Tuesday, January 16, 2007

New Years Eve - Poland Style

New Years Eve was quite the experience this year. I spent the evening playing cards with Kendra in the hostel, drinking wine, and prepping myself for the near-midnight plans. Our hostel was about one block from the main square of Wroclaw where crews had been working hard for the past couple of days in preperation for the nights events, which were to include fireworks, euro-pop, lights, a mile of guard rail, thousands of drunken Polish, a couple of drunken Americans, and a Christoph.

At about 23:00h we made our way to the square. All of the foot traffic was squeezed through one checkpoint where guards were frisking the partiers for weapons and booze. Unlike Germany, it's illegal in Poland to have open containers of alcohol in public. Of course this did not deter anyone.

As thousands of people were trying to funnel through one single entrance, Christoph took it upon himself to start singing the American national anthem. Why? It's Christoph. We don't ask these questions. Sensing a sudden feeling of patriotism I decided to belt it out along with him. People began to take notice, especially a small group of 3 girls and 1 guy next to us. After we finished, impressed by our beautiful tenor voices and amazing ability to harmonize, they offered me their champagne. I took, pulled a couple of swigs, and told them it's their turn to sing the Polish national anthem. I can't remember whether they did or not, but I do believe Christoph gave it a shot.

I assume that due to our sudden publicity, Kendra and Jerzy decided to distance themselves from us, so I stuck by the sides of my new Polish friends with the bottle of Champagne. Once we were close to the gate, one of the girls pulled a bottle of vodka out of her purse and asked me to try to get it in for her, since they were going to check her purse. I agreed and proceeded to the guards with bottle in hand. The guard pulled me forward and at that moment I realized that I had to do something drastic, so I stuck my arm with the bottle of vodka back into the crowd behind me as I got frisked. He passed me through and I sneakily pulled my arm back and placed the vodka into the liner of my jacket. Brilliant! With their bottle back safe in their possession, my new friends insisted that I follow them and ring in the new year. However, Kendra and Jerzy, who had separated from us earlier, were still standing by the gate waiting for us, so I had to watch as my new friends disappeared into the crowd, calling back to me "Come on! Come with us!" I cried a little.

Once reunited with my friends, we made our way to the middle of the crowd of people. It was reported that there were about 120,000 people in the square that night. It was a mad house, but a nice one. There was a definite sense of comradely. We were all there to get inebriated and ring in the new year. In fact, there was such a sense of brotherhood that if someone saw someone else with something to drink, they were immediately given a bottle to pull from. It was so amazing. Everyone was so happy.

The music sucked, but I didn't care. I was with my friends in Poland. Once midnight came, everyone started counting down (in Polish, so I didn't know what they were yelling about until all of the champagne bottles burst and the fireworks began to erupt), everyone embraced and sang.

Here are some pictures:










1 Comments:

Blogger Stidmama said...

Thanks for including a few pics of Wroclaw -- my grandmother was born just outside of that city almost 100 years ago. Some of her grandparents lived next to the main square that is seen in these photos. I am happy to see that the beautiful old buildings appear to be holding up (I don't really trust "official" sites)!

9:47 PM  

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