Airport in Bydgoszcz, Poland
It has only been one year since my last visit to Poland, but I had the opportunity to travel here again because of some genealogyresearch that need to be done in Maków Podhalański. I am taking the opportunity to also visit with family again. As with visits in the past, I will make my best effort to Blog about my adventures, even if I may only have time to post a few photos with comments. I hope you all will enjoy what I will share.
I left Boston on Thurdsday the 4th of August for a two part flight going to Frankfurt, Germany & then on to Bydgoszcz, Poland. The flight was pretty much uneventful, but I discovered that the sandman was off visiting someone else or he had no clue where I was, as I found myself totally unable to get some sleep. My layover in Frankfurt was about 4 1/2 hours and I found it frustrating to have to wait such a long time for the second leg of my journey, but that is the way it goes & one must just roll with the punches. This is my 5th trip to Poland & I lost count on the number of trips to Europe itself, so this is nothing new to me.
I landed in Bydgoszcz on Friday, August 5th & was met by my
Frankfurt, Germany after takeoff
2nd cousin Adam & his wife Ania with their son Artur at about noon. Plans for that day were simply... to get settled in and stick closeto "home". I went to the "Orange" shop to get a sim card for my iPhone so that I was able to contact people as needed and have internet available to me when WiFi was not available after I exchanged some $ for złoty and then it was off to do some grocery shopping. Laws in Poland have changed, so you can no longer buy a sim card for your phone as an anonomous person, you are now required to register the telephone number. Tourists must present their passports for identity verification. It is not as expenive for cell phone service here as is it is the United States. I was able to purchase a 2 GB starter pack with a special promotion that gave me an extra 10 GB of data & 1000 minutes of talk time for only 7 pln (about $2), which is good for 30 days.
As I have learned from previous visits to Poland, they have GREAT food here. One thing that you ifnd here that is not as common in the US are meat shops. There are so many types of sausage that you can get & the many small bakeries offer so many great types of bread and rolls. Your regular small groceriy stores offer pretty much everything we get in our grocery stores, just on a smaller scale. "Biedronka" (trans: Ladybug) is a chain that can be found in many small towns in addition to large ones. Some of the bigger grocery chans don't set up a store in the small towns.