Sunday, April 18, 2010

R.I.P.

It finally ended today, the long, long week of mouring in Poland for the President, his wife and 94 other victims of the aircrash in Smolensk, Russia. It was one of the longest funeral I have ever witnessed. You know it began in Warsaw with ceremonies and mass and then today it concluded with a mass in the beautiful Mariacki church in Krak贸w. Because of the amount of eulogies, a full choir with orchestra and pomp and circumstance the mass took about 3 hours. Then a long, slow procession from the church several blocks to Wawel Castle where the bodies were put into the crypt. I had an idea how long the procession would take so Joan and I went to the rynek and were happily surprised to see the outside cafes were now open so we had a cup of coffee and went back home. We arrived just in time as the procession was entering the castle. Now it is over for the former President and his wife but there are still many more funerals taking place this week for the other victims of the tragedy.

Ostatecznie zako艅czy艂 si臋 dzisiaj, d艂ugo, d艂ugo w tygodniu mouring Polska dla prezydenta, jego 偶ona i 94 innych ofiar aircrash w Smole艅sku w Rosji. By艂 to jeden z najd艂u偶szych pogrzeb, jaki kiedykolwiek widzia艂. Wiesz, 偶e rozpocz臋艂a si臋 w Warszawie uroczysto艣ci i masa i dzi艣 zawartych z masy w pi臋kny ko艣ci贸艂 Mariacki w Krakowie. Ze wzgl臋du na ilo艣膰 mowy, pe艂ny ch贸r z orkiestr膮 i przepych i okoliczno艣ci masowych trwa艂a oko艂o 3 godzin. Potem d艂ugie, powolne procesja z ko艣cio艂a kilka blok贸w na Wawel, gdzie te instytucje zosta艂y umieszczone w krypcie. I wpad艂 na pomys艂, jak d艂ugo procesji we藕mie tak Joan i poszli艣my do rynek i zosta艂y szcz臋艣liwie zaskoczony poza kawiarnie by艂y ju偶 otwarte tak mieli艣my kaw臋 i poszed艂 do domu. Przyjechali艣my tylko w czasie procesji okaza艂o si臋 wej艣cie na zamek. Teraz jest ponad dla by艂ego prezydenta i jego 偶ony, ale wci膮偶 istnieje wiele wi臋cej pogrzeb贸w odbywa si臋 w tym tygodniu dla innych ofiar tragedii