48 - Gdansk - Nov 1 - Part 1

Amanda and the 48 crew are in Gdansk, Poland, and at the mercy of Agata and Leszek, young journalism students keen to show the world why their city is central to the new, confident Poland. Gdansk is just one of part of what locals call the Tri-City, the metropolitan area also comprising 19th Century spa town Sopot and the new city of Gdynia, the most affluent region of post-communist Poland. And we begin in Gdansk's old town, as Agata and Leszek guide Amanda through the opening parade of the 750-year-old Jamark Dominikianski festival, a massive street market which survived communism to become the largest celebration of commerce and culture in the country. But they leave the romance of the sunny street market for the cold of an abandoned building in the Gdansk shipyards. Once the pride and joy of Polish industry, the shipyards that gave birth to the Solidarity movement are now struggling to survive. One of Poland's top photographers, Michal Szlaga, has spent eight years documenting the demise of the industry, and taking portraits of the forgotten heroes of Solidarity the trade union movement that was key to ending communism in Poland. On a shooting expedition to a former Nazi submarine factory, Michal shows Amanda the beauty he finds in the yards abandoned spaces, most of which are destined for re-development into shopping malls and apartments. While Michal is a Pole obsessed with documenting decay, 30,000 modern day Medievalists are obsessed with reconstructing the past as accurately as possible. Maciej, a knight and commander of the Von Reihl brotherhood, shows us some genuine jousting, explains what goes into his very authentic medieval outfit and gets us into to the most intimate of reconstructionist events a knighting ceremony.

AlJazeera | November 1, 2008

Tags:. .von. .key. .explains. .trade. .crew