Back to Poland!

                                                 
                                                                         Road Trip!                    August 19, 2016
Here's the link to our album of pictures from our day trips in Austria.  :)
https://goo.gl/photos/vJthpgKeqTBJmcbn6

And the unsorted lot from our Road trip: https://goo.gl/photos/d9X4bnW3iKFCcSAMA

Since pictures won't upload at an acceptable pace, and Rosie tells me that pictures are necessary, I'm going to wait to post these until the internet is better in Trumau.

     We're all here in Poland, in a little town called Biesal. (I think.) We arrived around 5pm yesterday evening, after about a six hour drive from Olsztyn. Our airbnb in Olsztyn was a neat, two-story house (we had the entire top floor) right on a little walkway/street with lots of little outdoor souvenir shops and lody (ice-cream) stands. It had the feel of a sort of permanent festival, or perhaps a tourist spot, except we seemed to be the only non Polish people there. We were stuck for a while one door over from our airbnb, wondering where to go and with no way of contacting our host. Dad attempted to communicate with a young shopkeeper there, but didn't make much headway. In the end we found our host, although my job had been to find an ATM and so I missed how they actually managed it. I think Jenny's Ipad thingie had come in handy though.

Our place to stay was worth the wait!
View of the castle from the window!

Our street.

Exploring all the rooms...

9pm lody run! At the little shop
basically right outside our door.

     The house was right next to a beautiful ruined castle up on the hill, about 200 meters from our door. We had a clear view of it from the window, and after getting settled in our new spot and having a delicious Polish dinner at a place next door, (Our host worked there and so explained the menu and ordered for us,) we went up to explore the castle. From the top we could see for miles all around, and saw how tiny the town was! Rachel and I discussed for a while whether we could fit everybody we knew from home in it; I don't remember exactly what we decided. It was very small, though, kinda plopped in the middle of nowhere. We spent plenty of time up there; for all the fun of being in a city and exploring the neat buildings and old streets, for me nothing beats climbing around a castle and sitting on top of a tower while watching the sunset.

Walk around the Monestary

     The next day, Thursday, we drove about 25 minutes to Jasna Gora, the monastery where Our Lady of Czestochowa is kept. It was really crowded there, but we managed to get a glimpse of the icon after some shoving and exploring. They cover it up for some reason for a few hours at a time, and whenever they cover or uncover her there's a big ceremony and people play drums and trumpets. Although so many people from around the world come there, we discovered that everything was still only in Polish. We found an English map/guide so we could find out what the different buildings, chapels and museum-like things were, but once we were in we had not much of an idea what we were looking at. Still, it was neat to look around, and after we saw the icon we walked away from the crowds and around the monastery, and got to see the stations of the Cross that surrounded it.
     After we left Jasna Gora we went to see if we could find the old town and explore. We didn't end up finding it, but walking up a steep street toward a church, I looked back at the rest of the slow-moving family to see that the reason for their pace was that Mom was helping an elderly Polish woman up the street. She was speaking Polish to Mom, and Mom was patting her arm and smiling. When they got to the top the woman kissed Mom's arm several times and pulled out her rosary, clearly expressing her gratitude and no doubt assuring us all that we'd be in her prayers!

Rachel: "Let's go storm the castle!"
Rosie: "ZipadeedooDA!"

     We got back to our airbnb, and some people plopped down for a quick nap, others went out to explore,
and after a few hours the family headed up to the castle again since we'd gotten a late start the night before, and had to leave before quite satisfied. (Also, you can never really get too much of that castle.) I went for a run and decided to meet them up there later, and after hesitatingly examining the unfamiliar streets busy with people and cars (not a very happy prospect for a peaceful run), I found a beautiful forest path about a block from our house, and in I went! It was a little alarming how easy it would be to get lost in there, so many trees and so many different paths. But I kept track and had fun exploring. I turned down a pathway and suddenly came upon a collection of huge sand dunes. They were super tall, and the sand spread out for a ways through the trees. If we had stayed longer I would have brought the other girls and something to slide on; they were plenty steep and tall. They seemed to me an odd thing to find in the middle of a forest, but if you get a chance to add skiing down sand mountains into your daily run I'd always suggest you take it! (Only problem is I got sand in my shoes and so there wasn't really any room for my toes anymore...)

     After that I went up to the castle and found Rachel sitting up on a tall, lone, rock tower thing, and the rest of the family scattered about enjoying the BEAUTIFUL sunset, breeze and wildflowers! We stayed up there for a while, climbing over the rocks and taking dramatic pictures, and then headed down for a pizza dinner a few doors from our bnb. Again the menu was only Polish, and this time we had no helpful guide. So we did our best, and of course it was more than satisfactory!
     Friday morning we packed up and began the drive to our next stop. Not too much to report; we enjoyed listening to P.G. Wodehouse, and looking at little Polish cottages and fields along the way. We stopped in a little town to buy lunch, and then brought it with us to a gas station next to a huge cornfield.

Evening at the farm.

Irene and I went to say hello to
these lovely fellows, and they
charged and bellowed at us.
I guess they were kinda hungry or just
extra friendly!

      When we got to where we were supposed to meet our host, we again had trouble connecting because of the lack of wifi, but eventually Dad sent a message and a kind, Polish man came and met us and guided us to his farm. When we arrived, a smiley woman came out of the house holding her phone and spoke into it in Polish. "A warmly welcome!" said the phone, and in we came. There is another Polish couple staying in the bnb here, and they know English, and so Mom and Dad had a nice conversation with them last night, and this morning our hosts served us all breakfast together--crepes, cheese, meat, tomatoes, plum jam, tea, and rolls.

Front view of the house, we had
the top floor.

     There are horses and sheep here, a trampoline and a little playground, many flowers and a beautiful garden. Last night Claire, Jacinta, Irene and I had fun jumping on the trampoline--it's been a long time since we've done that! Although nine people in one car for hours can sometimes be a little trying, I think it's a wonderful thing that we are all here together, learning how to enjoy where we are with who we're with!