Our first stop was Tykocin, where we found a famous old church. We were very lucky because it was the time of month where churches perform a ritual called ‘Procesja’. The priests parade down the centre of the church, and then around the church, then back down the aisle to the altar again.
The priests carry flags with religious symbols, and other relics from the church. Everyone in the congregation follows the priest, and sings or chants along with the priest.We were peering in from the back of the church, when we realized they were about to start a procesja, so we quickly exited and watched from a distance.
After seeing the church, we had a look at the Czarnecki monument, which was in the main square opposite the church. It was placed there to commemorate Czarnecki, who was responsible for getting the Swedish invaders out of Poland. Before we left we tried to see an old Jewish synagogue, but it was closed.
All along the road on the way, there were telephone poles with flat platforms built on top. These little platforms are actually there for storks to make their nests on! We saw several stalks flying, and a couple sitting on top of their nests, or feeding their babies. Another new European sight for Loren!Kiermuzy
Soon we reached another town called Kiermuzy. Loren was thrilled by this place, there were little wooden huts with colourfully decorated shutters and antique carts on the lawn. These places were actually available for staying in!
Across the road, there was a traditional, wooden, Polish hotel and restaurant. The courtyard outside the hotel was beautiful, with a fountain statue of a girl brushing her hair, an old well, and beautiful flowers. The restaurant filled the whole ground floor of the building, and was decorated with dried bunches of herbs and even dried tree branches and bushes, bread rings, melted candles, rugs and animal skins. All of the furniture was wooden and the whole place had a friendly, happy atmosphere.
We had been planning to stay at a hotel in the next town, but we decided to stay here instead. This was exciting too, as the rooms upstairs were decorated in the same style of decorations as the restaurant. Our rooms were full of old jugs, vases and bottles, and old photographs from the 19th were displayed on the walls. The furniture, floor and walls were wooden, and softened with rugs and material displayed on different surfaces. There were even pieces of clothing and old shoes displayed on the walls of the hallway.
After settling into our rooms, we decided to go for a walk on the property. The hotel itself was just a small part of the property on which it lay. There was a new building being constructed to house an indoor pool, a collection of old motorbikes, and several enclosed fields with animals in them. Just next to the hotel, there was a field with a donkey in it!
Loren was so thrilled, because she had seen donkeys before, but never one like this. It looked exactly like the one in Shrek! They don’t have these kind of donkeys in Australia. She patted the donkey for a while, then saw the big fluffy dog that lived at the hotel. She patted them both at the same time, but the dog was a bit jealous and started barking madly at the donkey. It was pretty funny!
Behind the building, it was like a wetlands reserve, with wooden boardwalks built across the lakes and the grass areas. The first section of boardwalks, had little wooden signs posted along both sides, with the names of famous Polish people on it. There was also a fabulous wooden see-saw nearby, which we had a great time on like little kids.
The board walks that went across the lakes were quite creepy. The water reminded Loren of Lord of the Rings, where there were marshes or lakes with spirits floating underneath and trying to pull people into the water. There was just that completely still feeling in the air, the cold chill, and the silence of the open meadows. It was spookily beautiful.
Towards the end of the boardwalks, there was a big group of people having a bonfire and celebration. They had a little dining tent set up, and live musicians playing for them. Everyone was eating, drinking and laughing.
We continued walking beyond the boardwalks and the property, and ended up on normal paths and roads again. We walked past a house that was built to look just like a castle. Obviously whoever lives there is a bit of a history buff and obsessed with castles. There was even a moat and a drawbridge!!
It was so beautiful walking out there. The meadows stretched as far as the eye could see, and everything was so still and quiet. There was the occasion sign of habitation, like that castle, but apart from that, it was wild and empty. It was such a romantic and melancholy place.Traditional Feast
After our walk, we settled down in the restaurant for a big traditional Polish dinner. We started our meal with a big tray of sliced sausages and cheeses, along with a basket of different Polish breads. We also had some pots of delicious relishes, spicy horseradish dip and mustard. We also ordered some dishes of herring with different sauces. All this for our entrée! To go with our food, we ordered a homemade drink called ‘Podpiwek’, which is a Polish sweet and sour drink. It has a little bit of alcohol in it, and it was originally made to replace beer which was expensive to buy.
After our dinner, we had a look at one of the little rooms adjoining the restaurant. It was quite interesting actually, because the walls were covered in black and white photos of nude or semi-dressed women. It was like a collection of early 20th century erotica. They must have been like the photos that men bought and hid in their wallets, or took with them for comfort when they went to war. It’s funny when you realise that these kind of pictures are not new or modern at all, they’ve been around for years, but were just less public than they are today.Animal Reserve
The next morning, before we hit the road, we got one of the staff members to take us to see their animal reserve. It was like a little zoo, but it was filled with Polish animals. The first animals we saw were boars. They were so cute! One of them was sticking his snout through the fence, trying to smell us. They also had some sheep and goats, and a little baby goat. Apparently they tried to separate the sheep and goats, but they couldn’t get them apart, they were too attached.
There were also some little deer there called ‘daniel’. There were very delicate-looking. Some of them managed to escape, so there are not many left, but the escaped ones return for food now and then.Choroszcz
We soon arrived at the summer house of an aristocratic family called Branicki. The house was surrounded by fields of thick green grass, and canals that surrounded the house like a moat. Little white bridges were built at different points for crossing the canals.
The house was very square like a doll’s house, and it reminded Loren of the houses in the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ film. It was a big, two storey, white house with extremely tall ceilings. Inside, the house was furnished with old furniture and paintings from the period of the Branicki family. The wallpaper inside the house was really bright and colourful. It looked really great with the furniture inside. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us take photos inside the house.Bialystok
A little while later we arrived in Bialystok, a larger city where the Branicki’s had their family palace. The palace still exists today, but it is now used to house a medical university. We were quite lucky, because the university would usually be open only for students, but we managed to come on their Open Day! There were stands everywhere advirtising the different faculties and the courses that they offered. We wandered through the stalls and got some cool freebies like balloons, coffee and biscuits.
We went inside to have a look, and were very impressed by the interior. The staircases were huge and very impressive. There were beautiful sculpted ceilings and chandeliers, and behind the palace there were some expansive, manicured hedge gardens.
After visiting the palace, we wandered through the adjoining parkland. We arrived again at a main road where we found ourselves in front of an imposing Catholic church, with two tall towers reaching into the sky. It was only 100 years old, which is quite new in European countries like Poland. This area of Poland in particular, has long been inhabited by people of diverse faiths. You can find Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Orthodox believers. The people here have always been very tolerant of one another and their respective beliefs and practices.
The church was beautiful inside. The ceilings were so high, you had to crane your neck to see the top. The ceiling of the church was decorated with brown and white gothic archways. The altar at the front of the church was beautifully carved with images of Jesus and the saints, and small paintings were woven in with the woodwork.
Loren was quite amazed to see an altar with jewelry and gifts pinned to every surface surrounding it. Not only the altar was covered with jewelry, but the walls on either side of it were completely filled too! It was very similar to the buddhist temples we visited in Asia, where people leave gifts of food, money, jewelry, or anything else that they can find, in order to have their prayers answered, or maybe as an offering in return for having their prayers answered.
After seeing the Catholic church we walked towards an Orthodox church that we could already see as soon as we stepped outside. This church was more rounded in style, and the orthodox cross with its four piece cross, was boldly displayed in front of and on top of the church. The altar at the front of the church has doors built into the walls on either side of it, so that the priest can walk in a ceremonious circle.Suprasl
We continued on our roadtrip and stopped in Suprasl, for a much anticipated lunch. The restaurant that we came to was called Jarzebinka, and it is well-known for it's excellent potato-based cuisine. This type of food is very popular in the east of Poland, and Artur's father grew up eating it.
The food was spectacular! Who knew you could do so much with potatoes! We each ordered a plate with one of each of the different potato delicacies. The first one that we tried, which was probably Loren's favorite, was the Kartacze (aka Zeppelin, because of it's blimp-like shape). This dish was made of ground, fresh potato made into a dough, and filled with minced meat. The Zeppelin is boiled and then served with diced bacon sprinkled over it.The second one was called Kiszka Ziemnaczana. This was made from ground potato and minced meat, mixed together and stuffed into a sausage skin. The third was Babka Ziemnaczana. This one was made from ground potato, formed into little sandwich layers, and layered alternatively with minced meat. It looked very much like lasagna.
Bucholz Palace
After lunch we went to visit the Bucholz Palace, which was not far away. The Palace has now been turned into an Art School of Design. However some rooms have been left for display to the public.
The rooms we saw were quite empty, except for the statues which were on display there. The statues themselves were quite beautiful, as were the carvings on the ceilings and inbuilt, carved decorations on the walls. We could only imagine how spectacular this Palace would have been during its days of glory.
After seeing the rooms in the palace, we went for a walk in the garden outside, which was an exhibition in itself. Obviously the students at the school had been given an assignment which involved sculpting human limbs and torsos, and placing them in random places in the garden. It was quite funny to see plastic legs poking out of bushes, and a hand emerging from another tree or bush.More of the students' art work was on display in an adjoining building, so we went to have a look. There was a wide variety of the kinds of art displayed there. We found silk paintings, geometrical patterns made with beads, thick wool woven to make colourful patterns, different coloured pieces of material sewed together to make portraits - kind of like a mosaic with material.
Our very favourite, was a piece made of strands of copper woven together like a piece of cloth, but open gaps were left in such a way that it created a detailed picture of a man and a woman embracing. The twisted ends of the wire made it look effortless, like all it took was a few twists of the hand. But the detail of the picture showed how much thought must have been put into making it. It was a real masterpiece.
When we had arrived at the Palace, we had seen a crane (as in the bird), on the roof. We couldn't see it moving at all, so we thought it might be fake. We asked the people at reception, and they said it was real. When we finished and were leaving the art school, we saw it move, and then we saw two birds in nest. The smaller of the two had only white feathers, so we think maybe it was a young one or a baby.Orthodox Church and Icon Museum
Next we visited the Orthodox Church in Suprasl. It was really tall and skinny, with four rounded towers on the corners. They were rounded like castle towers. Inside the church, there was an enormous chandelier! The chandelier was surrounded by an ornate circle of filigreed and carved metal, with pictures of the saints on each of its sides. The walls of the church were brick, just like the outside, which made it look kind of like a castle on the inside too. The floor was covered in huge red carpets, but apart from that, the interior was pretty sparse.
The buildings surrounding the church, were actually used as a school for monks. They had a concert that evening, and we could hear them practicing their songs. One of the other buildings was used as a museum for displaying centuries of Poland's iconography. In order to look around the museum, we had to follow a guide. She spoke in Polish, which meant that Artur had to translate for Loren. This is a hard task in itself, but the guide had a very quiet voice and spoke quickly, which made it almost impossible for Artur to keep up with what she said.
The museum was great, and there was a lot of beautiful icons there. The guide told us about how a lot of them had been intercepted when people were trying to smuggle them over the border. Some of the icons had metal covers placed over them so that you could only see their faces. Religious leaders at the time, had decided that people would be too confused by the meanings of the symbols that were on the paintings, so they put jackets over them!
We drove a little further and arrived at a little green mosque in the middle of a meadow. Unfortunately the mosque was closed, so we decided to sneak around the back and peek in the windows. It was pretty empty inside, but we were glad that we got to have a look.
After seeing the mosque we wandered down a stone track which led to a graveyard. This is where all of the muslims from all over the country are buried. Most of them were immigrants to Poland, but they took Polish surnames when they arrived, so all the surnames there were Polish.Ecumenic Hill Monument
We drove on some tiny roads and through lots of meadows, before we made it to a hill. On this hill, stands a monument to the people of the region, for their ability to live together so happily, despite their differences in faith. The monument was dedicated to the people of Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox and Catholic faiths.
The monument itself was made up of several separate pieces: a Catholic cross, an Orthodox cross, a Muslim altar, but we couldn't figure out what the Jewish part was though. The view from the hill was spectacular. The area surrounding us was filled with other rolling hills, a lake and a stretching horizon.After sitting and contemplating for a while, we set off for Bialowieza. The GPS provided us with a nice off road trail. It wasn't particularly good for the car, but we made it in one piece.
31.05 National Reserve of Bisons
We spent most of the morning relaxing at our hotel in Bialowieza. But soon we headed out to visit the National Reserve of Bisons. We walked through a beautiful leafy and sunny park, but unfortunately, they had just cut the grass, and Artur and Loren reacted badly with hayfever.
We found a horse cart to drive us from the park to the reserve. Our driver was a bit drunk, and had particularly bad body odour. We thought it was the horse at first, but then we realized it was our driver.
We were quite relieved to finally arrive at the park. It was like an open air zoo, with lots of different kinds of Polish animals. There were wolves, bisons, deers, daniele deers and moose-like animals.
The only problem was that it was very hard to see the animals. The enclosures were very big, and the animals were quite camouflaged and far from the fence. It felt like you were spotting them in real forest though, so that was cool.Lunch at Zubrowka
We had lunch at the Zubrowka Hotel, which is a 4 star hotel, not far from the national park. Artur's dad asked the waiter to perform for us with the horn that they use during hunting. His waiter outfit was a traditional hunting outfit with a special hat, so the whole peformance was very exciting.
The food that we had there was great! Loren had the Chlodnik soup, which she had tried once before at Artur's Polish friends' house in Australia. It is a creamy soup with chopped chives and a little bit of diced beetroot which makes the soup pink! We also tried some pasztet, which is a pate made from venison, among many other delicious dishes.Royal Oak Trail
We went to visit a trail in the forest, which ran alongside an old railway. The forest itself was impressive with its huge trees, but there were more mosquitoes in that forest than we had ever seen before in our lives.
We literally had to dance slapping our arms, back, forehead etc. If you stood still for a second, you would be covered by them. It was quite a good workout. Loren had to keep sweeping mosquitoes off Artur, who didn't participate quite as fanatically in the mosquito dance.Dinner at Tsar Restaurant
For our dinner, we went to a fancy restaurant that used to be an old train station. It's called the Tsar Restaurant, because the railway was extended all the way from Russia, so that the Tsar could come and hunt in Bialowieza. The railway tracks still exist outside, as does the control booth, and other little facilities. There was even a little bar and sets of tables outside on the train platform.
The inside of the restaurant was decorated with elegant furniture from the 1800s, and one of the smaller rooms was set up like a living room, with little sewing machines sitting on top of cupboards.01.06 Bialowieza National Park
On our last day in Bialowieza, the boys went off for a 1.5 hour bike ride around the town and forests. Artur's mum visited the local church, and Loren caught up on some reading back at the hotel.
At about 1pm, we went to the National Park of Bialowieza, where we had a guided tour in English. This was great for Loren, but even more so for Artur, who didn't have to translate for once. Our guide was very passionate about the forests and a keen photographer, so he was carrying a big camera and binoculars, just in case we saw anything on our walk.
The forest was amazing! It was completely untouched, no one is even allowed to remove any dead branches or clean up leaves or anything.
The trees on either side of path were so dense, but compared to Australian bush, there is not much undergrowth. The ground is covered in dead leaves, moss or grass, but not in thick bushes and ferns, so it seemed less cluttered than bushland. The forest just reaches very high, with lots and lots of skinny tree trunks. Loren also thought that the forest reminded her of the ones in Shrek, and the guide confirmed that an artist involved in making Shrek, had been on a tour with him recently taking photos of the forest.
Apparently this was some kind of worm, looks more like a snake!Procesja
Just before we left Bialowieza, we stopped at the Orthodox church, to have a look inside. There was a mass going on inside, so we only had a quick look in the back. We realised that they were about to start a Procesja, so we rushed out again to watch.
It was very similar to the one we had seen earlier, with the priest and his helpers holding banners and holy sacraments. The difference here was that the women were all wearing scarfs to cover their hair. Even little girls. Loren was not impressed by this, as she does not like it when only the women in a religion are forced to follow a strict dress code.
After seeing the church, we headed off on our long drive home. All in all, it was an excellent trip, and a great time for Loren and Artur's parents to get to know one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment