Departing thoughts on Pinczow

Pinczow (pronounced Pinchov): A small town in the south of Poland, difficult to get to by public transport, and one that no one would really attempt to reach anyway unless they lived there or had friends/relatives. Certainly not a place catered for tourists.

It was the first time in a long time that I had stayed in any house that was not connected to the World Wide Web. No, not even dial-up. At times, I found myself completely at loss as to what to do. The men usually rose early, worked, and spent much of the later afternoon in something like a shed. I can't pronounce the Polish word for it, and even if I could, Polish spelling completely blows my mind. This shed functioned as a sort of garden patch for home-grown fruits and vegetables. Furnished too with a couch, and a refrigerator for the standard beer and vodka. Pinczow had that small town feel that I fall in love with every time I'm in the Wagga-Albury region. Everyone seeming to know each other, and people having just enough to get by. 

When I'm in these places, it feels like you don't need any more things. You have it all. You forget the materialism, and you don't create needs for yourself, either because you don't have the temptations of large restaurants or shopping districts, or because (as I prefer to think of it), you feel the money you would be wasting could actually go a long way on important things better spent by the surrounding locals. In Pinczow, it's common for people to live in the same place for their entire lives. In the same house even, growing up and later even raising their own children there. 

The other day, someone came inside my room speaking Polish and started drawing the curtains. I thought she was just showing me how beautiful the day was, so I smiled and nodded and continued about my business. Then she switched the lightbulb off, and the lightbulb in my brain turned on (ha). How inconsiderate of me. It just didn't occur to me to use solar power on a beautiful morning. There's this automatic inclination to using the switch for electricity because that's most convenient for me, not taking into account the waste of energy and money.

It's one of those lessons you need reminding of constantly. And by reminding, I mean you have to see these people and walk in these streets. They're so simple about life and so happy. Back in the old shopping spree days, I'd roll my eyes whenever Dad said that I might as well have thrown  my coins straight down the gutter. By no means are Pinczow, Wagga and Albury developing towns. It just makes me slightly nostalgic of the real poverty in other places that I have seen. It's induces a similar memory and makes me feel a bit stupid for having spent so much on this big Euro trip to begin with, but I've resolved to do a big service project this summer to make up for it just a little bit.