Parthemores in Poland

Good news! We have made it successfully to our apartment and have already had a few interesting times. Some observations:

1. I am generally impressed with LOT Polish Airlines. They give you food (for free), unlike 90% of airlines in America. This goes along way in my book; especially on a 10 hour international flight. We noticed that on our Lufthansa flight earlier this year, there were many Americans travelling to Europe; on LOT you are either from Poland, of Polish descent and speak Polish, or us. Our flight over was relatively uneventful until the landing, during which time we encountered turbulence to the point that I recognized multiple Polish swear words in the surrounding seats. Following our successful landing, the passengers erupted into a vigorous applause. The only other time I have witnessed this phenomenon was on a bargain-basement flight for a discount vacation to the sort-of-nice island in the Bahamas--on the same flight the pilot had to repeatedly remind people that it was a non-smoking flight, and that this policy applied not only to the main cabin, but the bathrooms, the galley in the back, and that, no, they couldn't just roll down the window to smoke. But that's another story.

2. Where is my dog? Upon our arrival to Warsaw, I went to go collect Daisy, while Eric went to try to get our luggage, since it was already on the carousel. I went to the oversize baggage door and found two gentlemen with badges and radios and asked one in my best Polish, "Gdzie jest moj pies?"(where is my dog?) He disappeared and came back with a very wiggly crate. I couldn't respond to the question he asked me and he didn't speak English. I did gather that he wanted to know if I had any other baggage, and in my pidgin Polish, I could only respond with "my husband." He didn't laugh, so I can only assume that referring to your spouse as "baggage" doesn't really translate into Polish.

3. Road trip! To avoid taking the train with a total of eight bags and a dog, we rented a car at the Warsaw Airport, and dropped it off at the Poznan Airport--a smart idea, but not without some challenges. So we loaded up our sweet Ford Focus station wagon and headed off into the great unknown. Have you ever driven in dowtown Warsaw? No? Good for you! Exciting to say the least. I was also a bit surprised by the audacity of some drivers on the country two lane roads. Example: Several cars went into oncoming traffic to pass in the left lane -- the other cars had to move off the road for them. This seemed to be the way it worked until we tried it. Bad idea, but in case your wondering, two tractor-trailers and a Ford Focus can fit three wide on a two lane. On the divided highway (like our interstate), driving was much less chaotic. The posted speed was 110 kph (I think). The rule of thumb in America is "never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." Apparently Polish guardian angels top out at about Mach 2.4. Arriving in Poznan by car, we discovered several key points. First, one way streets are not marked as such. You discover this the hard way. Second, the tram system shares the road with cars. This is marked only by the presence of tracks and has the potential for major disaster. Lastly an observation: In the Muslim world, "Inshallah," meaning "if God wills it," is a cornerstone of tradition, religion, and life. In Poland, it could refer to traffic laws. Ironically, I have seen more student drivers here then anywhere else in the U.S. Seriously.

4. Everybody loves Ikea. Touring the store in the usual "you will go this way" Ikea manner, we recognized about 90% of the furniture and decorations in our apartment (to include "PJATTERYD," our sweet black and white impressionist painting of Audrey Hepburn). We did, however, need a desk and carefully took measurements of our would-be office. After about an hour of debating various options, we finally found a good solution and dutifully wrote down the information on where we could find it in the warehouse. We navigated our way through the rest of the store to the "magazyn" to retrieve our new desk. Too bad they were out of them. D'oh! So the search continues.

5. Do dogs get jetlag? The answer is yes, and it's funny.

So we're still figuring things out and trying to get over our own jetlag. All part of the "Olmsted Experience!"