Halloween in Wilmington

Every one has to go home at some time, my time was for Halloween. This is a picture of me, Chad, our friend Shawn and our other friend Meredith. This was a Halloween party in downtown Wilmington at a bar called the Goat and the Compass.

I am off again soon so stay tuned.

Chad makes it to Poland

So Chad finally made it over, he wasn't able to see much. He thought it was a little to cold for him. This picture is from the bar on the 40th floor of the Marriott. The view is beautiful, you can see all of Warsaw. At night the view is breathtaking.

Traditional Polish Food

We finally had a chance to go to an old style Polish food restaurant. There was enough food there to feed a small village. There were about 10 plates of meat (as seen here) for about 40 people. Then there were 10 plates of fish, steak tartare, cold meat, cheese, baskets of bread, bowls of salad and so much more before desert.

You will all be very happy to hear that I tried a lot of these foods; however, if anything resembled liver I stayed away. So did I try the tartare? Yes, as for how it tasted - just how it smells!

Early night at the hotel

After a long night last night, up until 1 AM, we are calling it an early night today. We have to be up by 6 and in Pimp my taxi by 7. Here is a picture of the sunset from my hotel room. The view at night is beautiful, wish I could get a picture to come out.

See you all soon, I love the comments and miss you all so much. Eleven days left but whose counting, Chad gets here in 5! : )

Blackout at the stadium

Polska Soccer

The game was great, Polska won 3-1. Even after the fact that the power in the whole stadium went out after halftime. They played for 2-3 minutes and then complete darkness. The stadium was filled with flash bulbs, the players were rushed off the field and the fans started singing.

All I can say was it was 10 C, I believe that is about 50 F (it felt like 40 F) and the crowd was awesome. Everyone was in their red and white Polska hats and jackets. We jumped, did the wave, clapped and cheered all in Polish. Don't ask me what I was saying I have no idea. If I ever get the chance to do that again I hope I get to see it in English.

Change of plans

(If you have been reading my posts in order this will make more sense.)

So we returned from the shopping mall today and decided to have drinks in the hotel lobby followed by dinner in the Asian restaurant. Eric was already in the bar; as I walked towards the lounge I stopped to look outside the front door of the hotel. There were all these people out there with cameras just watching the door. I called Eric over to see the crowd and neither of us knew the purpose.

We had seen soccer players in the hotel for the last two days but thought nothing of it. So we sat down for a drink and asked the bartender who the players where. He informed us that they were the Polish national soccer team. All those people were out there waiting to take pictures of the players. I didn't think anything of the guy eating breakfast beside me in his Polska puma shirt. So we find out that they are playing Kazachstan in the semi-finals for the World cup last night, 10 minute walk from our hotel.

We go to dinner not thinking any more about it, return to the bar to have coffee and then head off to bed when we decide maybe we should go to the game. It is only 8:15 and our evening was over, the games starts at 8:30. So we asked the bartender how much the tickets were and by 8:25 we were walking down the street to see the game.

Shopping Mall

So those of you who know and love me should not be shocked by this, yesterday, Saturday 13-October, we went to the shopping mall. I believe someone told me it was the largest one in Eastern Europe.

This thing had something like a Wal-mart in it, another store like a Home Depot in it as well as all the shops and department stores. People just walk around the shopping mall with shopping carts. Public transportation is huge here and I believe it is free.

Anyway this picture is of the people just walking in and out, this was one of the slow times, around 5:30 PM. This place was crazy, imagine your local mall at Christmas time and that is at minimum the number of people. I would try and shop for shoes and could not get near them, I was so upset by the number of people I just walked out of several shoe stores because I could not tolerate it. Oh, they don't sell my shoe size over here so I have lost the will to shop. I know you never thought you would hear me say that, Chad's wallet just let out a deep breath.

That was the big plan for our Saturday, followed by dinner at the hotel. So, we returned to the hotel for an early night with drinks and a good meal.

Hi Everyone,

We (Eric and I) had the most amazing night, I hope to post the pictures tomorrow. The batteries in my camera died so I am unable to get the photos up on the blog tonight, check back tomorrow. Talk about just sitting around and making a wild decision, check back in tomorrow! Who would have ever planned this for a night.

See you all tomorrow!
Love,
Hope

How we get around Poland

So as you all know I am here for work, so that means a Taxi to and from the office. It takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic and how crazy the taxi driver is.

This Taxi for example, now called "Pimp my taxi," is crazy. 0-50 in about 3 seconds, a half of tank of gas and driving where there are no lanes. I think in Poland yellow means speed up. (For those of you who do not know this [including me] the lights go yellow to red and yellow to green.)

I do not know if you can tell from the photo, you may want to click on the picture to enlarge it for the detail, but the taxi has rims, light covers on the rear, dark tint and inside two TVs. There is even a sub in the boot (I have been spending some time with the English and that is what they call the hatch.)

Maybe this week I will be able to get a picture of the inside while the driver is waiting for us to come out playing his PlayStation. Things in Poland are no different than the US.

Chad - Willy T has met his Polish match : )

View from the Hard Rock

So I said the Hard Rock was not much to look at but the view from it was great. Here it is.

Hard Rock Cafe

We ate the Hard Rock Cafe Sunday night, I am sorry to say that the building is not very interesting. The view from the building is great. That is my next post.

Sheraton

For those of you who do not know where I am staying, I can't complain, well yes I can but I should not.

Here is a picture of the Sheraton that we are staying at.

Saxon Gardens

This was the first public park in Poland, it opened in 1727. The park contains 21 Baroque sandstone statues, there were many more but some were removed and taken to St. Petersburg.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Saxon Gardens

This rebuilt monument contains urns of earth from all the 20th century battlefields on which Poles had fought and died. It is located in a fragment of the destroyed Saski Palace.

Lunch guest at the outdoor Cafe

While in Old Towne we stopped to eat at an outdoor Cafe and this fine man was waiting to great us.

The Royal Castle

If you have not done so you may want to look at the older posts first. This is the 4th and final photo in this story. (You can double click on any of the photos to see the pictures better.)

This is the Royal Castle, rebuilt in the 1970, this is a symbol of Polish independence. Some of the halls are rumored to be haunted by the "white lady." According to legend her presents is supposed to signal imminent disaster.

The Great Assembly Hall within the Castle has much gold stuck to the walls.

The Royal Castle now

The destruction of the Royal Castle

The Royal Castle story

Namiestnikowski Palace with a statue of Jozef Poniatowski

Jozef was a prince, this is a new cast of his statue, the original was destroyed in the war. This one was a gift from the people of Copenhagen.

The palace was designed in Neo-Classical form in 1918-1919. The interior walls are much older, the palace stood on this site in the mid 17th century. The palace escaped serious damage during the war. Since 1994 it has been home to the president of the Republic of Poland.

Things here are very different then the US, we just walked past it the first night we were here as if it was nothing to see. If I had to guess we get about 100 yards from the front of it. It beautiful but not looked at as the White house is.

University of Warsaw

The University is the largest educational institution in Poland. It was the first university in the city, founded in 1816.

It was closed by Russian authorities in 1831 and re-emerged as the main school in 1862.

I thought the gate was pretty so I took a picture. I just figured out what it was by looking it up. If you would like to see the gate better click on the picture, it will show you a larger image.

Another photo of Copernicus

Here is another photo of the statue of Copernicus the famous astronomer. I believe the plaque is the writing you see on the side.

Statue of Nicolaus Copernicus

This statue was originally unveiled in 1830 and during the German occupation (WW II) the Polish inscription was covered by the Nazis. In an act of sabotage the German plaque was removed so in 1944 the statue ended up in a scrap-heap; however, it was preserved.

After restoration it was returned to its original place which you now see it in. Besides the one you see here, in Warsaw Poland, there are two more in the world. They are in Montreal and Chicago, these other statues were cast in same mold so they are all identical.

Church of the Holy Cross

Inside this church are urns containing the hearts of Frederic Chopin and Wladyslaw Reymont, winner of the Nobel prize for literature.

Tropical Poland

According to this picture Poland is tropical. Today is 6-October-2007 and we actually had a day off (it is Saturday.) So we ventured out to an area called Old Towne. On the way I saw this palm tree and I had to take a picture of it.

Who says that Poland is not tropical, ME! It was in the 50's today and it rained at the end of the day. I was actually shivering in October. You can tell the difference between locals and tourists, tourists shiver.

Dinner my first night in Poland

So the flight was long but when we got here the people I work with all went out to dinner, as you can see from the photo.

We went to a great little cafe. They had street side tables and tables inside. It was a little cool so we ate inside in an interior courtyard.

Hopefully, there will be more pictures soon since I now know how to get my blog to display in English and not Polish. (Shaun thanks for the help but I had to find a back door in. Thank you UK.)

I have been working all week so give me the weekend to take some photos, I believe we are going site seeing. Danny you have to see some of the building here; hopefully I will have pictures tomorrow from the taxi.

Love you all and miss you all! Hope