Intercultural Exchange
There are so many interesting things to be seen in Krakow! The Wawel, the main street Kanonicza, the Jagiellonian University, the Vistula river, the Plain market, as well as the plenty of churches in this wonderfull town. It is really worth to visit all of them! - Ekaterina Gyurova on the blog SeniorWeb.
During the workshop there were two areas, where the participants could work together cross-culturally: first, learning about the history and culture of the Poland, especially about the host city Kraków and secondly, getting to know the cultural differences during the ongoing interactions as well as during the intercultural evening where they presented their country cuisines.
Discovering Poland individually and in a group was first part of our objective within the area of intercultural exchange. Here we separated two dimensions and several methodical approaches by making use of the special location of our workshop: finding links between Poland and participants' countries of origin as well as visiting various places in Kraków where the participants could watch, listen or taste Polish traditions.
In turn the intercultral evening was about combining culturally all European regions and getting to know each other better via common tasting of local food and drinks.
One of the “homework” our participants got before we all meet during the workshop was searching for the historical or cultural connections of their countries of origin with Poland or Kraków. Below we present you some of the results of their research.
Finding cultural and historical Links between Poland and ...
... Ireland: Paddy Early on Links between Poland and Ireland
... Italy: Nicola Pasculini on Links between Poland and Bari
... Romania: Mariana Băran on Connections between Poland and Romania
Learning about Poland and Kraków
Becoming familiar with Poland, especially with Kraków was another important point on our agenda. However our aim was not just organising sightseeing to entertain our participants during their free time. Each destination we visited or the place where our seniors could taste local dishes was significant for the whole workshop. First, by showing how intertwined the Polish and European history are, we wanted to point out the European dimension and address our participants individually. Second, providing information during the guided tours or presenting national cuisine was an important incentive for participants to visit a blog and share their impressions, reflections and photos. In this way they could learn how to post on blogs, edit photos and put them on the blog.
Moreover we were lucky with sunny and warm weather so the activities outside the library were and destinations we could easily reach on foot made for a great change.
Below we present you the highlights of our historical and cultural programme in photos, videos and extracts from participants’ records.
On the trail of Kraków's European identity – guided tour in the Rynek Underground permanent exhibition with Eliza Mroczyńska
"The most significant is how todays square built – on tones garbage, which have collected through centuries. As it is known that medieval people didn’t have toilets, everything they were just throwing on the market. So through ages the piles of garbage just rised and raised and every time they would just cover with stones." – Vlasta Ivić on the blog SeniorWeb.
Getting to see the actual sites after the underground tour gives me a sense of Krakow being so rich in history with lots of challanges over the centuries. Although I had previously visted Krakow and loved it I didn’t have the same appreciation of its rich and colourful history. – Paddy Early on the blog SeniorWeb.
Guided tour in Wawel, the historical royal complex with Eliza Mroczyńska
Krakow is really beautiful. Today’s walk with Eliya Mrozinska was a wonderful experience. Wawel, small streets below the castle, Pope John Paul II., University. I wish to go through all those places again. – Eva Martínkova on the blog SeniorWeb.
Dinner in the Jewish District Kazimierz accompanied by live concert of traditional Jewish music
For the first time in my life I could listen to impressive life jewish music by the dinner in Old Jewish Quarter Kazimierz. I’m already looking forward to next days in Krakow. - Vítězslava Cihlářová on the blog SeniorWeb.
Boat Trip on Vistula River and learning about legends of Kraków
Visiting exhibition “The woman's work is never done” in the International Cultural Centre
Learning how to make linocuts with graphic artist Maria Rzonca
Visiting Wieliczka Salt Mine
Intercultural Evening & Tasting of Regional Cuisine
Another highlight of the workshop was an item on the agenda where the participants had to prepare, was the intercultural evening with snacks and drinks typical for their countries of origin. Each participant brought some regional delicacy along so that we could enjoy various tastes and get to know each other better. We tried Bulgarian cheese, Romanian wine, Slovenian bread, Czech Chocolate, Latvian and Finnish liquor or Irish and Italian rusks with spread. Polish cusine was represented by famous pierogi! The ladies from the School of @ctive Senior joined us as well and gave a short concert with Polish golden oldies.
We enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing evening of chat, music, good food/drink cementing our relationship with one another. Each of the Grundvig participants brought some snacks and drinks from their country and music or photos to enable them to talk about their country of origin. We were joined by some of the Polish ladies who had danced for us on Tuesday and they again danced and sang for us. We were also joined by Jerry (president of Polish-German group) who gave us a talk on Monday. - Paddy Early on the blog SeniorWeb.
Good command of English was also one of the most important factors of good communication. Our participants could get in touch easily and work together effectively not only during the workshop but also in narrow circle apart from the main activities. We enjoyed sharing our experiences and stories from our lives so much!