Średnia Wieś and Bieszczady

Welcome to Średnia Wieś

Basia and me in Solina. She's wearing the hat that I had to buy myself on that day, because it was hot, the sun was blazing, and my bald head needed protection from the threat of a sunburn. She looks far better in it than I do.

One of the most pleasant surprises that we encountered on our trip was a run in with a peacock farm, a very short walk from Basia's home. Here, the male peacock is shaking his feathers in an attempt to woo a female, who unfortunately managed to walk out of the picture entirely. It was amazing to see how big these feathers were - they were around as tall as me! This felt like a real privilege to be witness to!

Originally, I had wanted to have this be the last post, or the final word, if you will, on this trip. The final picture, which is the town's name with a red slash through it (these kinds of signs are common place in Europe) was going to be the final picture on the final blog entry about the trip. But, I have been doing a series of posts on the trip that have, admittedly, been rather slow to process. You see I took a lot of pictures. I mean, thousands, literally. If I was going to err, it seemed prudent to err on the side of caution, and take too many, rather than not enough. But it made it difficult to go through and choose them, as well as to send them to my email, than download them on this web page. The computer oftne froze, and sometimes crashed, even. Also, I wanted to add a little caption or description, something, for each place I visited. But again, this took a long while - much longer than I at first expected it to.

So now, there are some places that I visited which I have not even mentioned yet. Mostly, I have not added the Krakow pictures of posts, because there are just so many pictures, that it has taken a long time to download and then arrange them, let alone write something about each place.

These will come in time, but honestly, I thought that I'd either be done by now, or wrapping it up. Instead, all of the Krakow aspect of the trip remains. So, I had to submit this one before Krakow, which was not as originally intended. But since this was the main focal point of the trip, and was always the final aspect of it, the trip more or less revolved around our stay in Średnia Wieś. It seemed appropriate that I add this post, even if it came well after Krakow.

Średnia Wieś is in the region known as the Bieszczady. This is a mostly rural, heavily wooded region with mountains, lakes, and streams. I had always wondered why there had been so many invasions of Poland, and so many wars over the territory. After seeing the beauty that abounds here, it is no longer that surprising. It is beautiful. Rich farmland, beautiful, pastoral scenes, and some gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside. The Bieszczady is a part of Poland that is nestled in between the Ukraine and Slovakia, and marks the edge of the Carpathian mountains. It is unique in Poland, and with the woods and relative rural isolation, it harbors more animals than other regions of Poland and Europe. Here, there are brown bears (in the same family as grizzlies, as I understand it), as well as wolves. We did not see any of them during our visit, although there was a local news report during the trip that told of a man who had a scary encounter with a bear. Also, maybe I am just crazy, but I could swear that one night, early on (maybe even the first night we were there), I could hear a wolf's howl somewhere off in the distance, answered quickly by several local dogs (everyone in this region of Poland has plenty of pets and farm animals, even if their property is no longer a farm, strictly speaking).

Średnia Wieś is right at what can be considered the beginning of the Bieszczady. It is a small town. Blink or sneeze, and you might miss it. But it is a pretty town, that features one old church dating back centuries, and a newer church that seems to still be on the way towards completion. There was a hill that apparently is known as "Hangman's Hill" in Polish, because it as the place were a lot of people were apparently hung in the past. As I understand it, there is no shortage of ghost stories about that place, as well. I wanted to go at nighttime, but Basia absolutely and steadfastly refused. 

This is a small town, but has a lot of charm. It is surrounded by fields, some of which remain active farms, and some were farms that have now fallen into disuse. There is one major artery that traverses through the center of town, and a few paved offshoots. But smaller roads tend to be gravel. It is very rural, and the population of farm animals greatly outnumber the population of people here. It is that kind of a place. By and large, once it reached a certain hour, it got completely quiet. All in all, this was a refreshing break from suburban New Jersey.

So here, without further ado, are some pictures from that part of the trip:  

One of the things that you will notice right away in this region is that many of the properties have two homes. More often than not, there is the old and often dilapidated home, dating back from the days of Communist occupation. Then, there is the more modern home, that more or less compares with modern, Western homes. These pictures down below were some of the examples, which includes the family home, as well as that of the neighbor, which you can see on the top.

Solina

It is apparently said that they used so much concrete in building this dam in Solina, that they could have built a wall around the entire Polish border. It was a lot of concrete, but not an obscene amount, or anything. Hard to believe that they could actually build what most people would consider a wall, unless perhaps it is half a foot high or less, and quite thin.

The artificial lake that was created when they built the dam. It is picturesque, a very beautiful setting.

Not everything was beautiful or ideal. They had these weird, apparently anti-Semitic souvenirs, that seem to portray Hasidic Jews. You see a coin, a huge money sign, and the caption, very loosely translated, has something to do with coming to the region if you want to make big money. Not a pleasant thing to run into, but it was a reality, a part of the trip there, so I felt I needed to add it. There is still a lot of prejudice throughout Europe (and everywhere else), but it is particularly strong in Eastern Europe. I had heard that, but this seemed to reinforce that. Given the history of the region, and frankly, the scarcity of Jews in the region nowadays, this came as a little shock to me to see something so blatantly anti-Semitic.

Lesko

Lesko

Średnia Wieś

The new church of Średnia Wieś, with a much larger seating capacity than the old church, which is pictured down below, and which Basia's father said had been built at a time centuries ago to serve the local barony, and not as much the local townspeople. Basia's father is an accomplished and capable wood worker, and much of the interior of the churhc was his work. That includes the confessional, as well as the balcony in front of the organ, both pictures below. I forgot to add a picture of what the church looks like from the outside, but will try to remember to do so in the near future.

Here are some pictures of the old church of Średnia Wieś, dating back at least four hundred years, as I understand it:

Bachlawa is the town that neighbors Średnia Wieś. I think that I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I figure it could use a description here, as well. In Europe, when leaving a town, they often have these signs with the town name, and then a red slash across it. They are the equivalent of "You are now leaving...." signs in the United States. My brother said that these types of signs in Europe might seem very dramatic to Americans, which is true. They stand out for me, for example. Somehow or other, this is one of the simple pleasures, just a little thing, really, that I very much enjoy of Europe, and which adds much charm, although I am not even entirely sure why.

The sign announcing entry into town.

Poland is a very Catholic country. Catholicism has a grip on the country as I imagine it once did in France and in Quebec. You see the signs of this dominance all over the place. I saw these flags in many, many towns - the flag of Poland, as well as flags with the colors of the Vatican, and the Church. But you could see signs of how religious the country still is in other ways, as well. There were far more priests and monks and nuns than I have seen anywhere in the United States, or Canada, or France. They are more present also on television, including children's programming, as well as popular television in the evenings, such as detective programs, where one show featured a priest who would help the police to solve crimes. It should be remembered that Pope John Paul II was the first Polish pope, and he is every bit as iconic here in Poland as Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr. is in the United States. Also, the congregation on Sunday mass was filled beyond capacity. I decided to go with Basia, who wanted to attend one of these services, and there were plenty of people standing outside, listening to the services via microphone. The impression that I got was that this was a regular occurrence. In any case, trust me -Catholicism is definitely alive and well in Poland!

This picture was taken from the grounds of what used to be the property of a local nobleman or barony. There used to be a castle, and perhaps formal gardens, although I am not sure about the gardens. In any case, it apparently was destroyed during the war. Still, an interesting bit of history.

A huge trunk of a split tree, very close to the old church of Średnia Wieś. This tree may look typical, but it was a surprisingly big tree. The trunk was probably wider than my height, if I had laid down next to it, although I don't remember it being exceptionally tall. In the background, there is the old wall of the church which, if I understood right, dated back centuries. They actually apparently moved the location of the wall several metres, although I am not entirely sure why.

Leaving the present day gates of the old church.

This was a sign inside of Średnia Wieś advertising what looked like a hotel or health resort, or something. The name is what captured my attention, which served as a reminder of the region that we were in - the Carpathians.

On the second or third to last evening of our stay in Średnia Wieś, at the home of Basia's parents, they had a little barbecue party/getogether. It was fun, with a lot of people I had not met before. There was a local musician from the town, and he brought the accordian, and played it very capably, I might add! It was not on the last night itself, but it almost felt like a de facto end to our trip. I have only pleasant memories of that evening, and of our trip overall. Below are some of the pictures from that family gathering.

This was Basia's old school. I had plenty of time to take pictures by this point, because Basia had run into some friends, although I likely would not have been allowed on school property. She kept running into people that she knew, which was not all that surprising, given how small the town is. In any case, I thought it was interesting, and so here it is.

Unfortunately, the trip did have to come to an end. However, it had gone by so fast, that it felt we had just arrived, when suddenly, we had to prepare to leave. Basia was, understandably, very upset to have to leave her native town, with her friends and family. I was sad on my end to be leaving the Old World in general, Poland in particular, and the wonderful people that I had met during my stay. Everyone (or almost everyone) seemed very hospitable and gracious. To leave that behind, in order to get back to the grind, the same old same old, was dispiriting for me, as well. Feeling the plane lift off from Polish soil was one of the saddest experiences that I have had lately, as I was not ready to go just yet. You know, you plan a trip like this for months and months, and then it just flies by. Two weeks feels more like two days. That said, this picture felt like the right picture to conclude this post with, since it was saying goodbye to Średnia Wieś, goodbye to the Bieszczady, to Poland in particular, and to Europe in general, at least for now.

 A Guide Book to  The Bieszczady  Where Devil say Good Night    Joe Boglino * Kirk Henwood   Cracov 1995, Page 128