This post is also available in: polski (Polish)

There is a gray December Saturday in Irish Galway, but no rain, so people walk around smiling. The Italian cafe is busy, and suddenly I remember that I haven’t been to Dominik Street in a long time. So we go there with my friend Aga and as if by magic we land in France.

In Rouge cafe, a handsome waiter speaks straight French to us, he has such a strong accent. We sit down at the oak table, order coffees and giant croissants, and start talking about Daria’s radio broadcasts.

-Daria’s broadcasts are a way for me to enrich my life – says Aga.

-They are very well-prepared in terms of content, and I appreciate their quality and diversity. I can learn extraordinary things. I have never heard about the descendant of the Polish king, Elena Poniatowska who is a journalist and writer living in Mexico. While I listen to the story about her, I look at the picture on the book cover, and I see a woman with orange flowers in her hair. I stare at her earrings and I absorb stories from the lives of people that maybe no one else noticed but her. I like to find myself in a completely different perspective.

-And straight away, I am remembering Pascual, my Spanish friend, his sister who loves to dance, and the mountains in Valencia where we used to walk. I am so happy that this memory has been born in me again. So, later I turn on my friend’s CD and feel the motivation to look at Spanish grammar. Because thanks to this broadcast, a beautiful thing awakens in my heart something that I once experienced.

-Wait a minute, Aga, I feel exactly the same. When I was listening to Daria’s podcast about Portuguese poetry, I was wondering where I lost Fernando Pessoa’s book. And when I will go to Lisbon with my niece. Because Daria’s stories wake up a longing in me, which I turn off too often. Longing for travel, interviews with people, and meetings with friends in Poland.

-On the other hand, in the podcast about books not only for children, a frog that dragons put on leaves and she is crying because she fell ill with mumps is attracting my attention. Then I can see a frog from our family garden and feel the taste of my childhood dreams.

(…)

Amalia Rodriguez’s fado sways me like the waves of the Tagus River rock the ferry that took me from Lisbon to Cassilhas.

-That’s right, music in this program connects with the word, and thanks to this, listeners are more embedded in the book presented.

-The blues takes me to places where I thought there was nothing to remember. I wanna be somebody – goes straight to the heart.

-I want to read all these books and refresh “Hopscotch” by Julio Cortázar, again. – so says Aga. But I would like to meet Daria someday, too.

In our Galway Cafe – France, which is brown and gold, there is a live piano at noon. And I know that Daria would love to be here with us. I am curious if he will also present a book by a French author and with it his favorite French songs. On a gray day, we can experience some magic, just like in the radio broadcast “Wyczytane do Białości”. It doesn’t matter that I sometimes listen to them when I’m exhausted after work, my dreams refresh.

-Great, music, very good radio voice – interjects my husband, who also begins to listen to Daria’s stories with interest.

If you want to listen to interesting broadcasts about books, go on a temporary trip to Mexico or somewhere where you don’t even expect, and you know Polish run to radio Broadcast by Daria Danuta Lisciecka on the radio z Qltura.

-In the meantime, I leave you dear listeners with the moonlight – says Daria. Oh, yeah her broadcast is like a shiny moon, relax, refresh, inspire.

Cover photo of this post made by Ola Biały.