that end up with 2 extra hours. And today it works, it is special enough to have a morning snow contrasting with the sunny days we had. this is a cold and gray day We need to buy coal for our stoves. Relaxing on a book after cooking. Near the nutrition book I found another pearl, titled "prosperit without growth" by Tim Jackson. He proves with numbers and pictures and tables that a rise in salary doesn't make people happier or healthier above a certain minimum. The economical growth of rich countries has, to the countrary destroyed a quality of life, especilally valuable human contacts. These facts are not new to me, what is importnat is that numbers are proving it and that it is written by a counsellor to the British Government: if politicians start hearing these opinions, there is a chance that mankind will see the next century.

Friday March 11th - Red Crystal Earth
Starting the day as well as yesterday. I am going around the bicycle stores, looking for a bicycle computer with altimeter function. Despite being in a country where free competition is supposed to give customers a wide panel of products there is only one model available having this function: the same in all shops. It is too expensive because having too many functions, useless to me. Well, I better do without, after all the need for an altimeter is only when altitude is above 3500m, when there is a risk of developping altitude sickness, and this is not before Tajikistan.

          The park which surrounds the old town center

          Communist style art?

Saturday March 12th - White Cosmic Mirror
It is hard to get out of the squat when all its inhabitants are gone, with the key, fortunately Arciom arrives and delivers me! I plan a route to Budapest through Slovakia and its mountains. Later I follow Marek that I met on Thursday to visit a wonderful site: a unused and flood quarry offers a wonderful swimming area with cliffs and a deep blue water.

          In a court

          The flooded quarry

          "Can you feel it now that spring has come
          And it's time to live in the scatterred sun"

Sunday March 13th - Blue Magnetic Storm
On Sunday some visits of the Wawel castle are free. So let's go! I also take an audio-guided visit of the Royal cathedral where each stone has a link to a page of the Polish history. Many people are simply walking in the citadel park, enjoying what looks like an early summer Sunday. I meet an Albanese woman who speaks French, and we head to the Kazimierz, the historical Jewish district. There we join a "free guided tour" that leads us on the other side of the river, in Podgorze, which was the ghetto during WWII, and where the Oskar Schindler enamel factory is. This was a nice day to follow the flow.

          Wawel citadel entrance

          Wawel citadel: the royal cathedral which embed Polish history