Nostalgia for days gone by in Poland

From time to time, an overpowering sense of nostalgia for days gone in Poland hits me.

Perhaps it’s a song that provokes this nostalgia. Or an object. Maybe singing birds when spring is just around the corner. Perhaps it’s just a city that you haven’t been to for a number of years.

Nostalgia for young adulthood on a visit to Toruń

I first visited Toruń in 2009. With my guitar for company, I travelled from London to Frankfurt by coach. I then made my way across Germany, eventually reaching Poznań by train from Berlin. From Poznań, I headed to Toruń.

It was late July 2009. Those summer days rendered some magnificent scenes over the Vistula river in Toruń:

Anyway, let’s fast forward to March 14, 2022. It was a glorious day. Not a cloud in the sky and a pleasant temperature of 12 degrees celsius.

I don’t deliberately go all out to be nostalgic. However, there were two situations on this day trip which provoked nostalgia for the summer days of 2009:

1. Panoramic views from Toruń’s Old Town City Hall Tower

Standing at the top of the Old Town City Hall Tower, which I also climbed up in 2009, I revelled in panoramic views of Toruń once again. I remembered my travels in the summer of 2009 at the top of the tower. That summer was a satisfying time for me. I felt huge relief and pride after seeing out a nine-month contract working at a language school that I frankly wanted to leave after five days. Secondly, there was a great deal of adrenaline flowing through me amidst all the busking I was doing.

2. A musical instrument shop and a Polish rock song

As I was walking past a musical instrument shop on Wielkie Garbary Street, I gazed up at the guitars in the window. Some ten metres away, a chap was sitting on a stone bench under a clock whilst singing and strumming away to the Polish rock song Nie płacz Ewka. A very sentimental piece of music indeed. Hence, the 2009 busking memories came rushing back once again.

Singing birds on a chilly late winter morning

Writing this piece, I suddenly recalled my brief stay in Poland in February 2017.

There I was, one morning, standing on the platform at Łódź Widzew railway station waiting for a train to Kraków. The only sound I could hear was that of birds singing. Then, I felt a wistful longing for my first years in Poland – the train journeys and adventure. Visits to Kraków, Tarnów, Rzeszów, Kielce, Wrocław and Przemysł. I could list many more places.