Zywiec

2015 Poland Trip.

Several years after our visit to virtual Poland, we got to see the real thing! Even better, the conference that Dave attended (which was the reason we got to go), was located in Wroclaw, which used to be called Bresslau. That's where my mother is from!! We had a wonderful time. To see the record of our adventures there, take a look under the Study Abroad Link. The Polish part of the trip was from June 18 through June 27.  The reason this Polish trip is under Study Abroad is that Catherine spent the summer going all over Europe and I kept a record of her adventures. She joined us for this leg of the trip and it seemed to make sense to keep posting under the Study Abroad link. 

Zywiec is a little town in Poland that has a brewery.  But what's really cool about it is that it is the very last entry in the 2002 version of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.  I know this weird bit of trivia because I've been reading the book The Know it All by A.J. Jacobs.  Highly recommend the book!  AJ reads the encyclopedia from A-Z--a mammoth undertaking not without problems!  The book is arranged in alphabetical order and is hilarious reading.  It's a nifty little coincidence that I finished his book which ended in Poland just as I finished my virtual journey there.

Food Food Food Food

We had a lovely polish dinner on Sunday, but I feel like I cheated.  Looking through the cookbooks, I remembered many of the recipes by the things my grandparents used to eat.  Herring is big in Poland--I actually ate herring sandwiches when I was little-- beets served in all kinds of ways are popular too. I realize that lots of people love beets, but shudder--I'd rather eat the herring. Probably the most repulsive traditional food--at least to Western pallets was my grandparents beloved golat.  Take pigs feet or some other unacceptable joint and boil them--save the water and chop up the meat, add some spices and return the meat and spices to the water (or a portion of it. Refrigerate until solidified, then dig in.

We chickened out and had a good dinner instead.  First up was a kielbalsa sausage--fried up and eaten with mustard. Then a "Toadstool" which is a hard boiled egg. Slice a bit off the top and bottom so it will stand up--top it with half a tomato so it looks like a toadstool and dot with mayo.  Quite fun.  Next was "nothing soup." Beat egg whites with sugar to make merengues--the soup itself is milk with vanilla and sugar, cook the merengues on top of the soup (that boiled over), the result----vanilla pudding soup.  Moving on---salad with sliced rutabaga (not bad), the the main dish of Pierogi--(stuffed dumpling things that are boiled then fried in butter)--I made two kinds--meat/onion and cheese/potato. Quite good especially when dipped in sour cream. Dessert was a poppy-seed cake.  Word to the casual cook---watch out on these foreign desserts--the cakes tend to turn out simply HUGE. I'm not sure if the general idea is to cook enough for the whole village, but that's about the scale of things.

Air Mattresses

According to one of the children's books currently in our bathroom, the Poles make great air mattressess.  In one demonstration they drove a semi-truck over 30 different kinds and not a single one was damaged.  What would that be like?  To use an air mattress with confidence? Boggles the mind.

Wisconsin

There is actually a place called Poland, Wisconsin right here in the good old USA.  Wikipedia has nothing to say about the little town of Poland, WI other than it's a few miles east of Green Bay.  I'm living a bit far away just now, but somebody ought to drive out there and inject few tourist dollars.

Motto!

My new motto for life is (at least as soon as I learn how to pronouce it):

Jedzcie, pijcie i popuszczajcie pasa!!!  Eat, drink and loosen your belt.

Joke

This just in from Dr. Foster.  A joke so bad I just have to post it.

Q: Who is Alexander Graham Bellski?
A:  The first telephone pole!

Yes, well.  Thanks, I think, Dr. Foster.

Pottery

Thanks to my friend Margarita, who has traveled everywhere.  She tells me Poland is famous for its pottery.  It had it's origins in Silesia--another hurrah for my origins.  The big town for pottery in the area is Boleslawiec. The internet says the pottery is made from a very dense clay which results in a majorly chip resistant product.  It's all hand crafted and painted using the "punch" techniqe, which involves small stamps soaked in paint that builds up the design. As you can imagine there are thousands of stamps.  If you buy the pottery in Poland it is very reasonable.  If you buy it in the US you pay a bunch, although Margarita said she actually found some authentic spoons at Kohls, of all places, for only 3 bucks.

Warmer in Poland!

Okay, I'm living in the midst of a cold snap--a REALLY cold cold snap.  And, because my pre-conception of Poland is that it is a very cold place, I am offended to learn that at this minute it is a balmy 30 degrees in Poland but only 15 degrees here in Ogden! 

Copernicus

Nicolas Copernicus was born in Poland in 1473.  He did things right.  Came up with ideas that revolutionized science, but died before he got in trouble with the inquisition; unlike poor Galileo embraced his ideas and was lucky to have escaped with only lifelong house arrest.

Welcome to Poland!

Poland is special because my mother and grandparents are from Silesia which is now a part of Poland.   The picture here is a generic countryside that looks like the pictures in our family album. 

As I was reading Wikipedia I couldn't help but be very proud of the Polish people.  Their history is riddled with war and oppresion like many places, but the Poles seemed to try to fight back.

I wasn't aware that 6 million Poles died in WW2.  The major concentration camps were in Poland. They estimate that 3 million of the Poles who were exterminated were Jews. However there was a group called Armia Krajowa that was supported by the exiled government during the war.  They, with the help of millions of ordinary citizens risked their lives over and over to save Jews.  By nationality the Poles represent the largest number of people who rescued Jews.  According to Wikipedia to date 6,135 Poles have been awarded the title of "Righteous Among Nations" by the state of Israel, more than any other nation.

I suppose I'm particuarly proud of the Poles, because I'm proud of my grandparents. They were German, but made of the same stuff.  Omi and Opa never talked about the war but my mother told me stories. For example, Opa built a secret opening in the middle of the stacks of hay in the barn. Like many families in the area, Omi and Opa sheltered Jews on the run.  My mother and uncle would "play" lookout.  If they saw soldiers they would run and tell Omi and Opa.  The Jewish family would then hide in the hay in the barn. Soldiers (either Russian or German) would search the house from top to bottom and stick long poles into the hay. They were lucky.  During the war years they were forced from their home twice--once in the dead of winter with my crippled great grandmother, but they were never caught.

I can't imagine how that would feel---knowing everyone you love would be shot if you were caught? I love that my grandparents did this.  I love that the world is not just full of goodness, but full of goodness of this quality.