Sunday, October 26, 2008

St. Martha



My favourites showpiece in The Museum of Moyen Age is a sculpture of St. Martha and repetants (or donors?) from the end of 15th century. Marhta is carrying a bucket in her left hand. She has her head wrapped with a headscarf. She wears a beautifully draped dress. Her face and all folds of cloth are carved very precisely. By her right side there are figures of people, kneeing and praying. They look as if they were ghosts or figures made of fog. Their heads and faces are only sketched, eyes are presented by small holes drilled in faces. The way of showing the contrast between figures of different significance enraptured me.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Again in Paris


I’m here again only for a moment. The city is like always. I file as if I’ve never went out of it, but only as if I haven’t been in favourites places for a long time. In the few moments of spare time I have, I look at windows of Parisian tenements and observe people drinking coffee and reading newspapers in cafes. One time in a radio I heard a description of the city done by Czesław Miłosz. It was Paris. I guessed, not knowing where he was living as an emigrant. He was able to convey atmosphere of the city – everything what I like and dislike in Paris.

Monday, October 20, 2008


My dentist said that I look like Olga Tokarczuk who is a writer. This comparison amused me, because it was very simple association: my hair is as short as hers and I like similar clothes as she wears. It was funny but I didn’t ignore this remark. The same taste in small things might mean closeness in more serious things. Seating on the dentists chair I said to myself that it is highest time to read her book. I heard a lot good opinion about her writing, more over this year she got a very important literary prize. When I was going home from the dentist I bought the rewarded book Bieguni. This the book about travelling. It is really for me, isn’t it? I travel a lot and I really don’t know what made me tired more: being on the way or waiting for another travel.
In the photo: travelling – Iceland.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

instead of...


When I have to do something in the city after my work, usually going home I have to change my bus on the stop near dormitories of Technical University. I noticed a long time ago, that there is a small graffiti there. This is a picture of a girl with red flower in her dark hair. Below there is a rose with a drop of blood dripping from its thorn. I have never made a picture of it because of not enough light for making photo. I will do it one day, but at the moment we must be satisfied with a photo of the same graffiti without the rose. This is a stop of tram number 14.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Ash tree



A few days ago came to me my secondary school friend. We meet each other rarely. She comes to me usually once a year when she needs to stay in Kraków for a night or two. She always brings me some gifts. This year it was tea form China and a book. I’m creasy about tea so it was very good present for me, but the book was event better. It is hardly difficult to find good science fiction book. A lot of them are real rubbish. This one was read by my friend who likes this kind of literature and who knows very well my preferences. It was a very good choice for me. This is a very complicated story about a man who was sent to a fantastic world. His mission was of course to save this world. The man is a kind of heroes I like very much. I was reading the book with real pleasure, but I was ashamed a bit by the book. There is a very important motif of ash tree in the book. It is very moving and sad moment. I order to imagine this scene well I needed a picture of a ash tree, but I didn’t know how it looks like… Now I know – I checked it in the Internet and even found a real tree which you can see in the picture. This is the ash tree near the Ark church in Kraków.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

A necklece




No, I wasn’t bored during that meeting in our office, I only couldn’t concentrate on the conversation. The woman who was our guest was wearing a necklace made of black, white and silver (plane and patterned) cubes. I tried to guess the scheme in which the cubes were arranged. The black one after one, two and three others? And which scheme with the others? Was those silver cubes treated as one kind regardless of being patterned or not? I almost guessed the scheme for a few times, but it have never been the proper scheme. Probably there was not at all and cubes were arranged accidentally… doesn’t matter. It is nice to have a moment of relax during your working day, isn’t it? Like with a small chapel in the picture above. I see it every day from a transparent lift shaft. It gives me a moment of being away of the cares of daily life.