Tweedpipe

An interesting thread.
Regarding 'selfie', I note that it was chosen as the Word of the Year in 2013 by the Oxford English Dictionary.
In the same year here in France, the Word of the Year was 'transparence', which as we well know has several meanings depending on the context. Culturally worlds apart.
'Culturally' speaking, Australia has laid claim to inventing the modern day selfie in 2001. No further comment......

scot47

I remember travelling by train with a group of young people (under 25) from Victoria Rail Station to Warsaw in 1963. My first foreign adventure organised by CND. For me the beginning of a life of travel and teaching in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and best of all - Bulgaria. 4 weeks in Lublin, Krakow and Warsaw. At that time "Holocaust Tourism" had not yet developed but we were encouraged to visit Majdanek and Auschwitz.

Gordon Barlow

That castle is magnificent. We never got anywhere near there, during our week's travel around Poland in 1965. I had no idea that part of the world still had a permanent population of ethnic Germans. We had met up with ethnic Germans in western Romania (Transylvania) a couple of months earlier. They called themselves Saxons, and spoke a dialect of German. I couldn't understand the dialect, but could converse (minimally!) with those who spoke regular German.

I have always been glad to have travelled in so many exotic places (Europe and the Middle East, mainly), but I do regret being so damn ignorant of the places - ignorant of the histories, the languages and the lifestyles. I've spent much of my life since, trying to acquire the knowledge I was missing then.

scot47

Not always so easy to decide who is German and who is Polish. In Silesia, Pomerania and Prussia there were many families which had people of both ethnicities. Not all "Germans" left in 1945 and it is in any case difficult in many cases to stick a labek on people as being EITHER'OR. Ethnicity is not binary !

Richard8655

scrubbedexpat142

Missed this thread before, very glad I have caught up with it, great stories!

Been to Warsaw several times on business before retiring, going to Krakow at the end of May (co incidentally booked the flights today).

My Father worked in Poland in the '60s, never quite sure what he did there...

scot47

Travelled in the new Polish lands of Silesia 1966-1968

I noticed that no one in my student circles was aware that Poland had been moved to the West at the expense of Germany. as a result of the Potsdam Agreement. Large tracts of land were handed over to Poland.That included Silesai, Pomerania, and Prussia. Huge numnbers were resettled "heim ins Reich". Justice ?

Gordon Barlow

Half of Prussia, anyway; the rest was occupied for years by the USSR, and then annexed; it's now part of Russia - and a thorn in the side of NATO, I would think. Most ethnic Germans in those places you mentioned were simply expelled: victors' idea of justice, to punish Germans. Though not Austrians, as far as I can tell. The Saxons (Sachsens) of Transylvania in Romania had lived there since 1300 or some such date; I don't know where they were expelled to. When we met up with some of them in 1965 on our way through that part of the world I asked if they'd suffered much during the War, but they assured me it wasn't such a bad time for them.

scot47

The German minority in Romania was not expelled in 1945, but many have now left. Most went to West Germany.. The story of the Saxon minority in Bulgaria is different. They were resettled inside the Reich in 1943 as part of an agreement between Berlin and Sofia (at that time a co-belligerent). When I lived in rural Bulgaria (1995-2008) my home was in a village neighbouring a village that had been ethnically German (Tsarev Brod near Shumen)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarev_Brod

scot47

As I expected, no responses to this. I get interested in things that others find strange. I will leave the others to their interests and continue on "The Road Less Travelled"

scrubbedexpat142

Trouble is Scot, not many people know or care about Poland, which is a shame.

scot47

As a student visiting Poland in the early 1960s I experienced that. On returning to small-town Scotland none of my pals and fellow-students wanted to hear from me about my experiences, I learned from that not to bother people with Traveller's Tales.

Assanah

I think that might also have to do with the propaganda during the cold war. I used to think that everything in the former East is grey and borring....until I visited the places. Travel and learn.

With regards to the German heritage of Eastern Europe it is being rediscovered by the younger generation. Just listened to an interesting report about German culture in the Czech Republic and how the younger Czechs start asking questions about that time, researching, discussing and discovering.

scrubbedexpat142

True, but in the case of the British most travel abroad just for the weather, with little interest in the Country or culture they are seeing, save for those who like to seek opportunities to sneer or lord it over the natives!

Gordon Barlow

Scot: I had a similar experience when I returned to Australia after a year away in Europe. None of my friends were even slightly interested. Indeed, mentioning a foreign city was a real conversation-stopper. Then, eight years later when we lived in Perth (WA), almost all the friends we made were either former expats or new immigrants; very few locals. And the same thing when we have lived in England: very hard to communicate with the locals except on safe topics like TV shows and English politics.