The story starts back in the dark Communist era with my future parents both moving to Kraków to study German philology. As a teenage rebel, I studied everything else than German: History, Comparative Studies of Civilizations, Musical Composition and finally Indian Philology. And still ended up working mostly in German. I’ve been guiding for Walkative! since 2018. So far the best job I’ve found. Others included working in a tourist information office (try that if you think that there are no stupid questions) and as a teacher (yes, that’s why I try to make my tours as interactive as possible and asking the guests questions about the topics we’ve covered). My father is probably still disappointed that I tell jokes for a living instead of translating Goethe, but I’m really happy with this work that lets me spend time in the beautiful places with people from all around the world.
I felt proud and honored to be invited by the Galicia Jewish Museum on several occasions to translate the meetings with Holocaust survivors for German and British students. Another moving moment was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Together with some of Walkative! colleagues, I was helping take care of the delegation of survivors. What a touching experience it was to meet them in person.
What I love about Kraków is that it’s a large city that still feels cosy, with layers of history waiting to be discovered under almost every building. I somehow feel especially engaged with the Jewish past of Kraków. It still shocks me how unaware of this I was when growing up in the city. The inevitable happened: I started learning Yiddish and Hebrew, thus adding two more to my collection of languages (Polish, English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Sanskrit, bits of Farsi and Latin).
In the rare moments when I'm not working, I like to sit with a good book in a quiet café, preferably with vegan pastry. (Always happy to share tips about vegan food!) However, I have to stay busy—four furry monsters waiting at home to be fed!