Warsaw

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. We settled into our little city of Wloclawek and we've been living in a temporary apartment until we move into our place on Thursday. D had two days off this weekend (which never happens) and they just so happened to fall on our five year anniversary weekend (really, this NEVER happens) so we decided to make the two hour drive to Warsaw.

Warsaw is such an amazing city. Researching about the history of Warsaw and discovering that 90% of the city had been demolished during WWII, I kept reading people's opinions that it isn't a particularly beautiful place. I'm not sure what I imagined but Warsaw by far exceeded my expectations. I kept saying "Wow, I don't feel like I'm in Poland" or "Wow, I don't feel like I'm in Warsaw". Why do we say things like that? How would I know anything about what Poland is supposed to "feel" like (after living in just one small city)? It's funny to think about all the preconceived notions we have about places we've never been to.

At the largest shopping mall in Central Europe

Warsaw City Center

Gorgeous Old Town

We stayed in the most beautiful, modern hotel right in the center of the city and spent the weekend eating amazing food and walking around the Old Town and the City Center. Warsaw has such a different look to it than any other European capital I've been to. You can definitely tell it has been through it's fair share of turmoil, but I think this only adds to the beauty of it all. I loved walking through the City Center with its skyscrapers, designer stores and massive shopping malls and then only a few kilometers away being in the middle of the Old Town with its cute cafes, gorgeous old buildings and cobblestone streets. I really felt like I was in two different cities at once. It was an amazing weekend and I can't wait until D's next day off because my list of Polish cities to visit is growing extensively long. (Friends, feel free to come visit and we can make this happen as well).

Sofitel Warsaw

Amazing Meal at Nolita, Warsaw

Video of the Old Town Square

On another note, I've noticed some hilarious things about Poland so far. First off, I went to dinner with D and some of his teammates one night and we all ordered a draft Polish beer. I thought it was odd when the waiter delivered the beers to our table and mine was served with a straw while all the other guy's beers were not. I didn't think much of it, I just took out my straw and made a funny face. It wasn't until this happened to me 3 MORE TIMES, at 3 DIFFERENT RESTAURANTS  that I realized, apparently girls in Poland are expected to drink their beer out of straws? I find this really odd, and I'm not quite sure the reasoning behind it but it is hilarious, nonetheless. I will continue to feel like a badass by removing my straw and drinking beer like the guys.

THIS IS A REAL THING, GUYS!

Another funny thing about Poland is how absolutely impossible it is to properly pronounce any Polish city name just by sounding the word out. As difficult as the Lithuanian language has been for me, at least words are spelled exactly like they sound, so I don't sound like a complete idiot whenever I read something. Not the case here. The first city D played right when we arrived here is spelled "WROCLAW" which I know you just read in your head as "roe-claw". You, like myself and Deividas, couldn't be any more wrong. This city is pronounced "vrots-waf". Additionally, the city "ŁODZ" is pronouned "woodge" and our town, Włocklawek is pronounced "vrots-wav-ek". I find this all completely confusing and I am constantly wishing Poland could pull it together in the phonetics department.

Unlike in Vilnius, English speakers aren't too easy to come by in our town. I spent twenty minutes in a "CVS-like" store the other day trying to describe to the young girl that worked there that I was looking for a lip liner sharpener. When I finally google imaged "pencil sharpener" she started hysterically laughing. Turns out my charades skills aren't as good as I once believed.

Another interesting moment happened when Deividas was out of town for a night last week at an away game. Of course in the two weeks that we've lived in our temporary apartment, nothing out of the ordinary has happened, yet as soon as he goes away and I'm left alone, the flood gates to weirdness open up. First off a loud, crazy alarm kept going off at the school across the street from our house. I kept going out to my balcony and looking at the school to see what the problem was. My first guess was a fire drill but when I noticed no one was actually evacuating, I dismissed that thought. The alarm continued to go off throughout the day and I still have absolutely no clue what it was for. 

Later that night I got a knock at my door and I peeped through to see a man standing with a clipboard. I opened the door and he of course, said something in Polish to me which I replied "sorry, I only speak English". He kept pointing to some badge around his neck and I just kept shrugging and telling him I didn't get it. He then knocked on my neighbors door and had him come over to try to translate for me. I've never met my neighbor and frankly, if he's the best English translator in our building than this place could really benefit from some Rosetta Stone. After about twenty minutes of charades, I somewhat understood the man worked for the city and needed to check the numbers on our heaters. I let them both in and realized that I was standing in my living room with two Polish men, having no idea if they're here to kill me or not. The neighbor tried to make some small talk with me which went something like this..."Deutschland"??? he kept saying, asking if I spoke German. When I kept telling him "no, only English" and that I was American, he replied "AHHHH......Iraq...twenty years...ooohhh..hmmmm" and I found myself really questioning what he could possibly be telling me. Was he voicing his political opinion on the Iraq War or is something extremely lost in translation here? Just in the knick of time, mustached-cityworker was done with his business. I happily signed his paper, realizing I could be promising him my first born, but all the while ecstatic he didn't turn out to be Ted Bundy. Needless to say Deividas didn't find this story too funny and insisted I don't open the door for strangers anymore.

The weather has been absolutely amazing lately. For it to be almost November and still warm enough for only a light jacket, I'm in heaven. D's team is now 3-0 and they upset one of Poland's best teams last week. D led the team with 9 rebounds which was awesome and kind of hilarious at the same time. Feeling thankful for a great month, optimistic for an even better November and missing friends and family at home a whole lot!

From D's first home game