Kazimierz Biskupi The town where my relatives live. It's really close to Konin (which has a train station), so we took a train from Middelfart to Copenhagen, a bus from Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden, then a night train from Malmo to Berlin and another train from Berlin to Konin. The night train was great. A private room with a litle bathroom. We just locked the door and slept all the way to Berlin.

 

Our hotel in Poland Well, most things didn't go as planned. We arrived at the train station, but didn't find anyone waiting for us. After getting Polish money and wandering around the train and bus stations for a while (boy did Bart like that), I decided to get him to a hotel and find out about my relatives. I asked a taxi driver (who didn't speak English) to take us to a good, but not too good hotel. We drove forever, Bart getting very nervous that it was a set up, and we ended up at this hotel. Way out in the country, no where near even a store, but what could we do?

The View out our Hotel Window Actually a very nice hotel by Polish standards (and expensive by their standards, but only $40 US). I left Bart at the hotel to relax and took the taxi to KB to find my relatives. What I found out was that they were still at the train station and had been waiting now for 4 hours. Once they came home and it was all sorted out, it seems that they were waiting for the train to come from Warsaw, and we were on the train from Berlin... So, we'd already gotten the hotel and learned that we must never get a hotel or taxi in Poland again. Zdzislawa made it clear (in Polish) that we were family and there was always a place for us at their home. I was horrified that they sat at the train station for so long, but at least Bart was at the hotel taking pictures and walking around and not walking with us toward Konin to see if we saw them coming back in the car....

Tomek, Daria, Przemek and myself We walked around the town taking pictures and talking. The beer I'm holding was Bart's, I had the carrot drink. Oh, and the bag of Polish candy that the Dane's dogs pulled out of my luggage and ate on my bed cover...

Gosza and Bart Bart looking at the photo album. Notice food on the table. We ate and ate in Poland. My favorite dish was the schnitzel we had for lunch the second day. The pork is pounded very thin and then breaded and fried. Served with cabbage and potatoes and other stuff I can't remember. When we'd start to stop eating, someone would say why don't you like it, there's still some left...

Gosza's husband and the train he built He made all sorts of items for the garden and was working on making a tractor out of salvaged car parts. Very ingenious. Bart was pleased to discover that he could understand his German and Bart used what he knew from 'Hogan's Heroes' to hold conversations.

Daria and Marta at the computer We carried a laptop along to give to the girls. Marta imediately went to the Solitaire games, but by the second day she was making creative Word documents.

Daria and Marta in their room Daria was closer to Marta's age the last time I was in Poland. Still, I recognized her right off when she came to the door. She's been taking English in school, and we relied pretty heavily on her for translating help with everyone else.

Marta and Zdzislawa Granddaughter and grandmother. In some ways, it must be very nice to grow up with your grandmother in the house for support.

Group picture at the train station This is before we headed back to Berlin and then Denmark. Everyone came down to see us off. Bart said he couldn't believe how welcome we were. I'm so glad that we made the time to make it over, and I'm already thinking of when the next trip will be.