When I talked to residents of Poznań, there was fairly widespread agreement with this observation of mine, that people here are generally both polite and cultured, and quieter than the Polish norm. I encountered pleasant smiles at every turn. It seemed like one big set-up, as if I were in some great polite "Truman Show."
And yet I wasn't. No one was pretending. I've met too many people like that to be mistaken. I liked this nice, calm, polite and, above all, cultural Poznan immensely. A cultural city. Cultural in the sense of personal culture and culture in general: contemporary art, traditional culture and high culture. One might ask, isn't this the most important thing in a mature metropolis?
Professor Jerzy Hausner once quoted anecdotally from words supposedly uttered by Winston Churchill. There was a cabinet meeting going on over budget cuts for the war, someone proposed taking away funding for culture, and the prime minister is supposed to have said, "Then what else are we fighting for in this war if not culture?" Admittedly, this is not a quote from Churchill, but even as an anecdote it tells us something important. Culture is the most important thing.
I love the Silesian supercity for its distinctively Silesian character, I love Breslau for its great stories and mysteries, such atmospheres make cities what they are. The worst thing, I think, is when a city is bland. And that's what Poznań used to seem like to me. No mountains, no sea, no big river, no skyscraper district, no claws. Such a kind of ordinary from the rest.
But after driving through Chwaliszewo, after discovering the super-fashionable Jeżyce district, which is Poznań's version of Berlin's Kreuzberg, after walking around the Polytechnic, talking at "Save the planet," numerous tastings in great pubs and many conversations with locals, I can finally say sorry to Poznań.
Jeżyce - Poznań's Kreuzberg - is fancy and shows that the city must have an alternative to the traditional city center
photo: Mateusz Zmyślony
It seemed to me that a cool city has to be a bit of a robber, like those Bałuty carving up Łódź, like that Prague improving the taste of Warsaw like an expensive, overseas spice. Meanwhile, I don't see this robber in Poznań, but I also don't want it there anymore. What Poland needs is one city that is simply polite, cultured and nice. More peaceful. Because today that's what is very sexy.
