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GDANSK TRIP * 16 - 21 FEBRUARY 2005 / Part 2

Saturday, February 19, 2005 - Ted was up and out of his flat at 8:30 a.m., only to find, on arriving at Darek's flat, that everyone was still asleep and Darek himself greeted Ted in his underwear. So, Ted decided to take a walk past the apartments and down into the wooded area on the far side of the apartments.

The woods are quite nice and seem to be everywhere. Darek had said that most of the forests in Poland belong to the government and that there are strict laws against cutting down trees. Terry had noticed that there are no wooden telegraph poles alongside the roads, but, instead, slim, reinforced concrete pillars in their place.

(We also noticed that recycling is mandatory in Poland, and that you must place your disposables in special containers, each marked for the type of material to be deposited. Darek said that Germany has the best recycling methods. In fact, when Terry and Ted were in Frankfurt, each trash container consisted of four parts, for different types of trash.)

(Electricity is at 220 volts and, like gas and small cars, is also conserved to a great extent. Lights in hallways will turn on as you approach, and then go off after a few minutes. Fluorescent bulbs are used in place of incandescent ones to reduce power consumption.)

In any event, Ted took his walk down through the forest, following one road or another and found a number of old homes -- actually more like shacks -- with all kinds of junky fences of various materials to protect them. The houses were rather dismal and strange, and Ted did not delay too much around them, but continued walking until, eventually, he returned to the apartment through a circuitous route.

Ted told Darek about the homes. Darek said that they were built or taken over by squatters during the Communist era, and that there is a problem, as most of these homes do not have a title.

Ted asked why the government does not evict them, and Darek said that the government will probably recognize them as a fait accompli, but that legal matters have yet to be worked up to protect those who occupy the houses. In any event, he said, the government practice is that if they condemn one of the houses, they have to provide the occupant with another house. So, the squatters will probably continue to live there, as house replacement is not currently a viable option.

At 9 a.m. we had our breakfast which consisted of coffee, white and dark bread slices from hard loaves, lunchmeat, jam and honey. Terry asked why the honey was white, and Ania explained that it was collected from bees in Jednorozec only during a certain time of the year, resulting in it not looking like honey, but more like light lard.

Today we planned on driving to the Kasub Lakes region some distance from Gdansk, but first Darek wanted to take us back into Old Town to show us a few more places.

In Old Town, we stopped in a dismal-gray government-owned store, looking at post cards and books about Gdansk, but the selection was limited and we continued on. Since Terry wanted to purchase t-shirts for her family, we stopped at another store which was well stocked with tourist items. Terry and Ania sorted through the t-shirts, with Ania noting every now and then that some of the Polish words on the t-shirts were obscene, which resulted in Terry rejecting them and continuing looking until she found a couple she thought were up to her tastes.

Terry wanted to use her credit card, and this store was one that accepted them. After paying for her purchase, Terry, the ever-constant camera person, asked one of the clerks to stand by an ancient cash register so that Terry could take a photo, which she did.

We continued on towards Saint Mary's Church, but, on the way, Ted had the need to stop at a men's room. We found a public one, but Darek insisted that Ted should use one in a museum instead of a public one, so Ted and Darek proceeded to the Muzeum Archeologiczne w Gdansku at Mariacka 25/26, where there was no charge to enter the museum on Saturdays. The toilets were down several sets on narrow stairs, but were modern and nice.

We eventually arrived at Saint Mary's Church. It is hard to consider this building a church, as opposed to a cathedral, since it is so huge inside with numerous vaulted ceilings reaching probably 80 feet or so. Giant Grecian support columns lined both sides of the insides of the church, and the walls and columns were adorned with many religious paintings and numerous carved icons. To the left of the alter, we saw an immense clock, built many centuries ago, that left all of us very confused because we could not tell what all the rows and rows and rows of information in Old German that surrounded the monstrous clock meant. Darek thought it might be astrological information, and we accepted that explanation for the time being.

In this church, you really felt you were back in the 16th or 17th century; there was nothing about today's world in it, except the people visiting inside. The floors of this church were made of slabs of stone, and, if you looked carefully, you could see an inscription of what important person was buried here and there so many years ago that the carved inscription was almost worn off. Somewhere it said that the church was first under construction in the mid 1500s.

To put it mildly, you haven't seen a church until you've seen the expansive interior of this church where religious expression and feeling emanates from every icon and piece of stained glass. We weren't supposed to take photos inside the church -- there was no Mass being conducted, but many people were kneeling here and there, in various corners, praying or meditating -- but of course we did.

From the church we strolled over to the Historical Museum of Miasta Gdansk, which contained huge paintings on the walls and rooms of ancient massive furniture of a quality that disappeared centuries ago. However, what Darek wanted us to see what the "oven" which we found in one of the rooms.

We never did understand what the oven (about 4-feet high) was for or how it heated or distributed the heated air. In fact, we couldn't even figure out how to put anything in it. But, what was really attractive was the chimney which rose from the oven and extended upwards for about thirty feet, and then disappeared through the roof. What was marvelous about this wonderful chimney, which was seven feet wide, and square, and then tapered smaller as it proceeded upwards, was that it was covered with 8-inch hand made tiles.

Each elaborate tile was a piece of art in itself, and each tile told a story, or part of a story. Each tile contained a different, or slightly different, element, and, if you were an educated 17th century church goer, they would probably tell you, from tile to tile, a wonderful and inspiring story.

There were several hundred different tiles going up the outside of the chimney, including the sides, causing Ted to be in awe of the thoroughness of such German engineering, since some of the beautiful and individual tiles were so high it would be very hard to "read" them. Extreme high quality in places you can't see: this seemed to be the trademark of the German workman and engineer during those dark centuries.

From there, we walked briskly back to Darek's Opel, which he was able to drive a few feet before stalling out in the middle of the road as he forgot to unlock his fuel line (mentioned earlier). With Terry and Ted in the car, and Terry trying to spot her favorite subject -- electric street trolleys -- so that she could photograph them, we headed out of town and took a long ride to the Kasub region of lakes.

Both Terry and Ted agreed that the road to Kasub and the houses and businesses alongside the road reminded them of hilly upstate Pennsylvania, particularly in the Scranton region. It seemed very familiar with the exception that everywhere you looked, there were signs. The Polish love signs. Ted noted that his father Tom, who was a sign painter, would be "in his glory" up here. (When Tom took his wife to Las Vegas, Tom was more interested in the signs than what else Vegas had to offer.)

We finally arrived at a national park atop a hill in the Kasub lakes region. (The lakes were caused by glacier activity, at the same time the Great Lakes were created in North America.) Unfortunately, it was extremely cold and the ground was covered with snow and ice and we stayed only long enough to notice that a few fishermen, way down below on the iced lake, had cut holes through the ice and were ice fishing.

We then proceeded back to Gdansk through a slightly different route and back at the flat Ania had prepared for us a "lunch" which consisted of what appeared to be breaded veal, which was very delicious.

By now it was 8 p.m., and since Terry wanted to do some shopping, Terry, Ted, Darek, Ania and Maciek departed for the Centrum Hardowe Mall at ul. Schuberta (many streets are named typically after composers and other famous people) which was very modern, with many words in the various windows in English, although the majority of advertising was in Polish.

Maciek wanted to look at mobile phones, so he and Ted looked at what a few shops had to offer. Inside the Mall was a very large store, similar to a WalMart or a Costco, called Carrefour. Inside, Terry and Ted mostly stayed together so as not to get separated, and we did our shopping.

Terry had a particular fondness for Polish toilet paper, which is slightly narrower, of very good quality, and extremely pretty, with each brand trying to out-do the other in attractiveness of the product. After selecting the toilet paper she wanted to take back to the States and looking at other items, we found ourselves in the liquor department, where Terry wanted to purchase several bottles of wine to take back with her. Ted suggested a Hungarian tokay and a Hungarian bikaver which she purchased.

Ted's purchases came to 22.36 zloty, which he paid for in cash, having exchanged some currency earlier. He was quite pleased with the quality of his purchases: one being a Polish deviled-egg dish, highly decorated and gilded, and containing a made-in-Poland marking on the bottom. An impressive dish which he later gave to Marietta.

Sometime after 9 p.m. everyone was back in the apartment, and Ania served a "dinner" of home made pizza sticks, which were quite good made from sliced French baguettes (four foot long bread loaf with a diameter of about two inches), cheese and sliced ham. Quite good.

Ted had given Darek Kardas some Polish government documents from the 1950s related to his Bojanowski ancestors which Darek was interested in. The Kardas side of the family (Ted's mother) consisted of farmers who, in the last century, could marry only other farmers (and nobles could only marry nobles). Based on the Polish government documents Ted brought, Darek traced the Bojanowski lineage back to the Zawistowskis and the village of Niedzialki where only Polish nobles could live.

Darek said that although Niedzialki was a village of "poor" nobles who did not have landed castles and serfs, they were nevertheless the "szlachta" nobility which elected the kings of Poland. Ted told Darek to call him Prince Ted, to which Darek responded that Ted was a "poor noble" and not a prince. At one time back in history Ted's branch of the Bojanowski family in Poland may have had been rich, but later on Ted's branch was reduced to "poor" noble status, who earned their keep by volunteering as knights or protectors for the richer neighboring nobles.

(Darek noted that a Kardas [farmer] and a Bojanowski [noble] could not be married in Poland at the time of the documents. However, he stated that in America, a Kardas and a Bojanowski could marry since in America there was no such class distinction.)

With this wonderful information in his head, Ted went back to Jacek's flat and dreamt about knights in shining armor and beautiful and graceful maidens running around with gossamer veils over their faces.

Sunday, February 20, 2005 - At 9 a.m. Ted arrived at the Kardas flat to find that everyone had overslept except for Terry, resulting in Ted saying he was going to take his morning walk, and Terry saying she was going along and wanted to see "the old houses" that Ted considered kind of spooky.

Terry had her camera with her and was photographing everything in her path. When we approached the first of the "old houses" Terry started taking photos. An old lady passed by and gave Terry a nasty paranoid stare and then looked at Ted who pointed at Terry and explained, "Amerikanska," upon which the lady appeared satisfied, grunted, and walked away. (In this ex-Communist land of houses without deeds and suspicious people, you can make some people very nervous by taking photographs.)

We took our walk down the snowy and icy roads to the old houses until Terry had enough photos, whereupon she started to photograph the forest, so we walked through the forest (which many people seem to do) to the back side of the apartment complexes on ul. Swidnicka, whereupon Terry took more photos until finally we returned through the complexes and back to Darek's flat.

Ania had fixed us a nice breakfast, and hot coffee and tea to warm us up after our walk. The children had gone to a local church for Mass, but Darek wanted to take us to the Saint Nicolas in Old Town for the 11:30 Mass.

Saint Nicolas church belongs to the order of Dominican monks and, like Saint Mary's church, is quite large, cathedral-like, filled with statues, icons, paintings and other church items that were collected and installed over many centuries. The ends of the worn wooden pews we sat in were hand carved and wore the patina of centuries of touches by hands of church-goers.

Darek had not told us there was anything unusual about this Mass. However, we soon found that it was the "children's Mass" and the front pews were filled with small children and a man with a guitar and a young, happy nun with a crutch who seemed to be the leader of the children.

Before Mass started the children started to sing Polish songs and soon the entire group of people in the church were singing along and clapping and waving their hands. It was very nice music, more folk-like than Gregorian. And, when the Mass started, at times the priest would step back and the children would take part in readings before the altar.

It was a splendid affair despite the informality of it all. We had thought it proper to wear your Sunday best for church, but practically everyone wore jeans. Some sat in the aisles, others sat behind the altar which seemed quite unusual, but no one seemed to notice or object. (Poland is not a "bossy" rigid place. Friendliness and freedom appear to be the rule.)

We still had a busy day ahead of us, so, after Mass, Darek, Terry and Ted headed to the Baltic Sea resorts of Sopot and Oliva on the Pomeranian Coast.

The sky, along the beach, was somber and gray. A cold breeze came in from the east. The brown beach sand, except for the part nearest the water, still had large amounts of snow and ice. Looking down the beach, we could see many people, many with their dogs, walking to and fro along the beach.

We were surprised that so many people were here, but Darek said the beach is very important to the Poles and the Germans who visit. We walked slowly for the better part of a mile eastward, stopping now and then for a photograph, or for Terry to shoot a picture of the Baltic swans who congregate in the water near the beach waiting for handouts, or taking a picture of the washed up detritus that is exposed with every gentle lapping wave from the clear Baltic water.

This beach is famous for its Baltic amber -- petrified resin from trees -- which is found here. We stopped and searched the washed up detritus, but found no amber. Terry did find, however, some small pink shells which were quite pretty. Ted found some amber, which turned out to be small pieces of old brick.

We spent quite a bit of time on the beach, because it was a very pleasant place to be. But, we were scheduled to be at Darek's parents' house for dinner at 2 p.m., so we said goodbye to the beach and headed back to town.

On the way, we passed a McDonald fast food restaurant. With Ted saying, "A trip to Poland is not complete without stopping at a McDonald's" Darek relented, and we made a stop for a drink which ended up with us getting not only the Mala Coca-Cola, the Duza Coke Light and the Duza Kawa, but also three big Macs, fried Camembert cheese balls and an order of Duze Frytki, which, of course, is French Fries.

When we finished our meal, Darek made us promise not to tell his parents, since they had a meal prepared for us, and it would have been very rude for us to have eaten before their big meal.

When we arrived at Darek's parents' house at ul. Schumanna 9, and walked past their barking dog, we went inside and were greeted by Darek's parents (kiss, kiss, hug all over again) and then introduced to Darek's brother Miroslaw and his wife Malgorzata, and their children Dominika, Wojciech, and Marta (more kiss, kiss, hug again).

We were immediately seated and tried to stall to make some room in our stomachs. Darek introduced us to his parents, Josef and Marianna Kardas who immediately noted in Polish that "Ted looked like a Kardas" which is probably true despite his claims of being a Bojanowski noble.

The meal was good, and we ate politely which was a shame since there were some good pastries that we left untouched. During the meal, Darek translated for his father, who commented on a number of things in common, including knowing in Jednorozec the Piotrak family, which were the godparents of Ted's mother (and also Terry's grandmother).

We spent a friendly time communicating in one way or another with the family. Terry and Ted had made their entrance with a couple of "Dzien Dobre's" and a "Vitam" or two, but that was about all the Polish they could come up with at the time. During the remainder of the visit it was translations we listened to, until we made our tearful goodbyes and finally left for the flat.

Leaving Darek's parents' house, Ania, Terry, Kuba and Maciek decided to walk back to the flat, stopping for a greeting card at Albert's on the way, while Darek and Ted drove back in the Opel. (The distance was considerable, but Terry said later that the walk was a "piece of cake.")

During the evening at the flat we played a few games of Uno with Kuba and Maciek, who kept winning, so we quit. Darek was busy for a while copying onto two CD's the photos and MP3's from Terry's camera so that Ted would have a set to take back with him.

At 9 p.m. we were surprised that Ania had prepared another dinner. Darek had some more beer from different parts of Poland, so we sampled those and at 11 p.m., Ted headed back to his flat.

Monday, February 21, 2005 - Today was our day to head back to good old America.

Terry carried her alarm clock with her, but did not really have to use it as she claims to be a "light sleeper." Ted, however, had no alarm clock, but used supreme will power to wake up at 4 a.m., pack up his bags, shower, and shave. He then left a note in the greeting card that Ania bought the other day at Albert's, letting Jacek know that he appreciate the use of the flat.

After returning to Darek's flat a little after 6 a.m. we were offered breakfast by Darek, but we asked only for coffee and the green tea that Terry had brought with her from the States. (Terry told Darek to keep the remaining green tea bags in memory of her visit.)

We knew that our 8:10 a.m. LOT flight from Gdansk to Frankfurt would be full, so Darek drove us to the airport where we found long lines of passengers waiting to be checked in. However, the lines moved along quickly, and we soon had our boarding passes.

Since this was a work day for Darek, we said goodbye to Darek (kiss, kiss, hug) who then headed for his office at the Institute while we wandered the local airport shops to look for souvenirs.

Terry found that the Polish magazines were wrapped in plastic and usually contained a gift, such as miniature saucers, movie disks, scarves, etc., which made it difficult to clearly see the cover of the magazine.

Ted ran into Terry after a bit of shopping and Terry said that one of her magazines and the DVD it contained turned out to be X-rated, and that she threw it in the trash. Ted immediately went to the trash container, pulled out the DVD and magazine and placed it in his briefcase, telling Terry he needed to study it as part of his Polish language training.

Customs at this Gdansk airport, named for Lech Walesa, was efficient with the inspector stamping our passports with his cerise exit stamp. We then went through security, which is run by the Polish military. Ted had no problem, but Terry's handcarry was visible on the bright screen and the soldier wanted to know what was in the bottles. Ted said it was Hungarian tokay and bikaver, and the soldier replied, "Good choice!" and let us proceed.

Our LOT plane was ready for departure on time. Unfortunately, President Bush was flying about over Europe and we were grounded by order of the FAA for ten minutes until the air space was cleared for us to enter. It seemed that no one country wanted to be responsible for anything that could happen to President Bush's plane over their territory, so skies were cleared of planes wherever he flew.

The Brazilian-built Embraer flight by Polish National Airlines LOT was nice and short, getting us to Frankfurt-Main airport in less than an hour. Our bus was waiting to take us to the airport. There we did some shopping in the duty free stores, again finding that we had to take the Sky Train to the other airport to catch our flight to JFK in New York.

Ted was thirsty for some water and Frankfurt being a non-smoking airport, Ted walked the halls looking for a water fountain, and found only numerous smoking stations. Eventually he found one in the boarding area, but the water pressure was so low, he couldn't really get any to drink. He concluded that the Germans must drink beer, not water

(Later, back home, Ted discovered that his checked bag had been opened for inspection by the Bundesgrenzschutz Security in Frankfurt. Fortunately, nothing was missing, probably because it did not contain a newspaper!)

The Delta flight to JFK on a Boeing wide body 767 was uneventful but long, with us departing Frankfurt at 12:45 p.m. and arriving in New York at 3:30 p.m. New York time, which is the same as 9:30 p.m. Frankfurt time.

On board we both had window seats with empty seats beside us. One of the stewardesses remembered Ted from his previous flight on this same route, and they chatted for a while. Food was good and the flight was smooth and easy.

JFK Airport was wet and rainy, with water coming in through the roof and being caught in large buckets which contained a piece of plastic to keep down the splashing. Compared with the new and modern Gdansk and Frankfurt airports, JFK looked old, worn, and in generally crummy shape.

Customs at JFK was no problem, but Security was run by one large and loud New Yorker who looked more like an actor on a TV sitcom than a person in Security. He was loud, noisy and obnoxious, but apparently he had a good heart for he eventually let us through when we followed all his orders. (Ted went through the metal detector with no problem with his steel watch on)

We then had to hand carry our bags a long distance to a Delta counter in order to get boarding passes to our flight to Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

The flight to BWI was on a Canadian-built Comair jet, which got us to Baltimore in about an hour. Our bags were in the baggage claim area in a short period of time, and we were both soon on our way back home, Terry catching the "MARC/AMTRAK" bus to her train station and Ted standing on the island with his bags, waiting for Marietta to come by and pick him up.

A nice trip.

Overall Comments / Observations

Trip goal: the goal of the trip was to visit relatives in Poland. Terry had said that she wanted to "meet her Polish family." Ted had wanted to meet Darek and his family since they had been host to his daughter Linda and his granddaughter Brandy in 2001, and he thought it was time to go over and to thank them.

Gdansk: the city is a tourist paradise. Much credit must be given to the Poles and Germans for rebuilding the parts that had been bombed by the Soviets. People are friendly, prices are reasonable. New construction is very modern and very well planned. All current civil engineering on the infrastructure is done to the highest European standard.

Language: No problem with speaking English at the German and Polish airports. In the Old Town of Gdansk, knowledge of Polish may not be necessary, but in other parts of the city, it might be required.

Security: Airport Security in Poland and Germany appeared to be very professional and courteous. Airport Security in the U.S. airports appeared to be run in such a slow, inefficient and haphazard way that it must be discouraging air travel. (Terry was amazed that Ted was able to get through outbound security two bronze NASA salt and pepper shakers that could easily be mistaken for hand grenades. Terry's loss of her newspapers during a Stateside security search of her checked baggage is a sign of sloppiness on the part of the inspectors. In addition, Stateside Security advises that checked baggage must be unlocked, or that they have the right to break your lock in order to inspect your checked baggage.)

M a i n

Gedansk Trip 1

Gedansk Trip 2 You are here

DNA History

L I N K S

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