Dublin-Viking museum

With the weather totally unpredictable, we decided to play it safe and take the "hop on-hop off" tour bus around the city today.  We figured we'd check out the highlights of the city and then decide where we wanted to spend more time.  (All the buses, city and tour, are double deckers.  Delaney picked a spot on top in front.  This is a view of the stoplight from our perch in front).

About halfway through the tour we got off at St. Patrick's Cathedral.  We discovered it was 6 euros/person to get it, so we decided that pictures of the exterior were satisfactory.  We then walked up the street to Christchurch Cathedral and stumbled upon the Dublinia Museum - an archeological history of Dublin from the Viking and Medieval periods. We decided it was worth a visit.  It was designed to be hands-on with lots of "lift the flap" historical discoveries, costumes to try on, etc.  The historical information presented was very interesting and not so detailed as to be sleep-inducing.  I explored with Delaney and it was so much fun to watch her discover each new section..."hey Mom - look at this!"  The museum was filled with replicas of Viking houses, medieval markets, manor houses, etc. all with lifesized maniquins.  In one room, there was a live person dressed up as a sailor.  He was posed and holding still until Adam started messing with a bag hanging on his shoulder, then he moved and said "what do you think you're doing?"  Adam about had a heart attack - ha!

Viking Delaney

(Did you know that their helmets did NOT have horns on them?  These were likely added by later historians who discovered special helms used for religious ceremonies, not worn by everyday Vikings.)

 Viking Adam

 Medieval Knight Delaney

 Kitchen in a manor house

 Delaney studying a mock archeological site.

Dublin - hotel

Arrived without trouble into Dublin.  Believe it or not, all of our baggage made it.  Took an airport shuttle to our hotel.  Quite a nice place!  It looks like a 5 star place, but its actually 3 star.  Much nicer than a hostel, but not the Ritz : )

Dinner was local - chicken pot pie, and fish and chips.  Nothing special.  I'm kind of looking forward to something with a little spice when we get home!

Advertising - new trends

Ok, so maybe its not totally new, but the extreme visibility of some of the advertising these days is really something!

Ferry in Athens

Orange cell phone service in Gdansk

On the side of a museum in Gdansk.

Airport bridgeways at Warsaw airport

Last dinner in Poland

We decided to end our visit the way we started it...with a dinner at Adler Restaurant (recommended to us by friends).  Delaney LOVED the schnitzel here and never found any that was quite as good for the rest of our trip.  She ordered it again and enjoyed it very much.  All in all it was a wonderful meal and a good celebration of our time in Poland.  Can't believe its finally come to an end...

[I plan to continue our blog until we get back to Wichita...but after that I'm sure that our daily lives will become quite busy again and I won't find time - and the adventures won't be nearly as interesting : )  ]

Warszawa Stare Miasto - Old City

I finally got the chance to see the old city in Warsaw.  David, Adam, and Delaney got to see it when friends and family came through town, but I stayed in Lublin.  I have to say the city is quite beautiful in the summertime!  I walked along the main street and entered each church that was open, then sat in the monument square and watched the skateboarders for quite a while.  I finally headed back to the hostel via Ogrod Saski (the one in Warsaw, not Lublin).  I enjoyed reading by the fountain for a bit, then met up with the family again for our final dinner in Poland.

Warszawa Centralna

As I remarked back in January when we arrived, the Warsaw train station is undergoing major renovations in preparation for hosting the Eurocup in 2012.  As we have passed through in the last few months, we've seen gradual progress on the renovations.  When we returned from Greece, we saw some startling differences - the wider stairs down to the platforms were open with escalators on both sides, the tarp covers in between the platforms were coming down as the painting and remodeling were being completed, and a whole new hallway with shiny glass fronted shops was open to walk through (no shops were open yet).  We probably won't be around long enough to see the final product, but it is getting a much needed face lift and looking pretty nice.

Newly completed hall with glassed in small shops.  

Old platform with dingy grey and poor lighting.

 New platform with bright blue, strong lights, 

new digital reader boards, and shiny polished chrome.

A day at the Warsaw zoo

Adam, Delaney and I had a great day at the zoo, even though it was raining on and off the entire time. Carolyn got some alone time at the Uprising Museum.
The reviews of this zoo were all very positive, and I enthusiastically add my praise. It was described as a beautiful park with animals in it. So very true and I could have spent days there (I love zoos).

Birds exhibits are very numerous at this zoo. Here, the kids size up a condor's wingspan.

This is what Delaney and Adam are looking at ⬇

All the boxes you see are filled with spiders, scorpions and other VERY creepy crawly things.
This is what Delaney and Adam are looking at ⬇. It is about the size of my hand (and it was not the biggest spider there).

We guessed that it was feeding time for the seals ⬆.
We were right ⬇.

The seals were trained to put their noses on their shape (star, square, fish, etc). Once they did this, the man blew a whistle and they all looked up and were fed. Sometimes, one of the bigger ones would try to snatch up a fish from his/her neighbor. The trainer would say the animals name and the offender would quickly place his/her nose back against the symbol (with the appropriate sad puppy face looking back at the trainer).

These bears were much more active than the two at the Sedgwick County Zoo back home.

Stories before "The Transition"

I've enjoyed speaking with older Poles and hearing their stories / memories of what life was like during the Communist era.  Several in particular stick in my head:
*  There were hardly any goods in the stores to purchase, and if there were then there were huge lines.  I was one of four kids, so when we went shopping, my mother had each of us stand in a different line to get the items that we needed and save a little time.
*  I was able to get a "chocolate like substance" (chocolate was not available during this time), that the son of the janitor really liked;  so in exchange for some of this "chocolate like substance" he would give me several rolls of toilet paper, which we couldn't get on a regular basis.  It was a good trade.
*  I remember taking Russian in primary school, but after the end of communism, no one wanted to take Russian anymore, everyone took English, or German, or something other than Russian.

Fun Polish words

Many of my posts have discussed language challenges and reflections, but I thought it would be fun to conclude with a list of Polish words that I think are simply fun to say!  You try...

smaczny - SMACH-ney  = tasty
śmieci - SHMEECH-ee  = trash
chusteczki - who-TETCH-key = tissue (kleenex)
śliski - SHLIS-key = slippery (sounds like its meaning)
pączek - PAN-check = donut (reminds me that your paunch will get big if you eat too many!)
babeczki - ba-BETCH-key  = cupcakes (or a hot woman if used in the wrong context!)
ręczniki - wrench-NEE-key = towels
żółty - ZHOOL-tay = yellow
naliszniki - nal-ish-NEE-key = pancake

St. Mary's Cathedral

We visited St. Mary's Cathedral in the center of the Old City.  It is the largest brick church in the world. It will hold 25,000 people.   The outside is very impressive because of its size and construction, but the inside is less impressive.  I thought the organ was the prettiest part of the interior. The astronomical clock built in the 1460s is also pretty neat looking.  It tells the day, day, month, lunar phase, and position of the sun and moon in relation to the Zodiac.  70% of the clock is original parts - pretty amazing considering the damage from WWII.   The roof burned completely during WWII and 14 of the vaults collapsed, and all of the windows were broken.  Many of the gravestone slabs on the floor of the cathedral were damaged by the Soviet army (rumored to be looting the graves underneath). The restoration work continues to this day.   It has a large bell tower, but only two bells stand in it today.

Astronomical clock

Not my own picture, but give you an idea of the massive scale of the church!

More Lions!

More photos of the Old City

The waterfront is my favorite spot!  I wish the pictures could capture its charm more fully, but they can't...