Takk,taak, tack and Their Subtle Differences

Jaime and I are riding in the front seat of a tourist shuttle bus, and I’m feeling pretty good that I can pick out a few words our driver is saying in Polish. No easy feat as fluency in Polish is right up their in the difficulty category of Finnish and Japanese.

It’s our 4th day in Poland, and having been in Scandanavia countries for a month prior- the all encompassing word for thanks has very subtle spelling differences but phonetically sounds the same. “Talk” would be the easiest way for an english speaker to pronounce “thanks” so it slowly dawned on me as I listened in to our shuttle driver that Poland may in fact not use it in the same way. As his tone grew frustrated to the person on the other end of the cell phone, “talk, talk, talk!” Didn’t seem like an appropriate way to say thanks.

Later, I confided in our couchsurfing hosts that I thought I had used a Polish word incorrectly. “Marek” I asked,”How do you say ‘thanks’ in Polish”. “Dziękuję” Marek states simply. “Ah, I see”, and “Marek, what does ‘talk’ mean in Polish?”. Even in Mareks consistently congenial expression, I think I catch that dreaded, almost imperceptable eye squint where you know someone is kindly wondering if you are dense. Marek says it means “Yes”.

It dawns on me, that in our 4 days in Poland, I have rightfully received odd expressions from waiters, uber drivers, and even the hair stylist in Warsaw as I receive my goods, with a smiling face, locked eyes, kind gesture wave of my hand said, “Tak!”

Maybe this coincides with the seemingly drastic change the two hour flight from Sweden to Poland had on Jaime and me. Where in Scandanavia you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t speak English, as soon as you are out of the tourist areas of Eastern Europe it really is a crap shoot whether you’ll be using broken english, hand waving, or google translator (as a last resort). Honestly though, it’s a nice change to not feel like you are being catered to in a way with everyone being bilingual and speaking english fluently. Plus, now at least the food is cheap (and really good)!

We discovered our lack of Polish diction would not matter to our couchsurfing host. Gerald is originally from Holland, but he has moved around quite a lot for his work in IT consultancy. He wasn’t going to be back from his quick weekend trip to Lisbon, but he gave us great directions anyways on how to get in to his apartment. He let us crash in his bed while he took the couch fold out – what a guy! We met briefly our first night when he arrived at 11, but we were soon asleep and he prepped for work in the morning.

Next day, I couldn’t avoid the topic any longer. I turned to Jaime and told her I really needed to chop the mop that had formed on my noggin. We went searching for a barber shop only to wander in to a salon asking if they new where the barber shop was located. Confused, as they had never heard of the barber shop I was looking for, I told them it didn’t necessarily matter who did it, and they kindly obliged. I’d never had a detailed, hour long haircut, but I was quickly reminded that Poland to us was a new and affordable country. $20 was plenty worth it!

Feeling fresh and proudly telling my stylist “Tak!” as we walked out of the salon, we had the afternoon to walk through the parks and rebuilt old town of Warsaw.

Warsaw has a beautiful old town, and if you hadn’t learned of the unfortunate past during WWII, you would have thought they did excellent restoration work to keep it looking as good as it does. Warsaw in fact was almost completely rebuilt as 80% of it’s original structures were destroyed during the war. Their old town is almost an exact replica of the original that stood before the destruction.

After a full day of walking, we made our way back to Gerald’s place and met up with him after he got off work. He wanted to take us to a favorite dinner spot of his, and we ended up having some great Thai food in the center of Poland – who wudda thunk! Gerald mentioned there was a bar/cafe across the street from his apartment that he had wanted to check out for awhile now, so we did what any sane person would do on a Friday night and shut the place down! Plus, they had the Polish mead I was searching the liquor stores to find.

Nursing a victorious hangover, we woke up the next day with a kind note from Gerald ( he kept up with us drinking and still made it to work, what a boss!) and started packing. We were off to Krakov. Thanks for hosting us Gerald!

Marek met us at the train station in Krakov and shuttled us back to his place. Correction, Marek and his new wife of 3 weeks, Beata. Funny, because it reminded Jaime and me of the time we hosted two cyclists 3 weeks after our marriage! We were off to a good start – Marek gave us locally smoked kielbasa, homemade pickles to snack, and then asked if we needed a nap – you read our minds! We obliged and afterwards took an uber (I made sure to say tak whilst exiting the uber) to the downtown for a stroll. We met up with Marek later on to grab a couple drinks at one of their favorite bars, and Beata met up with us after her shift. Come to find out we were their first surfers. Beata and Marek first used couchsurfing on their 8 month long trip to South America and had used it probably 12 times in that time period. They wanted to start hosting to give back to the couchsurfing community, and Jaime and I were lucky number 1!

In contrast to Warsaw, Krakow was virtually untouched by the bombings of the war. The central square and castle are two places worth seeing both in the daytime, but especially in the evening. Also, the old Jewish ghetto is a great place to get lost winding through the smaller alleyways. Lots of great hidden cafes and pubs dot these passages.

We only had one full day to make the two trips everyone told us we needed to see, Auschwitz and the salt mines. Two very different experiences, and also geographically on separate ends of the typical daytrip tours. We found a group that picked up at 7 am took us to the salt mines and finished at 5 PM after going to the concentration camp.

The salt mines were a fun tour for us, partially because it was the first time Jaime and I had paid for someone to show and tell us everything. Our guide was quick witted and guided our group of 20ish folks through the labyrinth of mine shafts. If at any point you needed a sodium kick, you could literally lick the wall. We were told that salt statues and guides were the only things off limits.

After saying tak to our salt mine guide, it was time to ride 2 hours to the West of Krakov to Aushwitz Birkenau concentration camps. It’s not a place anyone travels to for enjoyment, but it is a necessary place to see and feel what horrors humans are capable of inflicting.

We first went to the Aushwitz site that sends you through multiple buildings and mazes of rooms portraying huge piles of personal articles recovered by camp liberators before Nazi soldiers were able to destroy evidence. It was sobering to see the massive quantities of suitcases, shoes, womens hair, which was used for other production material, and eyeglasses.

Birkenau was the location where train carts of Jews from cities all over Europe got off for sorting. It is a massive installation that had plans in place for expansion. There were the remnants of gas chambers and incineration ovens, but Nazis had blown this up before liberators were able to see the full proof of injustice.

It was an understandably quiet shuttle ride back to Krakow. Jaime and I took a loop around the krakow castle and made our way to the old Jewish ghetto to wander the alleys. We took an uber back to our couchsurfing host’s place.

Marek and Beata asked if we wanted a drink, which was the leftover vodka that we hadn’t finished the previous night. The proper way to drink vodka with a group of friends consists of a bottle of vodka, one shot glass, and a well trained liver. The host pours their guest a shot, and that person cheers to the next person in the circle with “Naz drovia” while keeping eyes on them as the kick the shot back. Then they pour the shot for that same person they stared down. Couchsurfing back to back is really putting a strain on the liver! We didnt stay up as late this night, but it was fun getting to share stories with Marek and Beata. Thanks guys!