Czech Republic and Poland

I've been writing this blog now for 5 years and find it difficult to find new things to share with you but 

when I found this jeep, I thought, "Ah, ha! Finally something new!"

We started the week in Hradec, Czech Republic with our friends Harold and Ginger.  A special treat was Harold's fresh salsa, but we also enjoyed visiting the 6 bazars in town.  Bazars are second-hand shops, much like our thrift stores in America.  I found and bought a crystal bowl with a sticker that says it was made in the German Democratic Republic!  East Germany before the wall fell!  Can you believe I bought it for $5?!?   

I do not know the name of the river that flows through the center of Hradec but it is one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. 

When I was uploading this photo, I told Glenn I was going to have to change coats for our next trip.  Every recent photo has me looking exactly the same!

Cool reflection of the buildings and trees, isn't it?  The river was so still that it made the reflection very clear.

This photo is for my son-in-law, Jonathan.  This is a Czech kolache, a type of pastry that he grew up eating as a child in Iowa.  There must have been a Czech community in the Cedar Rapids area for him to have eaten these when he was younger.  

Leaving Hradec, with the help of our GPS, we meandered our way  through the quaint towns scattered randomly across the plains and beneath rolling hills to Wroclaw, Poland.  We saw rows and rows of trees filled with mistletoe!  

Each village we passed through had their own church just off the main street.

As we entered Wroclaw, we saw a wonderful sight!  It doesn't get much better than this!  Both Starbucks and Pizza Hut, both in the same block, next door to each other!  We ate lunch at Pizza Hut in town before heading over to Scott and Denise's apartment but I made Glenn promise he wouldn't tell them where we ate lunch.  Glad I had Glenn promise because as it turned out, Pizza Hut is where they wanted to eat dinner so I got pizza twice in one day!  Yea!

While we were in Poland, Denise and I took a road trip to Boleslawice, the town that manufactures the famous Polish pottery.  Spent my birthday and Christmas money that I've been saving for a year and bought a few pieces to give as gifts!  Would you believe I totally forgot to take pictures???

We returned to BP on Saturday evening in time to welcome Robin and Randy to town.  We showed them the major sites and then enjoyed a typical Hungarian meal on Vaci Street.  

This platter of fried meats, fried potatoes, rice and a salad of pickled cabbage is described as "good for two people".   Can you believe it???   Well, we ordered it to be shared among the four of us and it was plenty!  It was also delicious!

While we were walking around town, we were stopped by a bike rally to raise awareness of the need for bike lanes.   It is a big deal here.   There must have been 3000 people on bikes, a bakers dozen wearing skates, a handful of scooters, and even a couple of unicycles!

Even children joined in on the fun!

We're home for a bit.  I love my nest!

It's been a full week but that's just the way I like them.   

Judit and I went walking during our time together this week.  With my normal walking partner, Janet, in the U.S. for 3 months, I've got to find other people to walk with me or I'll ... well, it's not a pretty picture what I will look like if I don't get enough exercise!

While we were walking, she took me to the school that her daughter, Nikki, attends in the afternoons.   In the morning, she has her math, English, history, Hungarian, and Science classes in downtown Budafok (about 4 kilometers away) at the local high school, but in the afternoon, she has all her textile, art and sewing classes in a school specifically designed for students who want to go into this field for a career.  Nikki is quite gifted with her hands and dabbles in several areas of art.  Above is a painting she has done that replicates the view that her family sees of a nearby Catholic church from their house each night.  It is on display at her special art school because it is so good.  My photo doesn't do it justice!

This is a vest that Nikki made for one of her sewing classes.  The brown part is made to look like the trunk of an almond tree that she made by batiking it herself (dying the fabric using a process that involves wax).  The leaves are painted on and then she embroidered over them to give them more of a textured look.  The petals are glued on but before she attached them she scorched each one to curl them to make it look like some of them were dying and ready to fall off the tree.  The final touch is the buttons!  They are made out of real almond shells from the almond tree in her backyard.  I can't imagine the number of hours she put into making this unique vest!

We had someone in from out of town to meet with us for a few days and so one afternoon we took them into town to see some sights.  The flowers are in full bloom!

The gardens around town are so beautiful.

This is actually a yard in our greater neighborhood.  I can't imagine the number of Tulips and Jonquils this family has in their yard!

Our yard has quite a few early spring flowers in bloom right now too.  

Last Sunday was Easter in Hungary because Hungary is predominantly Catholic.  (I say that because today, April 15, is Easter for those in Orthodox churches across Europe.)  

  

Judit's mom made Glenn and me these cute pound cake muffins with eggs on top.  They were so good!

Denise, one of our co-workers who lives in downtown Budapest (and who's apartment overlooks the Danube River!) and I met for coffee to discuss plans for a ladies retreat that a church in America is wanting to provide for us.  She and I are going to work on the logistics of the retreat and the ladies in America will do the rest of the planning.  :-)  

Glenn and I are heading out tomorrow for Czech Republic and Poland to visit with co-workers and friends.  We're driving instead of taking a bus, train or plane.  Hmmmm, I wonder how much Polish pottery will fit in the back of our car???  I've got my Christmas and birthday money saved up for the past year ...

Each time Glenn and I fly out of the Budapest airport (recently re-named Ferenc Liszt Airport; no longer Ferihegy Airport), I love to look for the Parliament building, the Castle, and Margit Island.  If you look closely, you can see Margit Island in the middle of the Danube River on the bottom right-hand side of the photo.

We left last Monday for Bosnia to visit with our personnel.  This was our first trip to Bosnia, and I have to admit, I was surprised by the beauty of the country, particularly of it's capital city, Sarajevo.  

Commonly referred to as Pigeon Square by the locals, this part of town is the heartbeat of the city.  It was very quaint with its tiny shops selling everything from spices to scarves, hats to hose, and jewelry to junk. It very much has a turkish look about it.

While Glenn was enjoying a cup of turkish coffee with one of our young men, I browsed in the nearby shops.  Most of the shops along this street are jewelry stores, selling mostly silver necklaces, earrings and bracelets.  I was able to buy two silver chains that will help rebuild my jewelry collection since our 2009 break-in.

Not being a big coffee drinker myself, I left the honors of sharing a cup of turkish coffee to Glenn.   He also got to enjoy their Turkish Delight candy, for which they are so famous.

We walked and walked and walked around Sarajevo even though there was this lovely red and white polka dot tram available to us.  I doubt if you can read the web address on the front, but it is cilek.com.  I was particularly fond of it because it had my name in it!

Bosnia and Kosovo were part of the former Yugoslavia until it broke down in the late 1980's.  Even though the civil war is over, there are still signs of the bombings that destroyed parts of the city.

This man is a shop owner in Pigeon Square and he makes many things out of the mortar shells and shell casings from the rifles and machine guns used during the war.

This toy airplane is one example of the kinds of things he makes out of the shell casings.

Salt and pepper shakers, candle holders, lamp stands, book ends, and whatever else he could think of!

I prefer to remember Sarajevo as beautiful rather than war-torn.

Mid-week we arrived in Pristina, Kosovo.   Because Bosnia does not recognize Kosovo as a legitimate country, we had to fly to Croatia first, where we had a 5 hour lay-over, and then on to Kosovo, which shares a border with Bosnia.  Five hours is a long time to sit in a small airport that doesn't have any coffee shops or duty-free shops or free wi-fi ... so we exited the airport and walked for an hour, sat on a bench in a park and soaked up some sunshine, and ate some snacks we'd brought.  We'd left our hotel in Sarajevo at 11:30 am and arrived in Pristina, Kosovo at 11:45 pm.   I was tired, to put it mildly, by time we finally got to the apartment where we were staying and into bed.

The next day we met with our personnel that live there in Pristina, and one of the men took us around to see the sights as we talked.  This is a statue of Mother Teresa, born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia to parents of Albanian descent but who lived in Kosovo when she was a young girl.  It is reported that she was living in Kosovo when she received her call from God to live a religious life.  At age 18, she left her home and began her journey as a Catholic nun, never to see her mother or sister again.  Aie!  I will never again complain about not getting to see my family very often!!!!  

This is the public library in Pristina.  Quite modern looking, but not able to lend books.  The basement level is where the books are stored for people to read "on the spot", but they can't be loaned out because they don't ever get the books back!  

I was so glad that Glenn and I weren't having to drive in Kosovo!  There were way too many cars for the roads and finding a legitimate parking space was impossible so you just park where you can.  

This is the road in front of the apartment where we stayed for two nights.  Because of cars parked on the sides of the road, only one car could go at a time down the road.  Glenn and I just watched with grins on our faces to see the drivers maneuvering their way through.

Notice the color of the building on the left?  It's brownish green, right?

Walking toward that building, it changes colors.  Now it is brown and pink.

Standing directly in front of it, it is pink.  PINK?  Yes, PINK!

On Friday, we were driven to Peja where another one of our families live, but before we were dropped off at their house, we were taken to the scenic Rugova Gorge for a photo op.  :-) 

And so that our co-worker could refill his water bottles from the springs that are so prevalent in the area.  There is a water bottling company in Kosovo, Rugova, that is located just a mile or so from here, and supposedly, this is the same water that is used for bottling.  

The sky was overcast, making the water look very, very cold!

As we drove through the Rugova Gorge, we came across these signs warning us not to get off the path because of the mine fields.  I didn't want to push my luck so I stayed in the car on the asphalt until we came to the restaurant where we ate lunch and visited with another one of our co-workers.

Later that afternoon, we connected with friends that live in Peja and stayed with them for one night.  Their town is nestled in the mountains and is quite beautiful also.  I loved how you could look down the streets (away from the city center) and see mountains in the distance.

I always love the sidewalk markets wherever we go!

Our friends run a combination coffee shop-bakery called Sweet Beans.  They make all their desserts by hand and unintentionally, it has become the local hang-out for pre-teen and teenage girls.  All the other coffee shops in town are full of men who are unemployed, but theirs has become a safe place for young girls to hang out and talk.  It was quite interesting.

That night for dinner, we ate in the roof-top restaurant, seen above, where you can have a 360 degree view of the city.

It doesn't get much better than this, does it?  Unless you live in Budapest.   :-)

We're home for a week.  Glenn and I have a tendency to "nest" when we come home from our trips.  We cook from scratch, work around the house and in the yard, and in general, try to stay as close to home as possible.  Tuesday (April 10) is Glenn's birthday so we are going into town to try out a new restaurant that friends told us about and then we will enjoy some German Chocolate cake (his favorite) and ice cream.