Christmas Away From Home

This was the first time I spent Christmas away from my immediate family. I say immediate because I got to spend it with my family here in Poland instead. I have to say it was a great time, lot's of food and singing and famiyl and food. And with webcams/skype/the internet-machine, the distance form Canada didn't even feel that far.

It all started with my last day at work where I tried to stir up some Christmas cheer and controversy by wearing my Santa hat all day. It's nice to see confused faces on a rainy wednesday morning when you ride a bus with a red hat and a smile on your face, as people try to avoid eye contact with you

After work I took the train to Katowice and arrived just in time to see how much food was being made ready for last night. Being an ex-chef, I helped out where I could. Since thursday the food preperation had been non-stop, with constant worries about finishing on time, or whether there'd be enough.

Let me present you with a quick timeline of the food situation:

Dec 22 - We have too much to do!
Dec 23 - We're covered in flour, there's not enough time or food!
Dec 24 - We might just make it, just 762 more perogies!
Dec 25 - Did we make too much food? Dzido, you have to eat all of this

Did I mention there was food? See that on the table, I ate all of that. That's just one portion. And thats after the two soups to start. And before the desserts and cakes and cookies. I literally fainted twice during eating but luckily Polish tradition allows for defibrilators to be present during religious holidays.

It was such a good meal. My grandma and aunt really did so much that when they come to Canada we're going to have to slay a moose or two to show them some good Canadian food.

Tomorrow I start my trek to Rome. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Here's a photo session:

My uncle wearing an awesome tie and loving his present from Maja

Grandmother and grandson recovering from the meal

Family time!

Merry Christmas

Here's the translation from the ad on the right (and I'm not making this up! this is word for word):

Raging Santa to physically abused elf with black eye: "I told you it was cheaper at Media Market!"

I know that signs are Paul's forte ( www.pavelpt.blogspot.com ) but I saw this one on my way to work and it's brilliant. It's like an ad promoting disciplinary beatings!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my faithful readers, and also to the unfaithful ones who are here by mistake after having typed 'beer'+'polish'+'bullfighter' in google. You're all equally important!

Krakow by Night

I took a trip to Krakow last weekend to visit my cousin and to enjoy some of the student nightlife (nightlife that is much harder for me to find here in Warsaw where my coworkers are twice my age). Here's a photo of me attacking my cousin Victoria with my Canadian charm. Yes there IS a sticker on my butt. Here's another appealing shot of us with her roommate Krysia (Krysta?) taking care of her personal hygiene which I know she would absolutley LOVE to see published online. Hey, its what I'm here for

I was pleasantly reminded why I had such a good time in Krakow at the start of the trip, months ago: the place is beautiful. After taking the 3hour train immediatly after work on friday night (which was full so I had to stand..woohoo) I walked through the town and through the square to get to my cousin's apartment. These pictures don't do the city justice, but Krakow was made up like a Christmas postcard. There were lights around every corner in streets that led to the town square, as you can see in the photo on the left. All around you could also see trees and wreaths on most doors, and musicians 'wailing' on accordians and guitars in the streets. Really nice

To top it all off, the main square was turned into an outdoor restaurant/ bbq/ fleamarket/ happyfuntimeplace (photo on the right) that was open all day and most of the night. When I walked through in the evening, there were people sitting around, laughing and talking while drinking warm wine and eating lamb straight off the grill. Later on, when I was taking my train home on Sunday around noon, I stumbled around looking to buy myself something nice, while eating shishkebabs. It just seemed like a really cozy place to be. In some ways I found myself comparing Krakow to Montreal back home and I shed a few tears and a got a little nostalgic before grunting like a man and convincing myself that feelings are for girls

Maybe I should move to Krakow

Happy Anniversary

Six months overseas. It really is difficult to explain exactly what that time feels like, even though I've tried to discuss it with others. In one sense, when I look back and see the (952) pictures and places I've been, 6 months seems like a very long time filled with great adventures. Yet, when I think about in terms of how far I feel from home and from that day that I stepped into that stuffy cargohold of an Air Transat flight in June, it's a lot different and a very quick ride.

It definetly hasn't been long enough for me to feel quite 'at home' anywhere, but that's the tradeoff that you get with globetrotting at will. Here's the kitchen and living room at my current home, right smack downtown in Warsaw. I seem pretty content in that pic, probably because it's pretty nice compared to that lonely Pamplona picnic bench. Over the past 6 months places that I've slept have included, among other things: parking lots, airport check-in lineups, sleeper cars in trains, non-sleeper cars in trains, cabannero's, blow-up matteresses, buses, bunk beds, hammocks, couches, park benches, picnic benches, the divider between the driver and passenger seat in a car, random floors, and on top of a freezer in the kitchen at Smugglers' Inn.

I realized there's a similar photo from my second month of travels, while in Spain. Feel free to compare the two. My hair, my tan, my lack of focus on what's burning in the pan. And the meal in the second pic looks gruesome

One constant theme for the past few months has been changing plans. If I had a polish nickel for everytime I uttered "we need to re-assess our plans", then I might even have enough for a Canadian dollar. Right now the very near future will see me spending a very Polish Christmas with family and friends in Katowice where, I've been warned, I'm going to be told to eat at least 39 different courses over a period of 8 hours. If I don't finish what's on my plate I'm to be deported and never allowed back into the country.

After Polish facestuffing I'll meet up with Paul and his fam in Rome for a very exciting New Year's. I'm so happy to be coming back to that city that I might just explode in my chair right now. The amount of visible and stimulating history in Rome just makes it so cool, for lack of a better word. I'll have a one day stop over in Milan as well, where I'll have a chance to wander and maybe catch an opera or something similarily haute-couture.

But then! Then there's January and onwards to look forward to, only right now I have to decide what it is that I'm looking forward to. Come March I'm going wrap it all up and meet with the Szoltysek clan in Austria for some skiing, but what does that leave until then. A few more months in Poland? A job in London? A trip to see if they'll let me ride kangaroos in the Oz? That would mean that I'd need to change the name of this blog. Ooooh changes! The only constant in life