10 April 2019 // Florine van Rees //Rotterdam

//POLAND

 

26 hours of driving through, 8 hours of walking in

The plan was made on Saturday and executed the following Tuesday: driving along with a friend of mine who had to visit a factory in Poland where handmade boats were being made for his company. Lately I have been growing fascination for the country and figured I wanted to visit whenever the opportunity would arise - the rest is history. 

The drive started on Tuesdayevening and had a pitstop in a small town in Germany, containing one bar named "Crazy Bar", serving mainly shots with different ingredients but always the same amount of alcohol. When the bar closed we got send to one other place that was still open: A gas station next to the highway - just pointing this out as a reference of how small this town actually was. 

On Wednesdayevening we arrived at our hotel in the north of Poland, next to a pretty lake and looking over cute small town houses. The next day we arose early to head towards the factory. The morning included a grand tour through the factory and its workers, which afterwards gave me the opportunity to photograph the place and take portraits of the hard-working men and women, while my friend and his collegue went through meetings. When that was crossed of my list, I went walking to the small village nextdoor, containing one square, a church, a movie theater, a cemetery, a baker, a butcher, a pharmacy, a supermarket and some small shops celling random things. To make visual that this place was even smaller and more like a village going back in time than the German pitstop one; when I was standing across the street to take a picture of a storefront, a car stopped in the street to wait until I was finished taking the shot. 

I got fascinated by the cemetery and all its colours and glitters, coming from fake flowers and candles only, being sold in several shops in the village across the street. The sunlight hitting these colours and glitters almost made you forget what kind of place you just entered. Then basically all the graphic design made me feel like I was going back in time. The colours of the houses were wonderful. 

4 Hours later I was back in the car, the morning after we arrived back in The Netherlands. Some trips are worth travelling 2 days for one day of inspiration, new energy and the opportunity to capture a place and its people with a camera. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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