Noc Kupały

Noc Kupały: Some countries are trying to stop forest fires, Poland is trying to start them.

Seriously though. I'm not even really sure what the occasion was except the first day of summer maybe. But there's a huge celebration where thousands of people let loose lanterns into the sky. It was beautiful and amazing and totally not safe. 





The lanterns are pretty big so it takes a while before the flame which is quite large fills them with enough hot air to float. Because of this, people kept letting go of their lanterns too early, so instead of floating up they'd hover near the ground right at 'head level' and attempt to burn the hair of the nearest victim. I didn't see anyone get lit up, but I'm sure someone did (especially with all the drinking that was going on). Basically, it was a very magical experience that kept being punctuated by sounds of distress and "Uwaga, uwaga!!!" as some small child was almost engulfed in flames.   


I went by myself and took Copper with me because I figured it would be a nice walk and he'd be cool with hanging out. And he did really great up until the music started across the river then he just wanted to go home! (Personally I wasn't too thrilled with the music either...too loud). I was hoping he'd be good, because in order to get him into the area I had to tell them he was a service dog...lucky for me he behaved like a champ and let all the little kids pet him without even a second glance and when I was filming everything he just lied there. He wasn't too thrilled when we were leaving though with the huge crowd and all the crazy people. 


But, we survived and there aren't any burns, just pretty memories