Welcoming in 2012: Poland and Czech Republic

One more big post for the Christmas and New Year's craziness before returning to the ponderings of what is now my daily life in Germany.  Actually, and as usual, I am starting this because I'd really rather not do what I'm supposed to be doing:  my work for class next week.  It would be easy except it's supposed to be in German and I'm still too chicken to start such an intimidating ordeal.

So. I left Elly and the Strickerts and all my new friends early the morning of December 29, as the nesher took me back to the Tel Aviv airport.  Once again, I had no idea where I was going to stay that night or how I was going to get to Poland to meet Iga and her family.  Once in München I thought, "I want to get there early...maybe I can meet them earlier or explore a little."  I bought my train ticket and set off again.  By 11:30 PM I had only reached Nürnburg and the thought of training it through the night was horrifying. I got off and found myself a hostel.  The next morning I set off early to be sure and reach Poland by the time we had agreed to meet.  Train fail.  My train into Dresden was over an hour late in arriving, meaning I missed my train to Wroclaw.  Four and a half hours later, I had all my Christmas pictures sorted and labeled, had skyped with my momma, and luckily had reached Iga with the help of skype and her mom's cell phone to tell them not to look for me.  Thankful for the coffee shop in the Dresden Hauptbahnhof with free wireless.  When the train finally pulled into Wroclaw, I was at the door, impatient to get out...Iga and her mom were waiting for me on the platform.

Iga's family absolutely overwhelmed me with their hospitality...more food than I could ever dream of eating...and we ate just about every 5 minutes.  When they asked what I like to eat, Iga told them, "cereal."  So cereal it was...along with bread and 10,000 things to put on the bread.  Tea.  Coffee.  Beer.  Iga only had one line to translate:  "Eat more."  What a welcome!!  Iga and her mom gave me a tour around Wroclaw before we headed to the New Year's party.  As usual, I wimped out on New Year's Eve and went to bed at 10:30.  Just about when my brain doesn't have to work quite so hard in Germany, I find myself exhausted by Polish.  Not that that was really why I went to bed at 10:30.  I'm a party pooper.  I have no problem admitting that!



A very wet cathedral in Gorzow.

We made the 5-hour drive to Iga's hometown, Gorzow, where we visited more of her family and she took me around town in the pouring rain.  She even brought me to the very cute little bar she hung out in.  We just went in and took pictures and left...we had supper to pick up to take to her dad's.  Still no snow.  Only rain.  A lot of it.  A few days later we made the 5-hour drive back to Wroclaw where we gathered everyone together and headed for the mountains.  Yes.  There IS snow in the mountains.  And the roads are being closed because of it.  We made it to the cute little lodge, a barn made into a hotel-type thingy with no trouble.  There were a few piles of snow here and there, but still no snow to speak of.  Lots of water and very high rivers though.  Snow?  Perhaps tomorrow?  This was a ski trip after all.  The next morning we loaded up the few of us planning to ski (yes, me in my jeans because one can't fit Carhartts easily into a suitcase when moving to another country!) and went looking for snowy slopes, which we found very soon!  More snow than we ever could have dreamed of!



Our barn-lodge, Ponikwa

Driving...

Iga and me.

All this snow was amazing.  Never have I had real powder to ski on so I had to learn.  Well, I don't know if I learned.  I spent a lot of time eating snow and shaking it out from under my layers, yet never once did it hurt to crash, even at speed.  Amazing.  Of course it didn't help that I opted for snowblades, the short skis twin-tipped skis (yes, I know, "Snowblades" are a brand.  I'll stop calling them snowblades when you stop calling facial tissues Kleenex.).  Snowblades are much easier on the knees in a crash as there's not so much leverage to twist legs in directions they're not supposed to go.  However, it's also more difficult to balance longitudinally, so crashing is way easier to do.  SO MUCH FUN!  The following day we headed to the Czech Republic for a few hours of shopping for Czech chocolate and beer.  The chocolate was easy to find but the Kozel we wanted (my all-time favorite beer) was much more difficult to find.  By the time we got back into Poland, the energy for skiing was gone so we played pool at the lodge instead.  Day 3 was the best skiing of all.  Many, many runs down the long slopes of deep powder.  And it kept snowing.  And snowing.  And snowing.

Couldn't see much on the slopes!  Schnee!  Snieg!  Schnow!

Iga, her mom, and I left that evening so I could catch my 7:09AM train back to Germany the next morning.  Iga's mom and grandparents sent me on the way with more food than I could carry...sandwiches, apples, coffee, 3 bags of cereal (after all, that's all I eat!), 4 bottles of Kozel Cerny, a box of Czech chocolate and 6 Polish chocolate candy bars.  Oh and can't forget the LIME GREEN French press so I can make the coffee they gave me!  What a sad good-bye it was.  Sniff.

Last evening with Iga's grandparents in Wroclaw.
Family, Czech chocolate and Kozel.

By the way, the paper I was avoiding at the beginning of this post did get done.

Pax.