Apologies

Sorry for being a slack bastard lately...
Work has finally caught me up but I will try to write more posts this week.

When I woke up:

Poland seems like a long time ago now, but I will try to fill you in on what happened. I woke up the next day after having a few hours sleep, Karolina was already up but noone else was home. I ate some more Kielbasa (sausage), damn is it good! Homemade too. Karolina's crazy dog Bocek (Bacon in Polish) was going mental, it almost looked like a case of rabies. Luckily I saw a vaccination tag. Panic avoided.

The town we were in was quite small, with only 5000 or so residents. It was situated in a valley, in the winter time the nearby slopes are used for skiing and snowboarding. There are also huge ski jumps like the ones you see in the winter Olympics on some of the hills. We ventured out of the house and began to walk up a massive hill that leads to an old church. The surrounding hills were dotted with thousands of tall, straight trees. As it was the beginning of spring only some of the greenery was beginning to poke it's head out. It was beautiful nonetheless.

The first thing I thought of doing was going for a dirt-bike ride. The hills were perfect and I could see trails everywhere. Unfortunately I was without a motorbike so this wasn't going to happen. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when I saw a squirrel. That's right folks, a squirrel. I remembered that when my dad went to Canada the only photo he took on the whole trip was of a squirrel. Since then I have held a fascination with them. It looked at me with it's tiny little face and I tried to chase it, I just wanted to pat it's furry little head. And perhaps pull on it's tail for a bit.

Karolina thought I was mental, understandably really. I had my fun with the squirrel and we moved on up the hill that seemed to never end. Near the top was a church that was a few hundred years old. Karolina made me stand next to a giant crucifix and took a photo, she knows I'm the Antichrist so it was funny for her. We then went to visit one of her friends who's father had died recently. Unfortunately he wasn't home, but the rest of the family was. None of them spoke English and there was a small boy who kept on trying to get me to play with his toy motorbike. Of course I had to push all the buttons to hear the different sound effects and it seemed to make him happy. We didn't stay for long and went back home.

Karolina's mum got home around 3pm and immediately asked me if I was hungry, Polish hospitality is second to none I swear! Of course I couldn't say no so she prepared a million items of food for me to eat and then asked me if I was still hungry. Honestly it didn't matter what I said I could still look bad. For example if I didn't ask for more then she assumed that her food was not very nice, therefore I had to eat more than usual. Food politics I tell ya!

After dinner we went to visit some more of her friends at the only 24 hour shop in town. The owner was called Marek and his son Yaramesh was also there. Also Karolina's sister Ania and another friend called Bojor were there. We brought Bocek as well, Marek complained about the smell of wet dog but he put up with it. Marek and Yaramesh didn't speak much English but Bojor had spent a few years in the UK so he spoke very good English. Ania could speak good English too but at first she was afraid too, a fear shared by most Polish people I was to learn.

The shop was very convenient. There were couches out the back and some crates to sit on as well. We sat down and I drank my first Polish beer, bloody good by the way. Nearly cheaper than water for the record... (In the Czech republic this is actually the case). I was half expecting having to sit and listen to people speak Polish all night but luckily Bojor was a cool guy and we spoke on and off the whole night. After a few hours Karolina and I walked home and went to bed still tired from the previous night.

We woke up fairly early the following day, typical in Poland. Karolina's mum woke up at 4:30am every morning! Soon enough someone knocked on the door, it was one of Karolina's best friends called Kobitzka (sp?). She was really nice, but again, afraid to speak English. I couldn't understand it completely, I mean I speak very little Polish, not even enough to have a basic conversation. I would not judge anyone who tried to have a conversation with me harshly. Karolina told me that a lot of Polish people share this fear, it would have to be the biggest difference compared to Denmark where everyone speaks English. After Kobitzka left we went and visited a lot more of Karolina's friends. And now I'm going to fast forward a few days.

Polish Street Punk:

Bojor and Yaramesh had bought Karolina and I tickets to a hardcore street punk concert, in Polish and featuring 'The Analogs'. It was in a basement type location in the nearby city of Bielsko Biala. When we got there the bands were just warming up so we bought some beers. The first band started to play (I can't remember the name) and it was actually pretty good. Up the front near the stage was a dangerous place to stand however. A big group (mainly guys) were jumping around and pushing each other. And I mean hard. The funny thing was when someone fell over they would all help to pick them up, and then resume the beating of each other. There looked to be a few neo-Nazis in the crowd wearing suspenders and big black stomping boots.

More people started to arrive and pretty soon it was quite packed. By the time the last band started playing even I was in the carnage. Karolina too. Bojor was crowd surfing and at one stage he was hanging from the roof kicking like a crazy man. It was intense. After a few encores we left with Yaramesh and Bojor and they gave us a lift home. That is one thing I would definetely have thought I would not be doing five years ago.

Stay tuned for the next post involving a Polish disco and the Polish cure for a stomachache.