of ham, cheese, and tomatoes, as well as bread, rolls, jam and tangerines. We also had water, coffee, and tea.
We waited to meet our friend, Teresa Szalata, from Lublin, Poland. It would be our first meeting face to face.
She, and Alexander, arrived shortly after 9 AM. The hotel afforded us an opportunity to adjourn to the dining room, and the four of us exchanged pleasantries, as well as gifts we had brought for each other.
Alex assisted us in getting back to the train station, as we had decided to venture to Gdansk with Teresa. He went on his way.
After arriving by train in Gdansk, we approached the street level from the station, to find a mix of snow, sleet, rain and hail. Quickly about two inches of slush mounted on the streets and sidewalks.
This made our trek over several city blocks to some of the city's major sights, a challenging one.
Before long, it was obvious that Teresa was in dire need of some dry socks and shoes. Her feet were soaked and freezing. We found a street vendor who sold both shoes and socks, and we fitted her with new ones.
We ducked into a cafe/bakery and dined on golumpki's (filled cabbages), coffee and hot chocolate.
During our time in Gdansk, we were able to visit the churches of St. Catherine and St. Mary, and the famous King Neptune Fountain, as well as Dulgy Targ, a famous street in the old city.
We also purchased some Polish pottery from a shop that was going out of business in the next day or so. Therefore, we took advantage of some excellent savings.
At the main railway station, Teresa purchased her tickets for her passage back to Lublin. She couldn't stay any longer because she needed to be back home in time to participate in a special election that was taking place in a few days.
Donna also found some polish donuts, called "paczki"s." She hadn't seen any for years.
We caught the train back to Sopot. Teresa, however, would remain on the train beyond Sopot, as she was staying at a friend's house in the nearby town of Rumia.
Donna and I accidentally got off at the wrong station. We also must have left our umbrella on the train, as Teresa tossed it to us on the platform as the train went by.
When we discovered our error, a Polish man assisted us in purchasing tickets to get back to the proper station.
All tickets for buses and trains must be validated in a machine on the platform. In our haste, we failed to get ours validated. A ticket inspector asked to see our tickets, and we held our breath over the thought of being in trouble, but he let us pass. We were very relieved.
Once we got off the train, we walked back to our room. Later, we spent some more time walking around the town.
Finally, back at the Hotel Irena, we dined once again in the hotel restaurant. I had breaded pork chops with potatoes and sauerkraut, while Donna had roast pork. It seems you can have anything you want to eat in Poland, so long as it's pork.It was delicious and tender.
Despite the rain, sleet, snow and hail, we had accomplished what we had set out to do during our first few days in Poland. The meeting of both Alexander and Teresa made our indoctrination into the Polish culture an easier one, and with our short trip to Gdansk we knew what to expect when we would spend the upcoming weekend there on our own.
No comments:
Post a Comment