Jan. 11, 2008
Happy New Year! We celebrated New Years in Poland with Ewa's family. We were there through Christmas and New Years this year, celebr
ating the holiday as well as Ewa's parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. We had a fantastic time. Here's what happened:
We flew into Warsaw through Chicago on Dec. 19. Our connection in Chicago was tight (if you can help it, don't every fly through Chic
ago) and our luggage didn't make it on our flight. So after we arrived at the airport in Warsaw and realized our luggage wasn't there
we spent another couple of hours there standing in line and filling out papers to arrange to get our luggage when it arrived. We wen
t through rush-hour traffic from the airport to ourhotel in downtown Warsaw. It took an hour to drive about 12 kilometers. Blah. Wh
en we got to our hotel however, it turned out that the management upgraded our rooms because of the slow Christmas season - we ended u
p getting a suite on the 28th floor! That was very nice.
Dec. 21 was Ewa's birthday. We ate at a restaurant that we used to eat at alot when we lived in Warsaw - Restauracja Zgoda. We also
went to old town and took a horse-drawn buggy ride through the old parts of Warsaw. Our luggage arrived that evening - we were very h
appy about that. The next day we flew to Wroclaw and Ewa's brother's family picked us up and drove us to Glogowek where her family li
ves.
Dec. 23 we had a family belated birthday party for Ewa at her parent's place. We actually stayed in an apartment one floor up from th
em in the same building. It was very comfortable and convenient for us. We took Ewa's family's dog for a walk that afternoon and had
a fun time.
Dec. 24 had Kornelia and I decorating the tree and everyone else getting ready for the big Christmas banquet that evening. There were
11 of us at the banquet at Ewa's brother's house. I don't know how many dishes there were at the meal, but it was quite a few - we d
id a lot of eating. After that we opened presents and called my parents on Skype.
On Dec. 25 and 26 we went and saw different live nativity scenes at different churches in the area with all of Ewa's family. It was co
ld, but a lot of fun as well, spending time with them doing different things. We also continued to eat a lot. Ewa's parents had a bi
g meal (practically another banquet) of numerous other different dishes. If you ever want to get a good taste of traditional Polish c
uisine, spend some time with a Polish family over the holidays.
On Dec. 27 the kids and I explored Glogowek, the old palace and city wall, took Ewa's brother's dog for a walk, and the kids decorated
Christmas gingerbread cookies. The next day Ewa's sister-in-law took us to a large town called Gocholazy on the border of Poland and
the Czech Repulic. Ewa had an aunt in the hospital there that she wanted to visit. Kornelia, Erik, and I explored the town. Somewhe
re around this time I helped Ewa's brother's family move and stack a large trailer full of wood. They heat their house with wood as i
t's much cheaper than gas. While we did this in the evening, Ewa's brother lit a bonfire in the backyard for Kornelia and Erik to enj
oy and keep warm. They loved that as we (obviously) can't do that here in Calgary.
Dec. 30, we took Ewa's parents and her brother's family to Wroclaw for a family dinner and outing. This was a lot of fun as the weath
er co-operated and the old town square there is beautiful. New Years Eve was spent visiting with Ewa's Uncle and Aunt who had come do
wn early from Warsaw to visit, and we had another large meal and party at Ewa's brother's house for New Years. Fireworks and smoke we
re everywhere.
New Years day was Ewa's Parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We had a big party for them after a special church service. The party was
in a local hotelwhich had beautiful stained glass windows and a succulent, never-ending supply of food and cake. For six hours we vi
sited, ate, and danced with 30 friends and family there. Ewa's parents had a fantastic time, as did everybody else.
We spent the remainder of our time in Glogowek visiting with family and family friends. We flew back to Warsaw on Jan. 4. Once back
in Warsaw, we did a lot of exploring the city. I took Kornelia the the Grand Theater to see the Nutcracker Ballet with the orchestra.
We had lunch a couple of times in another old favorite restaurant of ours - Pod Sampsonem - a jewish restaurant close to the old tow
n. We saw a bunch of old friends we used to hang out with and had a lot of fun catching up with them - seeing their kids and vice ver
sa.
We flew our of Warsaw on the 8th into Amsterdam. Our flight arrived late and we had 45 minutes to get across the airport and onto our
next flight to Chicago. The seats they gave us for that flight were scattered throughout the plane and had to be changed. The fligh
t was pretty much full so they ended up upgrading our tickets for free to business class. This was a real treat! We arrived home in
the evening on Jan. 8th and we've been recovering from jetlag every since. :-)
