Out n' about in Krakow. The top one is just near the Copernicus Hotel, where Bush stayed when he was in Poland a few years ago, and looming at the end of the street is Wawel castle.

On the Planty :)

This was from a ceremony we came across commemorating the victims of the Katyn massacre, which occurred in 1940 when Beria ordered the NKVD to execute approximately 22 thousand Polish prisoners of war, including 8000 military officers, and many policemen and public intellectuals. Lots of things to commemorate in Poland from the 20th century.

Polish radical nationalists

Approaching the market square today we heard this ruckus, people chanting "Polska cała zawsze biała," whole Poland always white! and lots of other stuff I couldn't understand. I looked at Ewa and she was trying to make sense of it. Rounding the corner it all became clear. They were members of the NOP, or 'National Revival of Poland,' basically skinheads, chanting about Poland staying white and Catholic and non-Jewish and robustly heterosexual. Another one was "unia europejska to banda złodziejska," the EU is a group of thieves! At one point someone confronted the guy who was leading them, the guy in gray with the loud speaker, and he spat on him.





It's not as big as it seems, those in the photos are about the extent it. So it wasn't a huge demonstration. Ewa was quick to tell me this is unusual in Krakow. In the 2005 federal elections the NOP got something like 0.05 percent of the vote, so it's not like Poland's on the brink of revolution. Maybe that's why they're so angry, they sense their own irrelevance.