Well, friends, I am back and not too much worse for wear. We love visiting Poland, but it always becomes clear quickly that we are very spoiled, and we miss our luxuries. We all had our own hang-ups. My son survived on dried sausage and strawberries...he hated every single piece of food that was Polish in nature (what the hey?!). My daughter officially lost her mind halfway through the trip by her lack of understanding the language, and the grandparents constantly chatting with her like she did. I never did catch up with laundry, with the lack of clothes dryers. However, we had some wonderful adventures, and is precious to spend time with our family.
I boarded the plane two and a half weeks ago loaded for bear. I was ready to go on an official reading rampage. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the rampage I'd hoped it would be. I shouldn't be surprised I guess. But I did finish and write reviews for the following books:
* Sashenka - Simon Montefiore
* Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan
* When Katie Wakes: A Memoir - Connie May Fowler
* Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl
* The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
Posts to follow in the next week or so!
I have hundreds of pictures from the trip. I've been tossing around the idea of posting these pictures via my Wordless Wednesdays over the next few months, probably with more explanation than a "wordless" post would have.
Here is another very exciting project that I'm undertaking, and I'd like your opinion. My husband was able to get his hands on a diary written by his grandfather. It is written in Polish and requires translation and interpretation. My husband and I have started on this already, and is absolutely fascinating. The diary was kept while his grandfather was fighting in WWI for the Tzarist forces (he was forcibly recruited), then participated in the Bolshevik Revolution. Amazing stuff. I am thinking of posting the translated diary in segments on my blog. Would you be interested in reading this?
Besides the highs and lows of Poland that I've already listed for you over the past weeks, I have a few more observations that I wanted to share with you...
1. Polish drivers are rude as hell. Maybe they don't pull out guns and blow you away in fits of road rage like they do here, but I don't think they have ever heard of stopping and letting you into the traffic, and would be happy to cut you off and run you off the road.
2. The Poles have a deep love for flowers. There's a flower shop every block or two. Really. I looked. And they stay in business. The average person keeps fresh flowers in display in their homes.
3. The Polish people honor and remember their deceased loved ones. Not that we don't. But when you drive by cemeteries, some miles wide, nearly 75% or more of them have fresh flowers and candles on them. It is an incredible sight.
4. The mega stores have moved in. The Polish version of Sams, Costco, Home Depot, Circuit City (a profitable one) are all popping up on the outskirts of the bigger towns. IKEA has been over there for years. No Wal Mart moving into the smaller towns putting mom & pops out of business yet, though.
5. Ice cream-eating is a national pastime. There are as many ice cream shops in Poland as there are flower shops.
6. Twenty years after the fact, Poland is still struggling to recover from the effects of communism. Neglected transportation systems, roads, butt-ugly architecture, those nasty pay toilets...they are all leftovers. They are slowly trying to rebuild and mend the problems, but is very slow.
7. I noticed not alot of book love going on. Not many bookshops, not very many people sitting and reading.
8. Polish people, and most likely Europeans in general, are very fit as a whole. You don't see the excessive fitness "mania" you have here, but everyone walks wherever they go. Gas is expensive and the traffic is a nightmare. It is the better option. When we visited a medieval castle, we noticed a large tour group of retirees, all over 80 most likely, that were hiking up steps to the top like they were my age. You likely wouldn't see that over here. Also, when we arrived at national park, intending to hitch a ride on horse-pulled wagons to the top of a mountain, we learned that the roads had been washed out, and would need to walk the entire way. This amounted to about 6 miles up and 6 miles back. It didn't stop anybody, including my 72-year-old mother-in-law.
9. They have bad toilet paper, paper towls and napkins. This isn't a Nawrot problem, it is a national crisis. I don't understand it. Can't they import Bounty?
10. We discovered the latest craze in Poland...line parks. You wear mountain-climbing gear with various clips and ropes, and you climb up obstacles to high places and scale lines, swinging ropes, etc to get from one tree to another. It is an absolute BALL, and they were everywhere. I'm thinking they will never make it over here, to the land of liability, insurance and lawyers.
11. The Poles have awesome gas stations, at least the Polish-owned chain "Orlen". (We chose not to give our business to the Russian ones.) They are so clean you could eat off the floors, they have attendants that clean the pumps in their spare time, they upsell snacks and windshield liquid, they have kids play areas, and respectable restaurants that serve their food on china.
12. Bathing and washing clothes are a real pain in the neck. It explains why the average Polish person is just a tad bit stinky on certain days. I found myself sympathizing with their plight.
13. The women have really bad dye jobs. Are they doing it themselves? I see alot of hair salons, so I'm not sure. I started to play a little game with myself called "spot the good dye job". I never found one.
14. In general, things are still cheaper in Poland. In a moment of weakness and the need for a potty break, we stopped at a McDonalds, and the four of us ate for $12. The average meal out for 6 was $50. Not bad.
Thank you all for bearing with me in my struggles to publish daily posts. It all worked out, and I've been reunited with the object of my addiction...
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