“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” —Erol Ozan
Winter is giving way—reluctantly—to spring around here.
This Easter weekend marks the first of the tourist season here in Sopot. We notice them with their license plates from Warsaw, Wrocław, Bialystok and other areas of Poland. Polish license plates include letters indicating which region the car is from; there are literally hundreds of combinations and it becomes an amusing challenge to spot them. (License plate nerds—okay, like me—can see more here. Am I the only one who gets excited by foreign license plates?) Other cars we spot are from our neighbors: Sweden, Lithuania, Belarus and Russia.
We’re keeping close to home this weekend with walks along our beach path. It’s an easy walk from our little beach town to the main city in our tri-city area, Gdansk. Just follow the signs: You’ll have a glimpse of the moody Baltic Sea, bare branches starting slowly to bud, and even a few intrepid crocuses. We look for spring tentatively around here—there’s always the possibility of a surprise snow day to frost the branches and dispatch our frail flowers. It’s not been a hard winter but regardless, our spring always seems to inspire gratitude and marvel: People gather pussy willow branches, stop to admire small flowers poking through the earth, decorate the cemetery and the churches. Simple things.
The light is just a bit longer every day, and it tints our grey little world with a somewhat softer cast.
I love this photo for it’s crossroads—this way to Sopot, that way to Gdansk—and it reminds me that for many of us, spring can seem like the start of a new year, sometimes even more than January with its resolutions and promises. By April, we’ve got a sense of how the year might play out. We’ve started things. We’ve gathered energy. We’re beginning to wake from the winter, and slowly bloom even despite the risk of one more snowfall. And we look ahead to forthcoming projects, classes, new ideas, travel… Spring feels like rebirth, renewal, rejuvenation.
Does it to you, too?
A happy, lovely holiday weekend to you.
PS. For more scenes from the Polish countryside (plus a powerful story, gorgeous camera work and beautifully subtle acting) I can’t recommend Ida enough. You can find it on Netflix, with English subtitles. Simply. Beautiful. Movie.
