Music, Travel, Service – Part 2 first (Travel)
POLAND
We just returned to Ireland from Poland after three weeks of non-stop eating, driving, sightseeing, and family visits to our travel companions Chris & Bozena’s families. We saw Nowy Sanc, Zakopane, Lublin, Krakow, and more.
Language Barriers…
Being three weeks in a country where we didn’t speak the language was a new experience to us. We’d been to Berlin in the early 2000’s for 10 days, but that was with a large group of Americans so we had friends to talk with, and many Berliners speak English. In Poland, we were not always in cities, and were relying on our friends to translate. We spent a lot of time listening to conversations we couldn’t understand. It was a good challenge for us to overcome the “un-familiarity” and try to pick up what we could. I left with a few more Polish phrases than I came with, and learned a lot about reading expressions and body language.
Food in Poland…
Food was a big part of the experience. Polish hospitality is warm, food-centric, and frankly, it borders on bullying when it comes to eating and drinking. My chronic migraines were a good enough excuse for most when it came to NOT overdoing the vodka, but we did enjoy several new culinary experiences at the hands of our friends and their family members.
We ate beef tartar one night at our friend’s sister’s home with salad, followed by beautiful cakes and coffee. We were stuffed, only to find there were two more courses of meats and cheeses, and another main dish. Oh my word!
Other things we tried: galaretka (pork gelatin), pickled herring, pork joint (mostly fat), pierogies of every kind, and galumpkies…and lots of cake. I am fascinated with the abundance of beautiful cakes at ridiculously low prices in Poland, and unfortunately, our main souvenir is a few extra pounds.
Tourists
At the end of trip, we had a few days just on our own in Wieliczka, a “suburb” of Krakow, where we visited the famous Wieliczka Salt Mines and Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps. While the salt mines were an underground marvel of engineering and art, the camps were devastating and we are still processing what we saw and heard there. It was a difficult and sobering day, but important.
Photo: easyjet
Krakow
Krakow dates back to the 7th century, and has a long history as a center of academic, cultural, and artistic life in Poland. Today, somewhere between 200,000-300,000 students descend upon the city for studies, which begin…the day we visited! We witnessed a protest of some kind on the square (I couldn’t understand the but I’m pretty sure I disagreed! So there!). They have a castle with its own fire breathing dragon, so many beautiful Catholic churches, and much much more that frankly, we were too worn out to learn this time. Sorry Krakow! We will visit you again.
We were also able to connect with a couple “friends of friends” who showed us around the city. Grateful for some English-speaking company,we also noticed that in downtown Krakow you can hear all kinds of languages spoken. Our restaurant server Aneta had learned English in Scotland, so we had fun with her making feeble attempts todo our best Scottish accents – until the drunk couple next to us informed us they were on holiday from Scotland and we were not doing well at all.
A word about budget travel…
Our 1:45pm flight got cancelled and changed to a 7:00am flight, so our friend’s friend Zygmunt, saint that he is, picked us up at the Wieliczka apartment at 4:45am and using Google translate, we had our last conversations on the way to the airport. Ryanair decided we got the very back row again–you know, the ones right by the bathroom that don’t recline. Thanks Ryanair!
Here’s the thing…when you have the aisle seat in the very back row, on an airline that doesn’t restrict the bathroom line to one person…you can only imagine what happens when the flow of incoming and outgoing traffic in a tiny aisle barely big enough for one requires that two people slip past each other every 2 or 3 minutes. I spent most of the flight with Randy snoring on my left and someone’s butt in my face on the right. What do you want for $50? Perhaps we should have sprung another $15 to “choose our seat” but what are the odds that by not paying we’ll get stuck in the back row? 100%. They are 100%.
That said, we made it there and back for about $100 each, so we can’t be too harsh on old Ryanair. With the Polish zloty at almost 4 to a US $1, we did ok on spending too. And, if we’re going to be able to do music and service, travel has to be cheap. We had a great trip, and we’re ready to knuckle down and demo songs that have been written, and write more songs. More on music in the next blog.
As always, there are more photos on instagram. If you’re not following us there, please do! @bekihemingway @randystravelhaiku
Our friend Chris managed almost the entire trip. Here he is juggling two phones.
Polish border
Polish Border
(Our ride is being stopped by the Slovakian police as this is being taken, but he slipped over the border and out of his jurisdiction. Haha)
With my aunt’s 1969 next door neighbor John, whose rapper son Dave we know! Small world.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
The only picture I took.
Traditional thatched home
I have confidence in me!
Cowboy Randy in Zakopane
Street artist – Krakow
