TASTE have had a Town Twinning Grant Approved for an exhibition of Photographs from the Torun through the Twin lens competition which took place in Torun in 2008. The plan is to host an exhibition of photographs from Torun in Swindon’s Central Library. We should like to combine the photography exhibition with some Polish poetry by choosing some selected verses or whole poems from the various poems which Anita has translated – both in Polish and English – and matching them up to some of the photos.
Please get in touch if you can help us with putting on the exhibition.
Tags: competition, exhibition, photography
A group of around 30 visitors from Swindon enjoyed a short stay in Torun over the weekend 5th June to 9th June, the weather was warm most of the time, but there were a few showers. The Torun Marathon happened to be on and five members of the group took part in the race, including Stan Pajak and Dave King editor of the Evening Advertiser.
The hotel was good, Hotelik w Centrum just next to the Old Town – Stare Miasto. On Monday we had an official meeting with the Vice President of Torun at the beautiful Cafe Dwór Artusa at Rynek Staromiejski, there was an exchange of gifts, Torun were presented with a commemorative beer glass and a bottle of Arkells beer.
Other attractions included a visit to the Centrum Sztuki Wspólczesniej CSW, a new modern art gallery and a tour of the city with summer drizzle. See also photos from the trip.
The TASTE website has just been refreshed with a new content management system, this should make it easier for everyone involved with the group to contribute. Simply add your comments to posts.
Earlier versions, Swindon Torun wiki website and the original html website are still available in archive.
Tags: website
Well known Polish marathon runner from Toru?, Krzysztof Bartkiewicz, won the Swindon half marathon 11th October 2009 with a time of 1:11:28, not quite beating his best time.
Thousands of runners took part in the driving rain to raise money for charity or personal achievement and, despite the poor weather, organisers hailed the event as a great success with a total of 1,692 runners taking part.
Full results available at Swindon Marathon website www.swindonhalfmarathon.co.uk
The biggest visit yet by Swindon people to our Polish twin city of Torun in Poland took place last week with the Swindon Junior Ice Hockey Team taking part in an ice hockey tournament in the Polish city. A coach of players, parents and interested Swindon residents made the historic trip leaving the Link Centre at 3.30am! Eventually arriving at Torun at 2.00pm at the Hotel Wodnik we were greeted by a warming meal as temperatures were just above freezing. The hotel by the Wisla river proved amazing value at £15 a day full board and served to illustrate the attractive prices still available for the British tourist in Poland.
The Swindon team competed with Torun and Warsaw from Poland and eventual winners St. Petersburg from Russia. Being both the youngest and less experienced side they fought well and won a lot of friends both on and off the ice. Parents meanwhile enjoyed the pleasures of the historic Torun including its magnificent churches, historical market place, car free shopping centre and birth place of astronomer Nicholas Copernicus – everyone meets at his famous statue. Cllr Chris Shepherd and myself met with Torun Council representatives who were very impressed and pleased with the Bloor Homes development off Thamesdown Drive which will be adopting Polish names including Torun Way. Chris playfully suggested they rename their main road after Swindon!
Although the boys appeared to be adopting the McDonald’s in Torun as their second home the adults sampled some excellent Polish cuisine in the many restaurants, cafes and bars that dot the city centre. With over 30,000 students studying at the Nicholas Copernicus university it creates a vibrant night life in the city. For the shopper the best buys in Torun are the vodka, beer, its famous Gingerbread with three shops devoted to it and amber jewellery.
The trip proved a great success and will hopefully be the first of many to come. We are now setting up an official twinning organisation – Torun And Swindon Twinning Enterprise (TASTE – a taste of Poland!).
Enlargement, Citizenship and Participation
This year’s conference was organised by David Martin, Secretary of the Swindon Salzgitter Twinning Association, with support from the European Union and Swindon Borough Council, and the active participation of Swindon’s Mayor, Peter Stoddart.
The event kicked off with a dinner at Steam, Swindon’s Railway Museum, on Thursday 30th September, invited guests included the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, and the German Ambassador, delegations from Salzgitter (Germany), Ocotal (Nicaragua), Imatra (Finland). The delegation from Torun was headed by Zbigniew Fiderewicz (the Vice President of Torun), Bogdan Major (Councillor and Chairman of the Committee for City Development, Cooperation and Promotion), Agnieszka Lisek (from the Department of Development and European Integration), Henryk Tomaszewski (from the International Programmes Office at Niclaus Copernicus University) and Romuald Po?lednik (Polish British Foundation at International House). Members from the Swindon Torun Group also attended, including Stan Pajak, Chris Bulzacki and Sylwia Sitek.
The Conference began with the opening of the Twin Towns Exhibition at Steam, which featured Panoramas of Toru? by photographer Marek Czarnecki.
There were presentations from representatives of participating towns, Toru? Vice President referred to the rich history of Toru?, it’s development plans and booming tourist industry, a film was shown giving an overview of Torun.
Daryl Jones, Senior Economic Development Officer at Swindon Borough Council, discussed European Funding and how to apply for it. Swindon receives around £2 million each year from the European Social Fund, whilst farmers in Wiltshire receive around £35 million.
A workshop session was led by David Bruce from the University of West England www.tourism-research.org, and Julia Hasse from Germany, they presented the PREPARe wheel, a method to support a baseline and review process for activities between different local authorities, with a view to using this method in the context of twinning. Separate groups discussed issues of tourism, business development, municipal plans and youth and community exchanges. A temporary power cut in the building failed to interupt proceedings, delegates grappled with multiple languages, exchanged ideas about their respective experiences, sought to extend cooperation and plan for the developent of initiatives to qualify for additional European Funding.
In the evening, the Toru? delegation visited the Polish Community Centre, which has been thriving in Swindon for over fifty years.
Saturday was devoted to sight-seeing around Swindon, and a trip was organised to Avebury, the site of ancient burial grounds and stone circle.
In the evening, everyone attended a concert by the Swindon Pegasus Band at the Wyvern Theatre, after which a reception was held for final farewells.
The Twin Towns Exhibition continues at Steam until the 24th October 2004.
Tags: conference, exhibition, Twinning
In July of this year I had the opportunity to study Polish language and culture at the Mikolaja Kopernika (Nicholas Copernicus) University of Torun. This opportunity came directly from the formal twinning link made between Swindon and Torun in May.
It was the experience of a life-time! I will tell more of my story soon – a short account will be given to delegates at the twinning conference on 10th October at the University of Bath in Swindon, together with a small display of some of the photographs that I took. The town, the people, the food, culture and surrounding countryside were a real delight and I recommend a visit. Posted by Ryszard Gagola
Tags: Education, university
Following an invitation from the President of Torun, and participation from Torun Councils Department of Promotion, a group of young Swindon people (Bev, Christine, Adam, Sunny, Danny, Flo and Holly) were pulled together from Summer Challenge, Headzup and the Penhill Youth Centre, in Poland they joined a larger international group (young people from Poland, Slovakia and Germany) to spend seven days camping and navigating down the River Drweca close to Torun.
When they arrived back in Torun, the group attended a reception with Torun’s President, they were interviewed by Polish national television, were presented with t-shirts and gingerbread (Toru? is famous for it’s gingerbread or pierniki) and visited the local planetarium.
Group leader Holly reported, “Our new twin town of Torun is a beautiful city and we all hope we will get the opportunity to visit it again.”
A new sports initiative was agreed, during the visit of a delegation from the Polish British Foundation in Torun, who met with Mayor Derek Benfield, sports officials and Artscape in Swindon today.
Romuald Po?lednik, Grzegorz Chruszcz and Bill McAlister arrived in Swindon on the 4th March from the Polish British Foundation in Toru?, whose aims are to promote the English language and culture in Poland.
The Foundation has proposed to initiate International Challenge Day in Torun and Swindon, an international event, encouraging people across the world to take part in physical activity.
The Foundation is also organiser of a Dictation Competition during which students from the Torun region will compete in writing an English dictation, first prize for the winner willl be a visit to Swindon.
During the morning, the delegation visited the Swindon Museum to view a new exhibition of contemporary British paintings. Click here for details.
Then at the Civic Offices, there was a meeting with the Mayor of Swindon, Derek Benfield, during which the Swindon Mayor responded enthusiastically to the idea of International Challenge Day and the Dictation Competition.
Later the group met with Celia Yeoman from Artscape, and with sport officers at the Life Style Unit at the County Ground.
Swindon Councillor, Stan Pajak, who accompanied the delegation reported: “I thought our lightning visit went very well. We had a very positive reception at the Life Style unit at the County Ground and it appears the Challenge Day on the 26th will happen with support from the sport officers and the mayor.”
Tags: exhibition, Trips, Twinning
An evening of entertainment at New College, Queens Drive, Friday 11th July, 7.30 pm
Tales of Torun a Play
Drama Centre “Na Poddaszu” (“In the Attic”) from Torun, Poland performed to mark the signing of the friendship agreement between Swindon and Torun, a performance in English by a Polish youth group from Torun. A legend about the invasion of frogs, with Copernicus and other Polish characters, live music, Torun gingerbread – and some help from the audience.
No More Horses
a unique mixture of live UK hip-hop with instrumental funk, breaks, turntablism, percussion and freestyle mayhem.
Interested in learning English?