Conntecting the Dots

Journal Entry for Friday, March 20

The woman paying homage at the shrine

The woman paying homage at the shrine

Shrine close-up

Shrine close-up

The retreat hotel. Interesting architecture, eh?

The retreat hotel. Interesting architecture, eh?

We spent the night at the home of a couple from the States whose apartment overlooks a fabulous park – one of Warsaw’s jewels. Because the trees are still bare, we could see the  walking paths curve and wind through acres and acres of landscaped nature. It must be stunning in the summer
Directly across the street from the apartment stands a shrine decorated with flowers and burning candles. Our hostess tells me that it was built to honor the late Polish Pope. As I watched from the window, an elderly woman laid flowers at its base and stood in solitary worship for a few minutes.

 In the afternoon, I drove 2 ½ hours with the event organizers to the village of Kazimierz Dolny,  The last 10 minutes took us over narrow cobblestone streets, through a village with fascinating architecture, to the hotel reserved for our retreat.

Artichoke salad, anyone?

Artichoke salad, anyone?

Dinner was an adventure! The menus were written in Polish, so we did our best to figure out what we’d be eating. I ordered two things: zupa webierska – gulaszowa and salatka z pornidorow i karczochow. Translation: goulash soup and artichoke salad.

Later in my room, I turned on the TV to see if I might catch an English movie to help me unwind before going to sleep. The only thing that came close was a Spiderman flick, voice-over dubbed into Polish. What a hoot! If I listened closely, I could hear the first couple of English words spoken by each character before the Polish narrator spoke, and the rest was just a wild guess!

 

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