Two Busy Days in Europe

Wednesday, March 31 -- I had a very nice breakfast at the B&B, taking care to greet others in Polish and ask for things from the table in Polish only to discover they were all German speakers. I never know what language to speak at that breakfast table!

After breakfast I headed to the nearby train station to buy my ticket for later in the day. I thought I was a pro at this by now, but the clerk needed more information from me than simply where I wanted to go and on what day. I couldn't understand the question in Polish and she even tried to write it out for me -- w czy pow -- that didn't help. Finally she said godzina and I gave her a time of one of the trains that would work and she produced a ticket for me. However, I couldn't buy my return ticket because I didn't know what time I would be returning. I was mystified by this.

Then I set out for walk in Warsaw.

Spring has definitely arrived. It has been a long time since I walked all the way down to the Old Town. I found many things that are either new or things I have forgotten about from other years. It was fun, too, to see Warsaw at a different time of year. I've been here many times in the heat of summer, so it was nice to walk in cooler weather.

It is the year of Chopin in Poland and one sees many signs of this.

I stopped for refreshments at Blikle. This was the first time I've been inside the cafe; today the sidewalk cafe was still missing.

Finally got all the way up to the Zamek. This area looks beautiful in the spring sun.

I had a lunch of pierogies. I got as far as asking for pierogies z kapusta and the waiter interruped me saying, "I speak English. Pierogies with cabbage and mushrooms?" Well, I tried! And this photo is definite proof that I was in Poland.

On the way back I encountered one of the outdoor history displays that I frequently find in Warsaw. This one concerned the Ulma family that lived in very southeast Poland in the 1930s. The display included their wedding picture, farming pictures, correspondence that showed that both the husband and wife continued education after their marriage -- interesting stuff. Then comes the sadness. The entire family was executed, even all their children, because they sheltered Jewish people during World War II.

Especially touching is the photo of Jozef Ulma's Bible. He has underlined the words about justice and mercy.

The family has been recognized by the Israeli government as part of the Righteous People, and they have been beatified by the Catholic Church.

Later in the afternoon I met Ania from Cisie for coffee. She is now studying for her master's degree in Warsaw. I met Ania the first time in the spring of 2004. It is so much fun to watch these young people grow up and become so successful.

Then I used my train ticket to go to the Ursus station to meet my very first student, Bartek. He and his wife along with their brand new son and the dog were waiting for me. We went first for ice cream and then went to their nearby flat for a great visit. The little boy is heart-stealer. He is just 3 months old so his best trick now is a smiling! I came away with a nice photo of him that they had prepared for me.

About 8:00 PM Bartek, the dog and I headed back to the train station. More fun with the trains. Ania had explained that recently the train system had been broken into several companies and now one has to have a ticket to match the train company. I planned to take the 8:17 so we went to the regular kasa to buy the ticket. The clerk said that train had just left the station and we had to go outside and use a machine to buy a ticket to ride the next train for it was operated as SKM not KM. So we got that ticket and then the KM train came anyway! But I waited for the SKM and found with this train, one also has to validate the ticket when boarding the train. With KM there is a conductor. This is going to make train riding quite an experience for visitors. I think Warsaw will have to sort this out better before the mammoth crowds associated with Europ 2012.

Thursday, April 1 -- A day full of surprises, but not the usual April Fool's activities

I had a taxi booked for 6:30 and when I went down at 6:20 it was already there, so I got to the airport in plenty of time. When I arrived the check-in desk for the MALEV had not yet been assigned, so I went to get a coffee. A few minutes later I looked up and the check-in desk for my flight was right in front of the coffee shop, so I got the boarding pass and checked my bag. I continued to drink coffee and read a book and after about 20 minutes decided to do the security thing. My carry on bag got searched quite thoroughly, but I could understand why. I had some of my computer cords in there, plus the UBS cord for the camera. All those cords could have looked suspicious.

I wandered around the shops and then finally went to the gate. It was cool there -- and that's when I remembered that my coat was still on a chair in the coffee shop. I doubled checked my bag and found everything valuable was with me and not in a coat pocket. I really didn't want to tackle going backward through security, so eventually I suppose the coat will end up in a charity box in Warsaw.

The flight was uneventful and the shuttle driver was waiting for me. I could see there were other passengers, but was definitely surprised to find out it was six guys from Finland coming to Pecs for vacation. One asked if I spoke English. Later he asked me to ask the driver for the temperature and I told him my Hungarian wasn't that good. That's when they discovered I wasn't Hungarian. So here I am with 7 guys in a van driving a foreign country. Maybe this is why my daughter says she worries about me sometimes!

We were only a very short distance out of Budapest when they wished to stop. In Hungarian there is a rest stop area associated with gas stations along the freeway/autobahn. The shuttle service has a rule that no food or drink is allowed in the vehicles other than water. Thus I was surprised to see the guys coming out of the store with lots of beer and alcohol flavored sodas. Don't ever let anyone say women talk a lot. Spend three hours in a van with six guys from Finland -- they were talking all the time, and asking the driver to first turn the music up and the turn the music down.

Only about 30 kilometers from Pecs they made a request for a toilet. That's when the driver discovered they had been drinking. I guess I'm glad his attention was so much on driving. He talked to them quite sternly. I think the guys did something too when they went into the gas station to use the toilet. People in the gas station came out to talk to talk to the driver.

At last we got to Pecs and then to my surprise we took off to go west of Pecs. It turns out the guys were going to a home in the nearby town of Pellerd -- or perhaps near Pellerd. We were met on the highway by someone who drove the route down several country roads into a village area. After the guys from Finland were settled, the driver apologized to me for their drinking. Then we both tried to figure the way out of the village. At last we were on our way to Pecs.

We get to the last turn to my street in Pecs and find road construction. Janos is a one-way street and can only be approached from Szent Mor and the whole stretch of Szent Mor was being torn up with the equipment all parked on the intersection of Szent Mor and Janos, so I ended up walking the last bit home. Again the driver was apologizing to me. I'll bet the driver was glad to see all of us gone. He had a hard trip!

I started some laundry and then decided to see what else had happened with the all the construction in Pecs. Boy! was I suprised when I got to Szinhaz Ter. A bit of an Easter fair was underway. There were many booths selling crafts and many of the children were dressed in folklore costumes. This puzzled me for there was not any dancing or recitation. Perhaps it is simply a tradition to dress like this.

The Szechenyi Ter construction area was noticeably smaller, progress was made while I was gone. Attention today was being given to cleaning the statutes.

My trip to Berlin and then the various places in Poland was great fun, but I'm glad to be back "home" in Pecs.