When I learned there was a jewish cemetery in Wroclaw (formerly Breslau in Prussia ) that was kept untouched and overrun by vegetation as a museum since the war , I thought I had to go see it .
First time I discovered a central european cemetery with jewish graves was in Chernovtsy , in Ukraine , then the Soviet Union . I was travelling with friends in a rented black Volga M24 and we had stopped near a long wall with a breach in it in the suburb . I had peered the treasure through the hole and suggested a look . Inside , it was a maze of all kind of graves , jewish , german , old russian and ukrainian, soviet graves with red stars... all of that in a dense and wild vegetation as if forgotten for years . Had time to take a few pics , but on the other side of the road was another long wall : A military facility , and while I was looking at the graves , guards had come to the car and asked my friends to leave immediately .This short first experience left me a deep impression that I kept in memory when I decided to visit the Wroclaw cemetery . As you wander in the alleys , every detail , names or things written on the tombstones make you think to the 30's and 40's around here .
on the decline , certainly not Poland .
It is both a modern country with a booming economy ( as it seems ) and a quiet and traditional one . What strikes the visitor is everyone , from all age , has a cell phone , internet cafes are common and affordable ( 3 Zl an hour , or 0,7 Euro ) , and young people are often fluent in english .
War has left big scars , with many historic city centers reduced to several blocks , then come the drab housing blocks built in the 50's and 60's , that they happily sometimes recently painted with nice colors . And even what looks like historic city centers have often been rebuilt from scratch after complete WW2 destruction .
The unsuspecting tourist may think this part of town never suffered that bad .
Churches are in use , even on weekdays and services are held at different times of the day . It is not uncommon to see young women and men enter to join the assembly .
Their train system is efficient . The fastest train , the IC ( Inter City ) is the equivalent of our "train corail" in France , except the service is better . A young woman does all the train at the beginning of the journey with a cart to serve for free: bottled water , coffee , tea , with a biscuit bar .
French retailers are massively present here , all the big names ( Carrefour , Auchan , Leclerc, Geant , Leroy Merlin , Castorama ) have built supermarkets in most suburbs of polish towns . But small retailers like the many kiosks that were in use in the communist times are still there , selling all kind of things . In the cities , an avid consumering culture has taken hold , with gleaming commercial centers here and there and all the usual brand stores seen elsewhere in Europe .
I discovered Poland has an exceptional shoe industry with many different designs & styles . I bought some and am now a fan of polish shoes .
They love dogs , that are often muzzled ( by law I presume ) .
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