40:20 The commemorative book

40:23 Tourist Shelter "Połonina Wetlinska"

40:47 Ever since Lutek came down from Polonyna or rather: was expelled

40:52 The hosts have changed and changed, literally like the seasons...

41:00 Unlike my predecessors, I've been here for four years now.

41:04 It can be extremely crowded in the summer

41:07 and gets difficult to accommodate everyone.

41:11 But there are times, for example winter,

41:14 when you long for newcomers.

41:18 I wait for them to come from down there.

41:34 I very much appreciate in this book what Lutek wrote to me in the dedication:

41:40 "Marszalek, the Bieszczady have survived uprisers and road builders

41:46 and lumberjacks and cart drivers.

41:51 They will outlive you and me"

41:57 The Bieszczady remain.

41:59 They will be different one day without him.

42:01 But there is Lutek!

42:15 Have you ever climbed Polonyna in the dark?

42:18 Well, it happened, but I always had a lamp.

42:24 Were you not afraid?

42:25 Well, I heard some animal noises more than once.

42:31 First you had Prut?

42:33 Yes, it was your grandfather's rescue dog.

42:38 And he was a faithful dog, no question about it.

42:44 He was one of the best, but he didn't have the recognition .
42:49 The Tatra Mountains rescuers invented it and for them our dogs were inferior.

42:57 But he knew his line!

43:08 There was such a bond between us.

43:10 It was such a casual loose hold of the dog.

43:16 Unfortunately dogs have a short life span, up to ten years,

43:22 after that they are gone.

43:32 His hind legs were getting stuck, so the poor thing crawled around the cottage

43:38 to be seen, to have contact with us.

43:41 Rushing out, I petted him there -

43:44 he was sitting on that slope, drinking water.

43:48 When I arrived back home, he was already dead

43:54 And I dug a hole there and buried him there.

43:58 And there he is.

44:12 Wait, can you guys make it?

44:15 We can.

44:16 Wait, Robert can't do it.

44:17 No, no.

44:21 It's awfully heavy.

44:25 Be careful it doesn't break.

44:35 Won't it weigh you down?

44:37 It won't weigh me down, we'll strap him down.

44:52 You have to lift it up and pull it...

44:56 We'll just put this blanket under the lamp,

45:04 then we'll pin it down and bring it down like that.

45:09 Don't be afraid, it won't fall down.

45:20 There goes Prut...

45:37 That's it. Life is...

45:40 Life comes out differently. It goes this way and that way.

45:59 Well, a piece of the mountain...

46:03 Here?

46:04 Here. Oh, lean it like this.

46:09 There he is. There's my Prucio!

46:13 There's my Prut, there he is.

46:15 Here you will be the guard now of the property in Wetlina.

46:20 And we'll be close together.

46:47 GOPR was his whole life, right?

46:49 That's right.

46:58 If not Lutek, then who?!

47:00 It’s a chance to introduce on his example

47:05 some history of Bieszczady GOPR Group to a wider audience.

47:07 What has happened here,

47:09 above all, the history of the mountain shelter, which is now a thing of the past.

47:16 The Bieszczady GOPR has ties with this place since 1963 .

47:22 Over the years we have grown accustomed to this climate.

47:25 The GOPR office.

47:28 We always spent Christmas in this shelter with Lutek.

47:31 He used to invite us to his place for Christmas breakfast.

47:35 Hence the sentiment.

47:37 And those duties, those rescue operations that were carried out from there…

47:45 The tourist traffic was not so intense then

47:47 and when compared to other rescuers,

47:50 he's done quite a lot of this work.

48:02 It was the beginning of the eighties when I started my adventure with GOPR.

48:08 Polonyna Wetlinska was a kind of survival school

48:14 for someone who was on duty here and managed that week alone or with
someone...

48:18 Lutek was the one who helped us, gave us hints,

48:22 told us what to do, how to do it,

48:24 how to survive here.

48:32 It was his whole life. It is like replanting an old tree.

48:35 When I started working for GOPR, he was already in his sixties.

48:39 Mature man.

48:41 And when you shook his hand, you could feel that he was a man.

48:46 Two years ago, I saw him coming in here on a snow scooter

48:49 In such a snowstorm, that we could hardly move,

48:51 because we were pulling equipment with us.

48:54 We got pulled to the side

48:56 and Pińczuk simply kept going.

48:59 I remember he didn't have goggles but Lutek holds a patent on it .

49:01 Lutek Pińczuk’s goggles look like this…

49:04 When it's snowing, he accelerates with one hand and looks through the fingers of the
other one.

49:12 Lutek is still one of the few people I know

49:16 who has gone from primitive conditions to luxury

49:19 and is unhappy because of it.

49:26 After all, we lived here, we coexisted with each other,

49:28 We brought water from the spring for Lutek, sometimes Lutek brought water for us.
49:31 Sometimes when he went to the shop, he brought supplies for us.

49:34 Because if you stayed here for a week, sometimes you missed something.

49:37 just normal friendly coexistence

49:40 More family than friendship.

49:42 Exactly.

49:43 Lutek wouldn't exist without us, we wouldn't exist without him.

49:47 I mean, Lutek could manage...

49:53 Lutek has the psyche of a wolf

49:55 If he doesn't need to eat, he won't kill, and if he needs to eat, he will.

50:01 He never stockpiled.

50:02 If he needed something, he simply acquired it

50:05 in a more or less acceptable way.

50:08 The shelter had to be supplied with firewood for the winter,

50:10 which goes a lot here.

50:12 You need fuel for the generator all the time

50:15 You need to bring in the right amount of supplies at the right time,

50:19 so that the tourists don't run out.

50:21 There is a cellar under his flat, where this is stored.

50:23 When the season starts, there is no time for such things,

50:26 to take care of such ad hoc matters.

50:30 At the moment the shelter has a specific climate,

50:35 there is no electricity and there is no sewage system

50:39 but there's a toilet.

50:40 There is an outdoor toilet.

50:41 A shithouse!
50:42 There is no water here,

50:43 If you want to get some, you have to go down to the spring below.

50:56 Come on, you try it.

50:59 This is the first time I've failed to draw water.

51:00 Hold me

51:02 I'm holding your ass.

51:08 The atmosphere as it was here, can't be repeated.

51:14 " This is what they are

51:18 This is what they are

51:22 This is what they are

51:25 This is my Bieszczady..."

51:31 We're on Hasiakowa Skala, on a culmination that

51:34 shields a little bit the shelter, which is slighly lower.

51:39 Everything that was obtained from the spring, was brought here

51:43 originally with pack animals.

51:45 When Lutek got a GAZ off-road truck, he transported all here.

51:49 Here you can see the hose, the whole installation

51:51 for gravity pumping of water into this barrel,

51:54 which is fixed there on the roof.

51:56 There was once a situation where Lutek went a bit overboard

52:00 and he crashed his car into the side here.

52:03 I don't know how he survived that, but obviously he has a good guardian angel.

52:07 I wouldn't have been killed by the car but I would have drowned on the Polonyna.

52:12 This car fell completely sideways between the rocks and the building

52:17 Well, it had been repaired somehow

52:19 It's probably still running today.

52:32 Going once is not enough, it takes three, four journeys,

52:38 But sometimes you wouldn't go down the valley for a week or so.

52:42 We would stock up the basement to have enough goods, lets say for a week, .

52:52 What's going on here,.. something's wrong...

53:02 You motherfucker, what’s wrong?

53:14 The view is about to start.

53:17 Somehow I liked this part the most - when you get to the Polonyna.

53:24 I'm curious how the rocks look like here now , have they smashed them too?

53:28 There were such specific rock formations here on this path.

53:41 Oh, what a change…

53:50 Grandma, when you came to the Bieszczady Mountains, were you my age?

53:53 I guess you were even younger?

53:55 I was much younger. I was 21 years old.

54:00 It was the in 1962. Lutek was already here but we didn't know each other at all.

54:05 We haven't even met then.

54:06 I dreamt that one day I would come back here.

54:08 And then I actually came here in 1966.

54:11 I didn't manage to get into the Academy of Fine Arts,

54:15 so I came here with some friends.

54:30 I met Lutek in the valley of Wołosate.

54:35 It was in 1966.

54:37 Lutek showed up on a horse and we liked each other immediately.

54:47 He lived on Polonyna Wetlińska.

54:49 And without any unnecessary stories, he offered right away,

54:53 for me to come to Polonyna on horseback.

55:00 The worst was the first winter, because we weren’t prepered then.
55:05 We had neither money nor vegetables.

55:07 I remember I got a bag of carrots here from some friends.

55:11 It was a really hard time.

55:14 Once we had some lard

55:16 and the lard wasn't covered properly and mice got in there,

55:20 and then you just had to throw the excrement away

55:23 and eat the lard.

55:28 We got married on 14-15 April 1968.

55:34 The wedding was actually quite nice, it was just so unusal.

55:43 In the hut I met many of my future friends.

55:46 It was here that I met a girl.

55:49 We also got married here and not in Cieszyn, where Ula was from.

55:53 I wanted the wedding and the reception to be unique.

55:58 We made our own wedding outfits.

56:00 I wanted them to refer to the old regional Boykos-Hutsuls clothes.

56:06 We couldn't have original outfits, but I really liked the Hutsul ones.

56:10 And I managed to get such stylised sheepskin coats.

56:14 In Rymanów someone has embroidered them.

56:18 The secret police was watching us and they accused us of not reaching to Polish
folklore.

56:24 They were also looking for other political accents,

56:29 but we didn't care at all.

56:31 The Bieszczady-themed wedding, resurrected in both costumes and rituals, turned
out splendidly.

56:35 It was original in its form and worthy of immortalization.

56:39 „With a touch of jealousy one can only wish the newlyweds a hundred happy years
in this hut”.

57:08 The sceptre of the lady in Wetlina is a ladle.

57:11 It is useful not only for stirring in the pot.

57:16 On the first day there were around 15 people, on the second some more,

57:20 but not too many.

57:22 From my side of family was only my mother and from Lutek's side

57:25 was his father, his sister and his brother

57:29 and also two or three tourists.

57:31 A prototype of the wedding invitation.

57:32 On the second day, there were also befriended mountain rescuers.

57:39 These outfits also turned out to be usable later.

57:33 This sheepskin coat with long sleeves, I was wearing it later,

57:49 and Lutek had a fur waistcoat and also had these tights made in Cieszyn

57:56 in red

57:58 knitted by ladies I knew

58:03 and he had socks made of real wool.

58:08 A man who takes care of a shelter and has a passion of his own and, by the way,
has a horse .

58:15 I just wanted to try how this life would look like.

58:20 Above all - Bieszczady Mountains

58:21 Because the Bieszczady Mountains created a unique scenery in terms of landscape.

58:25 I really liked him, but later on there were problems

58:29 because Lutek was attracted to other women

58:35 I had to tolerate it somehow

58:36 but then it went too far...

58:45 So I decided that we had to split up after all.

58:49 It did’n happen in some bad atmosphere.

58:53 At the very beginning I was working on him trying to change him in some way

58:56 but it turned out to be impossible, so we had to accept it.

59:08 There were times when he was very temperamental, he would get upset very quickly

59:13 but then it passed.

59:16 On one hand he was romantic but he was also such a determined man

59:20 he demanded obedience, he demanded submission,

59:23 I felt it right away, right at the beginning.

59:30 Sawa’s name is based not on the legend "Wars and Sawa" as some people thought.

59:35 There is a river in Yugoslavia called Sawa.

59:39 Lutek came up with it, I agreed.

59:42 Then I stayed in Cieszyn, I brought up Sawa

59:45 I started working there.

59:47 When I began my second job in Ustroń, I painted the cart:

59:50 „Get to know Poland”.

59:52 And then Lutek went back to the Bieszczady with that carriage.

01:00:08 Sawa was 4 years old when I took her to Polonyna for the first time.

01:00:13 But then Lutek was no longer on Polonyna.

01:00:16 I wasn't entirely happy but ...

01:00:21 But nevertheless I think positively of it and remember it well.

01:00:34 It's amzing to live in such a place...

01:00:45 What do you think?

01:01:04 Would I still want a repeat of my life?...

01:01:15 I knew Lutek wouldn't be able to help me

01:01:17 because he was running a campsite in Ustrzyki Górne at the time.

01:01:29 I started in 1976 and worked until 1986.

01:01:37 it was the beginning of this campsite.

01:01:57 I met Dorota here...

01:01:59 So you met Dorota here.

01:02:02 And then we worked together like that, Lutek ran the campsite

01:02:05 and I worked at the shelter.

01:02:08 And it's similar today...

01:02:11 Good times, the shelter was very nice at times.

01:02:14 In the reception...

01:02:16 And in the evening she would come to me, and I didn't chase her away.

01:02:24 We parted in the meantime.

01:02:27 I left because because it was 1981 – the time of martial law in Poland.

01:02:33 We were all fired.

01:02:36 And you? You stayed.

01:02:38 And then Lutek climbs Polonyna Wetlinska.

01:02:42 And I, who always said that I would never set foot there

01:02:47 I didn't want to, you know why...

01:02:49 Because he was there with his first wife,

01:02:52 with his first and last wife, as he only had one wife.

01:02:56 So I didn't want to go there...

01:02:58 But then, I guess, he had it already all planned, in Ustrzyki Górne
01:03:03 he had already bought a doser

01:03:04 He had it all planned out.

01:03:08 What, did I drag you there with that doser?

01:03:11 You have been already widening the road up there

01:03:15 And before that, he run a Souvenirs shop on the pass

01:03:17 But that was in the 1970s

01:03:20 And I was still working then

01:03:21 Altough I had a break of five years.

01:03:25 Lutek was in touch with me .

01:03:27 An opportunity came up

01:03:29 Wojtek Gajda was going to resign and there was going to be a tender

01:03:33 but Lutek arranged it so that there was no tender

01:03:36 And I came back to Polonyna in the autumn of 1975.

01:03:41 It was a difficult decision, however I decided

01:03:45 that I would try again from the beginning

01:03:49 of course it's not what it used to be

01:03:51 Well, now it’s coming mainly the younger generation

01:03:54 Born around 1958 year and students from that period

01:03:58 and there are different relations now because

01:04:01 youth already have other problems

01:04:04 and they look at things differently.

01:04:08 And of the older people who used to come

01:04:11 there's only the occasional acquaintance.

01:04:16 I decided to come knowing that I wouldn't take Sawa with me

01:04:20 because I didn't want to condemn her to such a hard life,

01:04:24 harder than the children who lived in Wetlina and went to boarding school.
01:04:30 It was actually impossible

01:04:33 for a child to live on Polonyna and go to school.

01:04:38 Now, when I look back, I don't think it was a very wise move.

01:04:44 Well, but that's what I decided then.

01:04:51 Asked, whether I was happy or not -

01:04:56 I like this life better than the previous one with working in the city and its daily
hassles...

01:05:03 That lasted until 1986.

01:05:09 I bought a llama from the zoological garden in Łódź

01:05:13 with the help of Mr and Mrs Gucwiński

01:05:16 They ran ZOO in Wrocław.

01:05:20 I managed to get a male, his name was Ivan and he was two years old.

01:05:26 I organised a transport for this animal

01:05:31 and introduced him to Poloniny.

01:05:35 The llama was remembered by many tourists and friends

01:05:40 as a huge attraction

01:05:42 and the first postcards with the llama even appeared...

01:05:53 It's just a memento now with this slight yellowish tint.

01:06:01 And then Lutek and I agreed that I simply couldn't go on any longer.

01:06:05 We decided, that in 1986 I will resign and then Lutek will take my place

01:06:11 and he will run the shelter.

01:06:16 I already realised that I wouldn't be able to cope with the renovation issues.

01:06:21 and yet here a man was necessary.

01:06:23 Lutek started with a huge renovation and was up to the task.

01:06:29 Of course, it was with a heavy heart that I left this place

01:06:32 but I knew that this was the only reasonable way out,
01:06:37 that I just had to move down the valley

01:06:41 and l passed the shelter to Lutek.

01:06:53 I don't consider myself a very tough person.

01:07:03 Some things have worked out for me, but not everything has gone my way either.

01:07:15 I would like to feel strong enough in health,

01:07:18 to still be able to fulfil the rest of my dreams

01:07:23 that I had in the past and I didn’t make them come true.

01:07:44 If this common room could talk...

01:07:46 Maybe better not

01:07:48 Maybe better not to.

01:07:54 You could only enter here if you were staying for the night.

01:07:56 Every action that took place here, ended here.

01:07:59 This is thanks to Dorota.

01:08:01 She had the tea already prepared, something warm to eat, warm water.

01:08:06 From morning till evening, behind the buffet practically all the time.

01:08:10 She simply didn't have time to go out and see the sunlight.

01:08:14 It took an incredible amount of determination to survive here.

01:08:19 to work here in these conditions, with thousands of people here!

01:08:22 Lutek wasn't the easiest partner to deal with, so to speak,

01:08:28 so she had to take it all on herself somehow,

01:08:31 to neutralise his moods.

01:08:38 The magic of this place was that we knew,

01:08:42 that there was always a good spirit up here

01:08:44 And when you went to the mountains, you always had this awareness in the back
of your head,

01:08:48 that Pińczuk is here.

01:08:51 If you look at the photographs from the 1960s, 1970s of this hut

01:08:54 it is, after all, a timber-framed building,

01:08:58 if not walled by Pińczuk, it would have been taken away by the wind long ago.

01:09:02 All those annexes weren't built by accident, they were built out of necessity,

01:09:06 because there was no enough place to accommodate these tourists.

01:09:25 There is a bit of history in these walls

01:09:34 "To him, who bowed to the beeches"

01:09:36 "To Wojtek Bellon’s memory - his colleagues and friends"

01:09:38 "Acknowledgements for the Pooh Hut"

01:09:40 "Inspired by the Bieszczady"

01:09:55 So what, that the conditions here are spartan and shit, but...

01:10:01 I'd rather sleep downstairs, if it warm

01:10:04 on the benches or on the table...

01:10:29 "It's a strange place and it's a strange door

01:10:35 it's easy to get in, not easy to get out.

01:10:42 There's this place

01:10:44 There's this bar

01:10:49 Where time stands still for a long time

01:10:56 There's this place

01:10:58 There's this bar

01:11:03 Where time stands still for a long time”.

01:11:10 The magic of this place, its magnetism, is evidenced by the fact that

01:11:12 people from the circles of authority, artists, people from the front pages of
newspapers

01:11:18 they visit this place

01:11:19 and consider Pińczuk a friend.

01:12:06 Grandfather was on Polonyna before the demolition of the shelter.

01:12:09 Do you think he said goodbye to the Hut?

01:12:19 First, I pulled the logs up a short distance to make a route.

01:12:24 In the past there was an old Ukrainian road here.

01:12:28 but it had to be traversed.

01:12:30 And above woodland on the mountain

01:12:33 all that outside the forest

01:12:37 this bendy part, it was made by me.

01:12:40 It used to be a regular green meadow.

01:12:43 And I dragged one log after another

01:12:46 I went down and back up five times.

01:12:51 Later, I pulled two logs at a time.

01:12:55 it was already a lot - pulling two at a time .

01:12:57 You needed sand for that, you needed cement.

01:13:02 I took everything to the mountain pass and from there on the horse back.

01:13:11 And so those kilos grew up there.

01:13:26 Hello, how are you.

01:13:28 Can I take a picture with you?

01:13:30 Come on, quickly.

01:13:32 It's nice to see you, Landlord.

01:13:40 You're welcome.

01:13:44 Good morning, Mr. Lutek.

01:13:46 Hi, I'm recognising everything.

01:13:52 Nothing has changed.

01:13:55 That's right, your place is as you left it.

01:14:44 I never thought of it that way, that I was waiting for merit

01:14:49 I simply did what was needed for the shelter.

01:15:55 Time changes everything

01:15:57 Time is inexorable.

01:16:11 Today I dreamt of Polonyna.

01:16:13 I’m telling the truth -

01:16:15 Today I dreamt about the mountain!

01:16:34 It’s rather elegant for this last journey.

01:16:42 Especially for you!

01:16:44 "Quite often I ponder

01:16:47 What is my life worth?

01:16:51 A hundred of overplayed songs

01:16:55 The mirage of being on top

01:16:59 In those moments, I’m usually off

01:17:02 to somewhere on polonynas.

01:17:06 There, tired from climbing

01:17:10 Man becomes different

01:17:14 Down there stayed

01:17:18 everything that makes you tired.

01:17:21 Looking down, all around from the top

01:17:25 The world seems to be a better place”.

01:17:46 For me…

01:17:50 actually, it's hard to say, but...

01:17:57 It is such a huge emotional experience when I look at this place,

01:18:01 that The Hut is gone...

01:19:09 I'll never get over it.

01:19:29 Grandma, but how is it gone...

01:19:32 It’s still presen.

01:19:34 in our memories, in our hearts

01:19:36 and in fact as long as the memories are still alive

01:19:39 this Hut will stand!

01:19:44 Polonyna dream.

01:21:42 "Polonyna, Polonyna…

01:22:12 Where my trail takes me

01:22:19 I'll take you there

1:22:25 From the Pooh's Hut you will look at their beauty...

1:22:32 Where Hlasko and Wojtyla stood.

1:22:40 Polonyna, Polonyna,

1:22:54 Polonyna, Polonyna.”

01:46 Film by Robert Żurakowski