Day 1:
Got picked up in Hartford by the "polish van". From there drove all around picking people up individually and enjoyed a nice soft core polish porn movie on the ride. I met a cool girl on the van who sat next to me, her name was Monica and she was headed to Warsaw. She lives in Ct now but has family in Poland and is a sophmore at Tunxis College. She seemed overwhelmed that I go to uconn and own a macintosh computer, "how many bmw's do you own" she kept asking..haha. I think talking to her made it hit me that I was going out of the country. We got to Jfk around 4pm which would have been fine if our flight was on time. We had a one hour delay in New York which made us 3 hours early with no free wifi at the airport. Then there was a 20 plane wait on the runway so that accounted for another hour and a half before take off. The food was horrible, I would have loved some Uconn food compared to this, however I did get some beer and wine and it allowed me to get a smirk while trying to fold my legs in a way that allowed me to get some sleep. I'm not sure if I fell asleep naturally or because of the ambien but I woke up somewhere near London, and after that the ride seemed to go by quick. At Warsaw airport I hammered some more miniature wine bottles and waited for the ride to Krakow. We got driven to the plane in a bus, I felt like a President climbing up stairs to get into a plane. Krakow airport is tiny, I think my high school was bigger than this airport. In krakow we met up with Zoshia and Wladek and had some dinner and got driven around Krakow for an hour, once we got home I passed out due to lack of sleep and slept for about 10 hours into the next day.
Parents waiting for our flight-took forever, and guess what---you have to pay for wireless internet! what a scam.
Cool Picture of Long Island Sound--I didn't have a window seat but I always snuck out for a peek.
Nothing Like beer to help you on a long ass flight, I enjoyed about 5 of these fine complementary beverages.
Warsaw airport. After spending 8 hours on a flight, its awesome getting on a bus that brings you to....another plane, awesome.
Wawel, a giant castle in the middle of krakow, rumor has it there was a terrifying dragon held captive there.
Day 2:
Woke up at 6am and had a very European breakfast...eating basicly nothing but a small bowl of cereal and some coffee. I think thats how people stay in shape here, I haven't seen many overweight people at all. After that we headed to the biggest tourist attraction, a salt mine. Poland gained most of its wealth through salt trade, and we ventured down 125 feet of mines which was really interesting. After, we took a "micro-bus" back to krakow. A micro bus is a very cramped van that acts as a taxi, wouldn't recommend it for a long trip. In krakow we walked around the town center and ate at this small place called "Bar Grodzki." There I ordered 2 potato pancakes and probably 10 pierogies for just about 5 American Dollars. This was a cheaper restaurant but on that same road there were a few restaurants where you could get lost in, they have seats far underground and are so detailed and amazing, you couldn't find stuff like that in the U.S. The food at our place was delicious but they didn't have beer even though it was called a bar. In Poland bars are just like an american buffet or takeaway, you order a bunch of food and sit down. To solve the beer problem we traveled back to the town center and sat down and enjoyed a nice .5L of Zywiec beer. We then saw the mall which is larger than any mall i've seen, and I took pictures of an art expo that was held outside. All the pictures had some significance to poland or polish artists. We then split up and my parents headed to a Soup Festival and me and Ela went to get some Kebabs and head home to rest before going out at night. We started the night out at a jazz club which was pretty cool, we bartered our way in for 10zl each so about 5 bucks each and had a few drinks. The main vodka in Poland is something called Bolls, its inexpensive and pretty much everywhere. We met two nice women who sat next to us at the bar. They were from Germany, one of which spoke fluent polish the other didn't but we lucked out and she spoke English so we had like 3 different languages going at one time. We also met a drunk British guy who called the music "rubbish/ bollocks" and laughed when I asked if there were any "open" seats. I guess in England they only say empty. The bartender recommended a bar with a younger atmosphere so we headed there. When we got there at around midnight it was dead but it soon picked up and we met 2 beautiful girls. We shared shots of "kamikaze" and they asked us to dance, and dance we did. They had a V.I.P. room in the bar so it was awesome, we would dance for an hour and head to that room and drink. The d.j. was playing old polish and american songs, such as "thriller" by Michael jackson, and "I love rock and roll" that kind of stuff. I hit it off really well with one of the girls and gave her my email and phone number, we plan on meeting up tomorrow but who knows. We got home at around 5:30 am and went to bed exhausted.
Day 3:
Nothing is worse after a night of drinking than waking up 4 hours later and walking around a castle. Horrible. But after eating and having something to drink my hangover disappeared sort of like my money at the bar the previous night. We went to Wawel a large castle near the town center. It was very interesting seeing the old furniture and paintings inside the room. We also saw a few displays of medieval weapons which was cool. I drank a Coca Cola Light...whatever that is...I guess its an overpriced diet coke. Right now my uncle offered me two shots of cream eggnog vodka which was pretty damn good but you can only find it in the Czech Republic. We later went to Tadek's house, a relative and its pretty crazy. Its very spanish looking, it was an old monestary for monks so its huge. There is like 3 floors underground, and its hard to describe, but they basicly have a forest behind it. Half of it is renovated and the other half is just bare boned, bricks layin' around and such. At night we went to "buddah" a nice little bar with red paint and had a red bull and vodka, our waitress was cool she was on her 2nd day working and was really nice, we then walked around saw 2 Brits on the ground caressing each other drunk saying "I love you mate your my bloody bloke". We had a good laugh and got called into this bar with live music so we listened to the band and got 007 martinis. We met up with the ladies from our jazz bar, it was so strange bumping into them but we chatted for a while and I went and talked to a 25 year old hot waitress. I asked stupid questions about tourist stuff but then got personal, she was nice and complimented my polish but unfortunately she had to get back to work. We then met some British ppl upstairs at the bar and they were ranking on Robbie Williams from the movie "take that" and they were celebrating their mates birthday so he was obviously obliterated and reckless. We invited them back to that communist bar where I met the two girls and we danced and sang polish karaoke. it was a blast and our new mates bought us 2 rounds of drinks. The party was going well until about 3am when the main man got a noose bleed. He was passing out and blood was everywhere. Unlike America random strangers offered to help and about 4 people got rubber gloves and were helping him. After we got him outside we said our good byes and took a bus back to Rydla, the street my Aunt lives on. The night bus has the hottest women. I suck here with figuring things out, all the women are so hot and beautiful that its hard to determine their age. Having less than a few hours sleep today im still very energetic and I could have stayed out later but I have to drive to Wroclaw and visit Auswitz tomorrow and we need to be up by 8. That gives me a great 4 hours of sleep tonight!!! WOoo Zombie!!!
Me at Auswitz, place is so big, not possible to see all in one day.
Day 4:
Got up early today and waited for my moms sisters brother to come pick us up. He was late because a pipe burst in his house so I got a few more hours of sleep which kicked ass. We then drove to the country side to Gdow and stayed in a little house that looks crappy on the outside but its actually cozy and nice on the inside. Everyone was very nice and probably since 2pm till midnight they took shots of cognac every 15 minutes. I drank some wine here and there but i took the day off from alcohol. This place is pretty cool because they have goats and raise pigeons. There is also bunnies and 2 chickens. Ive been pen pals with this girl Marta and her dad was the one who drove us here but unfortunately she quit school and moved to Iceland. Today was not that much of an eventful day but it was nice to relax. Tomorrow we will go shopping and possibly do some fishing but who knows.
Day 5:
Woke up today and ate breakfast, pretty quiet day. Took a trip down to the river and check it out, met more family. Bought some vodka and continued the drinking. Got out of helping plow the field because i took a nap. Later we visited Tadek Lincoln and apparently im an uncle because Tadek had 8 kids. We vistited them but they kept pretty quiet and just smiled at us. Most of them were younger than me, the oldest being 18 years old. The girls were really beautiful, I gota get some of my friends to come here and meet them. We had about 5 shots each of the vodka "bols" and then drove back. We just talked some more after that and most people were pretty wasted, its 10pm and im calling it a night because we are hittting the road tommorow.
Day 6
Today we left Gdow and visited many basilicas around the country. We saw one which was a monestary way up on a hill, and then we went to the basilica that Pope John Paul was bishop of. We had a little pastry there then drove to oswienciem and saw how crazy the halocaust really was. Its crazy seeing all those shoes/hair/combs/pans in one place. Even wierder is going into the furnace. Then we ate at this really good resteraunt, I had pierogies and french fries and a beer. Now we arrived at our hotel, i dropped the first key down the elavator but we got a spare. Now we are going to explore bielsku bialy, a town my mom worked in for 20 years. We visited one of her friends, Sofia and her husband and beutiful daughter Kasia. She kicked ass, I wish i could have stayed another week with her we would of had a great time.
This is what its all about.
Huge church on this mountain
Pope John Paul's house, next to his church.
Day 7:
Woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then ate lunch with my moms old friends at some nice resteraunt. Had a bunch of wine and beer and then drove for what seemed like forever to glohowazy? cant spell it. I met adams 2 kids and they are pretty cool but marta isnt here, me and her have been pen pals for about 8 years. O well, tomorrow they are bringing me out for a good time.
Day 8:
Did nothing for all of the morning, just sit around a table and listen to my parents talk. Then went out with Bartek and Matt and we hit up the internet and visited there school and just hung out. They helped me write a love letter in polish and we just sat around basicly. Probably do more of that tommorow.
Day 9:
Today hung out with matt and bartek more and we went to a pool in the czech republic. After that we went out to eat with the family at a nice resteraunt where i met up with peter and patrick and had some real nice drinks at the bar at the expense of my rents. then patrick and peter took me out to their place, and patricks wife magda prepared a bunch of food and we hung out and watched a handball match. Later we went to a diskotech which was pretty fun and i met some girls, helped them stay away from this drunk guy. We got back to their place around 3 and passed right out.
Day 10:
Woke up and had breakfast and a really good lunch prepared by magda. Left and drove to wroclaw where we are crammed in this tiny apartment, but its 1 min away from the city which is cool. Walked around and had a beer and watched street performers, but im calling it an early night because im just totally drained from all this alcohol.
Wroclaw from Bogusia's apartment. Pretty insane view.
Day 11:
Walked around wroclaw, started the morning off right with a nice house beer then progressed to the university here which is amazing. From there we went to visit the two biggest basillicas here and then to eat at this nice place in the rynek. Its about 90 degrees but the women are still mother fucking hotttt. Sure enought the elevator broke and I had to carry probably over a 100lbs of luggage down 10 stories. Now we are at a hotel cuz bugusias place was way to small but im prlly gonna die of this heat. Watched a movie in my room and went to visit another family member down the road. Talked for a while then I went out to a few bars...tuesday night... but still were a lot of people downtown. Some girls had a jar that said, "for beer please" and I almost decided just to bring them out and buy them a round but they looked kinda smelly and probably would have mugged me so I went back to the room.
The cool town center of wroclaw, this had to be the most entertaining night life, great street performers and a town filled with students.
Day 12:
Woke up and went to the japanese garden in the 90 degree heat. Before that we ate some good food at a cheap resteraunt, you can get a meal for 5 bucks, and its a good meal with sides. Then we just sat around the apartment and I did nothing for 5 or 6 hours. Sitting in the tiny room started putting everyone on edge, add the heat factor and people get real pissy. I can take things up to so far but im so tired of when people start talkin' shit about americans and stereotyping certain things. All people in american dont think like that. Not everyone in america likes hot dogs and plays hockey. Plus, if you start dissing my website im gonna woop your ass. Anyhow, got some things on my mind, kinda stuck in a rut where im home sick, b ut i also want to go back to bielsku bialy and get to know kasia more. W/e train leaves to szczien tom morning at 10.
Day 13:
Left this morning at around 9:30 to the train station. Sitting there i got bored and bought a mens health in polish. Talked to a hot girl for about 10 min about stuff in my magazine and she complimented my polish, she was sooo fine. The train ride blew ass, it took 5 hours to get from wroclaw to sczecin. We drove to a nearby town where we are staying with family. We took two cars, and my parents took an extra half hour to get to teh place, turns out they got attacked by gypsies and the gypsies wouldnt let them leave until they bought a shit ton of perfume, so now i have a crapload of bootleg perfumes ill give to my friends. Then i headed to the town pool which really isnt a pool but rather an indoor water park that kicks alot of ass. It cost about 22 zl for both me and my buddy and we stayed for an hour. Lots of smokin' hot girls, but unfortunately all them had boyfriends or husbands..or kids. Some were insanely hot but my buddy told me that they were in their 30's or even 40's which by my standards is fine by me. Now im goin to sleep in a pretty comfortable bed but probably will be woken up in 7 hours again...blah. Also tried figuring out a way to spend a day in bielsku bialy, and so far it might happen. Crossin my fingers.
Day 14-21:
Went to the baltic to some camp site. Pretty boring did the same thing every day pretty much: woke up, got dressed, went to the beach for a few hours, used the internet at a cafe, and watched soccer, repeat. Euro 2008 is pretty decent, its fun to watch because there are only 3 channels on the camp ground. Its more interesting to watch at a pub becaue your surrounded by people who are drunk and love soccer. We took the dog for a walk on teh beach, and I ended up jumping in, some girls laughed at us and we ended up talking for a while. Their names were justine and jovita. We talked for an hour but never met up later or kept in contact. Today went to the pub here in grafino to watch the polish soccer match. Ended up pretty sad, we tied 1-1 but were winning until the last 20 seconds. We drove around after lookin for a place to put on the celtics game tom but no one would open up early enough to put on the match.
Day 22:
Went to sczecin today and roamed the city looking for macbook prices, then did some sightseeing and visited the castle which had a bunch of art exhibits and also a crypt with 6 tombs.
Lots of Seamen everywhere...ooo come on get your mind out of the gutter!
Day 23:
rode all day on the train from 11am to 11pm but when we got in krakow went out to party at club prozak. it was awesome, was a huge club with like 5 dance floors and different bars and lots of hot women. met a few girls one of which named ala who spoke great english, and met a bunch of british people. Got pretty drunk off a water bottled filled with some sort of vodka and juice and partied for free in the club. Got home around 4am and it was light out again...typical night in krakow.
Day 24:
Went out this morning and met up with beata and peter the statue guy and we sat in a little basement and ordered tea. Then we went out to eat at around 4 at a place called angielki or angels which is also a basement styled resteraunt thats very expensive. I ordered a steak and some wine. Then we met up with peter and beata again and saw indian jones and now we are back and exausted and going to sleep at 11pm.
Day 25:
Went out today and walked around the city and started teh day off in the jewish quarters or kazimierz. There we went to this bar and drank absynth which was awesome. then we walked around the wisla river and ate at a thai place in plac nowy. Then i met up with my old polish teacher and had ice cream and expresso at wesele a resteraunt. then i went to the park and enjoyed soccer. Poland lost to croats 0-1.
Yay Absynth! Nothing beats getting drunk at 11am.
When in Poland watch out for land sharks, I used everything I learned from Man vs. Wild to fight off this thing.
Day 26
Woke up today and exchanged my money and bought booze. unfortunately i dropped one handle so i had only one left, but luckily i bought another one on the plane. The flight was 9 hours and then then airport stuff took a few hours and the ride home took almost 4 hours so we got home at 3am, going to bed now.
God I love Polish girls (in krakow downtown).
