Wroclaw, Poland

Mike and I had a lot of fun (and trouble) trying to say the name of this Polish town.  In Polish, the 'W' sounds like a 'V' and the 'C' sounds like an 'S' so the town we were pronouncing roe-claw was really "Vro-slav."  You learn something new every day.

We spent two days in Wroclaw and had the same sentiments as we did about Poznan.  That was basically our sentiment about Poland in general.  Nice, but nothing too exciting.  The most exciting thing about Wroclaw is the gnomes! They're everywhere!  Gnomes are apparently huge in Polish history and culture.  The gnome became the mascot of the anti-communist movement in Wroclaw and the anti-communist group would go around painting graffiti gnomes everywhere in protest of censorship in public space.  They stuck around and now there are over 300 little gnome statues all around the city.  It was a great way to see the city and do some gnome hunting.  I'm sure kids would have loved this activity, but we definitely got a lot of enjoyment out of it, too!

Me in gnome form. Map in hand.  Camera around neck. The ultimate tourist.  

This one's for you JP!

We found about 35 gnomes over the course of our two days, but there were tons more out there.  They even have an app that lets you know the locations of all of them.  Other than the gnomes, we felt the same sentiments about Wroclaw as we did about the rest of Poland.  We ventured out to the UNESCO sight and it was nothing.  It looked like a big building with no historical or cultural significance.  Wroclaw was a beautiful little town with not a lot to do. We spent a couple of days walking around before bidding farewell and heading back to Berlin. 

Poznan, Poland

When I was in Croatia, I met up with Jennifer and Justin Bronder and their three children.  Justin was the Olmsted scholar placed in Poznan, Poland and was just finishing up his time in Poznan when I met them.  They spoke so highly of Poznan that I knew I wanted to make a stop there.  We planned a two night stay there, but in hindsight, we really only needed an afternoon and night there.

Mike and I have been talking a lot about the difference in cities.  We've come to the conclusion that some cities are great to live in, but not so great to visit.  Others are great to visit, but not where we would want to live.  Poznan is one city where we would be glad to live, but there wasn't a ton to see on a visit there.  There were tons of restaurants and bars and was a great little college town. I could see so many options for a weekend night with friends. There weren't a ton of sights to see, so it wasn't the best place to visit for more than a night, but it seemed like a fun university town for residents.

Anyways, we walked around the town the first day we got there and took in the feel.







Poznan has a town square with lots of little restaurants and biergartens along the edges.  At noon, the clock tower chimes and two goats come out of the top and fight.  It's quite entertaining, albeit a little weird.




The next day, we did some more wandering.  A lot of that wandering was centered around Mike catching pokemon on Pokemon Go, but sightseeing is sightseeing :)




One of the most exciting things that happened in Poznan was that Mike got a haircut!  A lot of the guys doing the Olmsted program grow their hair out because it's their only opportunity while serving in the military.  Some of the guys have grown full beards, while others have had shoulder length hair.  Mike doesn't have a ton of facial hair, so a beard was out, but he wanted to try and grow his hair out, just to see what it looked like.  I didn't have high hopes for it, but knew this was his only chance, so I went along with it.  My  fear that it would grow out instead of down was slowly confirmed as his hair grew and it finally got to the point where he couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to get a hair cut.  Since we had spare time in Poznan, off to the barber he went!

Before: My sentiments exactly

After: with a celebratory beer!

He looks and feels so much better!

Our last stop in Poznan was a bar that took us back to the days of Communism in Poland. #tbt anyone?

r

Overall, we thought Poznan was a cute little town, perfect for an afternoon or one night stay.  We were a little bored by the time we left, but it's got character and definitely worth stopping by if you find yourself in Poland.


Also, random Michael Musing....

"Being married is a lot more fun than I thought it would be."   Thanks?

I'm pretty sure I heard a story about my dad saying something along these lines a month or so after I was born.  I guess I'm just a ton of fun! hahahah

The Castle of Malbork

We bid farewell to the Hollars and their gang of little boys and headed south to Malbork, where there is a historic castle.  I don't know about you, but I don't really think of castles when I think of Poland.  I was wrong because there is a castle in Poland and it is huge!!  It's also in great shape, considering that it seems like the rest of Poland didn't survive WWII.

When we purchased our tickets, we were given audio guides as well. This was great because it provided a ton of information.  If you were a Polish history buff, you could have spent the entire day there.  We only lasted a few hours, but it was pretty cool, both inside and out. 

love these ceilings!

After a few hours at the castle, we were ready to head on to our next town, but not before we stopped for lunch at a tent outside of the castle.  Since Poland is so close to Germany in proximity, it didn't surprise us that our choices were various types of pork with sides of potatoes.  I got a shish kabob with pork and Mike got a bratwurst and we split a side of potatoes.  My vegetable loving self was missing the side salad that it enjoys, but I just figure I'm getting warmed up for life in Germany :)

Gdansk, Poland with the Hollars

I made it through security and found my bags in Berlin pretty easily after landing at the airport.  I was exhausted, though, and had a few hours to kill in the airport before Mike landed.  I found a spot and camped out there for a while. Around lunch time, Mike's plane landed and it wasn't long before I saw his smiling face amid all of the Turks.  Well, actually, if you know Mike and traveling with Turks, it was a little bit of a look of frustration.  Anyways, we were definitely happy to see each other.  It's nice knowing that we won't have to be separated for an extended period of time, at least for a while. 

After the reunion, we were both starving, so we grabbed lunch and headed into town for our hotel.  Originally, our plan was to spend the week house hunting in Berlin before Mike went back to Izmir for the move out.  We figured if we could look at places, we might be able to move in sometime in late August or early September.  Our household goods (HHG) are not going to arrive in Berlin until mid-September, so we wanted to cut down on the amount of time we spent sitting in lawn chairs in our empty apartment.  I still cringe thinking about our first couple of weeks in our Izmir apartment.   We quickly realized that apartments were turning over pretty quickly and if we found one, we'd have to sign a lease and be ready to sign a lease for the near future.  Not wanting to spend an extra second in those beach chairs, we nixed our original plan and decided to travel instead! Are you surprised?

I didn't want to travel too far and wanted to do something pretty low key that didn't involve hours and hours of sight seeing (I was tired, y'all).  The Hollars, another Olmsted family are in Gdansk, Poland and were willing to host my jet-lagged self and Mike for a couple of nights, so we jumped on the opportunity with the thought that we would stop in some other Polish towns as well.  Plus, seeing friends and traveling would be a good distraction to keep the homesickness at bay.  

Poland had never been on our must-see list, primarily because of it's distance from Turkey, but also because neither of us really knew much about it.  Sean Hollars gave us the tour of Gdansk with the forewarning that you can see it all in a few hours, which is true.  While there isn't a ton to see there, it's Old Town is picturesque and the beach is within walking distance of their apartment.

  

We climbed up to the top of a church tower to get a view of the city from above.  Luckily, the view made the 400 step hike worth it.

Czesc from Poland!

 We went to the history museum, which was really interesting for all of us.  Sean enjoyed it because he knew a ton about Polish history.  Mike and I enjoyed it because we knew nothing.

We always laugh because whenever we stay with people who have kids, they jump on the opportunity to get a babysitter and have an adult night.  We definitely don't mind hanging with the little ones, but I think the parents are eager to get a few hours of adult conversation in.   The Hollars have three little boys under the age of seven who are all-boy all the time. The second night we were with the Hollars, the babysitter came and the adults hit the town.  I don't know who was more excited about the babysitter, the parents or the kids! 

Downtown Sopot is a cool area with lots of restaurants and things to do, including the world's longest pier!  We wandered around for a little while downtown before heading to dinner.

We went to a brewery in Gdansk where the food was good and the drinks even better!

Our night ended at some VERY POPULAR (wait 20 minutes for a drink popular) bar where they make custom drinks for you.  You tell them what kind of drinks you like and they concoct a drink just for you!

Look at those drinks!!

The next day was the Hollars' anniversary so we made our way to the next Polish town so they could celebrate on their own.  They were celebrating by taking a Polish cooking class!! How fun! Happy anniversary guys and thanks for being such great hosts!