Time Stops Here

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We are so sorry we haven't posted in such a long time, there's so much to tell! We decided to split it all up into two entries. The first is our visit to Poland. For those of you who don't know the whole history of last summer here's the abridged version: Liz's parents picked up some Polish kids one night in the grocery store when they accidentally found out they were working in Colorado on the same program that we went to London on. We spent most of the summer with Wojtiech, Michael, and Kasia. Michael and Kasia are still working in California but Wojtiech decided to go back to Poland and we took the opportunity to go and visit him! We stepped off the train and were greeted by Wojtiech and his mom who gave us kisses even though she had never met us! They drove us back to their home which is about 10 minutes outside of Szczecin (shtechin is the closest we can get to the right pronounciation even though Wojtiech says we sound like we're drunk when we say it) Sczcecin is a small town about 2 hours east of Berlin, that is famous for it's shipyards. They had a traditional Polish meal prepared for our arrival and that night we went out to one of Wojtiech's sister's (Kasia, not to be confused with the Kasia in California!) favorite bars. Despite our insistance that Wojtiech not lose his job on our account, he took three days off of work to show us his area of Poland. The first day we went to the Baltic Sea. We took a walk on the pier and the beach and had lunch. As we looked across the sea we could see parts of Russia, Latvia and Scandanavia among others. That night Wojtiech took us to a bar with all of his friends. They all made us feel very welcome and were interested in hearing about where we were from and our travels. The next day Kasia showed us around all the beautiful old buildings in Szczecin, sadly many are not used anymore and are being torn down and replaced by newer, less ornate ones. That day we ate lunch at a communist-era cafeteria, a favorite eatery in Szczecin. Wojtiech commented on how "time stops here" and although it was true for the style of the restaurant, the pierogies we got there were delicious! Wojtiech's family convinced us to stay one day longer than we had planned so Wojtiech was able to show us his favorite place in Szczecin, a nature reserve surrounding a beautiful lake. We took a hike around it and Andrea played in a condemned building on the side of the lake. Later Kasia showed us her adaptations of vintage clothing that she hopes to sell in a fashion boutique in a town about 2 hours east of Szczecin. Wojtiechs parents also gave us each gifts to remember Poland by and took us out to dinner before we had to catch a train back to Berlin. We had such a wonderful time with his family, they made us feel so comfortable in their home and treated us like we were part of the family. And for our next trip in Poland Wojtiech and Kasia would like to take us to Krakow!

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