Anna’s Travelogue - Vacation 2005 - Part 1 of 2
Greetings from POLAND
Czech!
Greetings from the other side of the world… or nearly anyways. I’m in Poland now – a wonderful 6 hour time difference away from home – and the hours this internet café is open make it almost impossible for me to find any of you online, since you’re all sleeping by the time its open pretty much to the time it closes! but I’m not complaining, I was lucky to find one at all.
As much as I would rather be spending these two and a half weeks hanging out with all of you, I have to make the best of it – or go crazy. So I’ve resigned myself to take lots of pictures, and maybe at least entertain you from a distance.
After a brief, but epic battle for the window seat (which eva won on a technicality, despite the my use of tickle power ::shakes fist:: rwar! Lol just wait till the way back! Muh haha – the window shall be mine!) we took off from Newark at 7
cameron: the city looks so peaceful from up here..
ferris: cameron, anything looks peaceful from six hundred feet ;p
airplane food.. ::twitch::
mah spoon is too.. broken??
and then we landed in Warsaw
yayyy jet lag! hehe - although maria passed out, eva and i resolved to make it a round 48 hours. (or in my case.. 52.) and in in our delirious state there ensued a moral combat of Camera Wars!
RoFl.. see what 52 hours of no sleep does to people? ::shakes head::
Anyways, spent the next two days walking around Warsaw – its not that nice of a city because everything that was old and interesting was totally destroyed in WWII, but we still had a good time, saw some museums and walked.. a lot. its all about those 16 flights of stairs in the apartment building we are staying in.
Here's part of the "old" city.. not really old since they rebuilt it all, but at least it looks traditional. not like the rest of the city ::cringes:: i didn't even take pictures of it.. just think skyscrapers and cheap apartment buildings
King Henry II you silly silly man (ROFL Netta, this one's for you) everyone else.. never mind
We stayed those two days with Bozena (in blue)- the most energetic 81 year old i've ever met
fun with black and white
a tram! ::dances:: a tram a tram a tram.. hehe - we should so have them here
its a FIAT!! hehe lol its so cute! (you think if i packed it in my suitcase someone would notice?) its only got 2 cylinders. though RoFl (tom i can just see you shake your head in disgust.. you and your six cylinders. Lol ;p)
Warsaw Uprising memorial
What the statue?... no no, its just a random guy who likes to paint himself gold and stand motionless for hours on street corners for money.
anyway, so after dinner (around 4) i decided to go wander the city some more - but after a few minutes, the sky began to look a bit like this
and then the wind picked up and things started flying by me. paper. plastic bags. sand. umbrellas. small rocks. so i decided to head back to the apartment.
i made it in just before the trees limbs started snapping
no no, the lightning didn't actually hit the building.. that time
after the storm though there was a great sunset - and we went off to see another museum about the warsaw uprising
Mr. Alschen.. this ones for you. RoFL!!
Then i exchanged my american 20 dollar bill for 65.10 zwoty. Lol why can't our money be pretty and multi colored?
And so ended my time in warsaw. the next morning we packed into a small rattling van and rode for a bumpy three hours here to Kielce. well not really - Kielce is the nearest town.. which is half an hours bus ride from our little house/cabin here.. we're quite in the middle of nowhere.
And when I say middle of nowhere, I mean
middle
of
nowhere.
so i don't want to hear anymore complaints about how there's nothing to do in Fair Lawn.
Its a 20 minute walk to the nearest shop, and a half hour bus ride to town. there's nothing but miles of farms and fields, and forest for miles. When we first got here i thought i'd be stuck - but soon found a few bikes lying around. now i spent most of every afternoon riding on the farm roads, forever in search of a bigger hill to ride down. (its always an adventure since my bike has no brakes! lol that's me - always safe ::grins:: right techies? )
You may be wondering why on earth anyone would ever, ever want to spend a week and a half here.. (i wanted to know the same thing) but its because my mom doesn't want my grandparents to have to put us up in their apartment, and they can't go up into the mountains anymore because of their health, so we brought them to the country.
me n my grandpa and my mom and my grandma. not great pictures, but camera aversion seems to run in the family! Lol
My grandparents say "Czech!" to all of you - and they're fascinated by the fact that I can take a picture of them and put it on the screen a few minutes later. my grandpa's so cute - we showed him the internet for the first time two years ago and he "couldn't believe so much information could fit into such a tiny box." ::grins::
So i spend lots of time riding around with my digital camera. by now i've got nearly all the functions worked out so i can take some hot pictures.
And then, late at night when I would normally be roaming the streets of Fair lawn or glen rock, or be a the diner or starbucks or watching movies.. I'm in bed for lack of anything better to do. I've finished one book and now all I have is that horrible, evil summer reading i have to do for AU. (Netta.. you feel my pain! tell them!) lol
And that's when i get out my pen and start writing you all letters, cause i miss you already
Here's Kielce.. nothing exciting but at least its civilization
i would send postcards, if i could find a place to buy them! but i'm in town now (ooo exciting! hehe) so i should be able to find some.. somewhere.. ::shifty eyes::
And HERE is my award winning photo of the century. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to get my mom to not only to not hide, but smile for a camera?! ::grins::
aiee! I'm totally out of touch with the world now!
So here i am - middle of nowhere missing Fair Lawn if you can believe it. Having a good time getting in touch with my European side.. but all the same...
. Looking forward to.. well.. my birthday for one. I'll be 18 on August 9th.!! however many days away that is, i totally lost track of time. it could be today for all i know! ::checks:: its not. other than that.. not much.. Lethal Weapon II will be on TV on Friday... hehe in Polish, but hey, i could so go for a good movie right now. Last movie i saw was Singing in the Rain. ::smiles::
"siinnging in the raain.. siinnging in the rain".. i might just be doing that - its about to pour again.
'll be in Krakow on the 12th for 2 days.. that's always fun.. being in the city. then its back home with me. =D
Before I go, here's some advice:
Don't take the shortcut. ::shakes head:: lol ::grins:: its just not worth it. trust me
I hope you're all having fun! - and if you get bored, just think of me out here and know that Fair Lawn can't possibly be all that boring. I miss you like crazy, can't wait to get back.
write me emails! I'll be online again soon =D
