Poland Day 4 — Ancestral Amazement

Another long day today, but a good day. Also a productive day. And, for three of our group, an amazing day…but more about that later.

I didn’t sleep the best last night, probably from a large meal later in the day which followed a day of only a few preztels, and then a 1.5 hour ride and nap on the bus. So I awoke just not feeling 100% in the middle fo the night, but eventually got back to sleep and slept well. However, tonight I am taking the advice of our tour guide who passed out stomach remedies on the bus yesterday. It’s called Wodka Zoladkowa Gorzka or “bitter stomach vodka.” It is supposed to be what is needed after a long flight such as we had at the start of the week. I’m sipping it now, I’ll let you know how it works!

Our day today was visiting some ancestral villages in north eastern Poland in the Olsztyn area. This was at one time an area of the Teutonic Knights, and then of Prussia. But in World War II the Germans moved most of the Poles out and after world War II the russians moved most of the Poles out. Who was left, I wonder.

The countryside is somewhat reminiscent of rural Wisconsin, though here there are a few much older buildings and even some ruins. In some places ther are rolling hills, in others it’s flat. In some areas the soil is quite good, in others, it’s poor and sandy. There is not a lot of indstry, it’s mostly farming.  Dairy in some areas, other crops in others. Very varied.

The one thing very different than Wisconsin is the roads. First, even the “main” roads are barely two lanes wide. When we pass a truck or other vehicle, i could easily reach out the window and touch it! I am glad I’m not sitting in front. Another thing is the curves….more like sharp turns. You cruise along a bit, and all of a sudden you brake and turn, then speed up, then brake and turn.
And in the towns, they seem to love rotaries, which work very well, actually.

This is grzyby season, and we saw some in the forest, one of our party actually picked a few and a few people tried it. And on the roadside there are stands of people selling mushrooms here and there.

We had generally very nice weather today but on the cool side. There were a few periods of showers, but all came when we were driving an d none lasted too long. We got home right at dusk.

We saw a number of trucks of logs today, and even a few sawmills. All of the buildings are made of brick however, so I’m not sure what all the logs were for.

Our first stop of the morning was at Mikolajki, a town on the junction of two lakes, one the largest in Poland. It’s a quaint town. We unloaded at the sqare (very town seems to have one) and walked by the marina. Then later we stopped at a store. Having learned our lesson yesterday about “lunchtime” (which was about 5 PM), we each got some snacks and water to tide us over. It was a smart move, as today’s 3 PM lunch was early…it was at about 4:30 PM! We’ve also learned the important lesson to use the bathrooms when we can, espcially if they are free–they are not always free. One of our group paid 5 zloty today, another 2 zloty, just to use the bathroom. But, when you have to go, you have to go.

So we saw a lot of interesting scenery, for sure, and I took a fair amount of pictures. Most of our travels today were on a quest for  some ancestral information for three of us on the tour. We went to Kolno, Pupkowizna, and Myszyniec. We visited a few cemetaries looking for some tombstones, and a few churches and rectories, looking for some information. We were directed to another town, Lyse, and headed there. On the road we found a girl walking, and she actually knew some info about the surname we were searching for. She directed us, and we stopped by a small sort of convenience store where a guy there said “follow me.” a kilometer or two later we pulled into a driveway at a farm. For Chris and Harold and Missy from our group, that was a distant relative. It was quite an amazing event for them, and so nice to be a part of it. They visited there a while and exchanged information. It was the first lead they had on some of their relatives and they were on cloud nine.

After all that, we headed to “lunch” which had really turned into “dinner.” We ate at a very local and quaint restaurant. New foods that I tried included sour milk. It’s actually kinda good. It was good on the potato pancakes, too. We had tomatoes (in season), goat milk cheese, bread, pickles, etc. And that was just some appetizers. We had some of the most delicious Zupa grzybowa I’ve ever had, a beef broth based mushroom soup with a very wonderful mushroom flavor (remember, they are in season now) and some potatoes. It was absolutely, divine. Then we had pierogi. Finally! Yumm, they were good. Some were sauerkraut and Musroom, others were mieso. Both were good though I preferred the meat. It was a lot of food. And then for dessert we had a coffee cake. We sure ate a lot.

To go with my meal I had an unpasturized Lomza piwo, it was very, very good. I’d have it again, but stopped at one.  After the great meal, we got back on the bus for the drive back to the hotel which was about an hour. I dozed a bit.

Once back here I had a bit of a walk, down to the water and back. it’s not too far, but 150 steps–short steps which is even harder to walk, if you ask me. By then the sun had set but it was still dusk. I needed the exercise. I will probably go out for a bit one of the bars here, i’m sure some of the others will be there. But it will not be a late night for me, as tomorrow is a very full day, and we leave for Warsaw at 8 AM!