Visitors!

We had our first and only visitors from home last Saturday. Okay fine, they weren't really here to see us, but we got to visit with them nonetheless.



This is a picture of us with Les and Noreen Trombley, my sister's in-laws.

Thanks for a great afternoon (not to mention the pancake mix and Halloween candy)!

A Great Day

After having stayed inside the apartment for the better part of a week because of Owen being sick and having hives, we were pretty excited to get out of the house. Gord happened to have the day off, so we went as a family to Old Town. The Old Town area in Warsaw was totally destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, and then meticulously rebuilt in the 1970's with an amazing level of authenticity. We visited the Barbican, which had some really interesting pictures of Old Town before the war and afterward. The area we were standing in had been totally destroyed. One thing you can say about the Poles is that they are a very resilient people.



In the centre of Old Town is the Square which is home to the Warsaw Mermaid (who has her very own legend).



It seems that we have developed a tradition on this trip that every time you leave the house for more than four hours you need to treat yourself to an ice cream cone.





Also in Old Town is the Royal Castle (this is a view from the back). Like the rest of Old Town, it was burned to the ground by the Nazis, and then rebuilt.



We played for a long time in the hedge maze behind the Castle. I took this picture of Julia to show how big the hedges are.













Also in the garden where the hedge mazes are was this random sculpture of headless sand people...



...and a giant fake rock.



After running around the mazes we went across the street (or under it, to be precise) to check out the Vistula River. It is dirty and kind of smelly, but looks nice in this picture!



I am not sure I can convey in words how much I dislike all of the graffiti in Warsaw. Generally the only good thing about it is that it is in Polish and my kids can't read it. However, I did enjoy this particular section near the river.



After we walked back to Old Town from the river, we went to this great Indian restaurant.



We left the house around noon and got back around 9 pm. By the end of the day, Michael was getting a little punchy!

On our walk home, I took this picture of the Barbican at night. It was a lovely end to a lovely day!

A Shout Out to All My Bible Thumping Peeps

I wanted to show all my church friends what our church looks like in Warsaw. It is called St. Paul's English Speaking Parish of Warsaw and mass is held in the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Chapel near Old Town. It is quite simple and plain compared to some of the cathedrals we have been in, but we really like it. The priest is interesting, and there are quite a few kids. When Fr. Dawidowski called up all the children to the altar the other day, I counted around 35 and that was not counting babies and little ones. Not bad for a small parish.



This is a view of the altar.



These words above the altar say "O Mary, conceived without sin". Of course, they make me think of Mary, Mother of God, but they also TOTALLY make me think of my Aunt Mary Jo every Sunday!

How to Have a 9th Birthday Party in a Small Foreign Apartment

First, rent some Ben 10 episodes on iTunes and hook up the computer to your T.V. so you can watch them on the big screen.



Then invite your friends over (Max and Aiden from Australia and Jonathan and Aaron from Virginia) to watch with you while you snack on microwave popcorn and fresh berries from Hala Market



Instead of a regular old birthday cake which would be impossible to buy and equally impossible for your mom to make, have do it yourself ice cream sundaes instead. They will be just as well received, and your poor mom won't snap trying to make the cake thing work out.



I mean really, who doesn't love ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and candy?



When you are done eating, go and run off the sugar in the courtyard of your hotel.

It will be a great birthday, and you will wonder why you worried so much and drove your mom so crazy about what your birthday party would be like in Poland before you even left Canada.

Just sayin'.

Shocking!!

Once the fog of jet lag lifted in Krakow, we fell in love with that city. Everything was wonderful and interesting and beautiful. The food was delicious, the old buildings were full of character and history and the people seemed friendly. When we got to Warsaw, something changed. Suddenly, Poland seemed full of broken sidewalks and grafitti. The grocery stores were hard to navigate, there was always broken glass in the parks and the people were downright grouchy. Nobody here seemed particularly tolerant of children, especially in groups of more than 2, and I cannot count the amount of times we were publicly shushed (in the bathroom at the mall, on the bus, at the pool...) When you combine those things with the amount of illness we endured, it amounted to some pretty dark days. There were a few times when we (mostly me) considered going home early. Seriously considered it. However, things have really turned around here in the last couple of weeks and we (mostly me) are glad that we stayed. All of those things I mentioned above are still true of Poland, but they no longer bother us so much. Maybe it is because we know our journey is coming to an end, but I think there was also something else going on. I think we suffered from a classic case of culture shock. I was reading about it, and the article I read explained that initially in a new country you go through a honeymoon period (our time in Krakow) and then all of the differences between your home country and the new one really start to drag you down (our initial time in Warsaw) and then you adjust and start to see things more clearly and enjoy yourself again (our last few weeks in Warsaw). Sounds about right to me. How very shocking!

Is There Anybody Out There?

It has come to my attention that I have been a negligent blogger. I had planned on blogging every day while we were at the beach in Sopot, but on the way there we had a bit of an accident which ended in my computer not working. Consequently, I only have the iPad to use during the times when Gord is at work (which is often). Today he is home, and I hope to pound out a few posts. Hopefully, there is still someone out there who is interested in reading them!!

PS Owen is now well. I have come to the conclusion (after talking with my friend Dana and my Aunt Mary Jo) that he probably broke out in hives from a virus. The week before, we had been to two of those indoor play centres. We went to one on Wednesday and another on Friday that same week. By Saturday, he was throwing up for two days and by Thursday, he had broken out in a raging case of hives. We will not be going to any more indoor playgrounds while in Poland...or possibly anywhere else in the world.

Doctor, Doctor...

This morning, Owen woke up looking like this:

He had developed the hives the day before, and I had sent him to bed with some Benadryl, which seemed to help for a while. However, there was clearly still a problem in the morning. I decided it was time to call a doctor, hoping that they could tell me what he might be allergic to that would be causing these crazy hives and that they would give me something to treat them. At the beginning of this adventure, PwC provided us with a phone number for a service that will make you an appointment with an English speaking doctor. It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to dial the number (long story), but once I did things moved along fairly quickly and by noon we were sitting in the doctor's office. She was a nice woman who spoke English very well. She determined that Owen needed to see the dermatologist down the hall and got us in to see her very quickly. When I asked the new doctor if she spoke English she said "only a little", which turned out to be very true. The language barrier was enough that I couldn't really ask her many questions, but she did manage to relay that she thought Owen had something called Urticaria and gave us a prescription. What a relief to have a diagnosis! When I tried to ask her why he got this condition she couldn't really give me a good answer but seemed not to think it was from an allergic reaction. No problem, I thought. I will go home and look the word Urticaria up on the computer and we will know the cause of this problem and how to prevent it in the future.

(Owen took this picture of me in the Doctor's office. Enough said!)

When we got home, I quickly fired up the computer, punched the word Urticaria into Google and learned that it means...wait for it...wait for it...hives. And guess what? Hives are most likely caused by an allergy and are best treated with an antihistamine, like Benadryl. Well, I knew all of that before I took him to the doctor!! I suppose it was good that we went though. I think the prescription she gave him is for stronger antihistamines than Benadryl, so hopefully they will work better and faster. She also said that he should stay away from sweets, juice, fast food, chips and gum. For the life of me I can't figure out how that will help, but it is worth a try. As a back up plan, I am calling our family doctor on Monday to set up an appointment for allergy testing when we get back. You know, just in case these might be those regular old hives that are caused by an allergic reaction!

PS The first doctor ruled out bed bugs as the cause, which was a relief!

The Plague

Since coming to Poland, not so long ago, our family has been plagued by a months worth of unpleasant gastrointestinal issues, two kids with stomach flu (not at the same time, of course, because that would be too easy), massive head colds for Krista and Gord, horrible sounding chest colds for all the little kids (which required 3 kinds of asthma medication for Michael), plantars warts on three kids who did not have them when we left Canada

and just today

Owen had an allergic reaction to something he ate...or possibly bites from bed bugs. The jury is still out on that one, and frankly I am too freaked out about it to discuss it any further right now.

If you pray, please pray for our health. If you don't, please just feel sorry for us. I need someone to feel sorry for me today.

Big Day in the Zittlau House

Does this guy look nine?

How about these guys?

Certainly, this guy does!

Happy Birthday, Owen!!!!!!! We love you!!!!!!!

And to the wonderful man who bought me these flowers...

...and these fancy chocolates:

You are the best husband I've ever had!!!! I love you!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Last Vienna Post, I Promise!

The highlight of our last day in Vienna was going to an island on the Danube River called Donauinsel.

This is our feet in the Danube. In this shot, Michael's shirt is dry...

...and then it was not! He fell right in, but didn't seem to mind since it was so hot.

We found a great playground on the island that had this contraption where you could pump water down a series of wooden ramps, until it reached the sand below...

...where you could, of course, make sand cookies.

There was also a really great spray park on the island, which would have been way better to find at the beginning of our very hot trip than on the last evening right before bedtime. Oh well, next time, right?

Our journey home from Vienna was kind of awful. The train was older than the one we rode in on the way there, and it hadn't had a good scrubbing in awhile. One of the cars on the train lost air conditioning part way through our eight hour journey, so all of the people from that car were standing in the hallway or trying to find space in the cabins of our car. It got really hot really fast. We shared our cabin with Josephina, an older lady from the Czech Republic. She was lovely and I enjoyed spending time with her. All in all though, we were very happy to get home.

When we arrived at our building at 10:30 pm, there were these giant glowing flower pots that were not there when we left. Totally weird!

Vienna - Part 2

On day two in Vienna, we set out to see some of the sights, starting at the Stephansplatz (which is a square in the centre of the city). 

In the afternoon, we had to go inside to beat the heat, so we went to the Haus des Meeres.  It is an aquarium in the centre of Vienna.  The rooftop had this great view.

Did you know fish eat cantaloupe?  I did not.

Owen doing his best fish impression.  

Lily thought this was hilarious!

I like the parks in Europe.  They are full of equipment that a kid could break an arm on.  You know, the old school fun stuff.  For example, at a park near the aquarium there was this giant spinning disk that you could walk around on while it was spinning.  The kids loved it!  North American parks seem to have had this type of equipment removed.  Oh sure it is safer, but way less fun!

For dinner, Paula and her kids went to visit her aunt who lives in Vienna, so we did our own thing.  After dinner, a break dance show and some ice cream we called it a day.  We totally loved Vienna!