The fifth semester sends me to the distance, not very far, to Poland only, to the area of Warsaw. From here you can explore a lot, also the south and the north.
There are the stories of grandparents from their homeland. The weekends are perfect for short trips, a free weekend brings me to the west, to Wrocław. My grandmother always told me about a chestnut-lined street in Brochów in the south of the city centre of Wrocław. I’m curious, and in fact I found it all again. The beautiful train station, the ring-road, the magnificent town hall, and then the small town of Brochów, the Park Street (ul. Koreańska), but there are not many chestnuts any longer and no cockchafers, the school is no longer there and not the many pretty villas. The chestnuts are also dying here in the West (Germany). In the middle of the summer they are already shedding leaves, but I have found “our“ park (Park Koreański) and the Paul-Keller-Street (Silesian poet, ul. Piwniczna) and then the Rotdornallee (aleja Róż). Here used to be our family house.
But red haw trees (Crataegus) no longer exist. When I told my grandmother on my cell phone where I am, it left her speechless.
My refugee grandmas have all regained a foothold in their new homeland. They have gardens with many trees. There is a stream, ancient oak trees, beautiful colourful beech trees, also fir trees, which may play Christmas once a year.
And there’s a very big old lime tree. A chestnut has not survived a lightning strike. I haven’t found a red haw either, but it blooms everywhere from spring to autumn.