Adventures of Polska [POLAND]

The flight from Singapore to Frankfurt was fantastic, took a couple of pills and slept the entire time! Thanks Doctor Bridge. Frankfurt airport was such a disappointment compared to Singapore [which was awesome, you could spend days in the airport and not get bored]. We meet Jared at Frankfurt and flew to Warsaw together.
Warsaw – The Capital of Poland, an absolute serene city full of history, sadness [bastard Nazi’s] and fantastic Beer [Pivo is Polski for Beer].

We arrived before everyone else so headed to the pub and waited. A few hours and a few Pivo’s later we were all pissed and rocking the karaoke bar [in Polish]. There was a strong Kiwi vibe around the hotel with 16 of us there; there were lots of laughs and funny stories flying from everyone’s travels [we had all arrived from different travels around the world]. One thing that we all quickly noticed was that no one spoke English, and for those that did – it was VERY limited. Asking for things like the Toilet Key was characterised and dramatic.

Words cannot explain the surroundings of Poland – so photos will have to do the trick. It was surreal for Chris to be in his homeland and it was awesome to share the experience together. I cannot describe everything we sore or felt, so here are some photos to do that for me.

From Warsaw we trained to Wroclaw [pronounced: Rockslath] which took about 6 hours through picturesque scenery. The entire trip was filled with laughter – so many funny situations. The source of many of our belly rubbing laughs was the language barrier.

We were greeted by Sam and Lukasz [Enough to bring a tear to your eye] and the rest of the Kiwi troop at the train station and escorted to SrodaSlaska in a bus [worse than the Tokoroa bus] – Beer was brought and wine was open. Sroda Slaska would be our home for the next 5 nights. We were extremely lucky to not just see Poland, but we lived Poland – we went off the beaten track and lived amongst the most fascinating people, we had to keep pinching ourselves to ensure we were really living it.

Sam’s Stag do was held in Wroclaw and what a hoot that was. We decided to do some training on the Vodka so we were prepared for the wedding – probably not such a good idea for a few, but lots of fun regardless.
THE POLISH WEDDING!
What and experience! Words once again cannot explain the surreal feeling of being involved and witnessing such a beautiful, traditional wedding. Explaining the wedding alone is a novel... This is our best go
• The wedding went for two days. Saturday from 3pm-4am and Sunday 3pm-9pm.
• We arrived to JoAnna’s house where we walked her and Sam to the wedding [together] in the village church. Everyone from the village came out of their houses and clapped them along.
• The ceremony was entirely in Poliska, so we actually have no idea what was said. It was a catholic ceremony [only known because they ate bread and drunk wine]
• Everyone dressed up to the hills – suits, ties, dresses, heals, the works.
• When leaving the ceremony we went in convoy to the reception [about half an hour drive away]. The Village people had set up ‘road blocks’ along the way. They block the road off, stop the traffic and do something neat for the newlyweds. This included giving them fancy champagne, making them scull it and then throw their glasses on the road. They then gave them real doves to realise together. They did something else we didn’t understand with a rolling pin, but the Polish loved it, so we are guessing it was good. Once all of this is done they then make the groom [Samuel] pay for taking the bride away from the village in VODKA. They barter the amount she is worth, JoAnna cost Sam about 20 bottles of Vodka.
• The reception was a hoot. Everyone was given a bottle of vodka and shot glass! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MIX THE VODKA, YOU MUST SHOT IT! As you can imagine this made for some entertaining experiences from the Kiwis [The polish are use to drinking it like that]. The first couple of shots were marked by pained faces, but after about the 5th – it was great! Food was continuously brought to your table. The band would get everyone up to dance and play games. It was absolutely a great couple of days... The games were similar to our drinking games, and everyone danced together [boy the Polish boys can groove].
• The kiwis got extremely messy but provided alot of laughs for the polish. One thing we noticed was that when we were all pissed we all spoke better Polish and the Polish spoke better English. We could communicate... interesting...
• One game that I didn’t quite understand.. They took the shoes off Joanna and Sam and then made them pay for their shoes back – In VODKA.
• The second day started slower to the first – everyone was hungover. After about the 3rd FORCED shot we were all on fire again and repeated the night over. More games, more dancing and more laughter.

MY DEAR GOD THIS IS A LONG BLOG
After the wedding nights we spent a couple more nights in the Village. We loved it! One night they hired an interpreter to come along to one of the famous boozy BBQs the Polish put on for us every night. We learnt about how they were treated in the war, about the concentration camps they were sent to, about the way of life in Poland. Fuck it was interesting!

So when we left Wroclaw for Krakow we decided we would have to go to Auschwitz [Oswiecim] and see the remains of the concentration camp. What a horrible place. What an airy place. What an awesome thing to see. But never will I ever go back there.... SO SAD! We did a tour of the camp and saw the mass gas champers where the Nazis would kill up to 6,000 people a day [children, women and weak men] and then burn them in the open air. We saw the places in which they would house the prisoners they decided to keep alive to work – these poor people only survived about 3months in the camp before they died of starvation, malnutrition, or suicide. It is HELL! We don’t realise how lucky we are to be alive in our generation. The 1940’s must have been a fucken nightmare. 1.5million people were killed at Auschwitz, their bodies and ashes still buried there.

Sorry we had to share the concentration camp story with you. But we need to remember it ourselves. The drive from Wroclaw to Krakow was interesting – 150km an hour is the speed limit and driving on the wrong side of the road, made for some hair rising screams from me and mum.
Poland was one of the best experiences we have ever had in our lives. Next time we go back will be to find where Chris Grandfather was born – and its right back on the top of our list to go as soon as we can. We loved it! Thank you Poland for everything...