The Bus Driver Adventure

After my most recent posting one person commented that he was surprised that the windows were so clean that I could take photos. Thus, I can't resist adding just a couple more to show the great variety that is Poland.

But I must speak about the bus driver. He started with 32 teens and about 5 adults at 8 AM on June 28 in Siedlce and drove us to the Krakow airport where we picked up 13 more volunteers. Then we continued to Zakopane. He spent the next two weeks with us there, driving for short trips in the area. On July 12 he repeated the trip from Zakopane to Siedlce.

We arrived near Siedlce about 6 PM in a driving thunderstorm. It was so bad that we were delayed on the highway for awhile for trees to be cleared from the highway. I was to depart at the Hotel Hetman. It was still raining when we arrived there. The Hotel Hetman sits along the major highway. However, to get there one must turn on a small side street and then turn into the hotel parking lot. So the bus driver turned off the highway onto the side street. I was expecting to get off there. No! He backed the bus into the hotel parking lot so that I could leave the bus from the passenger side and immediately get under a roof on the hotel entrance. I was overcome. When I made it to the front of the bus I said thank you very much and good bye in Polish --which I can't write with an American keyboard. I felt so grateful for this thoughtfulness. However, he took my hand and kissed it, in the very gallant way of Polish men. This will be a memory forever.

Photography Adventure

In other postings I've mentioned that I got a new camera before my summer Poland trip. It worked amazingly well for me. These are some of the pictures that I took traveling in the bus between Krakow and Siedlce. They show how Poland is old and new at the same time. I'm pleased that the vibration reduction on the camera worked so well. And what is even more amazing is that the bus driver had the windows so very clean that I could take these pictures out the window.

Shopping Adventure

One day last week I turned on the TV when I awoke and saw a segment about the Salvation Army needing volunteers to help children shop for school clothing. Hey! who doesn't have 90 minutes to volunteer!?! When I looked at my preferred site, it turned out they needed 249 volunteers besides me.

So this morning the alarm went off at 6:30 and I was out the door at 7:00, stopping for coffee at Caribou on my way. I got to the Wal-Mart a few minutes later. No coffee there! One volunteer came up to me and asked where the nearby Caribou was. I explained near my house, not the Wal-Mart! Nothing for food/beverage was open at 7:00in the store and we were cautioned not to let our group of volunteers stray into the closed Subway shop area!!

We all signed in and got a T-Shirt(it seems like every event needs a T-Shirt!), and got orientation. We were instructed to be done at 9 AM (even through check out) and to spend to as close as $100 as possible (funds coming from the anonymous donor that seems to give all the money!). If we went over by a dollar or two there would be way to fix that.

At 8 AM two school buses rolled in and I was matched with an 8 year old girl. She also wore size 8 in everything but shoes. I asked her if she had been watching the Olympics and picked up that 8 is a lucky number in China!

I asked her if there was anything her mom had asked her to get for sure. She replied, "No, but she said 'No glitter."Next I asked her what she wanted first. She wisely replied, "Let's look at shoes. That takes a long time." Wise she was. It took us forever to find girls' shoes. This store had six aisles for shoes and only half of one was for little girls' shoes. We found a pair that suited her. Next we hit jeans. We had to avoid any pair of jeans that sparkles to keep the no glitter deal. We found three pairs. Then we did T-Shirt shopping and found 5 that she likes. We finished out with socks and underwear. Check out price -- $99.09.

What fun this was. Hope I find it next year.

And I learned something. When having to watch for prices so very carefully, I became quite sensitized to the fact that many things are not labeled with a price and that prices are often hard to find on the racks. We left our cart out of the fray and often I found when we got back, the item we had picked up had no label with the price. Is this a marketing ploy?

Hot Car

Today on the Poland Our Future blog, David posted a picture of a special Ford that he found in Poznan. That caused me to dig through my pictures to bring up this picture of a hot car we found in Zakopane. We all had just come down the ski lift and found this at the bottom as we were walking to the bus. There certainly wasn't a high school boy that could walk by this car without giving it an admiring look.

Using Coins in Poland

One thing I've learned to deal with in Poland is the demand to use coins. For example, if I apply my American way of doing things, if I have a total bill of 16.85 PLN and hand a 20 PLN bill for that, I am happy to get back change. However, often I will get asked for the .85. One time I got coffee and a snack and the bill came to 10.// something. I gave the clerk 11 PLN and she asked for more coins so she could return me a 2 zloty coin.

This shows I can follow the rule. I was quite proud of 15 coins for a Coca-Cola Light!

I don't get it, but have learned to enjoy what I find "funny." Was there a coin shortage once?

Loved this sign

I found this sign in Zakopane. It shows that it takes 10.8 hours to fly to Chicago, 4.5 hours to walk to Mt. Giewont, and no time at all for the travel to the sponsoring bar in Zakopane, as it is only 11 meters. Thought it very clever.

Photography Adventures

After having some photos not turn out as good as I hoped from my 2007 trip, I got a new camera before this trip. It's a real new camera -- a Nikon Coolpix D-80, only released for sale in late May.

I love it! It did everything and more that I wanted during this trip. Here is a view of the architecture of the Sukiennice in Krakow. I particularly like the up close view of the head.