Festivals and Fireworks

We planned our visit to Zakopane to coincide with the International Festival of Mountain Folklore.  The festival included performances from folk dance groups from around the world. They took a park and made a "village" that included different food vendors, crafts and of course alcohol.  WOOT!

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The 12 Days of Zakopane

We have been in Zakopane, Poland for almost 12 days, which is the longest stay on our Euro trip.  First of all, Zakopane is beautiful.  It is a mountain resort town (very touristy), with horse drawn carriages, people dressed up as characters (I even saw Toadwart from Gummi Bears), cute houses and kitschy souvenir markets.

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Big Trouble in Little Minibus

Though I have talked a bit about the cities that we have visited thus far, I have not yet mentioned how we are traveling between cities.  While in Poland, we have been taking buses as they are fairly cheap and can be faster than taking trains.

But when I say bus, I really mean a mini bus not much larger than a cargo van with seats that must be made for children based upon how small they are.  There is no air conditioning.  There is no bathroom.  That brings us to our next adventure:  Taking an overnight bus to Zakopane, Poland.

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Over the River and Through the Woods.....

Our next stop was in Zamosc, Poland, which is a small city not far from Lublin.  Here we stayed with Luke's grandmother and cousin in the center of the old town.

Even though this was the first time I had met them, I felt as though they were family.  Babcia Wanda welcomed us into her home and Kuba always insisted on helping us with anything we needed.  Language was definitely a barrier for me here as many times (ok most of the time), I needed Luke to translate.  Fortunately, Kuba spoke some English and was able to help with the translation.  

Luke with Babcia Wanda and Kuba

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Lublin Part Deux

For your viewing pleasure, here are some more photos from our time in Lublin.  Enjoy!

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Celebrating Lublin Style

Our second stop was in Lublin, the city where Luke was born.  We expected to have a quiet stay in Lublin, perhaps meet up with an old friend while there.  When we arrived, we realized that our visit coincided with a Renaissance festival, a holy holiday and Remembrance Day (similar to Veteren's Day).  FTW!

The renaissance festival had a very different feel from the festivals in Florida. Well for one, you do not have people riding large roosters through the town.

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Warsaw - Part II

On our second full day in Warsaw, we planned on meeting with Kasia (Luke's cousin) for dinner.  We set out to explore the city and see what we would find.  Plus we were able to get more familiar with the public transportation system, which can be quite confusing between the buses, trams and metro train, even when you have the map!

Old Town

This is the Palace of Culture

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Uwaga! Uwaga!

After what seemed to be an endless day of exhausting travel, we finally arrived in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday night.  We found our way to our hotel (the Westin) and we were so happy to get a good night sleep.  I guess that may have been too much to ask.

First thing in the morning, we are woken up by an extremely loud alarm, saying "Uwaga, Uwaga (Attention, Attention)....and a bunch of other polish words that I did not understand."  It was a fire alarm and of course we are in our pajamas ON THE 9TH FLOOR!  By the time we made it to the 1st floor, an announcement was made that it was a false alarm.  ugh!  Welcome to Warsaw.

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New Beginnings

This being the first post of my blog, I thought it would be good to tell you a bit about myself and my upcoming journey. After living in Florida for all of my life, my husband and I have decided to leave our current life behind to start anew in Canada.  On our way to Canada, we decided, why not backpack through Europe (and yes I do know that Europe is not on the way to Canada).  This is a collection of adventures that we will experience through Europe and beyond.

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