2013 The McCuistions in Poland and the Baltic States
Prelude
The McCuistions received a great blessing when Mark took his job at the University of Cincinnati. That meant two of his sons (Kevin and Michael) were able to attend college tuition-free and graduate with no student loans from Cincinnati.
In addition, since Michael was in the Mechanical Engineering program and did co-op work every other quarter, he graduated with money in the bank rather than loans to be paid. So his graduation gift to his parents was to take us to Poland, where Michael had served his mission.
Having your own personal interpreter is the only way to go, let me tell you.
28 April Sunday - 29 Monday: Cincinnati to Warsaw Poland
After church in Cincinnati, we loaded up the car and drove to Cincinnati airport in Kentucky (yes, don’t ask). At 5:40 pm we got on a big-old airplane for a three-movie flight to Paris, where we transferred to a 4-hour flight arriving in Warsaw at noon. Since Michael knew Warsaw and the public transportation system very well, we dragged our bags on a local bus and rode to the centrum, where the Warsaw Marriott (Al. Jerozolimskie 65/79 Warsaw Poland) is located.
Right away, we started having problems. While we told our Credit Card companies we were going to be in Poland and the Baltic countries, the credit cards weren't working. Fortunately, we had made the reservation online from the states, so they knew we were supposed to be there and everything should be working. They checked us in and suggested we give our card companies another call. But by the time we got to our room and were settled in, the reception desk called to say the card was working and we were checked in just fine. Hurrah. We made it to Poland.
Feeling fine (even though we hadn't had much sleep,) we decided to see the town. So out we went for a walk.
And walk we did. We started in the ‘undercrossings’ which are the shops underneath the streets. At major intersections, you don’t cross the street, you walk underneath it. And there are little shops along the walls with all kinds of wares.
We walked past the Monument for the Fallen and Murdered in the East. We saw little bottles with wicks on top, which is a very Polish custom to place next to memorials, which we saw everywhere in Poland.
On we walked.
We made it to the Old Town section, where we saw Copernicus's statue and building as well as street musicians. We saw musicians playing:
Soprano Sax
Flute
Guitar
Drums
and even a broken dresser drawer with a stick
We came to a Polish Folk Art store in the Old Town section that had some beautiful Christmas Ornaments. Lynn of course purchased some.
On we walked.
We had a traditional Polish dinner at a restaurant. They brought interesting dishes of cabbage. After dinner, we then got on a tram to get to the only LDS chapel in Poland. They hold a Family Home Evening each Monday evening, and we wanted to attend. When we got there, it looked dark and locked up, but while Michael and Mark were wandering around the building, Lynn just went up to the door and knocked. Sure enough, they were in there, and we were welcomed. They were finishing up a pancake dinner, so we joined them around the table (having already eaten) and enjoyed their company.
Afterwards, we walked to the nearest tram going the right direction, and it got us fairly close to the centrum.
We had to walk the last dozen blocks. In retrospect, we should have gotten the 24 hour all-you-can-eat transportation pass.
At least we slept well.
30 April Tuesday: Warsaw to Kaunas Lithuania
We wanted to be in Katowice on Sunday, but we also wanted to visit the Baltic countries since we were so close. We also wanted to be in Poland during the last part of our vacation, in case anything strange happened. We definitively did not want to miss our plane home and the start of Michael's first day of work. We decided to do our Baltic tour first.
Therefore we went back to the Airport and rented a car.
An adventure in International Travelings.
Our USA insurance does not work in East Europe, so we needed to add temporary rental car insurance. That really increased the price of the rental. Then we added a second driver; more costs. Then we added a border crossing; more costs.
But having the freedom to go where we wanted to go and do what we wanted to do was very liberating.
We started driving north. On the way out of town, we passed an accident, with a taxi cab on it’s side. Later that afternoon, Michael translated a part of a radio news section that said the driver of the sideways taxi had run away! I mean, how hard is it to track down a licensed taxi driver??!!
The houses were small and mostly plain, but many of the yards had beautiful metal fences. And occasionally, the entrance to a farm (or even a home) would have a shrine at the entrance. This is also a Polish tradition.
"In the times of our ancient pagan ancestors, the outer boundaries of a village or the place where two roads met, was considered to be an evil place where unfriendly spirits waited to pounce upon the unsuspecting traveler."
We also noticed big bird nests on top of the large power poles. This is also an environmental Polish feature. Apparently the White Stork birds were getting electrocuted and were facing extinction. Adding the nests to the top of the power lines helped bring them back.
Another pole issue we noticed was that some of the telephone poles were made of cement.
When we crossed the border into Lithuania, it was nearing sunset. We could see small villages off in the distance. But there were no lights on. It was like the entire countryside was without people. Occasionally we’d see a single farmhouse with a single light. It was kind of spooky.
We made it as far as Kaunas, Lithuania before we felt we had to turn in. As we drove around looking for a hotel, we drove over a million potholes. Some of them serious potholes. We followed one sign for a hotel which took us down a small road the eventually dead-ended into a big pothole. We never did find that hotel.
Finally we let technology help us; we put in the address for the Best Western Santakos hotel (J. Gruodzio g. 21, LT-44293 Kaunas, Lithuania). Our GPS took us there, but just as we pulled up, the street lights went out! It didn’t look like a traditional Best Western hotel. It didn't even look like a hotel.
Lynn and Michael went on in anyway. Turns out they were happy to house us. And we were happy to have a place to stay in this country that seemed un-populated, at least out in the farmlands.
1 May Wednesday: Kaunas Lituania to Pärnu Estonia
On Wednesday, we had to do a lot of driving. We passed through Lithuania to Latvia. Our plan was to drive all the way to Estonia.
We made it to Riga by noon. It seemed to us that there were no bright colors in Riga and there was an old appearance of things. We decided to see Riga on the return trip, so we continued driving North.
Out in the country side, we occasionally saw a totem pole. I never could find the Baltic tradition associated with this.
As we drove up the Baltic Sea coastline, we were able to catch glimpses of it from time to time.
We stopped in Pärnu, which is the Resort city of Estonia. We stayed in an older, small hotel called the Green Villa (Vee 21, 80014 Pärnu, Estonia)
The First of May is some East Europe holiday, so many of the shops were closed. We finally found a restaurant with real Baltic food. We had an Estonia Salad with cabbage. It was pretty good.
2 May Thursday (pictures): Pärnu Estonia to Ukmergė Lithuania
As there was little to do in Pärnu, we left town and drove south.
Along the way up and back, we noticed the sides of the road had tall birch trees, which they were obviously harvesting and replanting. Most farmhouses had a tall pile of firewood. We later learned that when the Baltic countries broke off from the USSR, Russia was not happy about it. And since the Baltics get their gas from Russia, it was very expensive. Thus they had to burn wood for heat.
We drove back to Riga and got on an English-Audio double decker tourbus. We saw:
Old town, Powder tower, Fortress Bunker converted to park, Freedom tower, Landmark TV Radio tower.
Afterwards, we walked back to the Central Market, which is housed in the old dirigible hangers. On the way we passed St Peters Church. At the Central Market, Michael found a very nice blanket with a tiger pattern for his bed. Riga was at various times occupied by the Germans, the Russians, and the Swedes. Apparently during an invasion, the Latvian army leaves the town so the invading armies don’t blow the place up. That’s why all the old building are still there.
We left Riga and drove to Lithuania. We had hoped to make Vilnius, but could only get most of the way there. We ended up in the only hotel and restaurant in Ukmergė, Big Stone hotel (5 Kauno g., Ukmergė 20130, Lithuania)
After dinner, we walked across the bridge. On the way, we saw a funny little Rusted Iron farm-parts outdoor art work in someone’s backyard.
3 May Friday (pictures): Ukmergė Lithuania to Białystok Poland
We drove to Vilnius and found the local tourist information shop. They showed us the tour bus brochures, and we high-tailed it to the center of town to get one of them. There was a 2 hour personal guided English tour in a Minibus available, which we preferred to the English Audio tourbus. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be one available at the time listed. The very nice young woman who was helping tourists get on the correct bus said she could get us a minibus tour in the afternoon, but we told her we needed to get back to Poland and were leaving town at noon. So back on the phone she gets and they round up an English speaking tour guide and a minivan, and we get our own personalized Vilnius tour. We saw:
Cathedral square, Presidential Palace, Vilnius University, Dominikonų street, Vokiečių street, Town Hall, its square, Rūdninkų street, Pylimo street, Gediminas avenue (KGB museum), Parliament, Menagerie (Žvėrynas), bunder of the river Neris, Green bridge, St. Peter’s and Paul’s church (stopping), Užupis, St. Ann’s and Bernadine’s church (stopping), Amber gallery (St. Mykolo str. 8), The Hill of Subačius (panorama), The Gates of Dawn (stopping), Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit, Lithuanian National Philharmonic, Town hall square (stopping).
We got a really nice feel for Vilnius and were glad we did the personalized tour. The Church of St Peter/Paul had some 2,000 sculptures. They were everywhere. At one point, as we passed through the Gates of Dawn. Then we could see a Catholic Church, a Russian Orthodox church and a Greek Orthodox church all from the same point. We left town by noon and drove to Białystok. Here we had our first (but not only) encounter with a great Polish scam. We got paddled over by the police.
We were trying to get to the center of town where most of the hotels are. At one point we turned right and apparently missed a plain round white circle with red circumference street sign. This is the Forbidden sign. Apparently the street was a buses-only street. And the police wait at the end of the street for cars to come around. They have these paddle sticks for directing traffic and they paddled us over.
Well, we stopped and I rolled down my window. The police officer starts talking to me, but of course, I have no idea what he’s talking about; it’s Polish to me!
Michael rolled down his window and began a conversation with him. Michael told the policeman, “They’re tourists.” The officer eventually asked for my drivers licence. Michael told him we're were looking for a hotel. He asked if we had a reservation. We said no we need to find one. He finally waved us away with instructions to continue driving on the buses only street, make the second left and we would be in the center of town where we could find a hotel.
We decided NOT to stay around the center of town and drove further out. We stayed in a rectangle-cement ugly-as-sin communist building that was the Turkus hotel (Al.Jana Pawła II 54, 15-703 Białystok, Poland). The inside was fine, but the outside definitively showed all the wonderfulness of Communism.
4 May Saturday: Białystok Poland to Katowice Poland
Our goal was to make it to Katowice, so we could do church there with that branch. On the way, we took a side trip to Częstochowa: Jasna Gora . It’s apparently the fallback city incase the Vatican goes offline. There is a really big fortress-like structure with a cathedral in the middle. This was where John Paul 2nd spoke to the Polish people when he became the Pope. Here you’ll find the largest Pope statue in the world (of John Paul 2nd). There is a very nice set of statues depicting the life of Christ. The culmination is a statue of Mary wearing the crown on her halo-encircled head, stepping on the serpent while holding aloft the Scepter. She’s also holding the Book of Life. Oh, and she’s also holding Baby Jesus.
There’s also a Stations of the Cross series. In the cathedral is a painting of Mary called the Black Madonna of Częstochowa
During one of our driver-changes, we took a side road and found another beautiful iron fence. We took a picture of it, but the belligerent drunk fence owner came out of his house and started swearing at us and was quite upset at us for taking the picture of something that doesn't belong to us. Michael finessed the problem by telling him we’re tourists and shows him the picture (with the camera’s view screen.) The drunk then says that’s a good picture and we should take another one. We did and then left as quickly as we could.
We stayed at the Hotel Katowice (al. Korfantego 9, Katowice 40-951, Poland). We were able to walk around abit during the evening. For dinner, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant.
Advice: When in Poland, Don’t do Mexican! (Michael disagrees. The El Diablo is as spicy as you could get anywhere.)
5 May Sunday (pictures): Katowice Poland
During his mission in Poland, Michael served in the Katowice branch (among 8 others). So it was our desire to attend church there on Sunday. It turned out to be Fast and Testimony sacrament meeting, where the members speak extemporaneously about their faith. It was fun hearing them speak and sing in Polish. At one point, Michael bore his testimony in Polish. We can only assume it was done well, since Lynn and Mark aren't conversant in Polish. But it seemed to be well received.
The most senior missionary there at the time was still quite new to Poland and was having some difficulty translating the live Polish to English for the visitors. So during Priesthood meeting, Michael took over the translating duties. Who knows if he was translating correctly, but he told us some great Gospel concepts.
After church, one of the members invited us to lunch the following day. What a kind and generous offer.
One interesting cultural anomaly is that there must be a heavy middle east presence in Poland, because there is a Kabob shack on every street corner. We had a Kabob from one of the roadside booths for dinner. We stayed a second night in Hotel Katowice.
6 May Monday: Katowice Poland to Krakow Poland
After church, Helena and her Adrian had invited us to lunch. It seemed there is a strong Polish tradition to bring flowers, so we stopped by an open air market and got some. Apparently, it’s bad luck to bring an even number of flowers, so hopefully we got the right amount. The apartment building was fairly ugly but the apartment was delightful. Bright colors and very homey. Michael had a great time talking with them. Lynn and Mark had a great time eating a home-cooked Polish lunch.
We finally left to drive to Krakow.
On our way, we toured the Wieliczka Salt Mines. There’s a beautiful cathedral chapel inside the mine. With salt chandeliers.
We continued our driving to Krakow and found a hotel in the Kazimierz district: Sparz ApartHotel (Miodowa 11, 31-000 Kraków, Poland). Kazimierz is the district that housed Kraków’s Jews for over 500 years. Although we were pretty tired, we needed to wash our clothes. Fortunately, there was a laundry just down the street.
7 May Tuesday (pictures): Krakow Poland
We went to a bakery for breakfast, and ate our goods sitting on the wall of the Church of St Bernadina, right across from the Wawel Royal Castle. We then wandered the castle and town. The Castle has some really cool dragon downspouts. We found an outdoor market on the north side of town, and Michael bought a wallet. Then, we joined a 3 hour walking tour with Phil.
The trail leads along the streets of the Old Town, starting by the Church of St. Adalbert, through the Main Square, St. Mary's Basilica, the Cloth Hall, historical buildings of the Jagiellonian University, Planty park and leads up to the Wawel Hill, with its castle and cathedral, as well as kings' graves and the Royal Sigismund Bell.
We visited the Bishops Palace and saw the “John Paul 2nd window”
"The window above the entrance is known as the "papal window", as from here John Paul II spoke to the crowds that gathered to see him." (Wikipedia)
By the end of the day, we were pretty walked out. But we had noticed announcements of Classical Music performances in the evening at the various churches. Lynn and Mark thought we’d go out to see a concert in a church, and we also wanted to purchase a wooden carved nativity set we’d seen in the Cloth Shop area. Since Michael knew the money system and how to spend it in Poland, he was the holder of all our financial instruments. We told him our plans and mentioned we needed some funds. He gave us 200 PLN (about $65) and and then admonishes us:
“Don’t spend it all!”
Talk about roll reversal... Lynn and I both laughed about his comment several times that evening.
We did purchase the Nativity, but decided we were so tired from walking all over town that sitting in a dark church listening to classical music would put us right to sleep. So we did not do the concert.
We spent a second night in the Sparz ApartHotel
8 May Wednesday: Krakow Poland to Wrocław Poland
One of Michael's goals in coming to Poland was to purchase some Blue Polish Pottery. He had heard that it was available in Krakow, but when we started to research it, the Polish town where it is made was just an hour west of our next destination.
Since we had a car and could go where we wanted, our itinerary changed just like that. We drove to Boleslawiec and bought some blue Polish pottery.
The factory outlet had lots of pottery; Michael was interested in plates, bowls and dishes, and found some very nice examples. Lynn, too, found some dishes she just had to have. Imagine that.
With our treasures in hand, we drove to Wrocław. Here we had our second meeting with the Polish Police. We again wanted to get to the center of town. I was following a small blue car, and we both made a left turn at an intersection with a thousand signs. Of course, one of them was a convoluted sign that said (in unintelligible picturegrams AND a long Polish disclaimer) that you could turn her and then make a right to the next little street but no admittance going straight unless you are a bus, tram, or in this case, an unmarked police car.
So they paddled us both over; of course the blue car got a Get Out of Jail Free pass. These officers weren't so nice. They wanted a 200 PLN (about $65) fine, payable immediately! Michael was not pleased. He had 100 PLN which he gave them, but when they asked if he didn't have an ATM card, he replied “I don’t have one.” They eventually paddled us away with just the 100 PLN fine.
We again routed ourselves to the Best Western hotel (Kiełbaśnicza 16, 50-110 Wrocław, Poland). It was a little pricey, but we were glad for a place to stay. We went out for a walkabout, and ended up in a nice Italian restaurant. Lynn mentioned that we hadn't seen any missionaries during our vacation, and sure enough, just as we left the restaurant, here come the Missionaries. They exchanged stories with Michael and then mentioned that Branch President Sebastian was still at the branch, which was just down the street.
So we walked on over and wandered on up. The branch met on the 2nd floor of an office building. Michael and the Branch President had a long talk about all thing Missionary in Poland. Eventually the Sister Missionaries stopped in and shortly thereafter everyone had to leave.
On our walk back to the hotel, we saw some of the famous Wrocław Gnomes throughout the centrum. Mark was surprised at how many people are out after dark.
9 May Thursday (pictures): Wrocław Poland to Warsaw Poland
We were getting toward the end of our vacation. So it was off to the Post office to ship pottery. Again, it was fortunate that Michael speaks the language, as there were all kinds of forms to shuffle and boxes to check and information to supply.
We then we back into the centrum and found the “Tour Wrocław in Mini-Cart” area. We had one suggested by our Best Western hotel, which we used.
But we needed to get to Warsaw, so it was back on the road. We had lunch in Blocwych. Since we needed to be at the airport about 5am on Saturday morning, we chose the Courtyard Marriott hotel at the airport. Quite pricey, but very convenient. We returned the car and purchased a 24-hour bus ticket. Then, it was back into town for more touring.
We went on the metro, walked around the tall buildings and visited some of the many parks. At the end of the day, we visited Lazienki Park, which has a Chopin statue around which they have summer concerts playing: Chopin. In the park is also the Palace on the Water.
We had to get back to the hotel, so we found a bus stop. After boarding, Lynn and Mark sat on once side of the bus while Michael sat on the other. An old drunk bub started a conversation with Michael about how to get to Prague (a suburb of Warsaw). But while he’s talking with Michael, he’s staring at Lynn. Finally, he asks Michael “Why doesn't your mother say anything?” Michael's response was “She only speaks English”. He considered that for a bit and then stated:
“That doesn't make any sense!”
He then got off the bus (not in the right place to transfer to Prague).
We thought that was pretty funny.
Our last full day in Poland. We took the bus into town, and spent some time walking around looking for a decent exchange rate. There are Exchange ‘Kantor’s on every corner, and the rates are not uniform.
Once we had some local money in hand, we went to the starting location for a Double Deck bus tour of Warsaw that lasts 1.5 hours. We saw:
Zachęta Gallery, City Hall, Great Theatre, Opera, Old Town, Krasiński Square, Hotel Ibis, Anielewicza St./Pawiak Museum, Monument To The Heroes Of Ghetto, Umschlagplatz, Arkadia Shopping Mall, Powązki Catholic Cemetery, Jewish Cemetery, Warsaw Uprising Museum, Ghetto Wall, Hotel Marriott/, Central Train Station, Nożyk Synagouge, Palace Of Culture/Novotel Centrum, Sejm-Parliament, Ujazdowski Park, Royal Łazienki Park, Marszałkowska St., Konstytucji Square, Three Crosses Square, National Museum, Warsaw University, Royal Castle, Zachęta Gallery/Hotel Sofitel
We wandered back to the Old town and purchased some more ornaments. Finally, we went back to the hotel to go to bed early.
Spent our second (and last) night in the Courtyard Marriott hotel at the airport.
11 May Saturday: Warsaw Poland to Cincinnati
Since we were essentially at the airport, we didn't worry too much about getting there before 5 for our 6:50am flight. The lines were fairly short. The flight from Paris to Cincinnati was barely half full.
We got home and were pretty tired. Since Michael hadn't driven for two weeks, we had him drive us from the airport to home.
It was a great adventure, with some wonderful memories that will certainly find their way into McCuistion stories.