Day 4-13 Sorry for the delay!

Day 4 (Monday) - Market

We went to the market today it was pretty cool everything was completely different than what you see in the states. It was basically a Walmart in the form of an open air market. People were there to get everything saw many a fresh butchers as well as bakeries and sweats. It was a one stop shop for the locals and it was kind of a trip back in time to see what the states used to be like. I took a lot of photos of the different people and just basically watched and listened to what people were saying. The rest of the day we hung out the house and prepared for the next day cause we needed to get up early and headed to the family farm.

Day 5 (Tuesday) - Farm in Choczszewo

We went to the farm today, which is about an hour away from the house in Warsaw it was a fun little drive, which ends on a one-way dirt road to the farmhouse. It’s a really cool place with a big house up front and a smaller house to the side. Total it’s about two acres, which of course is fenced in, G’pa has his bees towards the rear of the property, and we basically helped him with everyday chores. The grass cutting took the longest and we also cut down some limbs, which I did. It was pretty fun actually I have to say finally put some of the stuff I learned at the City of Westerville to use lol. We helped G’pa with getting the honey as well he looked through every hive and selected the best combs for harvesting. We then put the combs in a spinner that extracted the honey. It was very cool to see this first hand, and boy was the honey the best I’ve ever had. G’pa plants special flowers in the fields around the house compound so that the bees make the best type of honey. And it’s no comparison to anything I’ve ever had before.

We helped cut the grass as well which was hard as well took turns between myself, Chelsea, Bill and her uncle Czark. It took us all of three hours and we were all beat at the end. After the chores were done we went out to eat and I tried something completely new, tripe soup. For those who don’t know tripe is the cow’s stomach, now don’t knock it until you’ve tried it was very good. You just have to go into it with an open mind, but one of the best soups I’ve ever had would certainly order it again. After the meal we went to a church right outside the farm that was from the 13^th century, very interesting loved the architecture, took lots of photos and walked through the town that was right on the river. It was funny the town drunk started bugging Chelsea’s uncle for change for his next drink lol. Guess you have them in every country, not to mention at the next store we saw 15-year-old boys buying beer and drinking it in the town square lol. Certainly was an eye opening experience to how they do it in Europe. After the stroll around town we went back to the farm and spun some more honey, and finally returned back to Warsaw tired and eyelids dragging having earned our sleep for the night.

Day 6 (Wednesday) - Old Warsaw & Wilonow

The day after the farm was a dragging day everyone was real tired however Chelsea and I decided to explore Warsaw on our own. We basically went back to Old Warsaw and just strolled around and took in the sights. Took a lot of pictures and ate some good street food. We stopped at coffee place early in the day and drank our frozen drinks outside in the shade. While we were sitting there a gypsy came up to us and asked us for money. The best thing to do is just ignore them because that’s how they make their living is by handouts. It’s basically an unsaid rule that you don’t give them any money. Everyone in the entire place just ignored her and she went about here business but still it was a sight to see. As we continued to walk down the street we saw another old church the oldest one in Poland and decided to stop and have some Zapiekanka for the first time. It’s basically French bread topped with cheese and mushroom with ketchup on top. Now I know what your thinking because I had my second thoughts too, however it was delicious and is definitely worth trying. A tour group stopped in front us while we were eating to see the church, it was pretty cool because they actually looked at us like real Poles. The heat was getting to us by then and we decided to make it to our last top at Wilonow Park which is another type of castle with a lot of gardens. However it was all under construction and we didn’t stay long the heat was getting to us and we decided to retreat back to the house for the day.

Day 7 (Thursday) - Krakow

Left pretty early for Krakow. Czarek (my uncle) left at 6 so he could go to a village that Dziadek said we had past relatives at and we would meet him somewhere for lunch. Found a place that looked kind of cheesy on the outside. There were signs for it a few km back saying it was a castle but it was more of a painted castle on the outside. Inside was really cool though. Mom said is was similar to what traditional polish mountain homes looked like and we ate outside in the back. Getting into Krakow was interesting from watching from the back seat. Again, the city is so old and the roads are still too small for the traffic, not to mention the continuous road construction in Poland….streets were blocked off and we had to use a map just to get from our parked car to the Information center. Took us even longer to get the parked car to the hotel! Mom and dad kept going in circles because of the dead ends and blocked streets and guess who was there to get us out of that rut!? Joe and I! I shit you not! We were just as surprised!!! We got a hostel like hotel room and walked to the main square of Krakow. It was gorgeous! I’m not saying it’s completely different from Warsaw, but the main difference is that it is much larger and since it wasn’t destroyed in the war like Warsaw and rebuilt, it is all original. The church in the square was so beautiful! Two different towers and one of them has a guy who plays the trumpet in the tallest tower to the North, South, East and West windows every hour. Thee story behind the two towers I believe was that two brothers were set to design the church. When it came to the tower, both had different ideas. The solution was to just build both brothers ideas and the photos speak for themselves.

We sat outside at one of the many outdoor café’s in the square and got some piwo (beer) and later that night Joe and I went out on our own to check out the square. We saw some teenagers break dancing in the square for money, a women spray painting a landscape, more break dancers, nuns, kids chasing pigeons. At night we walked to Wawel Castle which is up on the hill of Krakow with a surrounding wall. Joe was really impressed with it. It was totally up his alley along with the original defending walls of Krakow from like the 12^th century. We got some more Zapiekanka, which was awesome and headed back to our hotel room. Oswiecim tomorrow.

Day 8 (Friday) - Oswiecim (Auschwits) & Zakopane

Had breakfast in the hotel room and hit the road. Oswiecim (Auschwitz) is only supposed to be like 30 min or so away from Krakow but it took us an hour and a half with all the construction and detours. I feel Joe should explain Auschwitz since it was his first time and I think someone first impression is always the best. This was my third so here he is: we walked into the entrance hall and the first impression I got was it was very crowded with lots of different tourists. There were tours in every language you could think of, we signed up for one because we could not go into the camp without a guide. We wore headphones with a receiver that picked up the amplified the voice of our tour guide. It’s very hard for me to describe the tour because you won’t fully understand it unless you go through it. I just kept thinking to myself how hard it was to fathom that so many people have been here and been put to death. How cruel humans can be to each and only seventy years AGO!! It’s very hard to imagine just to think that you were walking were many others have walked before. They lead you and show you all the hair from the people the Nazi’s collected, yes the Nazi’s shaved the women’s hair and made it into clothing. They also showed all the shoes that have been collected, the eyeglasses and so on and so on. I just couldn’t get over how systematic it was like they weren’t even people. It’s very hard to explain the feeling because I honestly just couldn’t believe what had happened here. The most powerful was the crematorium, and the gas chambers just to walk through gave me the chills. The smoke marks and char are still on the ceilings and it’s just a very uneasy feeling.

After the tour and depressing surrounds of Auschwitz we left for the mountains further south in the town of Zakopane. It took us a couple of hours to drive there however it was a beautiful drive and we stopped for lunch at the top of a hill where you could see for a miles around. It was a great scene with nothing around us except the gas station we were at in the middle of nowhere. We arrived In Zakopone and Ella (Chelsea’s mom) remembered a chalet she had stayed at before so that’s where we decided to bunk for the night. It was a very cool hotel straight out of the fifties looked like an old fashion ski lodge. The town in itself was very nice great views; it was like looking into the Rockies with snow still on the caps. I’ve never seen anything like it, definitely gave me the urge to go skiing again lol. The main walk was like that of Gatlinburg, TN, just small shops up and down the walk. We stopped and had a couple beers; Chelsea and I decided to get a cartoon portrait done which was pretty fun. We ended the day watching the world cup and drinking beer in the chalet room, which was a great way to end the day.

Day 9 (Saturday) - Back to Warsaw

Got up fairly early this morning so we could get downstairs to the Chalets restaurant. The breakfasts were pretty similar, you choice of egg and meats, cheeses and bread or a hot dog with meats cheeses and breads. They also all said they came with corn flakes but to our surprise the cereal came out already in the bowl with milk. And did I mention the milk was warm? Sounds interesting doesn’t it…but surprisingly good none the less….The milk in Poland is also really good so I’m sure that helped a bit as well. The ride back to Warsaw was long. Once back we were all pretty dead and mom and dad had plans to go out with her friends and we were supposed to meet w/ Kuba, her godson to go to some house party. Most of it was done for Danielle because she so desperately wanted to go out. We left with the rents and met up w/ Kuba’s brother Maczek who drove us to the party. We got some beer and headed on up. I guess the most surprising thing was just seeing the amount of vodka people were taking back….I have seen people take back beer, but shot after shot after shot was not only impressive, but totally disgusting at the same time! Joe and I had to turn down shots because we had already been mixing and didn’t need to end up in some polish toilet….I’m sure they are just as fun as the ones at home. Towards the end of the night we all headed out. Somehow Danielle was already gone and Joe and are I being put in Kuba’s best friends car who’s girlfriend is driving it. We had no idea where we were being taken and if we would see Danielle there….She was there somehow and we were able to go to a bar and get drinks and we were diagonally across from the President’s palace (their equivalent to our white house). After that we went to a club. The music was all in Polish and watching everyone dance was pretty fun. We didn’t stay too too long and ended up in a Taxi around 2:30. Kuba came outside w/us to make sure he knew where we had to go and wouldn’t over charge us. At 4:30 in the morning I heard my mom get up asking us if Danielle had come in…..She hadn’t….she was supposed to come in another taxi a little bit later.

Day 10 (Sunday) - Recuperation

After finding out Danielle was still alive, just passed out safely somewhere else (we were told), we decided to recuperate from all the drinking, driving, sight-seeing, traveling in general, detours, traffic jams, cramped hot buses, etc. Napping was definitely in order. The only thing mom had us to was make sure we packed up most of our stuff for going to the Baltic Sea tomorrow. Also went to IKEA here in Poland (Joe drove!) with Babcia because she had never been there, we had nothing planned for the day, and I honestly wanted to go anyways lol. Mom got some kitchen stuff for Babcia to help when she washes dishes since the kitchen is so small and there is really only one small counter space area.

Day 11 (Monday) - Baltic Sea

Driving out of Warsaw was nothing compared to driving through Gdańsk and Gdynia. A 380 km (~240 mile) trip (like Cleveland to Cincinnati), which should have taken like 4 hours, turned into 9! It had a lot to do with the traffic but only in the major cities but was mainly caused by the 2 lane road they consider a highway here. Continuously people are passing you or you them and its completely crazy because you have mini heart attacks watching these cars go and pass the car in front of your and just narrowly missing the oncoming cars which include a lot of semi trucks. Joe actually gave dad a break and drove for about 3-4 hours himself through the worst of it – stop and go traffic. One calf, I’m sure, is bigger than the other. The hell of it was just getting to Karwia (our beach destination). It’s like a little mini resort for Poles, and again, only 2 lanes going into the city and that includes every single kind of vehicle from a little Fiat to an Opel Vectra (our rented car) to a Greyhound type tourist bus to semi trucks, just driving down the street and sometimes into the sidewalk when two buses are coming down the road.

Not knowing Polish sucks! We parked and had to watch mom and the G-rents run around like chickens with their heads cut off and we didn’t understand anything to even attempt to help. They were trying to figure out where we would stay. Got 4 different kinds of pizza too because Babcia loves pizza and Grandpa never lets her get any so we got some and ate it outside our hotel with some beer. Afterwards we finally headed to the beach so we could finally see the sea. You would have thought we had seen it already but a pine forest separates the beach so we had to walk through it to get to the beach. It was gorgeous. No houses or cars to destroy the look of the beach. The pine trees are supposed to also help keep the sand there because the wind is supposed to be extremely strong and many beaches are eroded because of it. Tomorrow we plan to go to the beach all day and swim!

Day 12 (Tuesday) - No Beach Rain and wind! No beach today, it’s just too cold and windy, we had the windows slamming this morning and doors too because the wind is so ridiculous. Our room is the party room (not really but everyone is coming down for coffee and bread meat and cheese for breakfast because we have one of the larger rooms. Danielle was not happy she couldn’t sleep in until 5 in the afternoon because of breakfast in our room…We awoke the beast and it took awhile to appease her…. We went for dinner (or lunch as well call it) for some traditional Polish food ( zupa – soup, kutlets – breaded pork and frytki – French fries). Joe loves Żurek soup. It’s a white barscz soup or white beets, almost a sour soup. It’s really good and usually has boiled egg and sausage in it. Played Phase 10 with the cousins and honestly though Joe wanted to kill himself because he was stuck with a bunch of girls. Lol. Sara who is 10 was singing and we got her to sing Yellow Submarine by the Beetles and we all chimed in for the chorus and I thought Joe was about ready to cut his ears off haha. I know he isn’t a Beetles fan so he was being tortured the entire game but was a good sport nonetheless.

Joe and I also ran to get some ore cava and cukier (coffee and sugar) and while we were out, ran and got some food. Joe got a kebab that looks like a gyro but Joe said it definitely was not the same and then I got a Zapiekanka (the begat with cheese, mushroom and ketchup on top). We need to remember to bring back the ketchup because it’s really different from our ketchup we are used to. Oh ya, watched the Dutch vs Uruguay futbol game too!

Day 13 (Wednesday) - Wind, Sun, Sea! Got up fairly early so we could get to the beach because although it was cooler, at least the sun was out! Had to again wake the beast (Danielle) and there were definitely some smoke and flames…. Joe also couldn’t find his flip-flops this morning so he had to wear mine. The wind on the beach was insane! Everyone had these wind blockers (like fabric on sticks stuck into the ground to block the wind). We dug in the sand and set up camp and just laid out on blankets with the intense wind and sun above us. Finally we decided to go into the water, which was a bit cold to be honest. A lifeguard who told us that if we wanted to drown we could move on down the beach lol yelled us at. We just were not allowed to go deep because the undertow was really bad. Joe and I also didn’t really have bathing suits so he went in gym shorts and I just wore a sports bra. We had to hang our clothes out on a line to dry and when I looked down off the balcony….there on the ground 3 floors below were Joe’s flip flops….don’t ask me who put his out on the balcony but the wind must have blown them off. After getting dinner we were walking back and Joe mentioned how our underwear and stuff was still on the line….I asked him if he had maybe taken his gym shorts off and he said no….we looked at the perimeter fence and his shorts were just hanging on it haha…no one could stop laughing….Joe is misplacing his stuff left and right lol. Watching the futbol game (Germany/Spain) right now with everyone in one hotel room. We have a smoked eel (which Babcia got and people were passing it around and eating it. It smells like sausage but tastes like a fishy sausage to me. Really not bad…. just “different” seeing an eel on a plate. We also have piwo (beer) out as well, which of course is necessary! We are leaving for Warsaw tomorrow morning and plan to go out somewhere to eat breakfast rather than eat in our room. Taking back roads because of the city experience on Monday. Hopefully it’s more scenic and quick. Joe most likely will drive part of it….he is always excited to be driving here, and mom thinks he is doing a great job!