Well...no photos today! I was attempting to upload some again but the windows program on the computer is in Polish, so I am just clicking random buttons and its not working out so well! We made it to Andrew's parent's house in Krasienen, a small village. Until last night we did not have internet access so I have not updated the blog.
We spent 12 hours in the car going back to Warsaw from Gdansk. It was only about a 200 mile drive but since there are not "freeways", we had to take the back roads through the villages. The scenery was beautiful but the drive did get loooong. We stopped in Malbor to tour a HUGE castle. Ena was looking for princesses but didn't find any.... The castle built in the 13th century by the teutonic knights during the period that they were Christianizing the Peagans. Its not my particular area of interest, but still pretty awe inspiring and amazing to think of all the work as well as the history behind the castle.
We finally arrived in Warsaw around 10:30 at night only to discover that they had closed down the main highway and turned it into a temporary parking lot for a huge concert/party and soccer game! We sat in bottle necked traffic for about an hour before we were forced to make a u-turn. At that point all we could do was laugh! We were all going a little crazy at that point! :-)
The next morning we headed to Andrew's parents' village, Krasienen right outside of the city he grew up in (Lublin). His father grew up in the house next door (where cousin Franek and his family now live on their farm) to the new house that they built a few years ago. There are a lot of tragic and incredible stories about his family's experiences here during the war. Its wierd to think that while Americans were baking cookies and sipping coca-cola while living in ignorant bliss during the 1950's, there were families like Andrew's father's, whose lives were at risk every day and threatened by soldiers at any given moment. It really makes me appreciate the sense of security that we as Americans are lucky to have (even if things aren't perfect, they could be a hell of a lot worse!).
Franek has an 8 year old son named Piotr and we LOVE him! He is the sweetest little dude and can always be found with a smile on his face! His happiness is contagious and we are so glad to have him around. Yesterday Ania and I took Piotr and Ena to the local village store to buy candy, and that was thrilling for all of us. Piotr is so sweet with Ena and she loves to play with him. Franek also has a 3 year old son, Pawel, but we have not met him yet because he has strep throat.
Thankfully I found a gas station that sells iced coffee (almost impossible to find anything but instant coffee at the grocery store...no Dunn Brother's here!). I pretty much bought out their entire supply (which was fully stocked because I'm probably one of the only people buying them!), and I am happy ;-).
Today it was raining so Basia offered to make an appointment for Andrew and I to get our nails done by the woman who did them for our wedding party 2 years ago. She has been a friend of Basia's for years and Andrew remembers waiting in the salon as a little boy and watching all the ladies (and reading women's magazines) while Basia chatted with her friend and had her nails done. The lady (I forgot her name) has been doing her job for years and is quite a talker. She has a lot of interesting stories and knows everyone in town and all their business. She told us about a woman that came in who told her a horrifying story. Some people from China rented an apartment above the woman for the purpose of selling poisonous and exotic species of spiders. The woman was not aware that they were selling them until one night she was overcome with a bad feeling and went to check on her baby. When she went into the baby's room there were hundreds of species of spiders crawling ALL over the room!!!! She called the police immediately and the police arrested the people that were selling spiders. The baby did not get bit and was fine, but I am sure it was so traumatic for them. Speaking of insects....
There are a lot of flies in the village and Ena is now a qualified fly killer. I can never catch them so she frequently reminds me that I am not good at killing flies and that her and daddy do a better job. I think I will let them keep that job!
Tomorrow in the morning we are taking Ena to see a children's play in the park then we will have dinner with Bogden and Ania. They are really cool and I am looking forward to spending some time with them. On Friday is Andrew's father's name day (name days are more important than birthdays) so we will have another party (we had one the first night we got here and we ate food from Franek's farm and drank Basia's home-made alcohol...quite a wild experience!).
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