5. Snowy Strolls on Sunday – Pszczyna

On Sunday, we traveled to the town of Pszczyna [psh-tch-ih-nah], and old town mentioned in historical documents as early as 1303, but founded much earlier. The best known highlight is the palace - a magnate residence constructed as a castle in the 13th century or even earlier, and rebuilt many times in various styles – gothic, renaissance, baroque and finally classicist. This last transformation converted the castle – which is usually constructed for defense purposes – into a palace.

The Palace has a rich history of residents – from being a stronghold for the Piast royal dynasty in its early stages, through the Krakow bishopric and several families, including the last one - the Hochberg-Furstensteins, as well as William II, German Emperor during WWI and… a Soviet war hospital for a brief period of time towards the end of WWII.

Before entering the palace, we briefly stopped in the main square to have a look…

…at the 18th century Evangelical Church…

… at the Roman Catholic Church, also mostly 18th century, although the first mentions of this location as a place of worship are from 1326…

…and also to say “hi” to Daisy, the last Hochberg princess (she looked really cold, so I shared my scarf with her for the photo.)

Then we entered the palace.

I’m going to share just a few pictures here – much more will be available on Picasa soon!




I visited the palace when we went on a field trip in the second grade, erm… about thirty years ago (feels a little discouraging when I realize how old I am), but I only remembered a few details. I was amazed again, looking down, at the main entrance floor made from tree trunks 2ft long placed vertically like this…

…and also looking up, most often at the vast number of chandeliers present in every chamber.


It’s hard to imagine how it was produced centuries ago, without the tools and the technology we have at our disposal today.

The second part of the trip took us to the bison park inhabited by bison, deer, roe deer, mouflon (a type of wild sheep), as well as a variety of fowl.



I need to mention that even though the word “bison” is frequently used to describe żubr, the bison-like animal that lives in Poland, it is really the European or Eurasian bison, also known as wisent (pronounced “vee-zent”, says Aunt Wikipedia). The two animals look superficially similar, but they have a different number of ribs and different horns; also, the wisents are taller, less hairy and less tamable than their American cousins. They exhibit different feeding and fighting behaviors as well.

Technically, we were supposed to stay away from them wild beasts, but if a she-deer comes and licks your coat…

Then we walked around the palace park covered with fresh snow…

…stopped by a little cemetery of one of the families that owned the palace…

...and finally paid a short visit to the Pszczyna skansen or, as the English translation there said, “the heritage park”. It’s an open-air museum showcasing old log-homes brought there from the whole region, as well as old tools and machines.


And this was it – lots of walking, lots of history, and also some deer residue to clean off my coat :)

4. Wednesday Wonders

Let’s start today with the ANSWER TO MONDAY’S PUZZLER: The honey-like image was a part of a church window:

And we have a new puzzler – what is this and how was it used?

And now let’s take a little trip to the most beautiful city in Poland – Krakow, where the whole Old Town has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. And rightly so!

Getting there is a little time-consuming – the train takes an hour and a half to cover the distance of 30 miles. The railroads are poor, so most of the facilities are in disrepair. I get sentimental thinking about the times a few decades back when the train station in our town was bustling with life, and included three ticket counters, a restaurant, a store, and a sizeable waiting room, all in really good shape, decorated with a variety of plants etc. Here is where we start our travels now:

Once you het to Krakow, though, the magic begins.

To celebrate the 200^th birthday of Frederic Chopin, a famous Polish composer, Poland established The Year of Chopin. In Krakow, there are a few spots with artistic arrangements like this one where you can listen to Chopin’s music playing from the speakers. Serendipity!

Across the piano we have one of my favorite buildings – the Slowacki Theater. Slowacki was a famous poet and playwright from the Romantic era.

In Krakow, it’s good to look up, as there are so many beautiful facades all over the place.

Hunting for stained glass windows, as usual :), I stepped inside a little church – St. Barbara’s. I found some beautiful windows inside…

… and also a gothic Pieta sculpted in the early 16^th century.

By the entrance to the church there is a group of 16^th century sculptures protected behind a metal net. It is called “Gethsemane” and pictures Jesus praying in the Garden while the disciples are asleep. God sends an angel to comfort him. The background is a 15^th century wall painting featuring the moment when Jesus was arrested by the Romans.

Something old, something new – Hard Rock Café in a really old building.

Then we met with Ania my stepdaughter and first she showed me another Chopin spot: a fake bus stop (in a street where no traffic is allowed) with more music and an interactive information screen.

Then we marched to the Museum of Archeology. I expected a dusty, old-fashioned collection, which was the case in most of Polish museums not long ago, but I was sooooo pleasantly surprised! The presentation of the objects was awesome, and on top of that, the ticket guy (and the rest of the staff) turned out to be really passionate about the exhibitions and if we had time, we could probably talk for an hour :)

I’m going to include just a few things here, and there should be more on picasa… soon.

The photo above shows a sample of famous Krakovians’ portraits. From the right – Wislawa Szymborska and Czeslaw Milosz – two poets, Nobel-winners, and on the far left – Stanislaw Lem, a SF writer, the author of “Solaris” which the movie by the same title was based on.

A photo dedicated to my dear Perfumer & Flavorist friends: perfume vessels from the Roman Empire :)

A representative of a large group of Egyptian mummies.

A representative of the Peruvian collection. Turns out that in the times when Poland was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria and pretty much did not exist on the map (19th century), a gentleman named Wladyslaw Kruger first went to Paris to study, and then moved on to Peru, where he built the railway from Peru to Bolivia, and then became the headmaster of the Engineering College in Lima. The government there appreciated him so much that they even erected a monument in Lima to commemorate his efforts. In his free time, he studied the culture of Peruvian Indians and later on he donated his vast collection of artifacts to the Archeological Society in Krakow

A very clever exhibit showing the history of Krakow’s environs starting with the times when mammoths roamed these hills: on the right there is a map showing the settlements in a given era; then, in the glass case are the related artifacts excavated near Krakow; on the left a diorama shows a scene from those times, and next to it there are herbarium pages presenting contemporary plants. Plus, each arch represents a layer of soil that you would find the artifacts in, if you were and archeologist. Fascinating!

The history of apparel, from the mammoth times through Renaissance.

The most precious artifact in the museum; in fact, it’s even incorporated in the museum’s logo: the four-faced Swiatowid (interpreted variously as The Worldseer, the Holy Ruler, or the Morning Star), one of the more popular gods in Eastern Europe in the pre-christian times. I thought that there is a bunch of such statues all over the place, but it turns out there is just ONE in the whole wide world! It comes from the 10^th century and was excavated from a river in 1848.

Once we fed our brains, it was time to get some food for the body. We chose a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed beautiful burritos.

Finally, we walked back to the train station. It had rained just enough to make the streets turn into mirrors.

Right next to the station, we walked through a world-class shopping mall. I much prefer to think about the old walls, though :)

3. Turkish Tuesday

On Tuesday I met my younger nephew Kamil at school when his classes were over, and we walked around the town, which is one of our traditions. We stopped at the stationery/craft store (yay!), exchanged some American funds into Polish zlotys at the KANTOR, and then had a meal at a Turkish place. There aren’t too many ethnic restaurants in my town (this may actually be the only one), and one would not really call it a real restaurant either; it’s more like a fast food place.

It was a slightly illegal action, since my Mom has the attitude of “why would you go to a restaurant, if you can have such good meals at home”, and my family indeed does not eat out, unless they are traveling. My Mom’s cooking is truly delicious, but… she doesn’t make kebab, the Turkish dish which I’ve read about because it seems to be a very popular dish in Poland. So I wanted to check it out.

A side note on the Polish cuisine: it’s a little odd that the most traditional Polish dishes are called Ukrainian barshtch (beetroot soup), Hungarian gulash, Russian pierogis, herring the Japanese way, carp the Jewish way, Wiener schnitzel… well, you get the point. When the cultures mingled, so did the recipes. I wonder where the hunters’ stew (bigos) came from since there is no country-related adjective attached to it; maybe the Poles actually invented this one? It’s a dish made of cabbage, meat, sausage, mushrooms and spices, and is extremely time-consuming, but readily available in many Polish restaurants.

Anyway, the kebab thingie tasted great, and my nephew ordered 200 grams of French fries. I forgot that 200 grams of fries is actually a huge mound of them fried taters, which I shouldn’t have allowed him to eat… but oh well. Aunt from America scored points big time.

Kebab – bread, salad, tzatziki sauce, fire-roasted meat. Yay for photographing food in really bad restaurant light.

The final stage of our traditional walk is visiting the button store. The ladies there are probably glad that we show up only once a year… We first ask for the odds-and-ends jar (4 cents per button or so) and after we make our selection, Kamil also chooses a dozen of regular buttons, which one of the ladies brings very patiently one by one from the Wall of Button Boxes.

I also have to mention an architectural curiosity - The Room on the Stick. Every year I walk by to see if it’s still standing (or hanging?). I can’t imagine that someone actually got a permit for this structure, or that an inspector ever saw it… and I would be scared to sit inside this room!

2. Monday Meandering through My Municipality

A series of meat products called "With Fire and Sword", which comes from a famous Polish novel by the same title, written by Henryk Sienkiewicz, a Nobel prize winner. The names of these delicacies go back to the 17th century customs (this is when the novel takes place), or the characters from the book: Fire-Roasted Ham, Cossack's Bacon etc.

The Eagle - the monument of victory and freedom. Placed here in the communist era, hence not very popular with some folks nowadays. It's one of the most recognizable spots in the town, though.

St. Nicholas church - the oldest church in town. I love the stone masonry.

A window in St. Nicholas.

An interesting portion of a window bars. In the old-old days this building was used by Milicja Obywatelska - Citizens' Militia. That was in the communist times, and inside the circle (the big O) there was a letter M. When Poland regained independence, militia was changed to police - policja, so the M was not only incorrect, but also probably embarrassing. So they cut out teh vertical portions of the M and only left the V's :) You can see where those extra bars used to be (and I never noticed it until this year!)

PUZZLER TIME! What is shown in the above photo? The answer will be revealed on Thursday.

1. Sunday Scribbles

So I am in Poland, over 24 hours now. As for the flight, I am going to be diplomatic and only say that there have been better ones.

Today I spent half of the day at the church meeting – my family happened to be on duty in the kitchen, so I was handed an apron as well and participated in the activities. It worked out well; otherwise, on account of the time change, I might be falling asleep during the talks :)

A few pictures to illustrate this time:

A very green Impala spotted at O’Hare.

Our plane – the big Boeings all have the Polish coat of arms and are named
after big cities in Poland; ours was called “Poznań”.

A geographical puzzler: how come the screen on the plane said that it takes just over 6 hrs to get from Chicago to Warsaw, if the ticket said 9 hrs 25 mins? I don’t think even The Concord could actually accomplish that. (The first number says how long we’ve been flying, and the second how much is still left.)

Landing in Krakow – long, skinny fields, characteristic of the Polish agricultural system.

Landing in Krakow continued – the lakes are a water treatment plant.

Our kitchen team, counting from the right: my friend Beata, my oldest sister Ruta,
my younger nephew Kamil, and moi.

My older nephew Mikołaj in charge of the sweets.

A folksy design on one of the plates.

Back at home – Filip the cat. Purrfection.

Filip confronts one of the chickens.

Not exactly winter weather – a violet just came out.