Saturday, July 19, 2008

Moving onto Reymontowka

On Thursday afternoon in Torun, I went to the planetarium for the Macrocosmos show. It was wonderful. I got earphones so I could hear the naration in English. I didn't realize that astronony has grown and changed so much.

On Thursday evening I went to the Petite Fleur restaurant for the evening meal. I wasn't very hungry so I had the lobster chowder and sabayon for dessert. Both were wonderful. What made the evening memorable was that the electricity went out for about 20 minutes, and in a basement restaurant we really did dine by candlelight. Good thing they had been lit before all this happened. When I walked out of the restaurant I found the sun shining at last, so I went back and took a number of pictures, this time in sunshine.

On Friday morning I went to a salon for a manicure. Hey! that is a cultural experience too. Afterwards I got some ice cream and then a sandwich to keep my tummy full for awhile. I went back to the hotel, picked up my luggage and then took a taxi to the train station. My ticket for traveling 237 kilometers cost only 1 zloty more than the manicure. At the Warsaw train station, the escalator up from the platform area was not working. I hate walking up escalors because the rise of the steps is always too high for this short-legged person. I has wandered up three steps when a railroad maintenance worker came along and grabbed my suitcase and carried it up for me.

At Warsaw I got a taxi to the Airport Okecie Hotel, successfully avoiding the rogue taxi drivers. The hotel is such a blend of American and Polish ways of doing things that I kept forgetting where I was.

I left for the Warsaw airport about 8 AM and got organized to meet the incoming volunteers while Dorota was flying up from Krakow. Our team of 5 women plus Dorota left the airport about 12:30 and we arrived at Reymontowka about 2 PM. We were met with the usual ritual of bread and salt, but this time also with homemade vodka.

We had obiad and then did a tour of the grounds. This evening will be lively, for there is a big wedding reception here. Maybe more about that later.

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