A walk through the residential areas of Poland. Rural Poland Zalip style and iron Felicia

Eighty kilometers from Krakow is the village of Zalipie, it is considered the most beautiful in Poland. The picturesque village of Zalipie is located in the south of the country, in the Lesser Poland region (Małopolska). This place is called the most beautiful not even for its colorful landscapes, unusual ponds or ancient temples. The peculiarity of Zalipye is the bright drawings on the walls of houses and barns, on wells and even doghouses. Every surface in this unique village becomes a “canvas” for folk artists. “It’s so beautiful here that it seems as if we were in an ethnographic museum or an unusual open-air gallery,” say tourists who come here for the first time.

History of painted houses.

Zalipa ornaments have been known for more than a hundred years. Their authors are mostly women who live in this region. The tradition of painting huts in Zalipye appeared in the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. The villagers did not have the finances to build a separate barn, so they often shared their shelter with cows, piglets, and chickens. At that time, village houses did not have chimneys. People cooked food on the hearth. The smoke came out through a special hole in the roof, and soot and dust settled on the walls. In such conditions, it was difficult for the housewives to clean up, but they tried their best to make the house look clean, cozy and beautiful. They regularly whitewashed the walls and painted circles of different sizes on them for beauty. Over time, flowers became the main motif of the drawings. Women made brushes from stems of millet, rye, or even horsehair. Instead of paint at the end of the century before last, they used soot, and it was diluted with milk. With the advent of dry dyes, patterns on houses became multi-colored. They began to be painted not only inside the house, but also to decorate the facade.

All-Polish glory.

The village of Zalipie became known throughout Poland thanks to a local young man who, at the beginning of the last century, left his village to work. In order not to forget about his native village, the guy took with him a napkin with Zalip patterns that his mother had drawn. Krakow researcher Wladislav Hikel saw bright flowers on a white canvas. It was he who first began to study the Zalipsky style and in 1905 wrote an article about it in the magazine “Lud”. Since 1948, the “Painted Hut” (Malowana chata) festival has been held in Zalipye every year, which nowadays attracts a huge number of tourists. During the festival, which traditionally takes place on the first weekend after the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi, local residents compete to see who has the most beautiful house. It is largely thanks to the competition that the tradition of painting houses lives on in the village to this day. On the occasion of the festival, many courtyards and houses of residents are open; everyone can admire the bright patterns not only on the facades, but also go into the home itself.

Zalipsky style and iron Felicia.

It is interesting that Zalipa artists, as a rule, do not use shades of one color; they work only with paints of primary colors. They outline the drawn poppies, cornflowers, daisies, tulips, and roses with a brown outline, and the leaves with a black outline. Folk artists decorate not only architectural structures with their ornaments, but also Easter dyes, tablecloths, dishes, and clothes.

The most famous artist of this region was Felicia Tsurilova. She was born in 1904 and lived all her life in her native village. She made her first drawing when she was ten years old. The girl took advantage of the fact that her parents were not at home, they went to the market in Tarnow, and painted the ceiling. As the legend goes, Felicia was severely scolded by her father, but even this could not stop her. She continued to draw, turning her passion into her life's work. Even during the times of the People's Republic of Poland, Tsurilova was a living icon of folk art; the press called her “the first lady of the Polish village.” At the end of the forties of the last century, excursions began to come to Zalipye; Tsurilova and other craftswomen were regularly invited to collaborate. Women came up with patterns for products from the Włocławek earthenware factory, painted the walls of cafes and restaurants, and even decorated one of the halls of the Ethnographic Museum. The decisions about what and where to draw were made by Mrs. Felicia. She was determined, self-confident and brave. Arriving in Szczecin for the party congress, she addressed the head of the PPR government, Józef Cyrankiewicz, from the podium: “It’s dark for us. We don't see what we are drawing. I won’t leave until you promise us electricity.” Thanks to Felicia’s courage, light appeared in Zalipye ten years earlier than in neighboring villages. When the Minister of Culture was going to come to the village, Tsurilova asked her husband to meet the capital’s chief in the city. At Felicia’s prompting, the artist’s husband took the minister in the most decrepit cart, along the worst roads. Some time after the trip, the authorities gave the order to lay asphalt in Zalipye.

Felicia Tsurilova passed away in 1974. The artist is buried in her native village. Her grave is decorated with ceramic tiles, which Mrs. Felicia painted with floral designs when she was alive. When they asked her why she was preparing tiles for her own grave, the woman answered: “I want art to remain with me even when I am no longer on this earth.” After the death of the national artist, her house was converted into a museum, where you can see not only famous patterns on the walls, stoves, wells and buckets, but also antique furniture, icons, and household items.

How to get there.

The village of Zalipie is located in Powiat Dąbrowski, fourteen kilometers from the town of Dąbrowa Tarnowska. The most convenient way to get there is by car.

The nearest railway station to Zalipie is located in the city of Tarnów. Trains go there from Krakow every half hour. You can travel from Tarnow to Zalipie by bus. If you want to spend the night in the village, you can do so; there is a mini-hotel there called “Gościna u babci” (“Visiting Grandma”). A wooden house for tourists, designed for only five people, it is decorated with traditional Zalipa patterns. In the village itself, in addition to the house of Felicia Tsurilova, it will be interesting to visit the “House of Artists” (Dom malarek), this is a creative center where exhibitions are held, artists from all over the area meet, as well as the Church of St. Joseph, painted with floral patterns. Zalipye is so small that you can get around it on foot. Less than one thousand people live in the village.

Polish village

We left Opole. Almost immediately the village began. The Polish village is not like ours, the Russian one. There is something in ours that is living out its life, long-suffering, perhaps patient. In Poland there is an atmosphere of peaceful life and thorough work. Probably, in such an atmosphere, a peasant should feel happy - because he works honestly and with his labor can support himself, his family and home.

The houses in the villages are also different from ours, Russians. There are no rickety huts with windows boarded with old boards, into which weeds grow by mid-summer. There is evidence of well-groomed and constant care for the home; and the yard sometimes even looks like a lawn, on which, apparently, they regularly walk with a lawn mower. The village works, feeds, it is needed, it lives, but does not survive at all.

And a little further away, in the middle of a field, there is a white brick church. The path to it is straight, clean and not overgrown with grass, even though no one lives on that side. In general, there are many churches in Poland. In the villages they are small, neat, like life here itself. There is a Catholic church in almost every Polish village, just as there is an Orthodox church in almost every Russian village. Strange! In Poland, even during wars, churches were practically not damaged by enemy hands. In Russia, on the contrary: there were barns, warehouses, and even rural clubs - and most of all they suffered at our own hands. Perhaps that is why in Polish churches one can feel an atmosphere of humility and piety, and in Russian churches - humility and repentance. But both of these give the traveler the impression that there is always a place for God in the lives of both the Russian and Polish people.

Polish forest

Many Polish dishes are prepared from mushrooms. The Polish students treated us to one of these when they invited our group to visit them. Especially for this, they went to the forest to pick mushrooms. The Poles really love collecting them and generally love the forest. Their attitude towards him was passed on to us - on the way to Lamsdorf. It was narrow and long and almost entirely stretched through the forest. In Poland it was one of the most beautiful times of the year - golden autumn: warm, quiet, fine, blessed. And we even stopped our conversations, looking out the car windows. She stopped, and for some time we walked along that road, trying to breathe as deeply as possible.

...A Silesian girl met a beautiful hunter in a green forest... In such places, you probably won’t find anything “ugly”...

However, the song sings “ardzo szwarnego”, which in the Silesian dialect means “handsome”, “very good”, “beautiful”. This is most likely what the villagers say. Probably, the hunter lived in a village that was located not far from this forest, and therefore largely fed on what he generously gave.

There are a lot of forests in Poland, and going there on a weekend - to pick mushrooms, to the river, or even just to wander - is a frequent and often favorite pastime for many Poles. Caring for the forest is a noticeable phenomenon.

We approached a cemetery in the forest. More than seven thousand soldiers are buried here, half of whom are Russian. Unofficially, there are probably much more of them. The small, neat graves with stone crosses are well-groomed, and even between the even rows there is not an extra blade of grass, not a weed bush, only fallen needles from the pine trees growing peacefully here. The forest and people have preserved the graves of our soldiers in this place since the First World War. Our soldiers found peace and quiet here...

Polish castles

The tour of the Piast dynasty castle in Brzeg began for us with the family crypt. A semi-dark medieval atmosphere... Looking at these tombs, you can draw in your imagination not only the family tree of the royal dynasty, but also imagine how the Polish people lived during the reign of each of the heirs to the crown. One of the dukes has a lion under his feet - a symbol of power, strength and nobility. The other has a dog: loyalty and friendliness. The third has a sword on which the words “Amor amor” are carved.

In one of the halls there are wax figures of the royal family and courtiers. The guide said that the artists tried to recreate their height, clothes and even facial features as they really were. By the way, these figures also make it clear how people of those times lived. For example, the king is a large, broad-shouldered man with a beard. And here is his wife - a beautiful, stern woman with a thin face and intelligent eyes. Or a bishop: dark eyes covered with long eyelashes, thin lips and sunken cheeks, the hands of a scribe. He probably had a lot of influence on the politics of the royal court, which was facilitated not only by his intelligence, but also by his appearance. Or maybe he was in love with the young duchess who stands next to him?

In general, castles have many secrets, some of them, having become famous, turn into legends. After all, how sadly and beautifully the Piast family ceased to exist! It ended with Duchess Caroline, who fell in love with a non-Christian who betrayed her, for which she was cursed by her parents. They say that after experiencing this double grief, she spent the rest of her life alone. Are we, modern people, capable of this? There is a stone statue of her left in the Piast Castle - small, thin, sad. Caroline's eyes are large, like the soul itself, and mournfully lowered down. I walked up and stroked her stone hair, feeling sorry for her.

At the top of the castle, everyone admired the view of the surroundings and took pictures. I took out a zloty and buried it deeper in the sand between the stones - so that at least one more time I could return to this castle, return to Poland.

Poland is one of the most famous countries in Central Europe. It has a rich history, and mentions of the country date back to the 1st century. Although tourists are not very keen to visit this country, there are many historical buildings, an extensive Baltic coastline, hills and lakes formed during the Ice Age. Here you can find rare representatives of flora and fauna that are not found anywhere else in Europe. Not only Warsaw and Krakow are worthy of tourists' attention. There are small beautiful towns in Poland and amazing villages that are worth visiting.

The free city of Sanok is located in the foothills of the Carpathians on the San River. The city not only has a rich history and architecture, but also has stunning panoramic views. This small town has been here for almost a thousand years. It houses Sanok Castle and one of the largest collections of icons in Central and Eastern Europe. Popular attractions include the Old Town and the Open Air Museum of Folk Architecture.

Wieliczka is located just a few kilometers from Krakow. It is home to one of the world's oldest operating salt mines.

This tiny town of just over 1,000 people is a true gem for history buffs. It contains almost all of the historical Polish wooden structures from the 19th century, built by the highlanders. Situated between the High and Low Tatras, the city is surrounded by evergreen forests.

Zlotoryja is supposedly the oldest city in the country. It is located on the banks of the Kachava. This area is also known as the “Land of Dormant Volcanoes”. It was once a famous gold mining town. The best way to view the city is from the bell tower of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in the 13th century. Outside the small medieval town is Basta Kowalska, also known as the Kuznetskaya Tower, which offers stunning panoramic views of the city. There is also a gold mining museum, which tells the story of the city's famous gold mining past.

The city of Bech is located in the foothills of the Carpathians. It was once considered one of the most significant trading cities in Poland. Here Vaclav Potocki wrote “The Battle of Khotyn”. The city is often called "Little Krakow". Its most important attraction is the parish church, built in the late Gothic style. Here you can walk along the narrow medieval streets, visit the Kromerówka Museum of Beck Land and admire the historical hall in the House of Hodor.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Yaroslav hosted the second largest fair in Europe. Traders from all over the world came here. The main attraction of the city are the cellars and underground storage facilities. Much of the city's extravagant past has disappeared, but the imposing buildings still remain reminders of times gone by. To learn more about the city's history and architecture, you need to visit the historical palaces and city fortifications. The Orsetti House houses a museum entirely dedicated to Yaroslav. Since 1375, an almost untouched layout of the city has been preserved.

The quaint but delightful city in the Wielkopolska Voivodeship is often called the “Pearl of Polish Baroque”. This was facilitated by the Baroque palaces and buildings located in the city. Much of the architecture was created by 17th century masters Ian Stair and Pompeo Ferrari. The buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries complement those built earlier. The most historically significant building in the city is Rydzyn Castle. Also interesting is the Baroque Church of St. Stanislaus, in which the founder of the city is buried.

It seems that this city is lost in time. Having gone through many battles and recovered from their consequences, it stands calmly as a reminder of the medieval atmosphere. The most famous building in the city is the Gothic Episcopal Castle. Back in the 14th century, the Church of St. Peter was built. There are remarkable buildings scattered throughout the city, such as the classical town hall built in the 19th century, the Church of St. John, the Jesuit complex of the 15th and 16th centuries and the Catholic shrine of St. Lipka, where pilgrims have flocked since the 17th century.

Polish kings and Lithuanian princes loved to stop in the city to taste alcoholic beverages. It once housed 36 beer taverns, 15 establishments for vodka lovers and 10 honey inns. This small town, located near the Narew River, is one of the oldest settlements. There are more than a hundred historical buildings here, including the Tikocin Castle and the Baroque Church of the Holy Trinity. The Jewish cemetery is one of the oldest in the country, and the Baroque synagogue is one of the best in Poland and a main attraction.

The city is located on the banks of the Vistula River, and was once an important grain trading center. And now it is considered one of the best preserved historical cities in the country. Since the 19th century, the small town has attracted creative geniuses from all over the world. Some even spent the whole summer here. The streets of the city are lined with art and sculpture galleries. Here you can see such famous buildings as the parish church of St. Bartholomew and John the Baptist, the remains of Kazimierz Dolny Castle, St. Anne's Church, as well as many historical granaries.

It is considered the winter capital of Poland. This small but charming town is full of restaurants and shops. The majestic, snow-covered Tatra Mountains bring glory to the city. People come here to relax throughout the year, but as soon as the first snow falls, thousands of ski lovers flock to Zakopane.

Based on materials from: touropia.com

Unlike the routes of many autotourists who travel only to capital cities and exclusively on autobahns, my route through Europe ran 95% along local roads and small towns. Therefore, the report on each country will begin with the rural part. True, writing on this topic is much more difficult, since rural spaces are usually viewed from a car window. In the city, go ahead and click everything, but here, to take one photo, you have to overcome laziness every time, look for a place to stop, get out and look for the right angle, sometimes right on the roadway, and then start the car again and taxi out. It is not surprising that the dry residue of the images turned out to be several times less than it could have been.

Thus, there are not many photographs in these sections, but there will be actual travel notes, which do not combine well with reports on individual cities. Let's start with rural Poland.

Formally, the second country on the route was Lithuania, but I don’t have much to say about it, since I drove through this country without any stops at all. But the opportunity arose for the first time to test the navigator (hereinafter referred to as Navik) in action. The manufacturer Garmin did not bother to include normal maps of Russia and Belarus in the European package (and I had not yet learned how to add them myself), and until Lithuania the device only got in the way, but it regularly recorded the route. I immediately turned off the sound and never turned it on, which several times led to driving past the necessary turns, but did not distract from the driver’s direct duties.

Navik coped with the first task of driving around Vilnius perfectly. The fact is that there is still no bypass road around the capital of Lithuania, and I had to drive through unfamiliar suburbs (completely soviet-looking, by the way, with broken asphalt, dull industrial zones and disorderly buildings) with turns, traffic lights, and even morning traffic . With joint efforts we finally got out, and spent two hours admiring the pleasant pine landscapes of southern Lithuania. How many times have I been to Lithuania, and the weather has always been excellent and sunny - the epithet “sunny Lithuania” just begs to be used. Well, okay, the post is still about Poland.

So, I crossed Poland twice: first on May 17-18 diagonally from northeast to southwest, and on the way back on June 13 from south to north along the eastern part:

I made two overnight stays, had a good look at one city and a quick look at two more. It turned out to be not enough, but what the hell - that’s how the route was drawn up, and the country is big. The overall impression of Poland turned out to be a big plus - a hospitable country, interesting cities, pretty landscapes - so I was pleasantly surprised and significantly improved my former preconceived opinion about the people and the country.

Well, Poland is large and difficult to navigate for several reasons. Firstly, the country has only recently begun to build highways, and so far there are negligible numbers of them. Secondly, the density of rural settlements is so great that they often merge into each other, and the average speed physically cannot exceed 50 km/h (only in the very east, between Lublin and Bialystok, were there more or less open areas). Moreover, the ragged rhythm of the speed limit is very tiring: 50-70-90-70-50, and the cycle repeats endlessly. Thirdly, the roads are narrow, and sometimes trucks and even tractors drive onto them - you can’t overtake horseradish! Well, all sorts of pickers are everywhere (and on the way back, as soon as I drove in, I was ambushed in the evening: the repairmen simply blocked the road, and until they finished and swept up after themselves, they didn’t let anyone in for about 40 minutes).

But the problem is gradually being solved. The modernization of the road network is proceeding strictly from west to east, as if under the strict leadership of the Germans, and has already reached Olsztyn. New highways are being built and, where possible, old highways are being expanded (and new asphalt is also being laid). Local drivers drive much faster and at the same time much more carefully than in other countries (everyone was overtaking me, but no one cut me off or even interfered. However, I strictly observed the 50 signs, and they were far away not always). The signs are also good: they warn about all cases of ruts or unevenness of the road, even if you don’t feel it after our roads, and mode 50 begins not with the name of the settlement, but with a “development” sign, that is, they let you go 70, where it’s not particularly dangerous. But in zone 50 there are (probably penalizing) photo radars everywhere, which I have never seen in other countries.

In such difficult conditions, I had to go through three long (500 km) stages, and there was almost no time to get acquainted with the Polish province - I would have had time to get there in a reasonable time. Anticipating late arrivals, I booked hotel rooms for the first stages, and at least didn’t worry about overnight stays. But I didn’t buy a paper map of Poland to save money, and relied entirely on Navik, who here never gave a reason to call himself Susanin.

I already noted the phenomenon of cross-border rednecks in a post about Belarus. And in Poland, on the border and 30 kilometers deep, a certain Kantor is a redneck, selling vignettes that no one needs, changing money at an extortionate rate and offering paid toilets for as much as 2 euros. Mentally showing him the sign, I solved all my problems in the first supermarket of the first city on the way - Suwalki. The zloty exchange rate is very convenient: it is approximately 1:10 to the ruble, so it was easy to navigate the prices. Seeing that they didn’t bite here at all, I took out only 200 zlotys from the ATM, which was more than enough for the return trip. I immediately bought an 8 GB photo flash drive for 59 zlotys, which was clearly cheaper than in Russia (ROC = 1.27)

Not noticing any traces of the historical center, I did not explore the city of Suwalki. But there were cheerfully painted Khrushchev buildings with gigantic two-story house numbers painted right on the ends. These turned out to be five-story buildings all over Poland, but I was never able to photograph one.

The Poles compensate for the absence of a border with Lithuania with police patrols in the border areas. I immediately ran into one of them, barely having time to turn west from Suwałki. They very politely checked my documents and asked if I was bringing cigarettes and alcohol. I had both, but in permitted quantities, so we parted amicably. I still got some stress, so I started looking for a parking lot to get something to eat. But Poland is not Belarus: there are no gazebos with tables, and Polish parking lots differ from Russian parking lots only in the presence of benches.

Having solved all the skin problems, we could relax and start exploring the local beauties. Poland is visually different from other countries in several characteristic ways. Firstly, rapeseed blooms very beautifully in May, and bright yellow fields sometimes stretch to the horizon on both sides of the road:

There is especially a lot of this rapeseed in the center and west of the country; this culture is becoming very popular in Europe and Ukraine in the conditions of oil insanity, because Oil is squeezed out of the seeds and used in some biodiesels. The energy problem is also solved with the help of wind turbines, which look a lot like Wells' Martians from War of the Worlds. It was not possible to take pictures - either the rain got in the way, or there was nowhere to stop. But I saw an old windmill, albeit against the sun:

Secondly, in all cities and large villages churches dominate (both in the landscape and in life), and new ones are often distinguished by interesting modern architecture (I also didn’t photograph a single one). On the way back, I was driving just on Sunday morning, and watched as the population flocked in full force and in parade to the morning service. Where the rich are in cars, where the poor are in bicycles. But the roads are empty at this time :)

The churches are complemented by crucifixes and chapels everywhere along the roads and streets. They are also found in other countries, and no less often, but the Polish “uterus bozki” are carefully covered with glass from the weather:

I don’t understand why there are rags hanging on the fence. Thirdly, there are a lot of storks: in every village, especially in the north, there is sure to be a pillar with a huge nest and a bird on top (and in June, chicks appear). They nest even on not the highest poles:

Well, northern Poland is a lake region, and the following views with forest and lake often open up:

Or in combination with rapeseed, which is especially picturesque:

In northern Poland there is something to see besides nature. The towns along the rivers and lakes are nice, Olsztyn is the capital of the region, and there are even Gothic castles. Judging by this diagram, there are a good dozen of them:

I came across the first one from the east, in the town of Ryn, but it didn’t arouse much interest, because it was converted into a hotel with all that it implies:

More interesting than the castle were the ordinary houses in the town, at least on the main square:

Characteristic are not long narrow pipes, but wide rectangular pipes on the roofs. This is even more noticeable on the streets of the neighboring town of Vydminy (and the development is much more authentic: there is no castle, there is nothing to attract tourists):

There was also a functioning monastery in the town:

with a large well-groomed area, with Christmas trees, greenhouses, cherry blossoms and access to the river bank:

But we had to move on. In Olsztyn (separate post) the weather completely deteriorated, it got sharply cold from +25 to +10, and the townspeople who had managed to put on their jackets on their way home from work were obviously thinking about me, what kind of guy is this: in a summer shirt, running, looking around and clicking, God knows What.

I reached the final destination of the stage, the city of Torun (separate post), already after dark. In general, it’s very annoying that in Europe, even in May-June, it gets dark already at 21:00 (and people go to bed outrageously early), and vice versa, no matter how early you get up - at 7-8 in the morning it’s already hot and the sun is high. I would switch all of Europe to Moscow time, honestly! As a result, I decided not to even touch the hands on my watch, but to get up every day at 6 local time - why rebuild my body so many times.

The next morning the weather was forgiving only until it was time to set off, and then the only difference was whether it was just rain or downpour. So, no photos or adventures happened on the second day: so I reached the border with the Czech Republic. On the way, however, I stopped at Auchan and bought a thermal box for food. I had a snack there, for the first and last time at fast food. True, the Polish “sausage” was given such a size that I could barely handle it. I had to count ROCK again - here it came out somewhere around 1.8. The city of Legnica, with its considerable old-factory charm, was too lazy to explore after a hearty lunch.

Closer to the border, the terrain became mountainous, the road improved noticeably, and the roadside buildings became prettier: obviously, neighbors are exposed to each other, because on the Czech side everything was similar. Even ski structures have appeared (although the Giant Mountains are not at all high):

At the border itself, instead of abandoned posts, there suddenly turned out to be a casino, and from its side a deer fawn was crossing the road dejectedly (the poor thing probably lost). It was already getting dark, so there was no point in taking a photo of him.

On the way back (already in June) I crossed Poland again, but this time from Slovakia. All the gypsies, of whom there were countless even in the border Slovak villages, immediately disappeared somewhere. It should be noted that this summer Shakira’s song became an absolute hit in Poland "I am a gypsy! Are you coming with me?", which sounded at least once an hour on all radio waves. It’s good for them to sing when there are no gypsies in their country at all. Slovaks don’t sing it or even listen to it :)

By that time, the schedule had already gone awry, and the planned overnight stay in Slovakia was moved to Poland. Although Poland doesn’t have the pensions I’m used to, there are inexpensive motels, so I didn’t worry too much about driving north while it was still light. And indeed, soon I found a combi-motel with a gas station and a restaurant, where they gave me a room (800 rubles), fed me dinner (another 210 for an entrecote with two beers) and let me watch football on the big screen. By that time, I had long been too lazy to consider the ROK, but even here it was not at all in favor of Russia.

On my last day in the European Union, I still managed to see Lublin and wanted to spend the night before the Belarusian border in Bialystok, but changed my mind when I saw how Soviet-like the planned options turned out to be. I didn’t even look at the third “hotel” (and at the same time the city itself), and went to cross the border. Despite the very picturesque landscapes and a good new road (Navik for some reason called it a country road), there was not a single restaurant on this last section (also a kind of border redneck - there’s nowhere to even spend extra money), and instead of dinner with football I got an hour Have a nice chat with the border guards.

The most interesting part of the journey through rural Eastern Europe begins. The Baltic states, even though I had only been to one country before, are still very Soviet, everyone speaks Russian... Poland is a different matter. Poland has been in the EU exactly as long as the three Baltic countries - nine. But despite their common socialist past, the countries developed slightly differently. So what have they done in a little less than a quarter of a century without the “big brother” of the USSR?

One and a half thousand kilometers "zigzag", of course, is too short to understand this country. But to get into it - just right, especially since Chevrolet and I tried to choose the smallest, narrowest, but very beautiful roads!

1 I left Lithuania while it was still dark, in thick fog. It's good that Baltic drivers drive politely and keep speed, especially in bad weather.

2 Another conditional checkpoint. Of course, there is no one there and the passage is free. What a beautiful world without borders! I can imagine how much time I would have lost on exactly the same trip if there were borders between each country. Although I imagine it very well, two and a half years ago I traveled through seven Balkan countries in a month and crossed borders many, many times. (*see travel Balkan stars
)

3 Poland. Previously, these letters meant a completely different world for Soviet people. Getting to Poland was a happiness that was not available to everyone. And even now it should be more “European”. Let's see.

4 After a couple of kilometers there is a pedestrian crossing right on the highway. Because it is foggy, a woman in a bright uniform with a large stop sign stands at the crossing and helps to cross the road.

5 This was not the case in the Baltic states. In Russia - even more so. And it’s unlikely that it ever will be.

6 I like the interior of the Captiva, it turned out to be quite American and recognizable. Although why didn’t they change the nameplate on the steering wheel in the restyled version? In modern Chevrolets it is different.

7 I drive along the highway for a bit. They exist in Poland. Directly - Russia, Kaliningrad region. But I don't need to go there. Someday, another time. And without stupid boundaries.

8 Autumn foggy morning in the Polish wilderness. It smells very tasty, I want to tell you!

9 The neat little villages are left behind.

10 Not far from a town called Elk, an elk appears on the road. More precisely, a moose cow. He jumps over the wooden fence and begins to slowly cross the road, his heels clicking on his long legs. (and Elk in English is elk. Funny coincidence)

11 I noticed the moose from afar, so she did not pose any danger. I stopped to take a photo of her. The forest beauty turned around to look before disappearing into the bushes. Didn't I turn around to see if she turned around?

12 The roads are most often good. There is no trash along the roadsides. And this is perhaps the only thing that distinguishes the local nature and environment from Russia.

13 There are a lot of cows. We don't have that much in the fall. It's cold already.

14 Mu! Ventspils says hello.

15 Do you believe that a real steam locomotive can suddenly and loudly pass along such a half-abandoned railway? No? But in vain.

17 Sometimes the road leads through the outskirts of very different cities. I don’t even remember them, although I want to go straight to some residential area and take a walk there. See how Poles live in Soviet box houses. But not at this time. Travel is “rural”, about small places. And not multi-apartment anthills.

18 Polish cities look very different. Some are very well-groomed, some are completely shabby. But where did the inscription " Kosovo This Serbia"? Well, yes, I don’t like Albanians either.

19 There are a lot of traffic cameras. They are in almost every village. Drivers drive carefully. I think the relationship is obvious. I have a radar detector with me, which I thought about using in Russia, but even there I couldn’t get it. You know, it’s easy not to violate. And I advise you.

20 Just some Polish village that I dropped in for a minute.

21 Beauty!

22 One very interesting shoot went wrong for me. It’s my own fault: I entered the first village of Petrovo that came across into the navigator, although there are a dozen of them in Poland. I began to realize that something was wrong only a couple of kilometers away. As a result, I arrived, talked with local residents and realized that I had come to the wrong place. I photographed them for memory. I’ll say briefly about communication, but separately: in Poland they don’t speak Russian, and you hardly know Polish. But communication is possible, and very easy. To understand Poles fluently, you need to speak a little Ukrainian (these languages are even more similar) and use your imagination. For example, you can guess what “gurtovnya” or “zayazd” is without a dictionary.

23 Everything is clear, right? Restaurant, overnight stay.

24 Sometimes it's funny. They don't write motel, but "motelik". You probably know about the ugly beauty. And almost all Slavic peoples call the theater a disgrace.

25 An interesting tradition in Poland. It is customary to park old airplanes near gas stations. Like decoration, but still - why airplanes? I've seen this happen many times, and always right next to gas stations.

26 The towns and villages themselves are much neater than ours. Not surprised.

27 In some places it is very similar to Belarus. I’m also not surprised, they are not shy about learning from the Poles, and half of the country was once Poland.

28 Beautiful, neat, pleasant. This is the case in almost every village. You won't be able to guess the country from a photo. They don't live richly here at all. But you don’t need a lot of money to live with dignity. It's just a matter of accuracy and attitude towards yourself and your land.