Poland’s Seaside

As Ian has returned from holidays, he has passed the holiday baton to me, as I have been partaking of the few first days of my two weeks off work. Last year my wife and I went to Italy by car – this time we decided to hit the Polish seaside, namely Ustka in Pomorskie. Below are some observations.

Gradual road improvement

A definite positive to come from the European Championships being held here was the push for infrastructural improvement in order to facilitate travel between venues. This was highlighted on our way from the south to the north, with two experiences showing the past/present against the present/future. The town of Włocławek seemed to be one big set of road-works, with most roads being dug up and the remaining ones being an obstacle course in pothole-avoidance. However, not long after the A1 highway began, bypassing Toruń before continuing about 200 kilometres to meet the edge of Gdańsk. From leaving originally to reaching Gdańsk, it took us about 6.5 hours, which seemed faster than expected. Now, it was a Sunday morning when we did most of the driving, and if there was any traffic, most of it seemed to be travelling against us, back to the south or centre of Poland. However the road improvements look like hitting home, although with the Euros finished, the impetus to continue might not be there.

Cold as Ice

When Polish friends and colleagues asked where I was about to go for holidays and I said “the Polish seaside”, the immediate response was almost always, “The water is sooo cold there”. I have to say that I have not felt the extremity of the coldness that everyone was warning me about. For example, yesterday the air temperature was 23 degrees, while the water temperature was 18 degrees. Of course, the water is not exactly warm at that temperature either, but considering that it’s the Baltic Sea, and perhaps factoring in the small difference in air and sea temperature, it did not feel too bad. Perhaps it would be different in the peak of summer in July, with a day of sun and temperatures of 30+ degrees.

Here fishy, fishy

Fresh fish can be seen as a luxury, at least in the south of Poland. There is an understanding in Kraków that if you want to sample the best of the ‘fruits of the sea’, then you have to order fish on Thursday evenings, Fridays or Saturdays, as fresh fish only arrives in town on Thursday. The closer you get to the sea, this luxury becomes a bounty. The past few days have seen menus of dorsz (cod), fląder (flounder), łosoś (salmon), pstrąg (trout) and halibut presented to us, all caught within the previous 24 hours. It almost makes me think twice about being a devout meat-eater. Almost…

Nostalgia – it ain’t what it used to be

The Polish seaside retains a certain charm about it, although more and more Poles will find themselves choosing between going abroad or staying at home for their summer holidays. The seaside has personal historical significance for many Poles as it would have been the main options for holidays when they were growing up.  This would be true even down to the locations which people would visit. My wife told me the story of how she was discussing the Polish seaside with two colleagues from work and found that the three of them all went to the same little town north of Gdynia, even though they come from three different locations in central and southern Poland and would have travelled to the seaside in different years, based on age differences.

The heady mixture of salt air, fresh fish, sand between your toes and the sound of the lapping waves builds memories worth holding onto, which shows why large numbers of the fellow tourists we encountered tended to be Polish families with small children (usually infants younger than school-going age). The only requirements for a successful holiday for them would be a bucket, spade, bathing suits, sun-tan lotion and plenty of gofry and ice-cream. Thus for Poles the sea will always maintain that mystical nostalgia which will continue to bring people back.

National Safety Experiment

Experiments are what moves the humanity forward, but the particular one carried out in Poland over the past weekend turned out to be a flop… Predictably.

The originator of the venture called “A weekend without causualties“* was the National Roads and Motorways Authority. The end was noble and maybe for that reason it justified peculiar means harnessed to attain it.

If you thought that drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and other roads users were encouraged to change their habits, behave more safely, avoid risky moves, act considerately, then sorry guys, you were wide of the mark. The PR agency that was responsible for preparing the campaign figured out it would not pay off to tell people to behave safely, not to speed, not to sit behind the wheel, nor cycle, after drinking alcohol. The core of the campaign was a clear message – if you’re potentially dangerous, stay at home. It’s best not to move at all. Don’t try to drive considerately, don’t drive at all! Of course there are situations such as being under the influence, when one surely should not drive any vehicle (including bikes), but sweeping the problem under the carpet is not a commendable method of coping with it. Education seems to be better that urging on abstention, doesn’t it?

And predictably the bottom line figures are pretty dire. The police has already provided us with preliminary stats and they reveal number of participants to the experiment was grossly insufficient. Over the last weekend there were:
525 accidents (excluding prangs), in which:
71 people died,
650 were injured,
and, watch out for the Polish roads’ hit, the police detained 2,794 drunk drivers.

Some of you would say pretty disgarceful state of Polish roads is to blame. Others would disagree and say despite this road users are guilty. Indeed driving around Poland is not a bed of roses, but we owe it not only to underdeveloped road infrastructure, but also to ourselves. A wise driver adjusts their speed and technique of driving to conditions on the road and failure to comply with this simple rule is the cause of many accidents. It’s not an excuse that the road was narrow, pot-holed, winding and without pavement. I’d also love to have wide three-lane dual carriageways with non-collision junctions, crash barriers, separate pavements, etc., but as we don’t have it yet, we have to drive slowly.

Speed kills, but speed also excites, makes us feel better, more self-confident, sexier, more powerful, but speed is, in my opinion not the main cause of traffic accidents in Poland. It’s not alcohol as well. It’s, if I’m not wrong, the failure to foresee other roads users’ moves. Driving is about thinking and predicting what can go wrong. If you don’t learn you should not declare you are a good driver. Maybe it’s weird, but every time I sit behind the wheel, before I start the engine, I trigger a thought that I can have an accident along the way, I don’t take it for granted I’ll reach my destination safely. This doesn’t have to help me avert mishaps, but probably if more drivers did it, number of accidents on Polish roads would be lower…

* I itinitally wanted to use the word “fatalities”, just later on it occured to me that you don’t have to die in an accident to be a victim of it…

Calling All Cars!

For those that have travelled on Polish roads, there are many things to watch out for, not least the potentially erratic driving skills of Polish drivers and road quality levels. However, another point which catches the eye is how many cars tend to have multiple aerials (or antennae) protruding from various parts of the vehicles. Naturally, most of the aerials are the small 40-50 centimetre kind, ubiquitous in cars for picking up commercial radio stations.

However, quite often you can find a car with another aerial on it, usually quite long (maybe even up to a metre in length). This second antenna will usually be found attached over the boot (trunk) of the car, with the power cable connecting back into the boot. This is used to provide a CB radio system for drivers navigating their way across Poland. Now, those who travel about mostly in Polish cities only might not see these aerials on cars too often (apart from taxis of course), but once you move to the expressways, highways and (occasional) motorways, they are more common.

In other countries, CB radios would be associated more with truck drivers, and long-haul truckers especially. Films such as Smokey and the Bandit in particular helped to foster the image of the CB radio user being on the wild side and helping to win against ‘The Man’. This image was also popularised by the usage of the CB radio Ten Codes which came more into day-to-day usage. Terms such as “What’s your 20?”, meaning ‘Where are you located?’ transitioned from CB usage into daily life, for a while at least.

This has also then been adapted into Polish ways. Many drivers who use the CB radios will use them to find out from other drivers if there might be any roadworks in the area to be aware of, some traffic build-up, or perhaps to warn others of police checkpoints or speed checks to be aware of. While the points around traffic and roadworks may be more limited nowadays due to improvements in GPS data, availability and device usage, many drivers will still use CBs to give shout outs to fellow drivers to give warning of police car locations, confirming the attitude of ‘sticking it to the Man’.

An interesting note around how Polish drivers use CBs though, is highlighted by the below examples:

Weekday driving

Driver 1: “Uwaga! Police doing speed checks on the A25 between Bydgoszcz and Morzewiec! F***ers almost caught me, but I got down to 72 (km/h) before I passed them.”

Driver 2: “Lucky s***! I got collared last week. Had to pay 300zl and got 10 points. Ba***rds are just jealous of my BMW.”

Driver 3: “Horrible roadworks on the A80 near Toruń. I nearly lost a wheel in a hole the size of a f***ing elephant!”

 

Sunday driving

Driver 1: “Would any of the esteemed gentlemen on this broadcast channel know of a restaurant of fine repute for Sunday lunch?”

Driver 2: “There’s a marvellous Italian establishment on the road from Poznań to Wroclaw. Kind sir should be warned of potential delays due to the variable road conditions though.”

Driver 3: “Oh that should be no problem. I’m just taking a leisurely drive on a Sunday afternoon.”

The theory behind the above exchanges is that during the week-time, the majority of such drivers using CBs tend to be long-term, long distance drivers, sitting alone in their cars traversing the highways and byways of Poland, aiming to get where they want to be as quick as possible, regardless of what is in the way. On Sundays however, it tends to be families out for a Sunday drive or looking for Sunday lunch, and language tend to be self-moderated in a way not required during the week.

Finally, ham radio does also have a following in Poland, with the Polish Amateur Radio Union (Polskie Zwiazek Krótkofolawców) having been in place since about 1922. However, as a hobby and a communication form it is probably dying out. It had suffered difficulty in the past with various governments cracking down on who could own radio receivers and transmitters. It is also being squeezed by modern technology with the internet replacing it as a communication method, which car-based CB radios are required less due to GPS devices, either in hand-held device format or in mobile phones. However, for regular Polish drivers, it still remains a way to build a type of camaraderie and source of information while driving.