Thanks, Chanteyranger.

We do have many shanty (chantey?) festivals here, that's true. The date of one, actually, has drawn very near. The 8th Shanty Festival in Gi¿ycko is going to take place on 6 - 8 July. I'm not going there this year, but I've been to the festival last year, with a bunch of not-interested-in-shanties friends, and we had great fun. Gi¿ycko is a little town placed in the Mazury region, where there are many lakes connected with each other by a system of canals. Many young people choose to spend their holiday in the lakes. It may not be very challenging, but much cheaper than going to the sea. For those who like challenges we have the Baltic Sea, connected by channels with the North Sea and then the next step is the Atlantic Ocean... I've never been that far, I must admit that even my experience with Baltic is a little one. But the lakes are just okay for me.

Private sailboat owners are few and far between here and this "lakeyachting" is much more common. This is also reflected in our shanties. Apart from traditional sea shanties we often sing songs that were born among the Mazurian lakes, songs describing the joys of owning a small boat with no sailing instruments on it :)

We also have a huge festival that takes place, as far as I remember, in February, in Cracow. Perhaps this is the one you've heard of.

In Warsaw there are many pubs in which you can sing shanties and sea songs, both in Polish and in English, and listen to some good music, too.

I don't think a new thread would be necessary. You are welcome to ask questions about Polish shanties and songs in the "Message from Karolina" thread. (Why such title? Go and see!) But I'm sure it's me who will learn much from you rather than the other way round!!!

Czeœæ, radriano!!! How nice to meet a countryman here. Thanks for your words of welcome. I like singing shanties, too. My fav group is Roaring Twenties, of course I love Marek Siurawski and Jurek Porêbski, and I enjoy all the songs that can be put into the szanta szuwarowo-bagienna cathegory, too. I wonder whether you've heard of a group called Krzysiek Piechota i Kubryk? They're quite okay, as well.

Hope to hear from you again. Jeszcze raz dziêkujê.

Melani, re: yachting I remember that when I was taking my first course in yachting, our crew consisted of only two people + a very young instructor. We were aboard a very small, chartered boat ( An Omega, radriano :) and what bothered us was that after each day of sailing it got filled with quite a huge amount of water. But, as we were a bunch of very optimistic yachtsmen, we weren't worried too much, just a bit astonished how it is posssible for the water to get inside our boat. After two weeks of sailing, when we were giving the boat back to her owner, this is what he said: I forgot to tell you, but hope you've noticed. This boat has a nasty hole in her hull.

Chanteyranger, the thread got very messy, indeed. I feel you deserve an apology, it's all my fault!!!

Karolina