Many months of hard work, had now finally paid off and we were ready .......a special thanks need to go to our choreographers Marek and Wiesia Wojnicz; for the patience, tolerance and professionalism they had towards us, especially when it came to teaching us Ballet. They put together wonderful dances for us to take and we really made them proud in Rzeszów.

While all the practices were going on there was a lot happening behind the scenes. I would like to thank our wonderful Zarz±d (committee), without all their hard work in arranging fund raising activities and events, it would have made going to Poland harder for us; so I feel that i can say from all dancing members an enormous THANK YOU! A special thank you needs to go to Pani Maria Ejsak, who is our seamstress, for the fantastic job she has done in making over 30 brand new costumes for the Australian number ‘Road to Gundagai’ along with brand new ‘Kwiaty Polskie’ costumes and brand new embroidered ‘Góralskie’ shirts for the boys.

We all arrived at Sydney Airport at 8am on Friday 4th July 2008 with our suitcases ready to go. Pan Tadek and Pani Zosia Cyganiuk were there to make sure that we all got through as a group as this is the big job that they took on (unfortunately they were not going to be going with us this trip). After everyone had checked in we were able to do that last bit of duty free shopping or go for a light breakfast in one of the many restaurants at the Airport. We were all in a good mood. Normally the tour leader would be Pan Tadek Cyganiuk, but as he wasn’t going with us, this important role fell to Pani Zofia Liwosz.

When we landed at Gdañsk my father Ryszard ¯urawski would be looking after this part of our trip until we departed for Malbork when the role would once again fall to Pani Zofia Liwosz. The reason for this change was due to the fact that Kujawy had been invited to perform at two concerts in S³upsk and Ustka all expenses paid by the Gmina Kobylnica where my father is from.

The time had come for us to go through customs and board our QUANTAS plane. There were tears as members said good bye to their loved ones and off we went. We departed Sydney at 10:45am. The flight was not as long as I thought and we made our first landing with a two night stay over at Hong Kong. We landed at Hong Kong at approximately 18:00 pm. After waiting for our luggage and the forever missing stroller we were taken to our bus that would take us to our hotel the ‘Metro Park’ Hotel Mongkok.

After getting settled we went straight out to see the sights of Honk Hong or to go shopping. Hong Kong by night is a sight to see especially when the light show is on. Another favourite place for shopping is the ‘Ladies Market. Hong Kong is a must see for all people as it really is a buzzing metropolis with thousands of different sights, sounds and smells. Life really doesn’t start there until the evening and the Ladies Market doesn’t start till after 12pm and closes at midnight, so everyone can buy something any time of day or night.

Our stay in Hong Kong was at an end and our departure was on Sunday 6th July at 9:30am. We arrived at the airport only to find a lot of red tape as they would not book us in as a group flight and subsequently all our luggage had to be re-weighted. This is when problems started to occur with luggage being overweight. However, as there were so many of us, they finally gave up and let our luggage through. We all said farewell to Hong Kong as the FIN Air flight took off to Helsinki. The flight was good and we landed at Helsinki Airport at 15:15pm. The bus was waiting for us to take us to the ‘Helka’ Hotel in the centre of Helsinki. Once we had our luggage, but again we had problems with the elusive stroller, we departed the airport to our hotel.

Once we were allocated our rooms we all went to get something to eat. Some stayed to eat at the restaurant in the hotel while all the m³odzie¿ went into the city 2 blocks away. Helsinki is nice but it only has one problem. When visiting during summer they have what is called ‘white nights”. This means that there is no darkness at all. About 2:30am there is a light dusk which only lasts for about 2 hours and then it is sunlight again, so therefore, at 10pm it was as light as at 2pm here in Sydney during summer time.

After a buffet breakfast at 6am the next day we departed for the airport. Our flight to Gdansk was not a very long one and we took off at 11am and landed in Gdansk at 13:25pm. We were met at Gdansk by Pan Marcin ¦wider who was one of the officials from Gmina Kobylnica. We started our journey to S³upsk which took around 4 hours by bus. Everything was waiting for us. We stayed at the Internet at University S³upsk, all our meals were provided and the fun was just about to begin.

The next day we had rehearsals at the venue and for the concert and also lunch. The concert was called ‘Festiwal Kultur’ and Kujawy were the main attraction. The sportowa hala was packed and the concert commenced at 6pm. Full coverage of the concert was done by the media. Our next concert the following day was to be on the Promenada at Ustka. We arrived and had a short practice on the stage and then had the next 5 hours free before we were to perform. Again the concert turned out great. Early in the morning we departed S³upsk on the next leg of our journey.

We visited Malbork Castle. This truly is a spectacular castle and a must to see. After lunch we made our way to the centre of the Kujawy region in Poland – the city of W³oc³awek; the home of the Polish dance group ‘Kujawy’. We were greeted with a lot pomp and ceremony, with a kapela, bread and salt. All four dance groups were dressed in costume to meet us. Here we had another concert with the Kujawy dance groups. The media was again present; besides performing some of us had interviews with the Polish radio. After the concert we were taken to our accommodation and the dance group Kujawy W³oc³awek prepared an ognisko which went till very late.

The next morning we departed for Kraków. We stopped at O¶wiêcim (Auschwitz). This is a must for all people as it stands as a reminder of what human beings are capable of and so that we never forget what happened during World War II. We had finally arrived in Kraków at the Jagieloñski University. We were staying at the ¯aczek. Our stay in Kraków was for two nights and this was our free time. Here we said farewell to the buses from Kobylnica, which had taken us all the way to Kraków (at no cost to Kujawy). During the day we went sightseeing, I think just about everybody saw Wawel Castle. During the evening we all went to see the night life of Kraków. We were met by members of the dance group ‘Krakowiak’ that were here for the Sydney Polart Festival. The morning of our departure two buses from Rzeszów arrived to pick us up.

The next leg of our journey was to Wieliczka, to the salt mines. The beautiful salt carvings and statues along with the ball room are really worth visiting. Our next stop was going to be Zakopane. We arrived at Tatra House a really beautiful building and unpacked. The next morning we went up the mountain to see ‘Morskie Oko’ but the weather had started to deteriorate and we had rain. The best shopping is at the markets ‘Krupówki’. I think everyone tried the Oscypki, some liked it, others did not. The next days in Zakopane were spent at Krupówki.

It was now the morning of the 16th July and we bid a fond farewell to Zakopane as we started the last leg of our journey to Rzeszów. We arrived at the Akademik late afternoon and found that we were staying in Akapit II. Due to there being 54 people we had the entire 2nd floor only for Kujawy-Sydney. We were allocated to our rooms, unpacked our costumes and given our ID’s.

That night was Festiwal night at the Akademik, all 43 dance groups from all over the world had now arrived and the party was on. Brazil proved to be the noisiest with their drums going till 5am the next morning. It was party time with Brazil (so to speak). We had a free day the next morning and went sightseeing to the castle in £añcut. After lunch we had dancing practise with pan Marek and pani Wiesia.

Day two of the festiwal and there was a special mass at the Cathedral for all the dancing groups. We all attended in our Kujawski costume. After mass we all went back to the Akademik to prepare our Australian costumes for the parade of nations. The buses took us back to where the parade was to commence, and being Australia and Kujawy we were the first group to lead in the parade. At the end of the parade was the official opening of the XIV ¦wiatowy Festiwal Polonijnych Zespo³ów Folklorystycznych Rzeszów'2008.

On the 18th July we had further dance rehearsals with the choreographer of Rzeszów and the next day on the 19th July we performed at Boguchwa³a, here we danced all 7 of our dances along with the dancing group Olza from Cieszyn Czeski. On Sunday 20th July was our turn to perform at the Rynek. Our performance was to commence from 7 pm that evening. We were all nervous, but we knew that all the hard work had come to fruition and that this was it, the day had arrived. We were to dance Polka Ludowa, Suita ¦l±ska and our Góralski.

The rynek was full of people, over 5 thousand and our big moment had arrived. We have never heard such applause as we did in the rynek. After we danced our Góralski the applause were so loud and long that we could have given an encore but already another dance group had gone on the stage. People flocked to the area behind the stage to have photos taken with us. We were all on a high, overjoyed with our performance and how well it had been received by the public.

Next morning was another gruelling practise before the main concert ‘Kraj Zamieszkania’. Not all groups were performing that evening, but we were ready. After practise a quick shower and meal and once again we all had to pack our costumes for the evening performance.

The coloured lights the excitement and one of our members from Kujawy Alexa Narel was given the honour of carrying the Australian flag. We performed in the 1st half of the concert and our rendition of ‘Road to Gundagai’ was greeted with load clapping throughout the performance and very load applause and cheering at the end.

The next day we had a special treat in store for us as we were able to have dancing practise at the ballet and theatre school in Rzeszów. It was really great.

The final day of Rzeszów had now arrived, along with the final concert; the ‘Gala’ Concert. Since leaving Australia on the 4th July till now the 23rd July we found that it had come to a close so quickly. We made sure that all our costumes for ¦lubny Kujawiak were ready. All our other costumes had been packed as they were being picked up the next morning by the courier company to send them back to Australia.

The Gala Concert had now begun. Each dancing group performed. Kujawy were to perform in the 2nd half of the concert and we waited with anticipation. Finally it was our turn Kujawy were announced and amongst the swirl of coloured lights we went on. We danced our hearts out that night and we made such an impact as Kujawy showed something different to the audience. Most of the performances had been Rzeszowskie dances, Opoczynskie, Polonez; but ours dance was different. There were load applause at the end and an appreciation from the audience of our performance, as we had people come up to us and comment about our performance.

Rzeszów had come to an end it was now 24th July and amongst many tears and sad farewells we all departed from Rzeszów each our own way. Our many months of hard preparation had now come to an end, it had passed so quickly. Rzeszów will stay as a fond memory forever with all of the members of Kujawy.

We are all now looking forward to the next Polart in Adelaide.

Mira ¯urawska

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