Kurma

Day one of the on-site Polish Festival experience was awesome. We loaded all the kitchen trucks and vans and arrived in the picturesque seaside town of Ustronie Morskie ("quiet little village by the sea") by early afternoon, a leasurely 20 minutes drive from base camp.

The site had already been set up by the 'roadies' since dawn, and finishing touches were in progress. Locals, consisting of Ustronie dwellers and tourists from all over Poland, were starting to browse around.

Needless to say I had a lot of fun in my Wegetarianizm tent, and we packed 60 or more very interested people in for both sessions.

Polish people are very jolly, simple-hearted, soft and kind, and most important, they laughed heartily at all my jokes.

Photos don't really do justice to the busy-ness of the event. Here's a few glimpses. Visitors were swarming in by mid afternoon and enjoying the non-stop 6-hour stage performances.

Stage events included a Ramayana stage performance, describing the pastimes of Lord Rama. The Balinese dancers were hot in demand for photo opportunities.

The Magik tent is always full and overflowing.

The well-stocked boutiques offered wonderful choices of Indian handicrafts and goodies. The restaurant tent was packed all the time with a great assortment of delicacies.

Oils, perfumes, sarees and other delights were popular with the ladies.

By the end of the night the stage was warming up with some amazing performances, drawing the day's events to a climax at 10.30 pm. All of us tired little teddy bears drove home to do it all over again today, same venue, with another 4 - 5,000 attendees, many of whom will be return visitors.

Yesterday my internet connection was down so I wasn't able to publish this little report, but it's now up and running, so better late than never.

I was starting to load all my tent-kitchen things into the huge truck for my first real travelling Polish festival adventure. I noticed a lot of activity in the kitchen

The kitchen at home base is a hive of cool, calm culinary professionalism. Here's a few glimpses. This is a team of ladies making Aloo patra, savouries with buttery pastry rolled around spicy potato filling. First the pastry is rolled into a square, then the potato is spread on top.

The sheet is then rolled carefully into a log.

The log is finally sliced into rounds, and the rolls are pan fried.

Here they are, crispy and ready to go.

These ladies are cutting potatoes and cauliflower for the famous samosas, the most popular of all Polish festival foods.

Here's another classic - 'simply wonderfuls'. They are as they sound!

How would you like one of these to steam your vegies? Lunch for the crew fills 2 of these daily.

This operation is performed everyday, despite the fact that we will return from the festival site around midnight. The members of the team perform superhuman austerities to get this show on the road.