Qype: Notting Hill Carnival in London

London – Arts & Entertainment

When many years ago I would laze around in front of the TV, complaining to everyone that there was never anything to do – The Notting Hill Carnival was probably that something that I was dreaming of. (Picture a nerdy kid on a couch sighing and looking into the ether as a little thought bubble pops up filled with skimpily dressed dancing girls and massive dub blasting sound systems.)
This was my third free North London Summer festival this year, and it was the second year in a row I’d been to the Notting Hill Carnival. For me these events are the best part of the summer and demonstrate the very best qualities of Londoners. I can understand though if, for instance, you lived in the area, hated loud music, were intimidated by drunk people and felt trapped by the crowds, then this might well be the worst part of the summer and an example of everything wrong with life in the capital.
I arrived there on the Monday at about 3 pm at Kensal Rise Station. The train was full of Carnival goers, almost all of whom had got on in Dalstan. (I have a theory that as Notting Hill has gentrified and the Caribbean communities have moved east, this carnival is increasingly a Hackney/Brixton festival that is staged in Notting Hill – might be a controversial idea)
Leaving the train we were greeted by some thumping dance music, the smells and smoke of jerk chicken and no less than 40 police and transport workers. Dogs sniffed everyone and seemed to find everyone of interest. Which meant long body and bag searches. Now I’m not complaining about this though. I continue to be really impressed with the way that London police operate, and particularly at big events which is where I tend to get closer to them. I LIKE the idea that people are searched for weapons. And I think their attitude to drugs is really practical. It seems that large quantities or the higher class drugs will get you in trouble, but they unofficially aren’t bothered about small amounts of pot. The policeman searching a lad in front of me said to a colleague “I found a spliff on this one – what should I do?”
“Take it off him and tell him he’s lucky”
I love this attitude. Actually most of all I love the policeman calling it a “spliff”. Really getting into the spirit of the thing!
The crowds got denser as we approached the carnival area proper, although we were always able to walk at a reasonable pace. We were stopped for a few minutes when we ran into the main procession. The floats were amazing! So much work went into them. Along with the costumes and the dancers and the music. Just brilliant! I hadn’t watched the parade last year but this year we walked for an hour or more against the flow of the floats, drinking wine and taking photos. I sensed no agro at all in the crowd as Japanese and German and all other flavour of tourist posed for photos with the dancers, danced themselves and just soaked it in.
Last year we’d used a map to get around and this year I was a bit disorientated. My favourite part of the carnival is the soundsystems and I was a bit confused as to where they were. We had to double back along the path of the parade to find them and this took quite a while. Along the way police had blocked off different roads to manage numbers and we had that sense of being inescapably stuck in a really large crowd that moved very slowly.
We found the spot we wanted and spent three hours of so dancing and meeting people and generally mixing it with a flowing group of revellers in front of some very large speakers.
Around 7 the music stopped and the thousands of people all wandered off to the transport points or their after parties. I didn’t witness any trouble at all on the way out. We bought some chicken and sat on the canal for an hour or so till the worst of the crowds cleared and then caught a not ridiculously full train back home.
Going on my standard device for measuring crowds at festivals (the queue for the toilets) I thought there were less people this year than last; might have been the sunny weather last year that brought everyone out.
Whilst buying a kebab yesterday I read in one of the tabloids that there had been around 600 or so arrests or incidents at the carnival but that there was not a single stabbing or shooting or other major horrible drama. I think that’s a cause for a huge celebration. All we hear about in the media is how dangerous London is , about how terrible are the gangs and the stabbings and the drugs. But here we have the biggest street party in Europe, filled with all those young people we are told to be scarred of, and there is almost no crime.

Check out my review of Notting Hill Carnival – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Lancut Castle in Lancut

Lancut

Not far from Rseszow lies the Castle of Lancut. (Pronounced wansoot)
The castle was first built between 1629 and 1642 as a defensive fortress. It became one of Polands and perhaps europes most impressive residences with strong links to the Habsburgs and other upper crust families.
The Potocki family, it’s final dynastic owners, engaged the elite crafts people of europe to continue renevations, including indoor heating and plumbing, up until they fled in 1944.
After housing German troups, the building was handed over as a museum to the Polish people and has been maintained as such ever since, with most of its treasures intact, including a stagering array of paintings and artifacts.

I was blown away by this place. It had a similar wow factor to visiting the Al Hambra in Spain. Castle Lancut though has an entirely lived in feel to it. Conferences and banquets still take place in the main dining hall. Classical music was being practiced for a concert that evening in the music room. All the furniture is intact as though it was only abandend yesterday.

It’s two big to describe in detail but I’ll give three highlights. One was the private indoor theatre. Apparantly unique in Poland (Did the guide say europe?) A fully decked out theatre that still had the sets in place from its last production. There is even an orchastra pit. (How rich can people be??)
The biggest collection of private carriages in the world. In itself a bit boring – but they are overlooked by the stuffed heads of every wild animal you could think of from africa. Including a Girraffe. (What else do you give the person who has everything?)
Thirdly the strory of the kidnapped child..you’ll have to visit to find out about that one.
Tours can be organised in various languages and like everything else in Poland they are priced very reasonably.
The grounds are also spectacular and a picnic would be a great idea.

Check out my review of Lancut Castle – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Grand Club in Rzeszów

Rzeszow

Ultra modern club. Someone has spent a lot of money building this place and the punters are loving it.
It’s a big underground space just next to the square in Rzeszow. Inside brand new minimalist modern furniture sits within a medievil seeming bricked cellar with an impressive domed roof. There are several different rooms with tables for dining and relaxing and a substantial dance floor. A large glassed wall section at the rear displays a neon lit half sized bowling alley.
Drinks seem cheap by English standards and the menu ventures beyond standard pub snacks into the restaurant realm.
There was an entrance fee of about 2 pounds and quite a que to get in that began from around 11 pm.
The expansiveness and attention to detail in the design of this place says an enormous amount about the current prosperity of Rzeszow generally. Cash and confidence abound.
There is not a tourist in site in this place, or in the whole town. Which contrasts magnificantly with backpacker land Krakow – only 150 kms to the west.

Check out my review of Grand Club - I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Stal Rzeszow speedway in Rzeszów

Rzeszow

I remember watching the lead up to England playing Poland in the world cup in 2006. Every news station outlet in London from the BBC to the News of the World was screaming biased editorials like “Extra police are will be on notice for the Polish fans” and “All is quiet at the moment but there is a real fear of the violence that is to be expected from the Polish fans” and “The Polish fans have a reputation as the most violent in Europe.”
Obviously they aren’t quotes, my memory is not that good. I remember it very clearly though because I’d never met a Polish person at the time and I was a little anxious about the anticipated atrocities. What a fizzer! In the event everyone was well behaved. Had I been Polish I would felt more than a little agrieved.

Stal Rzeszow is one of the proudest Polish football clubs, and also has a very successful speedway team. Rzeszow, the town where it is located, is arguably the most Polish city in Poland. I went along to a speedway event here really excited about experiencing the heartland of Polish football nationalism. (albeit in the off season)

Tickets for the speedway are 28 szloty full price, which is about 7 pound. A lot of money for the local wage earners.
It was the end of the season and the club was already facing relegation so there was a bit of a dead rubber atmosphere. Still there was a substantial crowd, of probably two thousand, in a well worn stadium of six thousand capacity. Apparantly most of these come as much for the love of the football team of the same name as for the speedway. They get a chance to sing and wave their flags in the off season.

Speedway, for the uninitiated, is a team sport. four riders race against each other at the same time – two from each team. The first placed rider gets three points with the last placed getting zero. Scores are tallied and one team wins the night.

Generally I’m no fan of motorsport but this was quick, thrilling, noisy, competative, and there was beer and sausages everywhere.

The fans – as far as I could tell – were really well behaved. Stal Rseszow lost and the other team cheered loudly, which seemed to be excepted. Fans were seperated though – like in English football. The Rzseszow fans cheered the other teams riders at the end of the night for great peformances, especially the champion Hans Anderson.

This was only a snapshot into Polish football culture, but I would certainly be prepared to go to one of their football games. Amazingly I saw not one but three teenage boys wearing white England team football shirts.

I really don’t think the Polish football fan is the monster the English media told me they were.

As a qualifying aside – On a trip to Gdansk two weeks ago our train overtook a “special football train”. These are trains just for football fans on the way to matches. It was easily recognisable as such. They were stopped just outside a station – every window and every door was crammed with singing sunburnt men waving cans and flags. They seemed to be happily singing together with no audience except some sheep and passing cars and us as we sped past at speed.

Check out my review of Stal Rzeszow speedway – I am gotiges7 – on Qype