Friday turned into an excursion day, going 4-wheel-driving on the border to Lithuania. It was a very windy day and Kuba, Jerzy, Martin and I went for two missions – looking for crosses by the road and looking for a venue for Wiosna-festival 2013. One of the places was Krasnogruda, the family home of the poet Czesław Miłosz, which now has been restored into a Culture Center.
Cross close the border of Lithuania
Checking out the Culture Center in Krasnogruda
Pitstop in Piotrek’s lovely kitchen
Piotrek’s own chapel that he built in 2012
Cross close to the Lithuanian border
My cameraman in action
We also visited the photographer Piotr Malczewski in Buda Ruska, where we had a cosy evening in his kitchen, looking at photos and where Pawel got to know everything about how to travel around the lake Baikal.
Yet another visit in a lovely kitchen (at Piotr Malczewski’s house)
Pawel and Piotr discussing the best way to travel to Bajkal
Even more winds on Saturday going back to Warsaw when meeting up with flute maker Grzegorz Tomaszewicz and his wife Natalja. We had a wonderful dinner with interesting talks about political history, about the Soviet times. In the end Grzegorz stood up, took a chair and put it in the middle of his music room. “Sit!” he ordered and then he turned on a piece of music that we all sat and listened to for at least ten minutes. It was a sublime experience. When the piece had ended he said: “Well, Astrid, did you think about politics now?”. I answered him no and he said: “Good!”
Music cinema at Grzegorz’s
Before heading off for an Irish music concerts we stopped at a boutique launch in the center of town, where a commercial film, that Kuba had been co-producing, was to be shown. Quite an opposite experience compared to the other things we did that night, trying to blend in among fashionable people with two violins and an accordion.
The old filmer and the young fiddler
At the irish pub we listened to Beltaine and I got to experience what networking actually is about; really getting to know people. It was wonderful to reunite with musicians that I met last May, who recognized me – “the fiddler” – and whom I immediately could start talking to about instruments, playing and everything else necessary in life.
Beltaine on stage
The last day of our trip Martin was introduced to Warsaw. We saw the Culture Center and the Old Town. And the weirdest thing happened when we visited one of Warsaw’s largest CD-stores – Traffic Club. We couldn’t help ourselves looking through the World Music section and found only one CD on Scandinavian music, and which appeared to be Blekinge Spelmansförbund’s first CD. In other words I found my own tracks…
Martin and the Culture Center
Street musicians in Warsaw
Sometimes you need a piece of heaven….
Blekinge invasion of Warsaw… yet another evidence
/astrid
Baltic Sea Inter Cult 
When you write that Krasnogruda was “restored” some more orthodox preservationists might object. The restoration meant pulling down the original manor house which was still there and building a new one from scratch.
“fot. The old filmer and the young fiddler” > Are you sure that this is not a pipeband? 😉
Greetings from Poland,
Maybe “renovated” Is then a more appropriate word to use.