So I went to Poland this past weekend. A group of 11 of us met up on the train from Dresden-Goerlitz. I stayed at a Fulbrighter's apartment in Arnsdorf, which is near Dresden, on Friday and Saturday nights, which was really fun. I like hanging out with the other English teaching assistants because we can commiserate and talk about American things we miss and inappropriate things we've been asked in class.
On Saturday we took the train to Goerlitz, which is located on the German/Polish border. The Polish half of the town is called Zgorzelec.
A church in Goerlitz.
Frauenturm in Goerlitz
Kitty's back and Poland as seen from Germany.
The river between the two countries
I'm standing between Germany & Poland!
Jesus Bakery.
We went to see the Heilige Grab, which is this recreation of sites from the Holy Land for people who couldn't afford an actual trip to Isral.
The church in Goerlitz is really pretty, but you had to pay to take pictures inside of it.
Germany as seen from Poland.
A pretty Polish building
We had to get Polish money to pay for our tickets to the basketball game. (Poland's not on the Euro, by the way.) This is worth about 25 Euros.
We stopped to get a snack at a bakery before going to see Polish basketball. This cake was amazing and delicious and cost 4.95 in Polish money, which means it cost about a Euro.
We stopped at a Polish grocery store as well!
Professional Polish basketball.
Just kidding. A bunch of kids played as the halftime entertainment. The actual game was pretty legit. The arena was pretty small - maybe as big as a 3A high school gym in the US. The fans were intense - they acted like they were at a soccer game with scarves and flags. The Turows are definitely my favorite Polish basketball team.
I don't know what this says, but I saw it in the bathroom.
Goerlitz's Hauptbahnhof
On the way from Goerlitz to Arnsdorf, we ended up having six people sit in four seats. There were more empty seats, but all ten of us wanted to sit where we could talk to one another. The Germans kept on giving us double takes when they noticed us.
On Sunday four of us met Hannah in Chemnitz for lunch. I finally got to see Karl-Marx-Stadt in real life. It's better than I could've imagined.
Hi, Karl. (Point of reference: the podium that looks like a small step in front of Karl is too big for me to climb up on.)
We ate really good German food. I had a Duroc pig.
Penguins!
As always, there were difficulties with the deutsche Bahn, but they ended up being minor for me and I got home quickly and safely. My last connecting train waited for the train I was on because it was late and filled with people who were trying to get back to Erfurt. Once we got on the final train, the conductor's welcome announcement roughly translated was "Welcome on board the Regional Express to Erfurt. We weren't running late, but we had to wait on the people from the other late train, so we'll be in Erfurt 10 minutes later than expected."
Once the people who got group pictures of the weekend put their pictures up on Facebook or their blogs, I'll add them in here. Bis spaeter!
That Karl could eat so much Manipesto. What does Duroc mean? I love how much your palette has expanded from all of your travels. I also love that passive aggression from the conductor. Vermisse dich. (Also, what's Bis spaeter?)
ReplyDeleteDuroc's just a kind of pig. It's been a weird family joke since before I was born, so it was weird to see it on a German menu. I was sad that I didn't get to try perogies while I was in Poland, but I think I may try to make them instead.
ReplyDeleteI miss you too!!
Bis spaeter means see you later!