25. Polish Reflections

By Don

As we leave Poland it is time to reflect back. What is the essence of this country? Well… its Churches, Vodka and Green Acres. That about wraps it.

There are a lot of churches. In reality not sure if there are more than at home as close to 90% of Poles are Roman Catholic so not a big demand for churches of other denominations. But there are a lot of Catholic churches and they are substantial and impressive even in small towns. And this begets the question of how religious is Poland? Well of course this is relative, but relative to other western European countries the answer is ‘very’.

“Poland still remains one of the most devoutly religious countries in Europe. Polish Catholics participate in the sacraments more frequently than their counterparts in most Western European and North American countries. A 2009 study ….. revealed that 80% of Poles go to confession at least once a year, while 60% of the respondents say they do so more often than once a year. By contrast, a 2005 U.S. study ….. revealed that only 14% of American Catholics take part in the sacrament of penance once a year, with a mere 2% doing so more frequently.” So says Wikipedia.

This religiosity shows itself in the secular world. Abortion is illegal except in the case of…. well you know those cases. It is also illegal to ‘offend religious feelings’ as one lady found out when she said on TV “it is hard to believe in something written by people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes” when explaining why she would rather believe in dinosaurs than the bible. Charged and convicted.

So now vodka. Well the story is vodka was first invented in Poland. That would be a Polish story. Of course there is a Russion story that says it was first invented in Russia. But there does seem to be agreement that it was in one of these two places and both countries act as if they own it. Russians consume the most vodka per capita and the Poles are number two, right behind them. It is stated that those that do drink Vodka in Poland have around 14 shots a month, the Russians have about 4 more. Doesn’t sound too bad, but they are not evenly spaced out. Apparently when you start drinking vodka go big or go home. In total alcohol consumption per capita, Poland is 14th. For perspective, Canada is 40th. As an aside, in the top 16 are Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia and Poland. What about Estonia? Wasn’t on the report but some say it is 3rd. Bulgaria is 23rd. Hmmmm, these are the countries we are going through, so it appears we are on the cycling equivalent of a booze cruise. So far, however, I’m thinking Dennis and I are not carrying our own weight. What is the implication? Well the Estonians say they are so high because of all the Finnish tourists not because of the locals. So we don’t want to skew the results one way or the other. Like, we don’t want the Poles saying “we’d knock those Russians out of the park if we didn’t have all these light weight cyclists coming through.”

So what do you know about Vodka? It is the most popular hard liquor sold in bars. Why? Because it is odorless and tasteless and can be mixed with anything. It is just pure alcohol and water. Now people argue that it matters whether it is from potatoes, rye, apples, or whatever. They argue that it matters how many times it was distilled in terms of purity (for the record Grey Goose is only distilled once).

But the law in the U.S. says, Vodka “is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color.” So I ask you, if by definition Vodka has no character, aroma, taste or color, why are there so many different types of tasteless, aroma less vodkas in Poland? I’d guess there is a lot of profit margin in producing something clear, without character, taste or aroma. But why is there all this price differential? . You best ask the Poles as we don’t have the nerve. Or listen to Terry O’Reilly, I’m sure he can explain it. If you don’t believe me about all this Vodka stuff listen to this: Planet Money Podcast

Alright, finally. Green Acres? No Eva Gabor was not Polish, she was Hungarian. When you travel across Poland on big or little roads you notice that there is an endless stream of houses on small to large acreages. And I do mean endless, there are so many you wonder if there is any room left for a real farm. You can go 100 km and it literally never ends. This was particularly evident south of Krakow but also in the north. And these are nice houses with lots more being built. Now what do you do 90 km from Krakow living on a small road in what many would consider Nowhere. And not just you but the thousands of other Poles living around you The answer is I have no bloody idea, but I have found out why. They all suffer from the Eddie Albert syndrome, or more accurately the Oliver Wendell Douglas syndrome. This is as opposed to Canadians with their Lisa Douglas syndrome. The Poles think it is cool to live in the country. So over 40% of Poles live in the countryside because… wait for it…… they want to, and this number is growing (the cities have been shrinking since 2002). I guess they like to watch green plants shooshting out of the ground. So 40% is a lot considering less that 10% make a living from agriculture and I’ll bet this number is going down. Of interest, when we crossed from Poland to Slovakia this phenomenon stopped. Instantly. Some tax thing perhaps?

So there you have it. All you need to know about Poland. Churches, Vodka and Green Acres. Now about those Slovacs.