1st of May, is International Workers Day, so it is a major holiday here. It is closely followed by 3rd May – which is Constitution Day. That makes for one long weekend. I have heard that a lot of people head out of town for the week, but I decided to walk downtown anyway, to see the what was going on to celebrate the day.
There really wasn’t much going on that I could see. A lot of people were walking back and forth down the street. I am sure there must have been parades sometime during the day, but I missed them.
As I walked I saw a woman in a red jacket with a huge bag of red roses. She wasn’t selling them, she just seemed to be taking them home. I angeled my phone, to take her photo without her seeming that I was. The stem of the roses went all the way to the bottom of the bag she was carrying. I have never seen roses that long.
I was glad to see that there were some street vendors out and about. I have been disappointed here that there are no daily street vendors. They only seem to come out on celebration days. I bought some grilled cheese with bilberry jam. It was one piece for 5zt. I really didn’t think it tasted any different from the ones I bought at the grocery store, two for 5zt, and pan fried at home.
I almost didn’t recognize the Adam Mickiewicz Monument as I walked past. Normally when I walked down that street there were minimal people on the sidewalks.
I saw a man cooking potato chips, which were spiral cut and threaded onto skewers. He was cutting fresh potatoes with a cutter powered by a drill. I wanted to buy some, but the flame went out on his fryer just as I joined his line. I walked down the street looking for another potato vendor, snice it seemed that each type of food had more than one vendor on the street.
After I gave up on finding another potato dealer, I heard Greek music being played. I followed it, until I found a stage where Greek folk dancers were performing. It made me think of my old building manager, George, and wondered what he would think to see his people here in Poland.
My walking goal for the day was to go to the Nicolaus Copernicus Monument. I was following Google maps, but during my walk I had forgotten just were I was going. I had it in my mind that I was going to the Chopin monument. I was a little surprised to look up and see Copernicus, when my earbud announced that I was at my destination.
Having reached my goal, I turned back down the street to walk home. I walked past a liquor store and was entertained by how alcohol looks in Polish. I garnered a few strange looks from people wondering why I was taking photos of the front of a store when there were so many other sites to be photographed. As I walked along I saw a convoy of police vans, going past more than once. I wondered what they were doing, but never figured it out. They didn’t seem to be moving with any urgency. Maybe they were just there to warn people to behave even on a holiday.
Having given up on finding another potato vendor, I stopped to buy cotton candy. It was a bit of a challenge to eat it in the wind. As I had been walking around, I had noticed several stands with the same signage with very very long lines. I figured that whatever was being sold at them, must be really good if the folks were waiting so long for it. I saw another one of those vendors near to the cotton candy stand. Since I just wanted to stand and eat my treat, I decided that I might as well stand in that line.
As I worked my way up the line, I saw people leaving the tent carrying containers of what looked like sorbet. The portions looked sort of small, so I was more convinced that it must really be good. When I was just a few people away from the front of the line, I realized that the sorbet was being given away. My expectations of it being good went down fast. Just before I was handed my portion, the vendors traded out and the young man who served me dished out generous portions. It turned out to be exceptionally good sorbet.
Despite the sunshine, the day was quickly becoming chilly, so I headed home. The day had turned out to be a bit more interesting than my normal walks around town.
