Wloclawek, Poland 25.05

We are finally in Europe! We took an overnight flight from Delhi to Helsinki, Finland, and then another connecting flight to Warsaw, Poland. Unfortunately, our worries about our luggage were confirmed. Our bags had been lost somewhere along the way. Thankfully we had a few things in our carry-on bags, but most of our things were in our big backpacks. The airport promised to courier the bags to us when they were found. We hoped that maybe they would turn up the next day.

Artur was very excited to arrive in Poland, because he hadn’t seen his parents for 1.5 years! Loren was also very excited because she would finally get to meet Artur’s family. His parents were waiting to pick us up at the airport, and they had a big bunch of roses for Loren! They were red and white, like the colours of the Polish flag. We sat down together in a café at the airport and spent some time catching up and meeting one another. Artur’s mother had been learning English, and at first she only spoke a little bit, but when she got more confident, we realized that she could speak really well! This was great, because communication was so much easier. Anything we couldn’t communicate, Artur translated, so we had a great time talking.

After our snack at the café, we drove from Warsaw to Wloclawek. It was a 2.5 hour drive, so we got to see some great scenery on the way. We were both surprised by how green everything was. There were fields of thick, lush grass everywhere, and beautiful forests. It was a big change from the dryness of Asia and Australia. Even the nature strips along the roads, and the trees lining avenues, were incredibly rich and green.

When we arrived in Wloclawek, we were greeted by a huge welcome poster, which was stretched across the width of the garage. On it was a big stretch of Himalayan mountains, and then in the foreground was Wloclawek. We were thrilled to see it, and so glad to be in a real house again. Once we had settled in, we didn’t manage to stay awake for very long, as we were so exhausted from our journey. Artur woke up again after a short nap, but Loren slept all the way through the day and night, to the next morning!

Artur's Birthday Celebrations
The next day, after a long sleep-in, we celebrated Artur’s birthday, which had been a few days earlier. Artur’s parents had set up a little party table for us outside. There was a black forest cake on the table, and a bottle of champagne. We sang ‘Sto lat’ which is the Polish Happy Birthday song, and toasted Artur with the champagne. Then Artur’s mum brought out a cristal bottle of cytrynowka – which is a lemon vodka recipe, that she made! It was delicious, and we memorized the recipe.

After some drinks, Artur opened the present from his parents. It was an i-phone! They bought it for him while they were in America. Artur spent a great deal of time playing with his new toy, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it to work with the wireless internet at the house. It only works with particular networks. It had a really cool interface though, with a touch screen.

Loren's Birthday
Today is Loren’s birthday! She opened some presents from Artur in the morning, but unfortunately some of them were still left in his big backpack, which was still nowhere to be found. She got lots of other little gifts though. Artur’s parents also gave her a beautiful white-gold bracelet. Loren was very excited when she first woke up, but then a little sad because this was the first time she had been away from her family on her birthday, so she decided to go back to sleep.
A little while later, she was woken up by Artur and his parents who had called Loren’s parents on Skype. They knew it would cheer her up to talk to them. Everyone was little teary, but it was so great to see them. Artur’s parents met Loren’s over Skype for the first time, so that was exciting too.

Torun
We decided to all go to the nearby town of Torun for lunch. It was the first historical town that Loren saw in Poland. We went to a restaurant that served traditional Polish foods, called ‘Stary Spichrz’ (means old granary). The restaurant had a completely wooden interior, and was decorated with stuffed animals. There were stuffed boars, owls, wild rabbits, moose heads, bears.

We wandered around the restaurant having a look, while we waited for our food. Upstairs, there were some special rooms for private banquets. They each had individual themes of decorations and lots of old Polish pictures and artifacts.
We returned to the table after our little wander, and tried some traditional food. The first thing she tried was ‘Smalec’, which is a mixture of lard and tiny pieces of bacon. It is eaten spread on thick pieces of Polish bread, like butter. The next thing she tried was the ‘Czernina’, which is a soup made with duck’s blood and little dumplings, raisins and lots of other flavourful ingredients. Loren wasn’t too keen to order it, but agreed to order it if halfway through she could swap for Artur’s ‘Barszcz z Uszgami’, which is a warm beetroot soup like Borsch, and served with dumplings stuffed with meat. The Czernina actually tasted quite good, but the idea of eating duck’s blood wasn’t too appetizing for Loren, so she did end up swapping with Artur.

For the main course, Artur had ‘Pierogi Ruskie’, which is dumplings (like tortellini) stuffed with quark cheese and onion, and sprinkled with little pieces of bacon. They were really good! Loren had ‘Golanka’, which is pork knuckle. It is a large portion of pork on the bone, with hard crispy skin. The golanka is served with sauerkraut as well. So overall it was a very large and delicious meal!

Torun Cathedral
After the meal, we went for a wander the old town. We saw a beautiful Gothic cathedral and Copernicus’ house. Nicholas Copernicus is a big icon in Torun, he is the guy who realized that the world was round, not flat. Torun is also very famous for its gingerbread. Loren was eager to go to the gingerbread making class that they hold in the Copernicus house, but unfortunately it was all booked out.

Teutonic Knight Castle
We went to see the remains of the Teutonic Knight’s Castle from the 13th Century. There was not much left, but we were able to explore the ruins underground and the tower of the castle that still remained. We got a Polish guide, so Artur translated to English for Loren. The Teutonic knights were brought to Poland by Konrad Mazowiecki in 1226, from Palestine. They came in order to convert the people to Christianity. They traded in grain, and also made lots of money from looting and wars.
We went underground first, where we saw the foundations of the castle, and some even older ruins that the castle was built on top of. We also saw the stove that was originally used for heating in the castle. There was a great model of what the castle was originally like, so that was very helpful for interpreting the ruins.
We explored the upper levels of the castle too, where we saw a tower called the Gdanisko. This was the toilet of the castle, and the river beneath washed away the waste. The similarity of the name Gdanisko and the Polish city Gdasnk, is no accident. Gdansk was one city that the knights never managed to conquer, so they despised it and always built their toilet towers in the direction of Gdansk, to show what they thought of the people there.

Old Town
After seeing the castle, we went walking on the main street of Torun’s old town – ‘Szeroke’ which means ‘wide street’. We saw the building ‘Artus Court’, and the Town Hall, and the old town market, where there is a big monument to Copernicus.
After seeing the old town, we visited the Copernicus Shopping Centre, to buy some clothes to replace the ones that were still lost in our luggage, probably in India. We found out from our insurance that we could claim some money for the first 24 hours that our luggage was lost, then some more again for the next 72 hours. We were a little frustrated that our luggage was still lost, but excited that we were getting new clothes!

Konrad Visits
The next day, we spent some time doing administrative duties, some more shopping for clothes, getting haircuts etc. However, that evening was much more exciting. Konrad, Artur’s brother, was visiting Wloclawek on business, so Loren got to meet him for the first time. He gave Loren a book and cd called ‘Polish in 4 weeks’. Loren was thrilled as she had already been trying to learn some Polish. He also gave a CD and DVD to Artur.

It was a great evening, filled with food, drinks and merriment. We drank some more cytrynowka and everyone toasted ‘Na zdrowie’ (‘for your health’) to Loren, for her birthday. After a few drinks we tried out the new CD, then we ended up listening to some of Loren’s own recorded songs.