Poland

I have to admit that both Steven and I were disappointed when our plans to visit Iceland had to be shelved and Poland became our new destination. In my mind, Poland was, at best, a transit country, a grey, postwar, communist-influenced old world place we simply had to travel through to get somewhere else.

If ever there was an example of why travel is so beneficial, this is it. I don’t know where my preconceived ideas of Poland came from, but in all my planning I never took the time to actually learn anything about the country that might dispel how I perceived it.

I didn’t expect such beautiful architecture in Gdańsk but it makes sense when you learn the city was blown to smithereens during World War II. I wasn’t sure what to expect with regard to Polish food, but given the history here, there are influences from all over Europe. You can’t beat a good Polish sausage, a hot bowl of Zurek, a delicious soup made with rye bread starter, or a plate of big fat pierogi stuffed with spiced meat or veggies.

More than anything, we have found the people of Poland to be extraordinarily friendly and welcoming. Most are surprised to find two traveling Americans in their midst, and they are so happy we are here. One thing that never ceases to amaze us is when the general population of a country speaks English. We found this to be true in Portugal and, here in Poland, most people are multilingual. When we ask a local, “Do you speak English?”, the standard answer is “Of course!”.

It may have taken a global pandemic to slow down our travels in such a way that it became necessary for us to spend a month or so in Poland, but we are so glad that we have had this opportunity. What a wonderful gift it has been for our travels!

We crossed into Poland from Germany with no issues, in fact, there was no border to speak of so we rolled right in. We had had a long travel day and were looking forward to getting to our campsite and settling in for happy hour. But of course, it didn’t work out that way. Our exit was closed due to construction and there were no detour signs at all. We have since found this to be quite typical in Poland and it makes traveling here a real challenge. The highways are awesome, though, as long as they are not under construction.

Another challenge has been that the Polish language is impossible for us to understand, or even speak. As a Texan, I can stretch and bastardize words, twist them up and spit them out in ways that will make your head spin, it’s like one of my superpowers. But there is no amount of verbal acrobatics that will allow me to form Polish words. My mouth just doesn’t work that way. Plus, 26 letters were not enough for the Polish, they had to add wingdings to their letters to give them a whole other sound. Take, for example, Łódź. Unless you are familiar with how Slavic languages work, in a million years you would never figure out how to pronounce Łódź. You see that little lightning strike through the ‘L’? That turns it into a “woo” sound. So the correct way to say Łódź is “Woodge.” All the towns are like that so we literally couldn’t tell you what town we were in at any given time. Thank goodness for Warsaw. Six letters, no wingdings. What you see is what you get. Of course, that’s the English version.

Anyway, we finally found our campground in the town of Szczecin (shcheh-cheen) which was lovely and peaceful and the restaurant was open. This site was also at a marina with lots of waterfowl for us to engage with. We spent our evenings watching the sunsets, the sailboats returning to port and the cormorants making their way back to their rookery which was just across the way. It was a lovely stop and a nice introduction to Poland. Oh, and we had a fox in the campground!

We said our goodbyes to Szczecin and made one stop on our way to Gdańsk, Camping Alexa, which was on the northeast coast of the Baltic Sea in a little seaside resort called Chłapowo. It was clear this little town was a popular place but they weren’t quite ready for prime time when we were there. Still, there was lots of activity, stores were stocking up, the Lody (ice cream) trucks were getting ready to open and folks were beginning to arrive at the beaches. Steven and I did lots of walking and bike riding. In fact, there was a spit at the edge of town that was very reminiscent of the Dungeness spit in Washington state and the Homer spit in Alaska. We figured we’d ride our bikes to the end because Steven had determined it was only three or four kilometers long. Turned out to be 80 kilometers roundtrip so obviously we gave up after a while and stopped at a nice place to nosh on a plate of mussels, fish and chips. Just lovely.

Our next stop was Gdańsk, which so far is my favorite city in Poland. It is purported to be one of the most bike-friendly cities in all of Europe, but we never got the chance to find out. That’s because we parked up at a marina that was just a few hundred yards from all the action. I’m not sure what the numbers are like for the coronavirus here, but Poland is open for business. Shops, restaurants, tours, museums, you name it, all are open and ready for visitors. Needless to say, we took full advantage of it and over the next four days we ate out for nearly every meal, took a walking tour to learn about the city and rode the giant Ferris wheel. The weather was mostly sunny, so we walked and explored the city every day. It felt like we were rarely home, which is certainly a big change from being in lockdown.

Poland, particularly in the north, is famous for its amber that comes from a giant vein in the Baltic Sea that stretches all the way to Russia. Amber Alley (as I like to call it) is considered one of the most beautiful streets in all of Gdańsk and we made several trips there. Along with my addiction to dishes, I also have a weird obsession with long-handled teaspoons. They are hard to find in Europe, probably because Europeans don’t typically drink iced tea. We came across a shop with gorgeous spoons with amber handles, so of course I had to snatch those right up! Steven bought me a beautiful pair of earrings and a necklace to match. Honestly, a girl could get spoiled in Gdańsk.

From Gdańsk we made our way to Oświęcim, which you will likely know as Auschwitz. I’m actually going to cover this stop in our next post, because it deserves more space that I can give it here. It would just make this post too long, so I’m going to skip ahead.

On our way south we overnighted at a truck stop in Łódź, which not only has a weird name, but also, you may recall, is home to world-famous bra factories where once it was possible to get a fitting and custom made bra or buy one already made. Alas, this is no longer the case as coronavirus has apparently shut down this service and according to the email I received to my appointment inquiry, possibly for good. But never fear, we cracked on to Kraków and in the Jewish Quarter we found the “Brafitteria”. How perfect is that name? We made plans to visit.

We arrived at Brafitteria the day after we got settled into a lovely campsite called Camping Adam, just 15 minutes to the center of town by bike. The store opened at 10:00 a.m. and I was hoping I’d be the first customer of the day, which happily turned out to be the case. The fitter did not speak English (a rarity!) but she was so kind and helpful. She used Google translate and I would tell Steven my reply and he’d type it into his phone. She must have brought me 1,000 bras to try and it began to get overwhelming with communication not being optimal. So finally she mentioned that her coworker did speak English and she would be in the shop the next day. So I thanked her profusely, made a pledge to return and then left.

As it turns out I had scheduled a few spa services just around the corner for the next day, so I figured I’d just pop in after some pampering and maybe I’d be in a better frame of mind to get on with this bra fitting thing. After a few hours at the spa, I returned to Brafitteria to find two fitters behind the counter. They knew I was coming and made a big fuss over me when I arrived, and then we got right to work. After a re-measure and a chat about what I was looking for, the new fitter quickly began filling the dressing room with so many bras I couldn’t possibly try them all on. She would hand me one and hang six more on the hook, then when I was ready for inspection, she would come in and with her white-gloved hands, tuck a little here, push a little there, then stand back to look me over and say, “I don’t like.” Then off she’d go in a whirlwind of activity until she arrived with a fresh batch for my trying on pleasure.

I had learned the previous day about the Polish method of swooping. “Because if you don’t, “the mountain” will not top the soft material.” This, a direct translation from Google. I got the message, but it was a completely unnatural movement for me. By day two, though, I had it down pat. Take your hand under your arm, through the bra, bend forward slightly, reach around all the way to your back and pull everything sort of forward and up. Then let go. Give a little tug in the back and a little pull up on the top of the straps in front and everything falls into place. The mountain has reached the top and the right bra really does fit like a freaking tattoo.

But just because you can get a great fit doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right bra for you. I tried one that I absolutely loved, it fit great and it felt good. Then I put on my shirt and it looked utterly ridiculous. We both laughed. I guess it would be the perfect bra for me if I intended to walk around shirtless, but since I can’t see that happening, I handed it back to the fitter. On and on it went until I found exactly what I was looking for.

I can’t lie, though, when I got dressed and put on my old bra, it was like Old Yeller, so damn comfy. Still, I wasn’t leaving without some merch, so I bought two bras and called it a day. We returned the next morning to get another, and all the matching undies, too. So I am set for a while and thrilled that my long-awaited trip to the Mecca of Bras paid off.

A quick word about measuring for the ladies. I was measured under “the girls”, like around the upper ribcage. The goal is to properly size the band and then work on the cup size as you try things on. None of the bras I purchased are the same size, because each manufacturer has their own template for what a ‘C’ or ‘D’ looks like. So measure your body, not your boobs, and go from there. And don’t forget the Polish Swoop!

Kraków turned out to offer some terrific retail therapy, but lest you think I was the only one shopping, we visited the Galeria Krakowska shopping mall where Steven got his spring/summer wardrobe refreshed at H&M.

Aside from shopping we spent a ton of time out and about in Kraków, once again taking a wonderful two and a half hour walking tour of the city with a company called walkative.com. Best of all, it was free (with a voluntary tip at the end). These free walking tours are really fabulous and are usually the first thing we try to schedule when we arrive in a new city. The first one we did was in Amsterdam and we really enjoyed it. We have done more tours in the past three weeks than we have in a year and it’s great to be able to learn about the history of a place this way.

We have now moved on to Warsaw where we are staying for a few days. From there, we will be on a mission to liberate our new credit cards from a man in Vilnius, Lithuania. Our credit card company contacted us to let us know that they were concerned to find that two cards had been used on our account (1.Steven. 2. Me.) and just to be safe, they had cancelled our cards and reissued new ones which were promptly be sent to our address in Florida, thus leaving us without a working credit card. Well, we have another one, we just don’t want to use it and pay extortionate fees for the privilege of using it in Europe. What to do….. I contacted my friend Donna in California, whose husband is from Lithuania, and he contacted a friend in Vilnius who was happy to receive the cards on our behalf. We have received word that the package has arrived and now this kind gentleman awaits our arrival in Vilnius where we will retrieve them. Problem solved. Thank you to Donna and Gintas for your help!

As you can see we have really been enjoying ourselves in Poland, and being able to take tours and enjoy meals out has been wonderful. We realized pretty quickly, though, during the on and off Covid lockdowns we have experienced that we have picked up some unhealthy habits, not the least of which is the amount of time we spend on our devices. When you sit four feet from each other all day, both of you staring at phones or computers, it’s easy to think you are spending time together and communicating when actually you are doing the opposite. When you don’t have any structure in your day nothing really gets done including things you really like and want to do. It’s easy to stay up late watching Ozark on Netflix thinking you’ll go to bed after a season finale only to decide you just have to find out how the next one starts, then you’re grumpy the next day because of lack of sleep. Many days when 7 p.m. rolls around and you still haven’t had dinner, you ask yourself, is that the time??

All this is to say we have had to do a bit of a re-focus on our priorities and make some changes. Steven purchased a watch for the first time in decades so that he isn’t relying on his phone to know the time. I haven’t done that yet, because I’m not sure I can stand having it on my wrist, but I might eventually try it. I’m more likely to ask him the time, as I usually do even if my cell phone is sitting right in front of me. I have been keeping my phone in my backpack when we are out and about so I’m not tempted to constantly check it. I now get a weekly email to tell me how much screen time I’ve had on a daily basis, and wow, that’s an eye-opener. I’m happy to report that this week I was down 59 percent. And funny enough, I didn’t miss a damn thing.

And speaking of Steven, he is continuing with his drawing studies and is making some nice progress. Here are a couple of examples of his latest work.

As mentioned previously, Steven has also created a page on Facebook and would like to invite any of you who may be interested in his progress to follow his page. Click this link to get there.

NEXT UP: Auschwitz-Berkinau

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