Now Where Did I Put Those Good Moods?

On Thursday, our family was invited to dinner at the home of Myles' colleague, Magda. Several other people from the university and their families were there as well. We knew that the others were bringing dishes for the meal. But when we asked Magda what we could bring to contribute to the dinner, she said that she just wanted to bring our good moods!

Magda lives in a neighborhood that we had never been to before. We made it without a problem to the city center. We go there all the time. They don't live far from there but we had to find the right bus stop and there are MANY of them in the city center. It did not help that it was 48 degrees and pouring down rain as we are trying to find the right place. I had packed up our good moods, but by the time we finally located and got on the right bus they were nowhere to be found! It only took about 10 minutes to reach our stop in Magda's neighborhood. Then it was about a five minute walk (in the rain, over the hill and through the woods) to reach her apartment.

When we finally made it everyone else was already there. There were several kids there. The bigger kids played pool and the younger ones played with Legos and ran around. The food was delicious and the company was wonderful. All of the people there were associated with the university, and they all speak English fluently. They had some hearty laughs at what we thought was unusual about Poland. We complained about the tiny bottles of milk. The largest size is one liter. That's not much milk. We complained about the tiny bags of cereal, and the fact that I have to buy a dozen at a time. We complained about everything tiny (refrigerators, ovens, etc). We complained about all stores closing for minor holidays. They laughed and laughed. By the time the evening was over our good moods had  reappeared. The time flew by and we enjoyed the visit.

On Friday, Myles and Ben attempted to make a trip to Stutthof. I have been there when my sister was visiting in March. They want to be sure to make it out there before we leave. I went with them to Old Town because I had an errand to do down there. We saw this sign outside the KFC with a new offer: Mojitos! We did not partake, but what a fun idea having a mojito with the original recipe! And they are cheap, too--5,99 PLN is less than $2.

They ended up not going to Stutthof because by the time they reached the bus station, there was a big gap in the schedule and they would have had to wait for a long time. They ended up going to the Post Office that was attacked on September 1, 1939, starting World War II. Myles will blog about what he and Ben saw there. They are planning to go to Stutthof tomorrow.

Yesterday we joined our neighbors at some property they have south of town. I am a little fuzzy on how this all works, but there is land that is divided up into parcels that is owned by the state. It is two kilometers from the Sea and a stone's throw from an arm of the Vistula River. Ship building and repairing goes on just on the other side of the fence of this property.

People can apply for use of the land. Our neighbors have several little pieces of this land that they acquired in 2004, and they are free to do whatever they want with it for their lifetime. They have built a little house (one bedroom, sofa, tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom) out there. Many people use these parcels of land for gardening. Mariusz and Basia have made theirs a lovely little getaway and they go there nearly every weekend that the weather is nice.

We ran into a little problem when Trey's ball went into the little pond and neither he nor the dog could figure out a solution.

We brought an American picnic with us. We served seven layer dip (always a hit at any party!). Myles grilled up some hamburgers (with a little help from Karol and Ben), complete with BBQ sauce, and we fixed a couple of American side dishes as well.

After we ate we visited and were entertained with music. Karol played and Karolina (his fiancee) sang.

The whole family joined in and sang together.

Then Karol took Natalie's request and played a little Bon Jovi!

It was at this gathering that we discovered that my firstborn baby, 15 and a half years old, is now taller than his Momma!

The kids went to school today. I spent the day sorting things in the house. I have three suitcases completely packed and ready to go and much of our winter wardrobe has already been donated. It is a huge hassle and extremely expensive to ship boxes back to the US, so we are trying to avoid that expense. We are not bringing home anything that is easily available in the US. The reality of our return home is coming quickly!

Outside Weather

It appears that spring MIGHT have come to our neck of the woods. Looks like KC might have skipped spring altogether. From the weather reports I've seen, it sounds like it's summertime at home! We have had some delightful spring days this past week. We spent some time at the beach.

We have to get our beach time in before we leave in just about a month.

We don't have that lovely coastline in Kansas! I sat and read my book while the kids enjoyed the waves.

They came home completely filthy and brought a ridiculous amount of the sand home with us.

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon and evening with some friends having a bar-b-que in their backyard.

We had a very nice time relaxing and visiting with them. And since our time here is short, we are really realizing how much we are going to miss them. We met some other friends of theirs who joined us for the cookout. There were lots of kids running around and everyone had a wonderful time. No one wanted to go home!

Today we went to Mass as normal. They were celebrating a First Communion class today. The kids were so cute. They wear suits and First Communion dresses to church, but during Mass they all have a white robe garment over their clothes. It is neat to see the differences and the similarities between what we know and what they do here. Three of my little nieces made their First Communion in the past few weeks at home. As I watched these little, wide eyed Polish children today, Lindsey, Aubrey and Chloe were on my mind.

This afternoon we went downtown to the city center. The weather has been about 70 for the past two days so it has been fabulous. Vendors are now out on the streets finally. Now there are lots of different things to look at. We have also noticed an upsurge in the number of people speaking English on the streets down there. It is tourist season!

While we were walking around, there was a big emblem on the side of a trailer that is the symbol for the city of Gdansk. We tried several times to have someone take a picture of our family in front of this emblem. While everyone we asked was very nice and willing to take our picture (we have three just like this)...

...we could not seem to make anyone understand that the background was just as important to us as the six of us being in the photo.

We gave up as the truck pulling the trailer started up and drove away with our background.

We watched the boats on the river. Trey loved this pirate boat called Czarne Perla (Black Pearl). He used his allowance money to buy this very stylish pirate hat from a vendor (for about the equivalent of $4).

He's already decided that he will be a pirate for Halloween. So I'll come up with an eyepatch and we'll be ready to go in October! This boat goes to Westerplatte. We have plans to visit there before we leave.

We had an early dinner in Old Town. There were all kinds of food options. Myles and I had kebabs.

Ben had this "pizzaesque" thing and the other kids enjoyed kielbasa and potatoes.

They were setting up for a concert for this evening. We did not stay for it but we did hear plenty of music while they were rehearsing.

We came home a different way than we usually do. We pass by this statue all the time by bus or tram, but we are seldom walking by it. This is the priest from St. Stanislaus (where we go to church) Bronislaw Komorowski, who was kidnapped and taken to Stutthof concentration camp in September 1939. He was murdered along with thousands at Stutthof. We pass by this often and I have never seen it without fresh flowers. His photograph is on the wall at St. Stanislaus and the same photo is displayed at Stutthof.

The temperatures are supposed to be in the 50s this week so it looks like spring kind of comes and goes. But we don't mind the 50s so much. We can get out with jackets if necessary!

Rain, Rain, Rain and a little bit of Sweden

We have done more than our share of traveling over the past nine months. We've been to nine countries during every part of the year except for summer, when normal people would be traveling around Europe! But this was our opportunity, so we went when we went. We have been incredibly lucky with weather while we hauled ourselves all over Europe. So we were due for one lousy weather day...and we got it! Saturday was our last full day in Copenhagen. We had plans to rent bikes and ride all over the place like all the Danish people do, but it was not to be.

When I got up at about 7:00, it was cold (about 45) and rainy, pouring in fact. Abbie and I walked to a grocery store that is about a block away. I have learned something about myself. If I can find a great grocery store close by wherever we are, I am happy. It's that simple. The store we went to in the morning was fantastic! It had a great selection and was as nice as any Hen House in KC! Abbie and I bought breakfast items: pancakes, eggs, bacon and some kind of awesome looking hash thing to name a few. We came home and made a big cozy breakfast for everyone.

The revised plan was to enjoy our breakfast, take our time getting ready and then head out in the afternoon. We kept looking outside and it kept raining, and kept raining...harder and harder. So at about 1:30 people were getting hungry, AGAIN! So this time Ben and I braved the cold rain and hurried to the same store. While the rest of my family was at the apartment watching Everybody Loves Raymond in English, with Danish subtitles, Ben and I gathered up ingredients for homemade nachos at the wonderful grocery store. I toyed with the idea of getting groceries for dinner as well while I was there. But I decided that we should venture out for dinner no matter what the weather was like. And I vowed that I would not make three trips to the same grocery store in the same day. So we assembled our lunch and it was of course, a big hit. I can't go wrong with nachos as far as my kids are concerned.

As the afternoon progressed into evening, the rain did taper into a drizzle. It was still cold and miserable out, but we went out to find a restaurant for dinner. As we passed by the awesome grocery store, I took a picture of my two brave shopping partners with it in the background.

We found a place to eat about six blocks away and that worked out fine. It was not one of our favorite places that we have ever eaten, but the service was good, the food was good and Natalie got this cool carafe with who knows what kind of leaf in it when she ordered water with her dinner.

Today we headed to the train station to take our train over to Malmo, Sweden. It was still misty when we got to the station. Here are Natalie, Ben and Trey in front of the train station building with the bike parking lot behind them.

We arrived in Malmo around lunchtime. We locked up all of our luggage (we each have one small carry on bag--I have learned to pack light these last nine months!) in lockers at the train station. Our flight was not until 5:40 so we had some time to wander around this really cute city in Sweden.

We had no plans, no agenda, just seeing where the wind would take us.

We came across these very sweet marching band statues. Abbie and Trey got right in line and joined them.

Myles and Ben decided that they wanted to see some castle and city hall, and I'm not sure what else. The girls and I (and tagalong Trey, who wanted no part of any castles) went shopping! We all met up later at the train station, picked up our bags and went to find our bus. Then right as we were getting ready to board the bus for the airport, what did we see? Hints of blue skies!

After an uneventful 40 minute flight back to Gdansk (of course, with applause for safely landing), we waited for about 20 minutes at the Gdansk airport for our bus. It is 45 degrees and overcast and gloomy. While we were waiting, we noticed this sign for Gdansk:

It is of a man and woman lounging in their beach chairs on what appears to be a warm day, enjoying the beautiful Baltic Sea. They are not wearing hats, scarves, coats, gloves in the picture. Um, I don't know what they call it here in Poland, but in America, we call it FALSE ADVERTISING!

The kids are off to school tomorrow and I am going to start organizing our stuff to bring home next month.

A Really Great Day, But No Warm Weather

We had a fun day on Friday. We had Danish sandwiches called Smørrebrød (open faced with lots of weird stuff on them!) for lunch.

The reviews from the kids were mixed but they did all try them. We walked all over the picturesque city of Copenhagen. 

We continued walking and found Amalienborg Palace. This is where the current Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, lives with her family. Like England, her husband is a Prince rather than the king. They have two grown children, Prince Frederich (heir to the throne) who is married to Princess Mary. They have a son, Prince Christian who will inherit the throne someday. The other son is Prince Joachim, who is also married with a family. We saw many Danish military guards at the palace,

and we were able to see the changing of the guard. That was pretty neat, though these guards are so young. Peoples' children are guarding the palace! There is traffic going right through the royal complex. At one point we saw a huge tractor trailer go through. As Americans, this struck us as so odd. We are used to lock down security! If we had such a complex, there would not be access to just anybody, especially large vehicles.

After our walking tour of the city, we took the kids to Tivoli Gardens. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world, and it opened in 1843. The oldest one is also in Denmark and from what I understand it is not too far from where we were today. Tivoli is a place that Walt Disney visited and inspired his plans for Disneyland. It was easy to see basic similarities as we entered the park. The gardens are stunning, there are many fountains and small town like roads and buildings. Worlds of Fun also has a very similar layout, though it is much bigger. Tivoli is right in the middle of downtown Copenhagen so there is no room to expand as Worlds of Fun has (out in the middle of nowhere!). This replica statue of The Little Mermaid is in one of the many bodies of water at the park.

Abbie, (aka The Kansas Crab) met a new friend at the park.

The kids had a blast. With Myles' encouragement, my BABY went on a big roller coaster with the big kids. I'm not sure I will ever forgive him for that!

Ben has inherited my bad motion intolerance so he wisely chooses to avoid most of the extreme rides. Natalie, however proved to be quite the daredevil. She not only insisted on riding the loopy roller coaster and the tower that drops really fast, she went alone! Myles and I did not buy tickets for us to ride, Ben's stomach can't take those things and Abbie was scared. But then at the end Abbie found some courage and rode on the big roller coaster when Natalie went a second time. They loved it, though I'm not sure Abbie will try it again anytime soon.

They had a blast on many rides: Abbie on the Ferris Wheel

Natalie with the bumper cars

Ben in a boat

Trey pulling himself (and Ben) way high

We left the park at about 8:00 only because we were freezing! We had been out all day. The temperatures were in the low 50s and it was cloudy during the day. In the evening it dropped into the 40s, and that really is not amusement park weather. Nonetheless, everyone had a great time and the Tivoli experience is now right up near the top of our European adventure!

Copenhagen

The first time I have heard thunder and seen lightning since I've been in Gdansk was yesterday...on our way to the airport! Luckily, the storm was very short and our flight to Malmo, Sweden was unaffected. The flight to Malmo was about 45 minutes and we landed in pretty dense fog. Also not comforting. When we arrived, we took a bus from the airport to the train station in downtown Malmo. The train goes on the Oresund Bridge, crossing the Oresund Strait into Copenhagen, Denmark. The train ride takes about 30 minutes. The bridge is partly over the water and partly a tunnel under the water. It is really cool, but it was so foggy we really could not see a thing. We flew into Malmo as it is much, much cheaper then flying into the Copenhagen airport. The only downside is the little extra train travel. We arrived at our apartment at about 8:00 p.m. That is no problem since it is light until about 10:00 this time of year.

This morning we set out to see what Copenhagen is all about. We were disappointed that it is overcast and only about 50 degrees! We seem to be stuck in March over here in Europe. Also, many shops were closed today. We could not figure out why. I looked it up and Ascension Day is a public holiday here. I was surprised to learn that. On our way into downtown, we came across this model of what Copenhagen looked like in the 1530s.

We walked on to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum.

There were many things that we all enjoyed at the museum from the funny mirrors,

to the funny facts, to the bizarre.

Attached to Ripley's is a small museum dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen, who is from Copenhagen. He is most definitely a source of pride for Denmark.

He wrote The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina,

and many other stories in the early to mid 19th century. This little museum was so well done, appealing to children as well as adults.

From there we had lunch in a little sandwich shop and went to the Guinness World Record Museum. It is actually part of the Ripley Museum. We were not impressed since much of it was not up to date. We did enjoy seeing how we measure up to the tallest man ever, Robert Wadlow, who was 8' 11"...

and the shortest woman ever. There were interesting facts that we learned, and Natalie loved seeing Mia Hamm's jersey.

After all of that we headed back to the apartment to hang out for a bit before dinner. Along the way we saw this restaurant that really made us homesick! We had no idea there was a Hereford House in Copenhagen, Denmark! We thought that was a Kansas City original.

We ended up going to dinner at a place very close to our apartment. It was delicious. Myles and Ben had mussels and enjoyed them tremendously.

Pasta and nachos made the rest of us very happy.

We are hoping that the weather is warmer and brighter for the rest of our trip (we'd settle for warmer!).