Sad stuff

Every death in a car crash is stupid. Yet this one is particularly wrong. I will not go into detail about how much this man meant to Poland, although we definitely wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for him. You can read more here if you want.
I can however remember Bronisław Geremek as a teacher. In my University of Warsaw years I managed to get into his medieval history class even if I was officially studying at a different faculty and so I wasn’t really entitled to be there. But he said ‘Just come around’ and so I did. He would open the door and start talking while making his way to his desk. This was the only time in my academic career where I witnessed students being perfectly silent before the professor even entered the room. We just didn’t want to miss one word. And dear God he took you places.

Another sad thing, although of much lesser importance on the global scale, is the closing of the Mercer’s cafés in Warsaw. I used to live there. I wrote my masters’ there. I will never have Orange Latte Grande again. I will need to find a new place to meet up with people when I go and visit. Warsaw just became even less mine and that saddens me, although I do feel kind of silly feeling sad for a coffee shop when a great man has died.