Yesterday I stumbled across this archival search platform, and can I just say: this is so cool. As someone obsessed with archives, I wholeheartedly approve of this acronym 🫠 I feel seen! Dear Belgians, thanks for making my day.

I sailed on grass and I liked it! Last weekend I had the chance to take a boat trip on the Elbląg Canal (formerly Oberländischer Kanal). I went specifically to experience history - the canal was built in the mid-19th century, and the engineering marvel is still running!

📢 Syllabus Award competition📢 If you teach a Polish Studies class and have a syllabus you’re quite proud of - why don’t you share it with us? My colleagues and I will be delighted to read your syllabi, and who knows? The award might be yours! 🥰

PKP(@pkpintercitypdp.bsky.social) don’t even know it, but today they’re transporting what may be their oldest passenger yet: my grandpa, aged 100 years and 10 months. We're recreating a trip we took together 30 years ago, heading to Lubuskie. Stories from the 1940s abound!

I’ve gotten used to exploring ruins. With so few Protestants left in the area, many former German Protestant churches either “converted” to Catholicism or were left to decay. But here’s a lovely surprise - this one in Bolków (formerly Bolkenhain) is now a beautiful library and gallery. Swoon!

Today in the archive: ran into a German obituary for Poland, from 1939. Yikes. Not sure why anyone would write something like this, but here it is.

I’m not a car person and this is unrelated to my usual content, but I found this at the attic and I need some answers. Can anyone explain how complicated was it to fix a Fiat 125p with this fuel repair kit? Screws and springs? What’s going on?

A reminder that war, any war, leaves traces far beyond our lifetimes. This gate stopped me in my tracks today. It still bears the marks of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, as if it just happened.

Every Monday I dream of an office like this one 🥲 Two realities merging in plain sight.

In my series “German things you didn’t know survived the war and are still in use by Poles” I want to give you a glimpse of an amazing research day I had some time ago. Let me take you on the most unexpected journey through artefacts that survived the 1945 border change. 🧵

Talked with my grandpa on the phone and got the usual “back in my days… the winters were colder” kind of thing. The tricky part is, he was born in 1925 🥶 How can I compete with THAT?!

Timeline cleanse with some shots from today’s beautiful day in the Karkonosze. I hope everyone can get a break from the news from time to time and enjoy a much-needed beauty breather ✨

I took this picture last night, completely blown away, thinking this place looked like a portal to a different world. I realized this is how I spent my year - looking for the unexpected in the familiar. I hope next year brings you much of that too: surprising beauty in the everyday. Happy 2026!

Temporal clashes in architecture - what do we think? I know, like nails on a chalkboard, they make us feel rather nauseous, but lately I’ve been drawn to them. That’s one of my faves, you’ve seen it before, the clash of German classical architecture and Polish 1970s. A cocktail like no other!

Merry Christmas! Here’s a single traditional dish that survived the family’s move from the Eastern Borderlands: śliżyki. I used to think that our 🎄dishes were all traditional, then I found out my grandma single-handedly designed our menu from scratch. Śliżyki then are like a whisper from their past.

Old and well-worn, but sturdy and lasting. They were around for more than eighty years, welcoming the footsteps of both German and Polish people. These small bridges between past and present always make my heart beat a lil’ bit faster. Come walk with me on the tiles of the ”Recovered Territories”.

Along with the German objects we found in our attic, there was this notebook, a remnant of a Polish settler. I don't know who Mania, its owner, was, but she must have lived in my house. So we are, in some way, connected.

If cemeteries create a community of both the living and the dead, what happens when the living get displaced? Case in point: German cemeteries in the PL "Recovered Lands." All Saints' Day is a good day to reflect on what happens to memory in the absence of those who remember. 🧵(not an easy read)

Today, Lower Silesia celebrates 15 years as a voivodeship and, as they put it, 80 years of ‘postwar Lower Silesia.’ Whatever the occasion, just wanted to relaunch my posting with this photo from around 8 years ago. That’s exactly when my research started — and so did my layered love for the region.

Hiii there! It’s been a while. Just wanted to say I’ve been busy writing and putting my research out to public differently. Yesterday I had a pleasure to present a paper in my hometown, and next week I will take part in a debate in Warsaw. But if you miss some Lower Silesian posts, let me know!💛🖤

It’s always weirdly moving for me to depart or arrive at this train station. It’s where my grandparents and great-grandma got off exactly 80 years ago, to restart their lives in the shapeshifting postwar Poland. Seeing this sign, the first thing they must have seen, was especially eerie.

How many dust particles are you away from Copernicus? Well. In this episode of “crazy traces in the attics”, let me present a hanger. It taught me about Moritz Leiser’s late 19th century department store in Toruń. Apparently, it was located in a building owned in the past by…Copernicus’ parents.

Prewar tiles, layers and years of paint peeling off - of course I got excited.

He did it! My awesome grandpa turned 100 today! He got congratulatory letters from the Polish Prime minister, Lower Silesian Voivode, a visit from the city Mayor, and he’s happy as a clam!

Good morning from an early 20th century hike, I suppose. Yet another glitch in the space-time continuum.

Happy to report my hometown embraced its German past - at least on postcards.

Took a break from bluesky to clear my head but now, going through the archive left on my attic, I can’t help but share these stamps I found: the big ones from 1946 portray the WWII destruction of Warsaw, the small ones are commemorating the 1948 Exhibition of the Recovered Territories. Nerdy finds!

Let’s normalize traveling out of Poland with a proper ring of kiełbasa! 🙏🏻

Unrelated, but I simply need to say it: Polish Roztocze is a fantastic place 😍

My aunt texts me, a little alarmed: ”I thought the Germans came back!” Phew, there’s something to be said about movies being made in the formerly German lands. You think you’re putting a set design, but you’re reopening a troublesome timeline instead 😅