Oh,
Friday was interesting, or at least the first part of it was. Ya see, I slept
in a bit, a few people left for the weekend to London, and yeah… I just relaxed
at home… for the first part. I packed for my weekend, and then, as I’m talking
to a friend, I realize, oh crap, my tram to the train station leaves in… 3
minutes. I still had to finish some packing. So I pack, rush out of the
apartment, down the stairs, run down part of the street to get closer to the
tram stop as I see the tram at the turn before the stop. There’s a red light
for the crosswalk. Oh, if only jay-walking were more of a norm in Kraków…
Finally, it turns green and I dash my
way to the tram. I barely get onto the tram in time, and I continuously look at
my watch nervously. I have less than 20 minutes to the train, and I don’t have
a ticket (smart, right?).
I get
off the tram, walk quickly toward the train station, I wonder if I’m going to
make it. Keep wondering. I think I have five extra minutes time I really don’t
have. I become panicky as I wait in the line for the ATM, because the amount of
people waiting for the ticket stands is outrageous.
Fine, I decided to buy a ticket on the train, except… I don’t really have
money. Crap. Finally, I walk past the
sign, grateful that the sign told me the city I need to get to, because it’s
actually one of the stop cities for the tram to Oświęcim. (Sheer. Luck.) I see
people running, so I start running and looking at my watch. I get to the
platform, look at one of the tracks and see it’s not the train I need. Look to
the other side after a moment of pause and heartbreak, and I see my train! I
RUN toward it, and… the very last door
shuts. At that moment, I look up as if beginning hopelessly, and the DOORS
OPEN! HOORAH!!!! I hop on the train, doors close, two ladies run up, and the
doors open again for them. We’re all panting and laughing with joy that we get
onto the train in time, and that the conductor noticed us. You see, we all got
on the very last wagon, and they
still saw us hoping to get on.
Honestly,
there is nothing else to say but luck was actually on my side. I walk through
the entire train to get to the conductor for my ticket, and he questions why I
came on so last minute. But hey, whatever, I’m there, heading to my mom’s
brother’s wife’s brother’s house! I’ll say uncle for short. :P I arrive in
Trzebinia, and we drive through Chrżanów, a bigger city he sort of wanted to
let me glimpse at, to get to his city, Libiąż. We get some pizza since he
didn’t have time to make obiad for
us, and ya know what. That pizza was really good.
After
we grab the pizza, we head on home, and as we pull up, I get really excited,
because I actually recognized it! You see, I was here last time in ’05, during
my big trip to Poland all alone. This is one of those places I actually had a clear memory of, but I really never
could put an actual connection with it. It was just one of those images I had,
but I didn’t know why or where or who, but when we drove up, I immediately
recognized it. It was such a wonderful feeling, actually. (: I mean, I completely
remember their apartment. My niece, Małgosia, their son, Kacper, and I all
watched one of the Spider Man movies together, and we all hung out and what
not. (She was 4, he was 8, and I was 13.) So yeah, really, we just relax at
home for a while and catch up. His wife comes up, and we catch up as well. We,
of course, talk about the comparisons America and Poland. This is quite the
normal beginning, or forever conversation topic, haha. But it was really nice,
actually. It’s always an interesting conversation.
However,
for the evening, we decided to go swimming! I’m just gonna say, I was far from
prepared… Every other weekend, I have taken my swimsuit, but it never came in
use. And this weekend, I didn’t! Argh! But Gosia (his wife) lent me one. So we
went to the indoor pool in their town! Goodness, it was pretty awesome, though,
considering I haven’t swam in forever. So the pool has its normal lanes for
swimmers, it has just a chillaxin’ sort of swim pool, it has a friggin’ water
slide, which was a ton of fun! It also has Jacuzzis, and then some sort of
heavy pressure shower things to give you a wonderful back massage. Really, it
was such a fun evening. All I can say is I’m really glad I went, and it made me
realize I have a lot more confidence in myself than I once had. So overall,
just a wonderful evening. We came home, had dinner, and went to bed, really.
Btw,
they have this absolutely precious dog, Mika. Goodness gracious, she will never
quit whining for more food, but she’s too cute. Sometimes, when you stop
petting her, she comes over and nudges at your hand to be further spoiled. But
aside from that tangent, let’s focus on this Saturday. When we got up and were
all ready for the morning, my wujek
Wojtek and I headed out to town. He drove around Libiąż and gave me a mini tour
of the town. Small town, has about the same population as Maryville, actually,
and they have everything that’s needed. It has a coal mine in town, actually.
We drove further out, where we visited a Skansen,
which is sort of like an old timey settlement, sort of like Cades Cove,
actually, but they have all of the buildings faaaar closer together. A lot of
the styles of living are actually really similar, and I never really knew that
log cabins really were a method of living in Poland. I don’t know why, cause
that seems a bit silly in retrospect, but I guess I have grown so used to it as
being the “American old settler” life style or whatever, that it was a bit
different to see it in Poland. Oh! One of the log cabins had a ton of
paraphernalia from religious beliefs, such as Poland’s old paganism, which was
still active even in the 1800s, evidently. The house was half pagan stuff, and half
Catholic. Really interesting mix, and actually something I’ve never really
learned about Poland. I’ll have to look into Poland’s pre-Catholic beliefs at
some point.
In this
skansen, there was a wooden church
from ohh, I don’t know when. It couldn’t be too old if it’s still standing, but
it was beautifully designed. I noticed they actually used a lot of blue for the
buildings and their statues or bee hives, which I found quite odd. I don’t
know, I never really considered such log cabin style settlements to have blue
in their choice of paints. Also silly, but it’s one of those things I’ve never
run into. The interior of the church was very very pretty, although, no good
pictures from it unfortunately.
We also
went to a szlachta’s house.
Basically, upper class house from the late 1800s, early 1900s, and yes, it had
the same style like many American houses. Or it’s more likely that the American
houses had the same style as it. Regardless, it was rather nice walking through
such a different atmosphere in Poland. For instance, we could’ve gone to visit
the ruins of a castle, but it required a bit of a climb, and I had the most
inappropriate shoes on for such a climb (oh, Birkenstocks…).
Instead, we headed onto another place, where there was a dinosaur themepark, with those big, life-sized dinosaur models all around the park and move! Yes, this was my uncle's suggestion. Yes... it is more for kids. I don't care. I LOVED the idea. Unfortunately, when we drove up, we realized it was closed. Damn you end of season, no tourists time. Instead, we drove around the back to walk to the river a bit instead. It was a pleasant little walk, actually. The river landscape was gorgeous, despite how low it was. All of the rocks on the shore was amazing, and in fact, as you walked, you sort of sunk in the sandy/rocky terrain. Super cool. But that's when we decided to head back home. We had a nice obiad at home and chillaxed there for a while. Ya know, great for lots of conversations and what not. Plus I was a bit tired. Although, eventually we headed out again.
We drove to Katowice, which I've never been to. We left around 5, and it was pitch black. But yes, we drove there so that Kacper, their son, could find some boxing gloves he needed. We went into one sportsy store, very expensive, and while Gosia and I are waiting, we sit down in front of the tennis shoes. We're chatting a bit when I realize that there is a pair of tennis shoes in front of me for 19.99. Złoty. My friends. That is less than 7 dollars. I mean, they were the store brand, but what was even more mind blowing? They had my size. 35! (Being a 5 in the States.) They had my size, for such a wonderful deal, oh goodness gracious, I'd be damned if I didn't get them. My last true tennis shoes are from at least the end of 7th grade, if not even earlier... (Yes, I never grow. Shut up.)
So we walked out of the store. I had a pair of new shoes, and Kacper had nothing. Instead, we drove to the mall. Now, here I will just say this. When Poland does something, they do it right. They go all the way. None of this half-assery stuff. I have been in many malls in Poland, and all of them have been at least two levels, if not three, ginormous, loaded with options, beautifully designed, inside and outside. In fact, as we pulled up to this mall, I was a bit confused and wondered if it was a stadium. Honestly. Absolutely magnificent. Plus, the Christmas lights were up, inside and out. What's even more mind-blowing? Their halls had street names. Oh, that's right. So if you get lost, or need to find a store, you just look at what street it is on. None of this: It's supposedly in this sector A, but god knows if we are in sector A without a map. It's absolutely GENIUS!
In the mall, Kacper managed to get his gloves. I also managed to get some ice cream: raspberry and hazelnut, if I remember correctly. And that's when his parents went to Tesco to take care of some things, and Kacper and I sat in the food court, waiting. Honestly, it was a little awkward. The last time we saw each other was when he was 8. Now he's 15, and I can't blame him for being a bit shy and awkward. His dad even admitted he's likely a bit embarrassed, because it's just a weird age and time gap, really. We talked a bit. He's into sports, and I managed to talk to him about programming for a bit. Hoorah for being a computer nerd!!! Although, that's when his parents came back, and that's when we got... KFC. First time I have EVER had KFC... And if it was like it was here, in Poland... then I don't want to try it in the States... It was overly spiced and greasy... (Yes, unAmerican, I am. First time to have KFC ever was in Poland, and I dislike it. Ohhhhh, how horrible I am.)
From there, though, we headed on home, again. Because we ate at the mall, we really didn't have a kolacje and just watched some TV and talked for a bit. I ended up staying up a bit later to finish watching some American movie which I don't even know the title of in Polish or in English. I just watched it; it was a chick flick, and rather good, actually. Although, after waking up from an incredibly bizarre dream this morning, I've determined I should not watch any sort of movie before I go to sleep. Really.
This morning was relaxing. We just sat around and watched the winter sports, Cross Country World Cup. Poland didn't do so well... Norway bombed everyone, though. Seriously. I'm not surprised, but they pwned. That was it for the morning. Eventually, Wojtek drove me to the train station, where I hopped onto the train to Kraków, bought my ticket, and took it back to the city. Really, I greatly enjoyed my weekend. It was relaxing, but very nice and refreshing.
I came back to Kraków in the early afternoon, and I didn't hang out in the apartment too much before we went out to meet up with our Resident Director. He just got back from the States! He loved his visit; he was there for two weeks, and yeah. He's probably going to go back at some point. I'm just glad he enjoyed it. It was just Monika, Nate, and I, because the others were gone for the weekend. We went to MOCAK, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków. ... I'm just going to say that these kind of museums make me wonder what in the world defines art... Whenever you can throw paint onto a canvas, and that is classified as art, and you make god-knows how much money on it, wellllll, I'll be honest, that hurts me. I draw a lot, I enjoy art, I've sculpted, all sorts of things. It physically hurts me and makes me wonder why can certain doodles make it, and others can't? If they're literally just doodles, then why... why do they make it? But alas, it's nothing I can change. The first half of the museum greatly saddened me. It was all sorts of weird pictures, of a man putting a bass over his penis, tearing himself apart, imitating self-harm in the most awkward ways, mutilating a dead lamb, and then lots of fish, or a chicken... ... Damnit, that could've been used as food for someone! That all could've fed some people. Instead, it was wasted. And that's art. The second half was indeed far more satisfying. Not the entire thing, but a lot of it.
When we were all done, we went back to the apartment, said good bye with our RD, and then prepped a frozen pizza. It was quite yummy, actually; had a great variety of tastes. We had some ice cream as well, summer fruits, and then Monika and Nate kept trying to get me to have shots. At this point, everyone's convinced to try and (with consent) get me drunk, to see how I act. I won't allow it, of course, but it'll be an ongoing joke and serious attempt. Somehow, it's always me that ends up being labeled the drunk... they joked I always had a flask on me and everything. I most certainly don't mind, but I find it absolutely amusing. I understand why, as well, considering I'm so adamantly opposed to drinking myself, but don't mind others, and in fact, sometimes encourage others.
So that was it for the day. The rest of the evening, I ended up Skyping with Bianca for the first time in forever, with Frances, and catching up with friends. It was really really nice, actually. Although, it's nearly 4, and I honestly should go to bed. So, dobra noc!
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