Poland - The First Day (with Pictures!)

Time has been at a premium here in Poland. I've been meaning to log onto my computer and jot down some notes on my trip thus far, but just haven't been able to do it. Seems like the standard story!

Friday I arrived on-time at the airport in Warsaw. My friend who's getting married, Ewa, had arranged for me to be picked up at by one of her friends who would then drive us out to Kazimierz, the small village where she was getting married. As I exited the terminal, I looked around for someone with my name on it and caught a few glances from people, but didn't see any, as I was expecting him to be upstairs. So I headed to the restrooms to change into something a little more proper for the wedding reception dinner (or whatever the dinner before the wedding is called) that was later that evening. I figured my torn jeans and tight t-shirt would be acceptable for the event, but just before I headed in, I heard my name called and found that another friend of her's, Gjosza (I have no idea how to spell it), was there to pick me up and drop me off at another friend's place. She was a nice yound lady who had a 2.5 year old child like my friend Nina, though I didn't meet him until Sunday.

So I was dropped off over at Michael's (I'll use the American version of his name for practical purposes) work, where he was a risk consultant of some sort, though he used to work at E&Y, my previous employer - more on this later! In any case, after he finished up work (and I checked my email), we headed over to his apartment in his little VW Golf (sweet - same smell as my car...err, my former car!) which had an amazing view of Warsaw from his wall of windows. I asked about prices for apartments and his, which was a two bedroom, spacious place that came fully furnished and was in a very nice, new building, was around $150k. Still quite a lot of money, but according to him prices were climbing quite quickly as their economy has done well
the last few decades.


After changing into my wedding reception gear (I went with the tight jeans and button up after much internal debate), we headed across town to pick up his lovely girlfriend Martina, who was very sweet and had a perma-smile on her face and was quick to laugh when talking. One thing that struck me as we travelled to Kazimierz was the fact that they were cordial enough to speak English to each other the whole time, even when they weren't talking to me. Michael's English was better than mine (he lived in the US for many years) and Martina's was also excellent, though she had learned all of her's through the education system and also while living in Belgium for six months with many other foreign students. I thought it was great that she was so comfortable talking in English with me around.

The trip to Kazimierz was long and slow since it was a Friday evening and Kazimierz is a big destination for Warsaw-based tourists. It's a good two hour ride, though it took something like two and a half to three hours thanks to the traffic. Michael made up for it by pressing the Golf pedal to the metal and doing nearly 100 MPH while passing cars on the country roads and making Martina and I wonder if we'd make it there in one piece :o) . But, he was well composed and promised us that he was driving "carefully", unlike a few years ago. Makes me wonder how he's still alive :o) !!

The terrain across the countryside in Poland is much as you would expect it - many fields growing grains and fruits, but all of it as flat as a board. This is one of the reasons for Poland's sad history of being conquered - the lack of natural barriers and protection. Our drive was very scenic however, especially as we were greeted with a nice sunset over the fields after a few hours on the road.

We made it to the dinner about a half hour late, not too bad considering the traffic and the late start. I was still in a slightly hazy state, having been on a long flight and into my second day without significant, decent sleep. Not to mention that since lunch the day before I had only eaten about five pieces of greasy salami and an orange bell pepper (gotta clean out the fridge before I leave!) and a few more pieces of cold cuts and a piece of bread for breakfast. I was starving! But when I went upstairs to the restaurant, I was greeted with the most welcome smells possible! I wasn't sure what kind of food to expect (cabbage and kielbasa?) since the Poles don't have a renowned reputation for their food. But this meal was amazing. We started out with a small salad, followed by soup, the main entree, and then dessert. All of it washed down with ample piwo (say: pee-vo [beer]) and white wine. I thought about hydrating myself instead of drinking booze, but I caved to the peer pressure from my table and joined in the festivities. Considering the fact that people bag on Polish a lot, I have to say that this was one heck of a good meal. Gotta give it a chance, it was absolutely delish!

My table was laden with former E&Y workers and their significant others, some of them I'd known and some of them I'd known only by their names from Ewa. Kevin still worked at E&Y and Anju and her husband had left EY to move to London. It was interesting talking to them about their experience since they had previously lived in California as well and had considered living in New York before deciding on the move across the pond to London. So compared and contrasted the two cities quite a bit for the following few days. I have never been to London, though I have to say that it sounds intriguing and would be great to visit them sometime out there. Matt Randolph worked for E&Y in Denver and now works with them out in Tokyo. He brought along his Austrian girlfriend who now lives in Frankfurt, so I got to throw around some German with her and talk about Dreieich and Langen, where I lived and worked in Germany a few years back. They are suburbs of Frankfurt, so we were speaking the same language, so to speak. Kevin works with E&Y in Cleveland and is moving to Seattle next week and has been with the company for over ten years now. He's been lucky in the sense that he's been travelling across the globe for the last few years. He's a pure Pole and remembers a lot of the things we ate from what his grandparent's cooked when he was a child.



J. Riley