Circumspencing the Globe

On Wednesday, I flew from Vilnius to Warsaw.  And boy are my arms tired.  Rimshot.   

      Here’s a shot of a Lithuanian girl in the airport who was happy to meet a Canadian.

 

In Warsaw, I met up with a close buddy from home, Rick, tennis coach extraordinnaire and all-around great guy.  (Flattery will abound in this entry since he’s sure to read it.)  We pounded a lot of pavement in this sprawling city, exploring the old (rebuilt) areas and the new areas and telling a lot of jokes.  Every one of Rick’s jokes was absolutely hilarious and perfectly delivered, no matter how very many times I had heard each and every one (from him) before.  On the first night, we enjoyed time with his daughter Becca and her boyfriend Joe, who are traveling through Europe for a college semester abroad.  The next day we visited the moving Uprising Museum.  The rest of the time we clinked beer steins over starchy food, toured the nightspots and engaged in hand-to-hand combat for access to the bathroom in our hotel room.  All jesting aside, my time with Rick has been one of the highlights of the trip.

 

Below are shots of Rick, Becca, Joe and I; the Copernicus statue; a street; and a performer.

 

Finally, this entry will conclude with a highly irregular and rather inappropriate feature.  Rick insisted that he be allowed to add his own thoughts in my blog, which is my blog.  (And not his.  Mine.)  But, being the bigger man, I acceded to his pathetic begging.  Let me stress that I bear no responsibility for its unedited contents and that the unedited views contained therein are Rick’s alone.  Not mine.  And unedited.  Rick’s portion follows the one final photo, which I’ll attempt to explain.  For some unknown reason, our otherwise staid, conservatively decorated hotel (all dark wood, green carpet and antique furniture) contains, at the top of the stairwell on our floor, a prominently displayed life-size, multi-colored plastic cow.   Never one to miss an opportunity to mesh with his environs and make America look good in the process, Rick posed for a picture with the (embarrassed) cow.  Rick is on the right.

 

You may be wondering whether Spencer is as funny in person as he is in this blog.  The answer is an unequivocal no.

That’s why it amazes me so much that the Polish people, especially women and dogs, are so taken by Spencer.  Maybe its because they’re all former Communists, especially the terriers.

But all seriousness aside, it’s been great seeing The Great Man and hanging out with him.  He seems to be doing well mentally, physically, and emotionally, and spiritually.  I often write down for posterity his comments concerning life, love, and litership (drinking liter mugs of beer).  He did need help picking up his glass though.

But even though he’s doing well, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.   And please pray for Europe also, which will never be the same.

 

 

Tags: Poland, Travel, Warsaw

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 9:05 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.