Going back to the Old Country of Poland after more than 25 years! (from USA)

I think he might have been referring to the fact that you can buy bananas in Poland nowadays??

i guess you're right.

Really..? That's it I'm coming! Please save some for me, there wouldn't be anything more disappointing than a heap of blackened banana peels greeting me at the airport...

Nah ok seriously, awesome thread, keep at it Rybnik. Do you, per chance, plan to venture outside Wroclaw, any other cities?

Both actually. The irony has not been lost on me: bananas on billboards!!


stay tuned


That explains it. I thought it looked a lot wider from what I remember. Also the blue paint is different.

I was so excited about having found this spot first time out. I was very worried I'd have to get a taxi to take me or something like that. Looking around one last time I set off for the bridge. Local government had changed my bridge. It appeared different. The bright blue-painted railings for sure was new but there was something else. It was now wider - much wider! Once I got to the other side, I turned around to get a look at the side from whence I had just come. The vista I was looking at was totally alien to me. These buildings were not there in my time:

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  the "golden arches" were definitely not there
  
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  new apartments
  

I took my pictures, shook my head in disbelief and continued on towards my dorm. The sidewalk on which I was walking was also new! The pavers looked spotless:

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  spotless!
  

If my memory served me well I would be making a left very soon onto a small street (the name of which I naturally forgot) and this street would take me to DS(Dom Studencki) "Blizniak". Sure enough, just ahead was the street: ul Wojciecha z Brudzewa! And what did I see on the corner? On this same corner where I used to buy my "Klubowe", "Sport" and "Carmen" cigarettes?................This:

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  Hyundai !!
  
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  bright new sign
  

It was rebuilt in '06 or '07 i think.

The tiny street with the big name took me past a car wash then a działka and finally to my dorm.

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  SIGN_blizniak_sign.j.jpg
  
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  commie grey in my day
  
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  the door's new
  
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  we had a park the benches are rotting now
  

I'm not quite sure why but I needed to spend some time here. This place had been on my mind for many, many years. DS "Blizniak", you see, was the epicenter of American student life in Wroclaw during the 1980's. Here you had your network of informants both American and Polish in one convenient location! It served as our information clearing house. You wanted to buy a car in West Berlin? You came to "Blizniak" and found out how to do it - hassle free. Thinking about marrying your Polish girlfriend but don't want to get taken for a ride or worse? Stop by the dorm and find out what you need to do. Need to get out of Marxist Philosophy and don't have a clue? Wpadnij (drop in) and find out who to talk to and what to bring. Information on every and any transaction conceivable could be garnered if you came to the "temple" and paid homage. All information school-related or not flowed into and out of this building. To enjoy a more or less trouble-free stay while in Wrocław, one needed to visit this dorm regularly and maintain your relationships. A lot of my being was in that structure! I needed to pray at the temple and that's exactly what I did. I wandered the grounds, sat on the benches and reflected. Reflected on how scared I was when I first got here. Reflected on how ecstatic I was after passing my first final in med school - Human Anatomy. And I reflected on how priceless this experience was for me as a person and physician. After an hour I left that place satisfied and in peace.

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  we used to drive over this bridge
  
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  used to be a shack,now a dental clinic!
  
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  the all-girl dorm(in my day) next to "blizniak"
  
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  behind blizniak where we took Latin
  

more Latin

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  latin_class_550x413.jpg
  
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  latin_class_2_550.jpg
  

I retraced my steps back to the banana billboard. Walking past the car wash, Hyundai dealer onto the new wide blue bridge, I quickly found myself opposite the old gas station we Americans used to fill-up at. "There used to be some epic gas lines" I thought to myself. One day the line extended 2/3 of the way to Plac Grunwaldski! That's from the "blue bridge"!

Walking past the stacja benzynowa (gas station) on ul Pasteura I began to feel my heart beat a little faster and harder. I was getting very close to the med school and my autonomic nervous system knew it! Soon I made a right on Chałubinskiego and there it was -Department of Pathology! And there was someone outside in scrubs smoking a cigarette. As I got closer I could see a man outside the delievery entrance in scrubs smoking a cigarette. I introduced myself. Turns out he's been working there since the early '80s. He probably was present during our lectures and undoudtedly prepared the corpses that were to be autopsied.

He agreed to pose for a pic (I told him it might end up on the internet. He took another drag of his cig shrugged his shoulders and said "No to dawaj! Ta jest moja najpiekniejsza strona" [go ahead. this is my best side]. I shook his hand and asked him which way to the Department of Human Anatomy. He said something quickly, I didn't get it but pretended to understand and took off down the road. What I saw was disturbing; many of the buildings were surrounded by scaffolding. There was some serious renovations going on!

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  Autopsy guy
  
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  med_school_renovatio.jpg
  
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  renovation_2.jpg
  
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  renovation_3.jpg
  

Going further I came upon "ground zero" - the Dziekanat. Anything school-related needed to be taken care of here. In my time nothing a bag of coffee couldn't take care of ;)

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  dziekan_sign.jpg
  
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  dziekan_front.jpg
  
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  dziekan_side.jpg
  

I kept walking

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  Anatomy-where it all began
  
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  zaklad_anatomii_600.jpg
  
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  med_sch_facade_413x.jpg
  
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  I wish we had this!!!
  

I spent some time wandering the halls of the Anatomy building. A lot of my and other's sweat and tears have stained those floors. It was without a doubt one of the hardest years of my life!

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  points to the building
  
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  once inside these doors greet you
  
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  to the left the gablotka where test questions and results were posted
  
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  once through the French doors this long corridor takes you to the disection sala
  

........and up the stairs. It's all much smaller than I remember it being. Back then these halls, door and windows seemed so big. I wonder why that is?

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  anatomy_stairs.jpg
  
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  anatomy_stairs_down..jpg
  
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  at the top of the stairs
  
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  lecture hall "quiet"
  

these are actually the Wrocław University dorms - both - they are called Kredka and Ołówek -now I don't know which is which and I am not really sure I ever knew ;) - i lived just a couple of steps away from them in another dorm - Parawanowiec - the rooms in Kredka and Ołówek were actually small flats - I just visited there

there are a couple of other dormitories of Wrocław Univesity but Kredka and Ołówek are a class to themselves

Really?! I love the names - Kredka, Ołówek. It's so Polish! :) Thanks

Had my fill of anatomy,got outside, walked past the Microbiology Department onto ul Chałubinskiego. I was amazed at how congested with parked cars this street was! Everywhere you looked there were cars. Cars parked on the sidewalk and cars parked right next to them!

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  look how many cars!
  

Guess in front of which clinic these expensive cars were parked?

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  Hint: it's not Internal Medicine
  

My trip down med-school memory lane had come to an end. I did an about-face and headed towards ul Skłodowska. There I saw some good and some bad things.

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  good thing
  
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  beautiful
  
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  good
  
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  not so good
  

You're right, the waterway photo is gorgeous.


I think I'll pass on the cig smoking autopsy guy.

Staying on Skłodowska I began walking towards the bridge over which I had never walked. I hoped I was going in the desired direction: towards the Hala Ludowa-Hala Stulecia.

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  bad
  
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  love the peaks!
  
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  a beautiful bridge. It's a different color. In my day it was____ (guess)
  
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  pretty
  

I found the Hala without any difficulty The place, that I recalled as staid and quiet was a bustle of activity. It appeared that the Cardiologists were in town for a convention. Physicians from all over Poland and beyond were walking with their giveaways, looking at the schedule deciding on which presentation to attend. That's why it was so hard to get a hotel room!! The Hala and the surrounding area looked great! I saw Suzie Quatro here!

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  the cardiologists are in town
  
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  they need to get rid of the ivy
  
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  full_columns.jpg
  
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  has the needle always been there?
  

the picture looks a bit like a mosque :)

more.......

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  registration tent
  
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  hala_wing_bldg_copy..jpg
  
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  hala_needle_columns_.jpg
  
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  now this is what I remember
  

You're right, it does kinda! :)

The Hala was nice but I had much more ground to cover. Back over the pretty gold bridge, down Skłodowska and onto the place that really threw my orientation for a loop. It blew me away! Plac Grundwalski had been so transfigured I was literally totally disoriented for several minutes. I was turning around and around like a whirling Dervish trying to find a reference point I recognized!! It was very disconcerting to say the least. Back in the day, I had crossed this place at least once-a-day for 6 years. I knew this spot inside and out. At least I once did. Finally, after what seemed like an painful eternity, I saw the "czworaki". I immediately felt my pulse slowing. Whew!

I know where I am now.

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  the "quadruplets"
  

During my student years these apartments were the height of apartment construction. They were simply the example of modern architecture in their day.

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  czworak_3_431x575..jpg
  
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  czworak_4copy.jpg
  
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  czworak_5.jpg
  
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  not there before!
  

The only time during my trip I had my mind blown was when I approached the Place and realized there's a mall on it! I needed a few minutes to compose myself then I went inside.

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  pasaz_entrance_550x.jpg
  
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  pasaz_underground_2.jpg
  
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  pasaz_underground.jp.jpg
  
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  pasaz_underground_en.jpg