History Poland August 13 - August 19 1994

The Polish folk dance group Lubuskie Sloneczko visited Culemborg in 1992, where they gave several performances together with Orient. Of course a visit to Poland was the next step for Orient. The Polish group also invited Orient's teenage group.

We left for Poland on August 13th, and received a warm welcome upon arrival in the castle and cultural centre of Kozuchow. A special welcoming dinner was organised for us on Saturday night in the castle, where major Jan Mokrzyda joined us.

On Sunday morning, we were taken on a special tour of the castle, which took all morning. After lunch it was time to perform for a large audience. The teenagers performed a Hungarian, Armenian and a modern dance, and the presentation group performed three different Dutch series and a gipsy series. Between the dances, the specially founded music and vocal group performed typical Dutch songs. The crowd especially loved it when the group performed the Polish song 'Szla dziewecka do laseczka'.

There was a folklore festival in Zielona Gora on Monday, were Orient also performed for an hour. The audience was very enthusiastic.

During the afternoon we were taken on a tour in a historical open air museum, and had a drink in a beautiful tropical garden in Zielona Gora. Orient didn't have any performances planned on Tuesday, so we could go on a tour to Szklarska Poreba. This is the mountain area were we went up a mountain in Karpacz with a chair lift, after which we made a beautiful walk down.

When we returned to Kozuchow a campfire with bigos (a traditional Polish dish) was waiting for us. A great going away night was celebrated and many souvenirs were exchanged. When we had to leave, many very host free Polish friends waved us off.