Lublin lies in eastern Poland, where small towns dot the gentle plain. From the balloon’s basket, a landscape unfolds, unchanged for centuries: narrow strips of fields, orchards, wooden churches, and the wide Bystrzyca River valley. This is Poland at its most peaceful. Silence, a lack of wind, and a gentle morning light. The only things that might occasionally disturb this idyll are a tractor on a distant road, animals visible from the balloon, or observers waving at us from below.