In a report headlined “Young at Heart: Poland’s Party City of Lublin,” Neelam Tailor writes: “Lublin is a beautiful city where renaissance mansions sit next to gothic castles, brutalist shopping malls, techno clubs and cool cafes; a fun and fascinating place to experience Poland’s rich and innovative past, present and future.”
The Guardian reports that Lublin is home to nine universities, with students coming from nearly 110 countries: "It is estimated that every fifth resident is a student, and the city prides itself on a year-round calendar of cultural events, festivals, nightlife and food."
Highlights include "the Karnawał Sztukmistrzów (27-30 July), with contemporary circus acts, clowns and acrobats from around the world."
In August, "Lublin’s creative community gathers to make art in the streets at the graffiti festival." In September, "the European Festival of Taste celebrates multiculturalism and Lublin’s culinary heritage with live music, exhibitions and food workshops,” The Guardian says.
Tailor also toured the site of the former Nazi German concentration camp of Majdanek on the outskirts of Lublin.
She writes: “It is a harrowing experience to stand inside Nazi gas chambers, haunting to see the shoes of so many Jewish prisoners, and sobering to read the inscription in the mausoleum containing their ashes: 'Let our fate be a warning to you.' The more we explore, the clearer it becomes that Lublin has no interest in forgetting the Jewish people who once lived here, but includes them in the windows of buildings, in poems on the city’s walls, and in plaques on the cobblestones.”
Tailor says her Polish guide explained to her how Poland was “liberated” from the Nazis by the Soviet Union, using his fingers as quote marks.
"For many Poles, 1945 brought a new occupation under a different regime," The Guardian notes. "The country didn’t regain independence until 1989."
(mk/gs)