EWA A. ŁUKASZYK
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GARDEN & DESERT
​
Erotical Journal

Nightmare in Berlin

30/7/2018

0 Comments

 
I'm checking Berlin, thinking about a larger project here. What attracted me, initially, was the relative accessibility, low housing prices, short distance from Kraków for my moving expense... But it's not worth it. I don't see a real alternative to Amsterdam. 
Even if I needed to land there with nothing but a few packages containing books and a bag of clothes... That's the end of joking, either I make myself visible with important books, and very soon, or I lose everything.
Everything is a way of speaking. I may lose my status, even if I used to be so sarcastic about it. All what I actually leave behind is a professorial salary of about 1100 euro net, with a perspective of an old age at 60 (fourteen years from now) with the equivalent of 300 or 400 euro a month. With books, museum entrances, Wiener Schnitzels and a couple of new pieces of clothing, I've just spent about 600 euro on this clumsy trip to Berlin (Flixbus and the cheapest hostel all exclusive). Does it mean that, if I stayed in Poland, one day I might see myself out of the financial possibility of visiting Berlin, even for a weekend a year?
Gosh, I think Berlin was my first trip abroad, with a summer colony, in the DDR times. I was about 13 at the time, and I distinctly remember how I spent my pocket money on my first 100% cotton pants (the pants we had in Poland were made of some ugly and terribly unhealthy synthetic stuff). I got them in the big shopping centre on the Alexander Platz. Was it the same one where I've bought a summer dress and a couple of leggings this time? Is it really possible in fourteen years from now I might not afford to come to Berlin? Or is it just a bogey, just an urban legend, just a Gazeta Wyborcza's lie? Just another chapter in history? Just the poverty that had once been so very familiar to me? Would I meet her again at the end?
I don't care to check. I go to Amsterdam. Hopefully beyond the nightmare's range.
Perhaps these are retroactive nightmares, haunting me when I actually am beyond the harm's range. Am I? For this year at least, I contributed to the French retirement system in excellent conditions. And in the Netherlands even the lowest allocation, for those who had worked only for a few years and never had any serious investment plan whatsoever, is 1000 euro. With this, I might at least manage to spend a weekend in Berlin to see the Ishtar Gate before I die. As for cotton pants, I took sufficient stock last time there were sales in Hema. I bought three or four packs and a couple of cotton leggings, and I was asked to pay 4 euro. Keeping my buttock warm, I hope there will always be Hema and the Netherlands, and I only fear the flood.

0 Comments
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  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • THEORY
    • TRANSCULTURAL HUMANITIES
    • TOPOLOGIES OF SYMBOLIC SPACE
    • MATHEMATICAL INSPIRATIONS FOR HUMANITIES
  • RESEARCH
    • MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN
    • ADAMIC LANGUAGE
    • ISLAMIC STUDIES
    • MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES
    • SLOWACKI'S TRAVELOGUE
    • MAGHREBIAN LITERATURES
    • PORTUGUESE STUDIES
    • LUSOPHONE AFRICAN STUDIES
    • BRAZILIAN STUDIES
    • TRANSCOLONIAL STUDIES
    • GLOBAL LITERARY STUDIES
    • PINWHEELS
  • TRAVELS
    • SCANDINAVIA >
      • ICELAND
    • WESTERN EUROPE >
      • AUSTRIA
      • BELGIUM
      • FRANCE
      • GERMANY
      • GREAT BRITAIN >
        • SCOTLAND
      • IRELAND
      • ITALY >
        • VENICE
      • NETHERLANDS
      • PORTUGAL
      • SPAIN >
        • AL-ANDALUS
        • CATALONIA
      • SWITZERLAND
    • CENTRAL EUROPE >
      • CZECH REPUBLIC
      • SLOVAKIA
      • HUNGARY
      • LATVIA
      • LITHUANIA
      • ROMANIA
      • POLAND
    • EASTERN EUROPE >
      • UKRAINE
    • BALCANS >
      • ALBANIA
      • GREECE
      • MACEDONIA
      • SERBIA
      • CROATIA
      • MONTENEGRO
      • SLOVENIA
    • MEDITERRANEAN >
      • SICILY
      • MALTA
    • CAUCASUS >
      • ARMENIA
      • GEORGIA
      • A Ride across the Caucasus
    • MIDDLE EAST >
      • EGYPT
      • TURKEY >
        • CAPPADOCIA
      • SYRIA
      • JORDAN
      • ARABIA
      • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
    • MAGHREB >
      • MOROCCO
      • TUNISIA
    • WEST AFRICA >
      • GAMBIA
      • GUINEA-BISSAU
      • SENEGAL
    • EAST AFRICA >
      • ETHIOPIA
      • KENYA
      • MOZAMBIQUE
    • ASIA >
      • INDIA
      • MALAYSIA
      • JAPAN
    • SOUTH AMERICA >
      • BRAZIL
  • PRIVATE CORNER
    • BLOG
    • AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS >
      • The Four Riders
      • Making a Universe
    • NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY >
      • PLANTS >
        • BOTANIC GARDENS
        • FORESTS
      • ANIMALS >
        • BUTTERFLIES
        • AQUATIC LIFE
        • AMPHIBIANS & REPTILES
        • BIRDS
        • MAMMALS
      • THE ELEMENTS >
        • INNER PLACES
        • WATER
        • EARTH
        • LIGHT
        • DESERT
    • FALCONRY >
      • WHY DOES FALCONRY MATTER
      • FALCONRY SEMINARS
      • WPROWADZENIE DO SOKOLNICTWA
  • Contact