Wroclaw, Poland June 14-17

After leaving Berlin, we drove to Wroclaw (pronounced frotssauve) formerly Breslau when under German rule, to visit a family we met in Cairns, Australia. This is the only family we met that also took a year and traveled the world. We enjoyed spending time with them in Australia and then again in Saigon, Vietnam. You can take a look at their blog site by typing in this location (for whatever reason, I cannot make the link function work)

www.hoparoundtheglobe.com/English

We arrived around 7:00 pm and were greeted by Isha, Bernard, Beata and Blazej. We all sat down to dinner and a long conversation catching up on each others trips. They have been home from their trip now for over two months and it was interesting to hear from them how they have adjusted back into real life. Isha is 12yrs and Bernard is 7yrs and they both went straight back into classes in their schools. They enjoyed meeting with their friends once again and had a fairly easy time adjusting. Blazej went back to his old job in the computer world and Beata was exploring her options. During our visit her options became 2+ job offers, so she has to decide which she wants.




After a wonderful nights rest we are ready to explore Wroclaw and Beata shows us into town on the trolley system. We definitely see the remains of a communist time here in the buildings and the people. There are many kiosks that remind Jeff of his time in Mongolia, and the “grocery” stores are very abrupt. We explore this beautiful city and its many churches. The center area of a town in Poland is called Rynek, and in Wroclaw it is absolutely beautiful. People gather here and everything is happening in this spot. Wroclaw was a German town before World War II and was heavily damaged during the war (70% of all buildings were destroyed). After the war, the Germans were forced to move back to Germany and Russia took over a portion of Poland and forced the Polish residents to move to populate the towns vacated by the Germans. As a result, the old buildings are more German style than Polish. Still a very beautiful city and busy with a new found prosperity over the last 20 years (the end of communism). During our walk we toured a number of beautiful churches, including the church Beata and Blazej got married in.




Beata told us to watch for the gnomes in town and we found many. The gnomes were originally a symbol of the Orange movement, which was a nonviolent group that protested against the communist government. Apparently, many of their protests took the form of dressing up in costumes and protesting, then running from the police when the protest was broken up. One such costume was gnomes and another time a group dressed up as Santa Clause and were chased around by the Police.

We find our way home and enjoy another wonderful family evening. Beata cooks a very wonderful traditional meal for us; schnitzel, potatoes, and cooked cabbage. Over the course of several days, we visit the town a few times to sightsee, shop and visit some pubs in the evenings. We were even lucky enough to visit Blazej’s parents house to celebrate “name” day for his mother. They were very nice to let us join in the festivities and his mother made fantastic desert. In Poland, everyone has a day where their name is celebrated across the country. All people with this name has a special day similar to a birthday. Quite fun.



Beata was very kind and offered to make pierogi with me. Pierogi is one of my favorite foods that I remember from childhood. We make them together and she makes it seem so easy, and they were so good. We are so grateful to Beata and Blazej for sharing Polish food, history, details of life under communism and general life. We are indebted to them for their hospitality. We hope to repay the kindness in Seattle. It is nice to have such a family as our friends.

~Karen~