Difficult beginnings

It started with a dream of the child for whom the world appeared as something huge and unattainable. If you are a child of the 1970s like me, you know what I’m talking about. I remember my parents making me stand in mile-long queues for coffee in the drab and coarse days of communist Poland. Perhaps that’s why I prefer tea nowadays. I also remember my father standing in a line for three days to get the ham that was supposed to be delivered in a limited amount before Christmas. He was very lucky to be third in the queue because there were exactly three hams. I can imagine the envy and jealousy of those standing right behind him, especially the fourth person in the queue. Perhaps, that unfortunate ham, which required a lot of time, patience and stamina from my father, became one of the reasons why I am a vegetarian today.

Dad was one of the lucky ones who went to Czechoslovakia on business trips. He would bring back sweets that were not available in Poland back then. To this day, I adore Lentilky, which I will always associate with the taste of something distant, luxurious and festive.

As a ten-year-old, I crossed the Polish border for the first time. I went to Czechoslovakia, and I fell in love with it. The foreign language on the streets, the shop shelves overflowing with colourful sweets, the smell of ground coffee – all of that was uncommon in Poland and made a big impression on me.

As a teenager, I accidentally heard a programme on the radio in which one of the listeners said she was going to London in two days’ time. Today, young people go to England on school trips, but back then, going to London sounded like a trip to the moon. I felt that travelling to a foreign country was my biggest dream. I didn’t even dream that I would be able to carry it out on such a grand scale. I would visit not only London but every continent except Antarctica. I have a plan that when I retire I will travel nearby, but now I choose the far corners of the world.