Stroop Wafels, Windmills and Bikes

We had some time off for Easter so we thought that a trip to the Netherlands would be a good idea, and it turned out to be a great idea! The travelling part of the trip wasn't really that fun, it involved riding on a very full bus for 15 hours watching English movies, that had voice-overs in Polish. I think that the most interesting part of the trip,. besides Casey feeling a little motion sick was the difference in roads between Poland and Germany. The roads in Poland are very bumpy, narrow,old and curvy with trees that line the sides of the roads, while as soon as we crossed the border the roads in Germany were wide, smooth and noise barriers lined the sides of the roads. We arrived in Amsterdam at 6:00 in the morning it was so quiet, that Casey and I walked around the city without hardly seeing a soul. There are many things to do in Amsterdam, and after a long disscusion we decided to visit the Henekin muesum. It was a very interesting muesum and we learned alot about the process of making beer, and of course we got to sample the product. (this all being at 10am in the morning)
Afer seeing some of the sites in Amsterdam, it got a little busy with tourists so we headed to our final destination Zwolle. For me it was exciting to be in a city that I called home 5 years ago when I did an exchange program in University. It took me a little while to remember some of my Dutch, and sometimes I got confused and used Polish words instead. It was good for Casey to see what the Dutch were all about besides windmills, tulips and cheese. We stayed with Famille Baan, that was my host family that I lived with 5 years ago. We were well fed and the bed was so comfortable that Casey and I were thinking of staying longer or taking the bed with us to Poland. Not to mention that the family is really great and it was fun to catch up on the past 5 years. We also had the opportunity to visit with some Great Tantes (Aunts) and Great Omes(Uncles) from my Grandpa's side.
Some of the highlights of our trip were seeing all the bicycles and of course getting to ride 'Dutch Bikes', seeing fields of flowers (not all the tulips were ready yet because of the late spring), going to the Dolphinarium with my host mom (Jenny), and going to the Sea with Tante Pee and Ome Gerard.

Well, I better go and catch up on some sleep but first I think that I will have some stroopwafels and tea! Hope that you all had a good Easter!

Chris

wadna pogoda

So spring is here, and it feels so good… we’ve had some beautiful weather and have quickly picked up a new polish phrase, “wadna pogoda”.. which means nice weather. Seeing as we arrived here in November, all we have really seen of Poland has been for the most part cloudy and grey… so to see the green coming has got us pretty excited.

It seems like there are tonnes of workers out now trying to clean things up. From sweeping up the ragged side walks, raking up dog poop, to cleaning windows… and the warm weather has also brought out the men who like to have a few too many sips… I guess there are always pros and cons. Another thing we’ve noticed more of are people pushing around their make-shift wheel barrels, taking the days’ finds to the market to try to get a few zlotys.
On Sunday night we were walking home from a friends and we stumbled upon a memorial march for Pope John Paul II, who died one year ago. About 95% of Poland is catholic, and he was from Poland as well. So it was pretty huge. Here we were walking on the main street, which is quite narrow when a never-ending processional of people rounded a bend and started down towards us. So we made friends with a wall and waited out the massive crowd. It was pretty interesting to see so many people, all very somber and reflective, singing songs and carrying candles. I guess we were pretty lucky to see it all, being as we really have no idea of what’s going on in the world with no tv for news and not being able to understand the newspapers.

Ok, other than that, it was pretty much the same old, same old.

Till next time.