Parthemores in Poland - Latest Blog Entries

Look kids, Big Ben!

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:49:00 -0500

I realized today that I better knock out some blogging before the travel season really hits us. Our latest adventure was to jolly old London so Eric could do some research for his dissertation.

After the Nazis invaded in 1939, Poland set up a government-in-exile in London. This shadow government remained there until the fall of Communism in 1989. One of the major players in this organization was Władysław Sikorski, who became the Prime Minister and Commander in Chief during WWII, though he was killed in a plane crash in 1943. The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London now houses all the records from the Polish forces fighting on the western front during the war. So Eric spent two full days staring at old documents from their impressive collection.

While he was there, I focused on some high quality sight-seeing. I have mentioned before that we usually employ our “viking raider” tactics, and try to see as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. In London, I discovered a way to do this even faster – and it didn’t involve an open-top sightseeing bus.

I went for a sightseeing run!

I actually spent a lot of time on Google Maps planning this out. I picked out a bunch of (relatively) closely packed sights and came up with a straightforward route. As you can see by the map, “straightforward” is a relative term.

I didn’t bring the camera, so I’m stealing some of these from Wikipedia. The next day, Eric and I spent the evening visiting some of the sights via the Tube.

Hyde Park with the awesomely ornate Albert Memorial

On to Piccadilly Circus, which kind of reminded me of Times Square. There were lots of tourists here, also with the associated tourist stores. (Wikipedia photo)

Trafalgar Square was cool and I was impressed with how tall the Nelson Column actually was.

Crossing over the Thames, the giant London Eye marks the Guaranteed Tourist Area.

But once you get to the Eye, you can see Parliament and Big Ben back across the river.

Westminster Abbey featured an encampment of protesters, whose grungy appearance detracted from the otherwise beautiful architecture. (Wikipedia photo)

On the way to Buckingham Palace, I stopped to watch the going-on at the Horse Guards building. Their uniforms looked very fancy, but probably really hot. (Wikipedia)

The Mall down to Buckingham Palace looked very stately. The flags weren’t out when I ran through, but I thought this picture was cool. (Wikipedia)

I think the Queen was visiting the US when we were there. A bunch of tourists were waiting in front of the palace, but I’m not sure for what. The changing of the guard, maybe? (Wikipedia)

So that sums up my little tour. In total, it was almost 9 miles. I was smart enough to bring water with me, since it was pretty hot that day.

I also enjoyed London for the simple fact that I understood everything that was going on and I could communicate with confidence. For me, that was really a luxury.

We ate fish and chips and watched World Cup Soccer in a pub called the Red Lion…seems very British. Also very British: speaking Polish with the waitress. No kidding.

So, now that I am up to date on the blog, I feel justified in leaving again. We are off on our northern adventure in the Baltic.

On the Interwebs

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:35:00 -0500

Today (16 July 2010) the Bing homepage picture was from Poznań! These buildings are in the Stary Rynek, and this is one of the more popular photos of the city.

Busted!

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:53:00 -0500

Well, after 20 months of owning a car, it finally happened. We got…The Boot.

Adding insult to injury was that this happened right in front of our building. Explaining why might take a while.

The first part of the problem was the new road. After 10 months of construction, it was finally completed about two months ago. Now we have the most beautiful road in Poznań.

As part of this new road, they included a random paved 20’x30’ section. (There is a silver car parked there in the picture.) To the casual observer, this looks like either a) parking spaces or b) it should have a basketball hoop. There are no signs posted and no lines.

Our nice new road has a sign prohibiting parking on the bike path or on that side of the road. But surely this couldn’t apply to the tiny parking area.

As the guy was un-booting us, he confirmed that it did. We then asked what that space was for and he just shrugged.

In May, Poland suffered widespread flooding in all of the major rivers. There was some coverage in the American media. The flood plays a critical role in this story, because this is why we were parked outside to begin with. Our apartment sits right behind a 105-year-old retaining wall over the Warta River. Here is the view at normal river height:

As the water continued to rise, there was concern over the integrity of the wall. One of the newspapers contributed to the fearmongering:

(When I saw this, I could understand “This wall might something.” The dictionary informed me that runąć means “collapse.” Yikes!)

At the highest stage of the river, the underground garage was below the water level. There was an evacuation plan, and we even had a suitcase packed up with our important documents and some essentials. Thankfully, we didn’t need it. The building administrators recommended that people move their cars and belongings out of the garage. So of course, we complied.

Therefore, we were a little P.O.’d about getting the boot. We thought we had parked legally after having to abandon our garage due to the possibility of our apartment building collapsing into the river.

But the guy who removed the boot was super nice about it. He took all our documentation and told us how he lived in Hawaii for four years. As Eric was taking out his wallet to pay, they guy holds out his hand and says, in a weird John Wayne-type accent, “Settle down, tiger.”

So in the end, we didn’t have to pay a fine and our apartment didn’t fall into the river. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Not Constantinople...

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:19:00 -0500

For our latest trip, we busted out of our Central European comfort zone and headed down to Istanbul for a long weekend.

Fellow Olmsteders Mike and Nichole were gracious enough to let us crash at their place. Thanks to their extensive library of guidebooks and helpful tips for public transportation, we managed to pack in a lot of sightseeing into three short days. Here is the whirlwind tour:

Our first stop was one of the most famous buildings in Istanbul, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque.

It isn’t blue on the outside, but the name comes from the intricate tiles decorating the inside.

Hanging from the ceiling were impressively large chandeliers, that weren’t much higher than head height.

There was so much to look at and it was kind of overwhelming.

Nearby is the Hagia Sophia, which held the record for largest cathedral for a measly 1000 years. Think about that for a second.

It is hard to fully grasp the idea that this building is almost 1500 years old. It was first built as a cathedral, then after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, it was converted to a mosque. The secular government of Turkey has since started restoring some of the original Christian elements and it is now a museum. Simply amazing.

Our trusty digital camera has lots of settings. However, we definitely could have used a “huge, dimly lit building, where the flash isn’t going to do you any good and probably isn’t allowed anyway” setting.

Large portions of the interior are under restoration. In one section, historians have stripped off the paint to reveal Byzantine-era mosaics.

Farther down the road, overlooking the water was the Topkapi Palace. It is a collection of several different buildings that made up the palace complex, and now hold exhibits from the National Museum.

Both the interiors and exteriors are equally impressive.

One of the coolest displays was definitely the Treasury, where all the items were:

Gold
Excessively jewel-encrusted
Surrounded by hundreds of screaming Turkish schoolchildren

I think it might have been Field Trip Day at Topkapi Palace.

We also forayed into the insanity of the Grand Bazaar. The guidebook summed it up best with the phrase, “nothing can prepare you for the Grand Bazaar.” Very true. The whole thing is a giant rat maze, which is made narrower by the vast amount of goods bursting out of the different stalls. Souvenirs, jewelry, rugs, water pipes, jeans, leather goods, and pottery are all prominently displayed and competing for your attention. Add into this the pushy salesman and their catcalls and you start to feel like the walls are closing in.

We have discovered that speaking Polish to each other in these situations proves useful. We can still communicate with each other, while ignoring all the English that everyone is yelling to the passersby. This almost backfired when we found one guy selling perfume on the street who spoke a few words of Polish and proceeded to hound us for two blocks while (correctly) throwing out lower and lower numbers. Props to that guy.

The Spice Market was a similar experience, but since many of the customers are locals, there was more yelling in Turkish. We picked up some apple tea, meat spice, and some Turkish Delight, which was delicious!

Despite all the madness of these places, we did find some peaceful spots in this crazy city. In particular, the Roman cistern, a subterranean water collection facility, proved calm, cool, and interesting. Spanning several acres, the Romans collected and stored drinking water in a huge underground room supported by hundreds of columns. The columns were all “repurposed” from other areas, hence there is a mishmash of designs.

We spent an afternoon on a boat tour of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus. Walking around downtown, it is hard to conceptualize just how big the city is. A four-hour boat ride that spans two continents, while remaining in city limits, helps illustrate that Istanbul is ginormous. We highly recommend taking a boat tour. This was a great way to see a lot of basic sites and get a good feel for the city.

There are a few things that you see everywhere in Istanbul:

1. Tulips. Despite Holland’s claim to the contrary, tulips are originally from Turkey. Fortunately, they were still in bloom during our visit.

2. Fisherman. Every public place with water access will be packed with people fishing. This includes freeway overpasses.

3. Turkish Flags. We thought Poles liked flying flags. Poland’s got nothing on Turkey. We passed one apartment building where one resident had completely covered his downstairs neighbor’s window with a flag. Only one flag in this photo, but you can tell that it is huge.

4. Stray dogs that you would want to pet. We saw countless stray dogs, most of whom appeared to be well fed and well taken care of.

5. Kebab stands. Just like Poland.

So that wraps up our Istanbul trip, and only a month or so late. Thanks again to Mike and Nichole for an awesome trip!

When Soccer, Beer, and Museums Collide!

Sun, 16 May 2010 14:36:00 -0500

There was plenty of excitement in Poznań on Saturday evening. It was national Museum Night, when all of the museums are open until 1 a.m., as well as being free. Since Poznań has a ton of different museums, this is a good chance to check them out. It is always crowded, with lots of museum-goers as well as several historical re-enactors. Here I am with two soldiers at the Wielkopolska Uprising Museum:

You may notice the scarf…this year Museum Night happened to coincide with the final game of the Polish Soccer League season. With a 1-point lead going into the game (the rules are weird, just trust me), Lech Poznań clinched the Polish League Cup after defeating whatever non-important team they were playing.

This photo (from one of the local newspapers) was taken at the game, which was fortunately at home. When we went to a game last year, we noticed that everyone got patted down before entering the stadium. I’m assuming they were checking for weapons, but maybe it was for beer. Apparently flares are OK though.

We enjoyed watching the game at a local bar and then we headed to the square to see what was going on.

Even a few minutes after the finish, people were already gathering en masse and climbing on the fountains.

This photo (again from the newspaper) is from the main drag into town. I think everybody from the stadium walked to the square, which is over three miles away. Other fans converged as well. The result?

(Not my photo – I left my 200ft tripod at home that night.)

A jam packed Rynek!

The team arrived on a double-decker bus, which was covered in banners from the stadium.

Amazingly, amidst all the craziness, we were able to link up with our friends Teresa and Sławek.

The crowd was unbelievable and the square was completely filled with blue and white clad people in varying degrees of sobriety. The team’s official store made a small fortune selling their official T-shirts and scarves that said “2009/2010 Mistrz Polski.” The last time Lech Poznań won the championship was 1993, so you can imagine the fervor.

We’re not sure if the soccer fans soaked up any culture at Museum Night, but here’s hoping.

(photos of stadium, street, and town hall from Głos Wielkopolski)

Lunch With Grandpa and Kathy

Sun, 16 May 2010 08:34:00 -0500

This week we were fortunate to spend a little time with Grandpa and Kathy as their tour stopped here enroute to Berlin.

While it was only about 80 minutes, we had time to take a lap around the square, take some pictures, and enjoy a lunch of traditional Polish food. We were hoping to eat at one of the outdoor patios, but the unseasonably cold weather put the kibosh on that.

Unfortunately, they arrived too late to see Poznań’s #1 tourist attraction: the goats. Every day at noon, the mechanical goats come out of a door above the town hall clock and butt heads twelve times. I’m sorry to say that it’s quite anti-climactic. But there is always a crowd of people in the square, craning their heads upward and taking pictures. Here is a video shot by a person with a decent zoom on their camera.

Grandpa and Kathy, it was great to see you and we hope the rest of your tour was just as pleasant as the beginning!

Bureaucracy In Action

Tue, 04 May 2010 14:55:00 -0500

...or would that be "inaction?"

This tale begins back in November, after I finally got my contract from the university. As part of my in-processing, I had to fill out several documents, one of which stated that since I pay foreign taxes (to the US), I didn’t have to pay Polish taxes. It required a signature, a copy of my passport, and a certificate.

I figured that my Social Security card would be enough, but it wasn’t. “It must be a certificate,” the office lady told me.

Since I have never heard of any sort of certificate of paying taxes (maybe it’s like a Certificate of Participation?), I went to the IRS website to try to figure it out. After finding nothing there, I e-mailed them. They quickly replied with the answer of what I needed, which happened to cost $35.

I sent in the application in the first week of December. And I waited.

I received a letter stating that they received my application. And I waited.

Around the middle of March, I received another letter saying I need to “provide more information.” Since it didn’t specifically say what they wanted, I called them.

(I should note that the IRS is saving taxpayers’ money by using the slowest method possible for international postage. Or maybe they are routing them through Iran. Seriously, it takes like three weeks for their letters to get here.)

After all this time, I was excited when I saw a thick envelope from the IRS in the mailbox. (Yes, I realize I’m probably the only person to ever say that.) Inside was my coveted “certificate.” This is it:

"I certify that, to the best of our knowledge, the above-named taxpayer is a resident of the United States of America for purposes of U.S. taxation."

You have got to be kidding me. “To the best of our knowledge”?!? This took 5 months?

I did pay Polish taxes for two months of my salary, since I didn’t produce my “certificate” before the taxes were due. Honestly, their income tax system is way easier than ours. It took about 15 minutes, and I spent most of that looking up words.

The best part – the form that everyone files is called the PIT. The plural is PITy. So I did my Polish taxes on a website called “e-pity.” Hilariously ironic.

So I’m hoping that this odyssey is finally over, but I doubt it.

Week of Mourning

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:48:00 -0500

Last week was unique as a result of the April 10 plane crash that killed President Kaczyński and 95 other people. That first weekend, thousands of people laid flowers and candles in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. Throughout the week over 100,000 people lined up to pay their respects. Some people waited over 8 hours to enter the chapel at the palace.

MSNBC has a great slideshow that illustrates the Warsaw and Kraków events.

The reaction in Poznań was somewhat more subdued. Many residents hung flags with black ribbons outside their apartments and there was a modest collection of candles and flowers at the Katyń memorial behind the Zamek.

University classes went on as planned, with the exception of Wednesday afternoon, when the Dean gave students the afternoon off to attend the university’s memorial service.

This past Sunday, the President and his wife were laid to rest in the crypts of Wawel Castle in Kraków. The decision to bury them there was fairly controversial and many people were not happy about it. Wawel Castle is seen as the burial site of kings and Polish heroes, such as Tadeusz Kościuszko and Józef Piłsudski. Despite his unimpeachable record as a Polish patriot and anti-Communist, President Kaczyński wasn’t likely to be re-elected in the October elections, and people certainly don’t equate him with great Polish heroes; many Poles didn’t feel he was worthy of being buried there. Still, a couple hundred thousand people turned out for his funeral.

All in all, life has now returned to normal.

World's Largest Tourist Trap

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:29:00 -0500

Poland has many beautiful Easter traditions. But since the entire country pretty much shuts down, we took advantage of a long weekend and cheap airfares and took off for Italy.

Speaking of cheap airfares, WizzAir (the Hungarian, fuschia-clad, bastard step-brother of RyanAir) claims that they fly into Milan. Actually, it’s really the next town over, Bergamo. So we spent the night there and had just enough time to explore the neat “upper city” that perches on the cliffs above the rest of the city.

We enjoyed staying at a cute B&B, but the stopover was pretty uneventful.

The next day we hopped on the regional train to go check out Milan. Conveniently, the WizzAir inflight magazine (the only thing they don’t charge you for) had a picture of the main cathedral on the cover. This inspired us to stop and explore. As you can see, the Duomo di Milano is unbelievably beautiful.

The best part? We got to walk around on the roof!

With some time to kill before our train to Florence, we checked out the Museum of Science. One section featured the works of Leonardo da Vinci, to include models of the crazy stuff he designed. My personal favorite? The scorpion boat.

This museum was quite the catch-all, with exhibits including communication, trains, submarines, boats, and genetics.

The train system in Italy is great. After one taxi ride (the road network is sheer insanity), we were convinced that train travel is the optimal way to get anywhere.

We arrived in Florence around dinner time. In Italy, that’s 8 pm, at the earliest. The next morning, we set off exploring the city. First stop: the Duomo, which features the largest brick dome ever constructed.

Completed in 1436 by Brunelleschi, it is a true architectural masterpiece and an absolute must-see in Florence. When we read on the Internet that it is possible to climb up to the top of the dome, we knew that was something we wanted to do. Unfortunately for us, the cupola was closed for Easter weekend. So we did the next best thing: walk up the 400+ stairs to the top of the campanile that was right beside the Duomo. The climb was a little tiring and slightly claustrophobic, but totally worth it!

Here we are at the top of the campanile. The Duomo is in the background.

On Easter Sunday there was a big celebration in front of the Duomo to mark the end of the Easter Mass. I don’t really know how to describe it. There were a few hundred people dressed up in colorful, crazy outfits.

There was also a gigantic cart with thousands of fireworks that was set off when Mass was complete. This cart was pulled by four of the biggest cows I have ever seen, who were also festively decorated.

Unfortunately for us, our view of the “show” was blocked by a building. But thanks to the miracle of YouTube, we were able to see what we missed.

Another highlight of our Florence visit was the wine tasting at a nearby villa. This was originally supposed to start with a bike trip through the Tuscan countryside out to the villa, but because the tour guide was sick we just took a taxi. It was amazing that in only 20 minutes we were out of the city and in the beautiful hills that look liked something straight out of an Olive Garden commercial.

The current owners renovated the villa into a bed and breakfast and produce their own wines as well. Part of our tour included their wine cellar.

Both the villa and the gardens were just gorgeous.

This weekend marked the beginning of Italy’s very busy tourist season. While wandering the alleyways in one of the quieter parts of town, we found this painted on the wall.

Seeing all the tourists in Italy made me realize how non-touristy Poznań is. We heard a lot of American accents in Florence. Many of the Americans we talked to all had the same reason for being there: their son or daughter was studying something like art history or fashion in Italy. Based on all the museums, designer stores, and beautiful architecture, spending a semester in Italy would be an awesome opportunity.

For our last stop of the trip, we headed to Rome. When we watched some travel videos about Rome, most of them suggested at least a week to explore the city. We had a day and a half.

We had two main objectives in Rome: the Vatican and the Coliseum. Along with those, we would just kind of walk around and see what we see. I like to think that I am reasonably competent with navigating, but Rome was so crazily laid out that it took some serious effort to figure out where we were and which direction we were heading.

I was hoping that the Vatican wouldn’t be crowded, since it was the day after Easter. I was wrong. The line that we saw was so long, we couldn’t even figure out what it was for. The Basilica? The Sistine Chapel? Gelato? So we just kind of looked around and headed on our way.

There are lots of interesting buildings in Rome. One of our favorites was the National Museum.

It seemed like there were ruins everywhere. Even our hotel had ruins underneath it. Like other buildings, they had cleverly built around them.

Another thing that was everywhere? Tourists! Here’s the crowd at the Trevi Fountain:

Just to get a decent photo, you had to jockey for position.

The next day we explored the Roman Forum and Coliseum. I really wish I remembered more from my high school Latin class. The weather was beautiful and this was a great way to cap off the trip.

View of the Forum from Palatine Hill

Palatine Hill

The Coliseum, from the outside and the inside.

This whirlwind trip was a lot of fun, but kind of exhausting. I can sympathize with these folks:

A Sad Day

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 05:28:00 -0500

Earlier today we heard the news that the Polish President Lech Kaczyński’s plane crashed in Russia, killing everyone on board. In addition to the President and his wife, the plane carried many important political, military, and religious leaders. The Army Chief of Staff, the Central Bank Leader, and the vice foreign minister were just a few of the casualties.

According to the Polish Constitution, Kaczyński will be succeeded by Bronisław Komorowski, the current leader of the Sejm, the Polish Parliament.

This delegation was in Russia to mark the 70^th Anniversary of the Katyń Massacre, when over 20,000 Polish Officers, academics, and political leaders were murdered by the NKVD, on orders from Stalin. This event is still very painful for the Poles, especially since Russia has been very secretive about what actually happened.

Sadly, some of the people killed in the crash today were families of the Katyń victims.

We haven’t really witnessed any of the shock and mourning that is sure to follow.

My latest GFI

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:32:00 -0500

In a moment of over-exuberance and delusion, I signed up for the Poznań Half-Marathon. After not training as hard as I should have (I blame the excessive snow this winter), today was a painfully fun jaunt around the city.

To garner as much support as possible, I wore a bright pink shirt with my name on the front. Since “Ania” is what all my Polish friends call me, I went with that.

My #1 Superfan (Eric) was an awesome mobile photographer and cheering section. He did the equivalent of a 13 mile cyclo-cross race trying to get to different parts of the course on his bike. He had to run up and down the stairs under four different roundabouts since all the roads were blocked off.

My shirt proved its worth, because I had about 12 different people I didn’t know cheering for me. One was even in the heavy metal band that set up under the overpass. It’s pretty cool to hear the lead singer yell through the microphone, “Ania! Dawaj!”

“Bravo” is another popular cheer. That seems kind of strange to me.

At the finish line we claimed our reward: free beer! Really! Only in Poland would you get a free beer for running 13.1 miles.

There were also free massages from the students at the Sports Science Academy. Pretty sweet.

Will I do it again next year? Maybe. But only if there’s free beer.

The Ladies in Lisbon

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:24:00 -0500

A couple weeks ago, I headed off to Lisbon for the Olmsted Wives’ Weekend. On last year’s trip, our group met up in Madrid and had a great time despite the unseasonably cold weather.

This year we had ten women and it was a great chance to compare notes about the craziness of living in other cultures. It’s always interesting to see the similarities and differences between countries, which is something you don’t often realize as a tourist.

While the weather was kind of rainy and a little chilly, it was definitely warmer than in Poland.

The first day we hiked up to the castle that overlooks the city. On the way there, we passed a bunch of cute houses with their tile exteriors. At this point it was a novelty, but we soon realized that there are a lot of buildings with the tile work.

The castle is a reconstruction of the original, so visitors are free to roam around on the catwalks and into the towers.

They even had some peacocks guarding the bathroom. That fence must be pretty sturdy.

My favorite part of the trip was our visit to Sintra the next day. This castle is about an hour’s train ride from Lisbon, but it was totally worth it. The whole area is this crazy mismash of decorations and primary colors. It kind of looks like a cartoon or maybe a kids’ playland.

Some of the exterior stone work was really impressive. Too bad we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, because there were some beautifully decorated rooms, filled with ornate, antique furniture.

By the end of the day, the clouds had rolled in and the whole hilltop was shrouded in fog.

The next day, the sun finally came out. (Probably because I was leaving.) We all headed down to the waterfront, where we visited the Jerónimos Monastery. All the sculptures on the outside were so impressive.

The courtyard of the cloisters was just gorgeous.

While in the area, we took the opportunity to try some of the famous pastries that are sold down the road. Called pastéis de Belém, they are small pastry shells, filled with an egg custard. Fortunately, we did not have to wait “hours” for them, as the Wikipedia article suggests.

Down on the waterfront, there is the Monument to the Discoveries, commemorating Portuguese explorers.

With all its cute decorative elements, I thought Lisbon was pretty neat.

Thanks for the great time, ladies!

It’s Saturday night…and we’re watching ski jumping

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:05:00 -0600

Yeah, we know, we’re pretty crazy.

Anyways. Believe it or not, ski jumping is among the more popular Polish sports. This can all be attributed to one man, Adam Małysz (pronounced ma-wish), who dominated the sport for several years. He has four World Cup titles and two medals from the Salt Lake City Olympics. He is so ridiculously popular in Poland, his Polish Wikipedia page is longer than those of LeBron James, Angelina Jolie, or President Obama. Go check, we’ll wait.

Earlier this week, Adam took the silver in the individual normal hill. This evening, he added another silver in the individual large hill.

The sportscasters are great to listen to because they get so into the action. They say things like:

Piękny skok! (Beautiful jump!)

Daleko, daleko, daleko! (Farther, farther, farther!)

Ohhhhhh....BRAVO! (Self-explanatory)

(Imagine the level of passion of the "do you believe in miracles?" from the 1980 Olympics, when the US beat the Soviets. Like that, every time he jumps.)

Americans just don’t get that into ski jumping…

Wrong Turn

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:45:00 -0600

So the history department at UAM required Eric’s diploma from Missouri in order to certify it. Evidently an official transcript and notarized letter were insufficient.

Since we didn't bring it with us, he contacted the university in Missouri several months ago and arranged to have one sent to the university here.

Date of postmark: 7 DEC 2009

Date received: 18 FEB 2010

There was a stamp on it to help explain the delay:

Here’s a close up:

“Missent to Iran”

What?!?

Why did it make a wrong turn to Iran, of all countries, and why does someone even have a stamp that says that? Is this a common problem?

Popular, but for different reasons

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:50:00 -0600

For the final day of our trip, we stopped to visit two popular Polish destinations. The first was Częstochowa to see the Black Madonna,a religious icon in the Jasna Góra monastery. It is safe to say that this is the spiritual center of Poland, with millions of pilgrims coming here every year. In August, over 100,000 people show up on the Feast of the Assumption to take part in a huge outdoor mass. Some of the attendees from Poland walk there. This is pretty serious stuff.

The painting is only shown at certain times during the day. You are allowed to take pictures, but I was too scared to. I took one photo that I think will explain why:

(The Black Madonna is the brightly lit spot behind the gated section.)

With all these people deep in prayer, I certainly did not want to be That Guy who marches up to the front and snaps a photo. I felt bad enough just looking all around the inside of the church, since it was beautiful. Honestly, there were all these bowed heads, and there’s me, looking up, sideways, and probably backwards. There was a whole wall covered with canes and crutches, which I’m assuming were left by people who were healed.

So instead of taking a photo, I just bought this postcard. The altar is pretty awesome.

The rest of the complex is pretty amazing as well. There were a few beautiful mosaics on the walls.

Even the entrance is impressive.

The tower is the tallest church tower in Poland.

Overall, it was a pretty amazing place. I can only imagine what it would be like with 100,000 people there.

Our next stop was in the manufacturing city of Łódź, which is right smack dab in the middle of Poland.

I will admit the name looks crazy for anyone who doesn’t speak Polish. Thankfully, the Łódź chamber of commerce has come up with a helpful video to teach English speakers how to pronounce it:

Or if this helps you remember:

Classical literature fans may prefer:

“Łódź you eat them in a house? Łódź you eat them with a mouse?” from Green Eggs and Ham.

OK, enough of that.

The highlight of Łódź is definitely the Manufaktura shopping center/recreation compound. This was the site of a huge textile mill that was finally closed down in the 90’s. In 2003, it was purchased by investors and is now a one-stop-shop for ways to spend your free time and money. The mall is the largest in Europe, plus there is a movie theater, bowling, rock climbing, laser tag, and who knows what else.

All of these are housed in the original brick factory buildings. They set up a small museum to show the history of the textile plant, which was kind of interesting. They had some of the old looms set up and before we left the museum guide fired up two of them for a demo.

It was hard to talk over the noise that two of those things made. The original factory had hundreds of these looms stuffed into a series of huge rooms. The racket must have been incredible.

We also headed down to the main square, which featured a cool looking church and a Kościusko monument.

That’s him shaking hands with George Washington. After his service in the American Revolution, he returned to Poland and, in 1794, led the ultimately unsuccessful Polish uprising against the partitioning powers. He is remembered as a hero in both the US and in Poland.

As the video mentions, there is a film school here. The city has also constructed a Walk of Fame. Did you notice whose star they showed? Roman Polański.

The video pretty much sums up all the highlights. I’m kind of glad we stopped on the way home so we didn’t waste a day trip on it.

Our diametrically opposing visits wrapped up a great two weeks of traveling. Lots of fun, but really tiring.

Side trips

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:05:00 -0600

One of the best reasons to travel around Europe in the winter is the lack of other tourists.* We took advantage of this a few times on our way back from Slovakia.

*The worst reason is the roads.

During our drive, the road passed right by this castle.

I think Eric’s exact quote was, “Pull over! We need to go check that out!” It turned out to be Orava Castle.

Thankfully, they were open and it was the two of us and our own tour guide, who spoke excellent English. It was our own private tour! She said that in the summer, they have 1000-2000 visitors a day, with tours starting every 10 minutes.

Note the lack of a line.

This castle was among the coolest we’ve visited, due to its interesting combination of displays, architecture, and general awesomeness. All this, perched on a super high rock outcropping!

They had the requisite display of fearsome medieval weapons:

No castle would be complete without a torture room, complete with nifty tools, a noose, and a severed head:

The areas of the castle restored to show how the inhabitants lived showcased their impressive belongings:

The museum sections date from the 1950’s and hold exhibits about the local wildlife, traditional dress, and what life was like for the villagers. The weirdest part was the two-headed calf.

Random.

The weather that day was spectacular, so we got lots of great photos of the views from the castle.

(The building to the right is the chapel, which we didn’t get to see. But apparently they still hold weddings there. Awesome!)

As you can see, this was built right into the rock.

Back to work, peasants!

Our next stop of the day was back in Poland, the town of Żywiec. A couple years ago, both of us read the book Know It All, in which the author, A.J. Jacobs, chronicles his endeavor to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. He repeatedly mentions Żywiec, as it is the final entry and the culmination of 33,000 pages of reading. That “zyw” combo is tough to beat.

Everyone who has been to Poland, however, will recognize the name – ”Żywiec” is the most popular brand of Polish beer. So of course we went on the brewery tour.

The whole museum is in the basement of the old brewery, where they used to store the beer for lagering. The tour was in Polish, but thanks to Eric’s interest in homebrewing, we know many of the brewing-related words.

Unlike most Polish museums, the Żywiec museum encourages interactivity. Here is an actual quote from the museum brochure: “The museum in no way resembles typical high-end exhibitions with security guards and ladies keeping an eye on the rooms…You do not have to wear museum slippers.” Seriously, most museums here have these things.

The goal of the museum was to show the history of the brewery and the beer. Unlike American breweries, which only had to struggle through Prohibition, the Żywiec brewery was founded under Austrian rule, and then survived WWI, the establishment of an independent Poland, Nazi occupation, and Communist nationalization. They had a bunch of historical re-creations of pubs during several of these periods. There was even a re-creation of the aerial bombing raids in 1939. Because that’s fun.

The oddest part was one of the groups on our tour. There were about 10 kids, around 12-15 years old, along with their chaperone, this older guy who struggled to keep them in line. He totally earned that free beer at the end of the tour.

Up next: The religious center of Poland and the biggest mall in Europe (not in the same place.)

Told you they were tough!

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:43:00 -0600

Remember how we had the little history lesson about the Hussars in our Vienna post?

If that failed to inspire you, Polish Hussars are this week’s Badass of the Week!

“Badass of the Week” is a uniquely original, thoroughly profane, and highly entertaining look at people who are completely, well, badass.

Other Poles to earn this singular honor include Mariusz Pudzianowski and Wojtek the Bear.

The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London has a small statue of Wojtek. Here’s a photo Eric snapped when he visited in December:

Skiing!

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:51:00 -0600

A day after returning from Germany, we set off for our Slovakian ski vacation. In Poland, the place to go skiing is Zakopane, the resort area south of Kraków, on the Slovakian border. However, many Polish people have told us to not go there since it was always so crowded.

We chose to only stay the night and explore the town, saving our skiing for later.

Loyal readers may have been confused about our blog about buying cheese from a kiosk. The cheese in question is oscypek, a smoked sheep’s milk cheese that is made in the highlands of Poland.

Yes, that is all cheese.

It is impossible to go more than 10 feet in Zakopane without the chance to buy oscypek. This includes the road into town, because people are out there selling it on the shoulder.

While most stands just sell it fresh, the best way to eat it is off the grill. It is really delicious.

A person who lives in the highlands is called a góralnik. This has the same connotation that “hillbilly” would have in English. They also have their own regional dialect, but we aren’t advanced enough to be able to pick out the differences.

Zakopane plays up the góralnik theme every chance it can:

All the beautiful wood buildings

The sled rides with the driver in the traditional dress (hard to see under the non-traditional parka!)

And the wool vest and slipper market:

The part about it being crowded was true. There were almost no foreigners, leading us to believe that this is the Polish family vacation place. With games and lots of vendors selling toys, the pedestrian zone had a carnival-like atmosphere.

I like the random assortment of things: a pony, a Saint Bernard, and a fake polar bear that looks like it’s melting.

While the drive from Zakopane to our resort in Slovakia wasn’t long, it certainly was interesting.

On our way out of town, we saw this lawsuit-waiting-to-happen:

(I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but ski jumping is the second most popular sport in Poland, behind soccer. Seriously. It’s on TV in primetime here.)

There are a few interesting points about this next photo:

First, this is actual border between two countries. It’s a little anti-climactic. Second, you may notice the quality of the road. We never truly determined if the brownish-gray substance visible in the middle was pavement or ice. I won’t say the road was plowed – “tamped down snow” may be a better description.

One this trip, we determined that our Skoda is a little mountain goat. Thanks to traction control, ABS, and winter tires, we were unstoppable!

The drive was very scenic and mostly backroads. This was a friendly reminder of the peril involved:

Whoa!

Fortunately, we arrived at Jasná safely. The lobby of our hotel featured a huge iguana in a terrarium.

We rented our skis and went night skiing the first evening. The next day, we arrived fairly early and enjoyed some great snow and clear weather.

The resort hasn’t had a lot of snow this year, so the top part of the mountain was closed. Most of the open runs had the man-made snow, and were really nice until the early afternoon. By then it had gotten a little crowded, so we stopped skiing with the agreement that we were going to be at the resort when the lifts opened the next day.

The next day, we arrived and found the snow falling sideways due to the wind. I told myself that I was just being a wimp, and we got on the chairlift that would take us to the next set of lifts. It was then that we saw this:

The chairlift we rode was the only one open on the entire mountain. Luckily, there were a few poma lifts open, so we headed over to ski on the two runs accessible.

To get there, we had to take this crazy traverse run through the woods.

Of course, they don’t make any snow on this run, so it soon turned into rock skiing. (Good thing we had rentals!)

Even the poma lift was looking pretty sad. It was a challenge to negotiate the bumps and avoid the trees.

But only the way up was bad – going down was great!

Even with the bad weather, we still had a lot of fun, and we’re considering going back next year. Hopefully there’ll be more snow!

Dresden and Karlovy Vary

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:21:00 -0600

Only three weeks after Christmas break ended, the university hit the three-week exam period. However, neither of us had exams to take/give, so we had some vacation time. Which means more traveling, and therefore more blogging. Since I have a whole free week before work resumes, I’m going to try to knock out all our adventures. Consider yourself warned!

We needed to take care of some admin stuff at the Army base, so the first trip was based around Grafenwöhr. But since we didn’t need to be there until the end of the week, we had a few days to visit other cities in that part of the world.

First stop – Dresden. I didn’t really know what to expect, since all I know about it was that it was destroyed in WWII. But I was pleasantly surprised to find not only impressive looking churches, but the Disneyworld-ish, recently reconstructed, freshly-painted buildings around the main square.

We ate dinner in a cool, 17^th century (best guess) theme restaurant that featured spears on the walls as well as suckling pig on the menu. In addition to the crazy décor, they also had entertainers roaming the room. We spotted one lady in period dress as she was sitting at another table and talking the patrons. As she approached our table, we agreed that we would start speaking in Polish instead of English so she wouldn’t be tempted to sit with us.

She stopped to talk to the table next to ours (in German) and suddenly turns to us, mid-sentence, and says “Polski?!?” Turns out she is originally from Gdańsk and moved to Dresden many years ago. During our lovely conversation, she also revealed that she doesn’t speak English. Great.

The next stop on our trip was a couple of nights in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. This is where the “Montenegro” scenes from Casino Royale were filmed, as well as the Queen Latifah version of Last Holiday.

Karlovy Vary is a spa town which boasts “healing” thermal springs. You can walk around and get water from the various fountains, which is especially “healing” after you have consulted with a “doctor” and developed a “regimen” that can last over a week or more. There was a vibe that this was the place where rich people go to escape for a while. I would not have been surprised to see Tiger Woods walking down the street.

One of the most surprising things for us was the prolific use of Russian. Throughout our travels in former Soviet Bloc countries, we have not seen a lot of Russian – it is always a third or forth choice behind English and German. But apparently, there is plenty of “legitimate” business financing coming from Russia, as well as a lot of tourists. There were some signs only in Russian.

A neat Orthodox church

The tour of the Moser Glassworks was definitely one of our favorite parts. The museum has many beautiful pieces, as well as videos that illustrate the history of the company.

We then toured the actual factory, where the 10 teams of glass blowers create all kinds of beautiful crystal glasses, vases, bowls, and candlesticks. On a cold day, the factory was pleasantly warm. However, the guide told us that in the summer it can reach 140°F!

Here you can kind of see how they have 3 man teams plus their helper.

When you buy your tickets for the tour, they give you a coupon for their factory store. I forget how much it was, but it was analogous to getting a $1-off coupon for Tiffany’s. The pictures of royalty and movie stars on the walls should have been a hint that this was out of our price range.

We wanted to visit the Becherovka Museum, but the schedule didn’t work out. So I had to settle for a photo with one of the giant replica bottles. For the uninitiated, Becherovka is a liquor traditional to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Like everything else in Karlovy Vary, it’s supposed to be healthy. That’s why I drink it, anyway.

So what does it taste like? We heard one aficionado describe it “like cinnamon-flavored kerosene, only worse.” Really, it’s pretty good. And healthy.

After Karlovy Vary, we headed to Graf for a few days. Of course, we stocked up on peanut butter and Levi’s, as well as getting things for other people back in Poland – I bought 12 lbs of brown sugar.

The worst part of the trip was the very end. The Autobahn sure makes driving easy, unless you’re stuck behind the snowplows. Because they’re driving only 30 mph. Not fun at all.

Migrant Labor

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:20:00 -0600

The other big news for this month was that I finally got my karta pobytu! No deportation for me!!!

What appeared to be a basic bureaucratic process turned into a six month odyssey involving complex tasks, like finding gainful employment and registering with the Polish Social Security.

I’m hoping that this whole process will be easier the second time around. Too bad that’s only six months from now…