Trip. USA - Poland - France. (Polski)

USA - Poland - France

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Odwiedziny Przemka z Rodzina

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Polska Wersja - http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/usa-polska-francja-listopad-2007.html

>>>>>Friday, Piatek 9 XI, 2007 <<<<<

http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/usa-polska-francja-listopad-2007.html

OK, we are in Charlotte ... Iza & Malina liked the trip but Iza was already impatient towards the end of only 50 min flight. It is now 5.27 pm ... nice airport here ... we are going to eat something and on 7:04 a flight to Frankfurt is leaving ... Airbus.

>>>>>Saturday 10 XI, 2007 <<<<<

8 hours of across Atlantic ... we slept some ... 4 hours me ... Frankfurt is a horrible airport ... crowded, hot and confusing ... but we made it, Karolina picked us up. Now we are going to the play ground ... then to dinner ... we are so glad to finally be here in Poland. A bit tired ... Karolina has Internet ... OK, going to help with the kids ... they are tired too ...

Iza slept the whole time in Restaurant "Chlopskie Jadlo" ... but we had Barszczyk, Golabki and of course Polish Beer Zywiec ... Taxi in and Taxi out ... I start to like Warsaw ... and so does Juli. First day and so far so good ... We paid $75.75 plus $2,27 Foreign Transaction Fee
Times of cheap Poland is over.

>>>>>Sunday 11 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Maybe it is 3rd time the charm. This is our 2nd trip and everything is going almost perfect. The train was great!!!!!!!!! 1st class ... it took 5 hours but we did not notice ... we set, laugh, played with the kids, ate food and drank coffee brought from the near-by restaurant wagon, look through the window ... until it got dark ... which hided the snow on the ground that we saw in Poznan. Mother and father picked us up ... 1.5 hours to Ostrzeszow. Father, me and Iza together ... 1.5 hours Polish made Iza very scared and she asked "where is mommy ... sister ...daddy ... stop talking" :-)

>>>>>Monday 12 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Today on Monday Ciocia Henia & Artur visited ... it was great! Artur will visit us soon ... Tadek called, we talked 30 minutes ... he could not make it ... it was one of my greatest conversations ... I really like him. We then made a little snow man, kids helped ... Iza was without pants ... they still walk bare foot in the house to the despair of Babcia ... we took a walk later ... it was good, bought some beer at the end and "warm ice cream" earlier but one thing that now I noticed so much was CO2 in the air, it is dark at 5 o'clock ... smoke all around, it gets noticeable and it is smelly, almost hard to breathe .... USA should fight Global Warming here ... would make a bigger difference

>>>>>Tuesday, 13 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Today we went shopping. It is crazy now in Poland. People make so little but prices like in Europe (and also more expensive then in USA We went to Antonin to little castle for ice creams. We had good time there.

>>>>>Wednesday, 14 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We went to visit my father in his place. It was very nice.

>>>>>Thursday, 15 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We went to the flee market in the morning. It was a bit cold but it was fun although the kids had to go back earlier. After dinner we went to inside playground where kids played. The same evening we stopped by Castorama and Carefour. Yes, as far as shopping, Poland is definitively in Europe … funny however how people’s shopping baskets are only covered on the bottom ….

>>>> Friday, 6 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We went to the cemetery and visited abandoned property where my mother’s parents used to live. It was cold. Later on we packed.

>>>>>Saturday, 17 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We are at the airport in Poznan. We got here “only” after 3 hours in the car … despite the fact it is only 120 km or so but in Poland there are no highways so you can’t really drive like in a normal country …

FRANCE

Bienvenue au France!!!!! With sunshine! Nice. We rented a car and went to Lille. We found Ville De ASCE with no problems. Jean and Michele welcomed us with a dinner. Laurence and Stephen were there two with their 3 kids.

>>>>>Sunday, 18 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We met with Lars and Amira. It was so great despite the bad and sad news how our “adventure” with CDNetPlay.com broke many friendships and destroyed or at least hurt people (including financially) ...

Then we went back to Laurence and Stephan house and later had great pizza. Boy, the French pizza is 100 times better than the staff we eat in USA! And that was “chain” pizza! My French is not so bad … I can communicate OK. I surprised myself.

>>>>> Monday, 19 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Finally we decided to call the doctor for Juli who is really sick since a week or so … he came to the house. How nice, and even without any insurance (as far as the country France sees it) we paid ONLY around $50 … That would be at least 100 times that much in USA and doubtful that one could get home visit. We wanted to go to the beach (to Belgium) but instead we went to the mall … bought a few nice foods, kids played … it was good to relax a bit. In the evening we had a great dinner. Jean and I picked up great big platters with see food (fruit de mere) and it was really good. Polish women (first name Balbina) was also invited to the Dinner. Juli and her have actually similar jobs.

>>>>>Tuesday, 20 XI, 2007 <<<<<

In the morning (well, after 10 am) we went to visit kindergarten where Stephan and Laurence kids are going. It was great. Kids were there for 1.5 hours and will correspond with this place in the future. The kids (with the teachers of course) made a big banner “Welcome” which they put on the windows. Malina were not that impressed with them and wanted to play in little toy-kitchen all the time but Iza participated and draw with them. All kids drawings were put together and made a little book which the kids gave Malina and Iza as gift.

Right after it, making my wife extremely angry, I insisted on going to the beach, to Belgium even though it started to rain … big time. But this is me being “Polish” and thinking it is somewhat cool for the kids to say “I was in Belgium” … hopefully they help me for it one day (maybe? Yes I know I am naïve)

Even before the trip to the beach, we had to pack really quickly and went to another family Juli knows, Gaston and Claudine

We had a nice diner in the evening. All kinds of wine, cheese … can’t get more French than that! It was great!

>>>>>Wednesday, 21 XI, 2007 <<<<<

Change of plants. We were to go to Paris today (that’s why the hurry to the beach in Belgium) but there is a strike going there so we will stay one extra day here. We are going to IKEA soon … we used to go there while we lived in France and “dream” of our house one day and how we will decorate it. It used to make us sad not to be able to have a house and our live …. IKEA is more than a store to us, it is something of a nostalgia. Before IKEA we visited Isabella’s place.

In the evening, Cecile called from Paris. We will not go there at all except for Friday to fly from it. It is a mess, people are “killing” each other to get to the metro. Only ¼ of trains are going …

>>>> Thursday, 22 XI, 2007 <<<<<

+8 degrees C. Sunny. Kids are starting to complain and are “missing our yellow house”
The fact that we are not going to Paris makes me a little said because kids won’t see (at the minimum) Eifel tower … of well, they will see it next time. We also saved some money on hotels (although Juli had a heck of time cancelling that hotel and not being charged)

Malina and I went downtown and had a good time. After lunch, we all went to IKEA while Juli and Gaston went to Auchan and Carefour to buy a few more things for USA (alcohol among others) I used IKEA free internet connection to catch up on blogs, emails and my school.

>>>>>Friday, 23 XI, 2007 <<<<<

We got lucky. Juli changed easily our last flight from Chicago do Lexington and not like we were to go from Chicago to Cincinnati. And we will fly earlier from Chicago!

We had no major problems in Paris except that we forgot (!) that you can’t have liquids in the carry-on and almost lost 2, 3 good bottles of wine. But the people let Juli go back and recheck the language.

We got to Lexington around 22.00. That one last language was not here but the airline brought it home next day. Malina felt asleep in Chicago and slept the entire last hour on the plane, in the car – Juli’s father picked us up – and slept till the “morning” … 4.30 in the morning that is …

Another jet lag … oh well, that is normal. It was a good trip (bit long and bit tired of living on suitcases)

Our dog was waiting for us at home. It is good to be home in our yellow house again.

Trip Cost

• USA Airways (all flights except one) – 3,422.76
• WingCentral (Poznan – Paris[Beauve]) - $200
• Train (1^st class) - $150
• Credit Cards Travel Expenses - $191 (including conversion fees)
• Bank Card Expenses (Debit) -$539 (including conversion fees)
• Car Rental – Avis – 5 days - $600 (400 Euros)

Total (at minimum) = $5,102.76

Mother and Dieter. Thank you very much for your financial substantial help! We appreicate it very much! We hope to visit you more often thanks to that financial help!