Wloclawek, Poland 26.08

After a long drive from Berlin, we arrived at Artur's parent's house in Poland. We had supper together and shared lots of our stories with them. We also brought them a couple of little gifts that we had bought for them along the way. Artur's mum supplies some fabulous Cytrynowka as a welcome home drink. It was a lovely evening together.

Visit to the Cemetary
The next day, we had a long sleep in, and recovered from our long road trip around Europe. It was nice to be back in Poland and having some family time again. This day, Artur's family had planned a trip to the cemetary, to refresh the flowers and candles on the family graves. The culture is a little different in Poland to Australia. Pretty much every grave in the cemetary is tended to regularly by the family. So much so, that they have several flower and lantern shops located just outside each cemetary. Family members visit on the birthday, name day, anniversary of their death and on other major catholic religious days. The leaves are swept off the graves, and the flowers are replenished and candles replaced.
We went down to the cemetary together, and bought some flowers from the little shops outside, and some lanterns. When we went in, Loren was amazed at how well tended everything was. Every grave had at least one set of flowers or a candle, but the majority had lots. Some even had flower beds planted into the frame of the grave, or around the base of it. It was a really beautiful and peaceful place.

Mushroom Picking
Next we went on a trip to the forest. Another Polish tradition, is to go mushroom picking. People do this regularly, and study the different types of mushrooms. Some mushrooms are poisonous, but the majority of them are edible. The trick is to find the ones and are edible, and taste good. There are two or three good types that are easy to find and are native to these forests.
At this time of year, the forest has been moist and rainy for a while, so the mushrooms start to grow. The mushroom picking season is very competitive, with people searching every forest. You have to know a good place to go, so that you can still find them.

We armed ourselves with little baskets, and little knives for digging and cleaning the mushrooms. It was very exciting. The mushrooms that we were looking for were dark brown on top, and if you look at them upside down, they are made of lots of little dots, not long folded sections. It looks like a sponge, not a piano accordian.
The forest that we arrived at was a great spot, but it had already been emptied by other mushroom hunters. We could see the traces left by their presence. There were a few pieces of rubbish, and broken mushrooms that weren't edible. There were also little pieces of good mushrooms that had been cut off during cleaning.
Loren was the most successful, surprisingly enough. She managed to find some pretty large mushrooms that were hidden beneath falled tree branches. They were too hidden to be seen by the prior visitors. Apart from those big ones, and a couple more per person, we didn't find that much.
Loren, being an Aussie, managed to find not one but two snakes! She didn't even know they had them in Poland! There was one black one and one yellow one. Very exciting!

After our mushroom picking, we went home and had a cozy evening. Artur was excited to watch his favorite Polish talk show, with the extremely arrogant but entertaining Kuba Wojewodzki.
The next day we spent the day resting again. Loren spent a lot of time catching up on sleep. She was joined by chubby little Avance the cat, in his favorite activity. While we were awake, we caught up on the blog, and planning the rest of the trip.

Another Trip to the Forest
The next day was our last day in Poland. We were all feeling a bit nostalgic, as this was the last day we would have together before Christmas. In the afternoon, we decided to go mushroom picking again, as we had enjoyed it so much the day before.
This day, Artur's dad picked a really lucky spot. We had a search around near the road for a while, and came up with a couple. However, when we moved further into the woods, we hit the jackpot. Loren found a spot where there were several mushrooms all in the same place.

Yes, this is a bizarre mushroom that we found on our way. When you step on it, it makes a dust bomb!

Once we found that place, we couldn't stop finding them. We jumped from mushroom to mushroom, spotting more while we were cutting those ones out of the ground. It was like a treasure hunt. Our little baskets were overflowing, and we were balancing the extras in our hands, and trying not to drop them all.
When we got back to the car, we piled the mushrooms into one big basket. We were all shocked at how many we had collected, and we hadn't even finished looking in that one area when it was time to go. The mushrooms will all be dried, pickled or eaten that evening. At Christmas time, we'll be eating the mushrooms that we picked!
That evening, we had a lovely meal accompanied by mushrooms of course! It was a lovely but sad meal, as we were leaving the next morning. We stayed up talking until 1am, and then Artur's parents went to bed. We stayed up until 4am repacking for the rest of our trip. A driver from Artur's dad's company was coming to pick us up at 5am, so we gave up on sleeping for the night. We farewelled Artur's parents, and rushed off to the airport.

To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Wloclawek pictures