Grudziadz and our extended family
Today we left Warsaw for Torun.
Tuesday February 3
We got told about this great hot chocolate shop and decided we had to have some before we left, so David, Lija and I all went down there for morning tea. I had this delicious apple strudel hot chocolate with real apple chunks at the bottom. We already had our packs so we hiked over to the fabulous train station that we’d come to love (!!!) and hopped on the train for Torun. We didn’t have a reservation but the train wasn’t that busy and there were no big fat men there! We were a bit nervous arriving into Torun because we didn’t know what Magda looked like and how we could tell, until we saw this young woman holding a big sign saying Welcome Mara and Lija! And there was Magda waiting for us.
We spent the afternoon wandering around the old Town of Torun, with lovely cobblestone streets and monuments, including the birthplace of Nicolas Copernicus. We had coffees and cake in a little crooked building overlooking the icy river the same Vistula that flows down to Warsaw – when I say icy, as we went to look closer it was huge metre diameter chunks of ice all lying over each other as if we were on the edge of the arctic. I’ve never seen anything like that before and we were both mesmerized – I think Magda thought we were a bit crazy because she sees this every winter.
The town was gorgeous, it is built along the river and the old walls formed a three-sided star. There’s a bit of artwork down the side streets – little ceramic people sitting in walls reading books, a bronze puppy dog sitting next to an umbrella, and frogs surrounding a water fountain waiting to be kissed. I executed the offer but no Prince Charming appeared for me, ah well, better luck next time!
Before we headed off our last stop was the gingerbread shop, where Lija and I stood and listened to Magda speaking to the shopgirl in Polish. Next minute, two big brown bags were placed on the counter, and into each bag went 3 packets of flavoured gingerbreads, a bag of apricot gingerbread and a small heart shaped tin with gingerbread that Magda turned around and handed us each a brown bag.
Home for Magda is an hour’s drive from Torun to Grudziadz, she lives just out of the town with her mum Ewa (pronounced Eva) and her dad Bohdan. Her brother Jdzef was home that night but he goes to uni so he left the next morning. Grandma is also now living in their house, she is bedbound for a year now, and Ewa looks after her. The family run many greenhouses, cultivating tomatoes and some other vegetables, and the next morning Magda had walked us around the perimeter of the farm with the dogs. She has three big rottweilers, Monica the mother, and the two pups, as well as little Antenka – a small furry greying dog but more a member of the family. The farm has other workers who come each day to help as well.
Aunty Ewa had laid out a big supper for us of fresh (and homemade) pickles, paprika (capsicums), raspberry jam, bread rolls and meats. This is their staple diet. Breakfast is the same, and dinner is a big hot meal at about 3pm, with supper being a smaller meal in the evening. Drinks are popular; to have a juice, a coffee and an aperitif during the one meal is normal. We stayed at the kitchen table for hours talking, concerned though that by the end of our trip Magda would become incapacitated by either talking too much – having to translate both English and Polish conversation and then give the answer back, or from the frequent hand gestures of describing verbally and physically. Luckily she’s a doctor and can self-medicate if necessary!
I got reproached by Aunty Ewa for not putting enough butter on my bread. Ah, she scrapes it so thin Magda! I said, yeah, I don’t like too much, but it tastes good with the jam. There goes the shaking of the head. When we were asked what our plans from Szczecin were, mine was a shrug of the shoulders, ah, I’ll probably take the train to Hamburg where I can fly from. Ewa questions Magda, who asks me, you haven’t booked your flight yet?! Nahhh is my response, I’ll do it soon. With a laugh and a shrug. Again I get a shake of the head from Aunty Ewa. It seems it’s not smart to be spontaneous in front of family. They all worry too much. Are you reading this – you all worry too much!
Lija and I stayed in Magda’s room and she in the spare, all of us upstairs. At first it seemed that Lija might be coming down with a cold, but on this morning I woke up congested and basically ‘full of it’. We hadn’t been given a wake-up time and our late slumping down the stairs meant we had to change our plans. We met Aunty Christina, Ewa’s sister, who was keen to show us photos from her album, but she was fussed away until us girls had finished our breakfast. Magda took Lija and I to the thermal spas on the other side of town, as the calming salt water refreshed us all, and the peppermint on the hot rocks of the sauna helped me breath a bit better.
We managed to get home for dinner at 3pm, a delicious field mushroom soup (okay, we know I’m not a fan of cooked mushrooms but it was nice and I knew Aunty Ewa was going to cook it when Lija’s eyes lit up, which left me no choice, I tell you). In the afternoon we went into town to have a wander and look at the amber stores. Magda said she wanted to get us both a piece of amber, little did she know how difficult that would be. Lija wanted a new ring shaped similar to her old one like a leaf, whereas I am very particular and said if I see something I really like otherwise I’m not getting something for the sake of it. Well our afternoon amber jaunt led both of us nowhere, but we did enjoy the walk around town as well.
When we got home we met Christina’s son, our cousin Tomek (Thomas) who knows a bit of English after working in Norway for six months several years ago. Needless to say he knows the swear words quite well, but both Lija and I were amused to see how much he would talk to us before going quiet from the irritation of us laughing at his misunderstanding. That does sounds cruel but he was laughing at us first.
My cold hadn’t got that much better so Dr Magda handed me two thermometers and Aunty Ewa threw her hands in her hair when they came out at 38°. She and Uncle Bohdan spent about five minutes trying to cover my arms with jumpers as I was only wearing a t-shirt, until Magda told them both to leave me alone! We went upstairs to watch some movies, ones in English that Magda borrowed from her friends. The girls had been downstairs making mulled wine, of which I was allowed a glass but was not to take my asprin until an hour later so I wasn’t to go loopy. Fair enough.
Thursday February 5th
My temperature had reduced itself to a weak 35° today, which caused Aunty Ewa to clasp her cheeks and motion that I should be in bed asleep, to which I mimed no we are driving today, I’m strong and can handle a day out.
We were off to Gdansk, several hours north in a small bay off the Baltic Sea, and the city where Magda spent her time at university. We were going to begin with the old town, but before the gate was an old prison tower that had been converted and officially opened in 2006 as an amber museum. I was in heaven. There were about five storeys of different amber artifacts – from small pieces with bugs and insects, to lampshades and jewellery and even fashion pieces.
We must have spent an hour wandering around the prison tower, which wasn’t without its own history, a mock up display of how prisoners were tortured and left in there. Eww.
We passed through there pretty quickly and out into the bright streets. We didn’t get far before running into one of Magda’s favourite dives during uni. An ice cream shop. So I’m all for not drinking before midday, but ice cream at 11am was something we were all up for. The menu was full of sundaes, and the problem was picking the right one. If you’ve seen the photos, you’ll know mine was a monster! Needless to say the cream on top of the ice cream got a bit much so I picked around it but finished the rest.
We walked down through town, stopping off at the odd amber shop, there was so many it got to a stage of walk in, look, and leave unless something caught the eye. Heading back down the next street, it was literally called amber street as every single residence had a ground or basement floor shop selling amber. It was along these streets that I found a bracelet that really caught my eye, and Lija found a ring, both now a permanent feature on our hands.
We headed back to Grudziadz and met Aunty Ewa on the other side of town where she dropped off our towels and bathers for another session at the spa. We went home for supper and ended up opening Magda’s homemade vodka – my favourite was the raspberry and Lija’s was the cherry, but with Aunty Ewa’s pouring for the two of us we soon polished it off. A lot of good banter that night…
Tags: Travel
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