To make things clear, I think of myself as an immigrant. I do not have any real place where my family roots are because of the fact that my family is scattered all around the world. Despite previously mentioned fact, I think that some kind of a relationship with certain places is very important for a person to define oneself. I have this comfort that in reality I am capable of making the choice where I come from.
The closest places to my heart are: Ełk and Skarżysko-Kamienna. It is easy to guess that those are the towns where my parents were living for a greater period of their lives, before they met. The most important town for me, the one within which I have spent most of my life and I can describe as my hometown, is Ełk.
As I mentioned above, I consider myself as an immigrant because most of my family are in reality immigrants, so my blood is of a very different origins. Another thing which got me to think of myself in this way is the fact that Ełk is a city of immigrants. For a very long period of time it was a German city which was incorporated to Poland after First World War. The Germans had to run away and leave behind all their belongings and houses. Immigrants from many parts of Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Romania and many other parts of the world started to settle themselves in a new city.
Maybe now I will describe some geographical aspects of the city which I consider my homeland. The first name of the city, in old Slavic language, sounded like “Lick” and was written in the same way in Latin. It means waterlily or the plant that grows on the surface of water. Then, in German the city was called “Lyck” and then by Poles Ełk. Why I am writing this in context of geography? Well, the fact is that the first burg city on the land that now people call Ełk was placed on an island in the middle of the lake Ełk, and was called by its inhabitants “Lick” (waterlily) because it looked like a plant in the centre of the lake. Today, Ełk has grown into quite a big city with its 60,000 inhabitants. The city itself is in the shape of a doughnut with a hole inside. The hole is the lake Ełk. The city is built around the lake and its centre is placed near the island on the lake. The city is cut in two parts by the river.
In my opinion, Ełk is quite a beautiful city and has many tourist attractions such as: the medieval Teutonic Knights’ Castle on the island; beautiful, peaceful views and many places where people can do some water sports..
I like Ełk despite many of its flaws such as great unemployment. I like it because of the peaceful atmosphere, its music and friendly, open, creative people that I have met there. The attitude of people in this city is probably connected with fresh air (green lungs of Poland;). This is my theory. So these are the things that I can think of at the moment, in a nutshell. Well, try to visit Ełk if you have some spare time. Maybe you will experience some of the things that I have. How do you like the pictures?
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