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Home again after driving all day and it’s nice to be typing this on my own computer v. Helena’s when we were in Poland, or on my phone when we were in the car which was even awkward just for making facebook comments, but it did pass the time. I also finished one of the books I got for Christmas on the drive, The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith who is really J.K. Rowling, but I’m going to write a whole blog on that, so I’ll leave it for now.
Our only stop was at Malborg Castle, which was massive and I was surprised that it was built in the 13th century because it looked like a big hospital or factory complex from the 19th century (i.e. brick, not stone) but it was impressive nonetheless and had a huge Madonna statue embedded in one wall.

Once it got dark, we were driving along and suddenly saw a bunch of red lights in the sky and couldn’t quite figure out what they were. It was not a fireworks display, although they were at fireworks height. No, these were steadily blinking lights, quite a long line of them. Then we realized that they were wind turbines. An interesting side effect. They will save the planet, but they will make it look very unnatural. Cool, though.
That’s about it for now. Feels good to be home. Good night.

Yesterday (last night couldn’t figure out how to write the blog on the wife’s computer and she’d already gone to bed) we toured the battlefield where the Nazi’s invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II, and visited the lovely town of Sopot.
We walked along the pier, there was a seagull posing for photographs, a clown playing guitar, and lots and lots of people enjoying the beautiful view in the chilly weather, and along the central promenade of the town, which was appropriately touristy. The kids had some Gofrey, which is really more of a summertime treat, but waffles topped with fruit and whipped cream are always good.
The funniest incident of the day, however, occured when we stopped for lunch. We went to an Italian restaurant, and it was quite good. Helena, Isabel and I all had pizza and Sam had a seafood linguine. The confusion came with the drinks. Sam had ordered an ice tea and when he tasted it, something seemed strange. I looked at it and thought “Did she bring him a Long Island Iced Tea?” because the colors were layered in that distinctive way but still, he’s a minor, it was a family restaurant, so we were kind of in disbelief. Helena tasted it (she almost never drinks) and said “something is funny,” so suddenly I, who hasn’t touched alcohol in 20 years, a day at a time 12 stepper, was thrust into the position of being the family expert on alcohol.
I took a sip and it is like riding a bicycle, you never forget. I must admit, that restaurant makes a decent Long Island Iced Tea. Well, they insisted on charging us for it. “I did ask you twice if you wanted a Long Iced Tea,” the waitress (who was very cute and sweet) said.
So, we got burned for that, but overall the meal was not expensive and the food was good.
In about an hour we’ll hit the road. We’re going to see one castle on the way but we’ll be back in Prague by tonight. It has been a lovely vacation.

We started off our day at Solidarity Square, in front of the shipyard where striking workers in 1989 were the beginning of the end of communism in all of the Warsaw Pact nations and we stopped into the museum there because it was raining, but our plan was to go to the WWII museum, about a 15 minute walk away.
The Solidarity museum was a very impressive building, huge internal space with a bit of a garden, but we didn’t want to pay the ticket price so just saw the exhibit of photographs on the ground floor and waited for the rain to stop.
The WWII museum was bloody massive. The line to get in was intimidating, and it was crowded inside as well, but not so much that it interfered with the experience. Most of the history, of course, is known, but it was a reminder that Russia, which justifiably gets credit for breaking the Nazi war machine and winning the war for the Allies, started off as allies of the Nazis, and the Poles have not forgiven them for that, especially not in Gdansk.
I’m glad the kids saw it. WWII it totally ancient history for them.
By the time we got out of there and found a restaurant we liked for lunch, it was already 3 p.m. The place we chose (I forget the name, so I guess this is useless as a review) got pretty high marks from all of us for the food, wound up being a lot less expensive than we thought, and super high marks for atmosphere. So many places are just spaces, with a wall and some windows between you and the street, but this place had an entrance hallway so that when you entered the second door into the restaurant, you were in a totally different world. Exposed wood beams, lots of wood carvings, folklorically decorated ceramics on the walls, and against one wall a series of … well, I don’t know what you would call them, they were in frames like paintings but they all had pieces of tree branches, adorned with tufts of green, from what material I don’t know, but it was all very pretty and arboreal. Also, the menu was in 3 languages. Polish, of course, Kashubian, and English. I’d never heard of Kashubian before but it’s apparently the local dialect.
Tomorrow, a day trip to Sopot.

We had a lovely day today in Gdansk, even though the weather was rainy and dreary. We visited a mall with a canal running right through the middle of it, spent a few hours in a science museum, which was largely aimed at kids which is just fine, we were there for the kids and my understanding of science is not on such an advanced level that I didn’t learn a few things, and experienced the local public transportation.
But, I’m still going to write a political blog.

People talk a lot about divisiveness. Somebody in one of my Bernie groups was complaing about the phrase ‘O.K., Boomer’ because it is divisive, and somebody just told me I was being divisive because I said something along the lines of “Elizabeth Warren is a total tool of the corporations and no better than Biden or any of the others.”
The thing is, we are divided. We live on a planet of over 7 billion people, and not a one is exactly like any other. We speak thousands of different languages, practice lots of different religions, and have different dietary preferences. We are divided by age, gender, abilities, interests, economic level and social class. People argue over sports, and films, and music just as vehemently as they argue about politics, often more so.
And that’s O.K. While it’s important that we find unity and common ground, I would not want to sweep our divisions under the rug. Better to have them out in the open, deal with them, and then we can work together when we need to, when the time comes, as best we can.

It is the end of day one of our Polish vacation and so far it is shaping up very nicely. Unlike our usual vacations, we are not rushing around trying to fit in too many sites, and it’s much lower key and I’m finding that very pleasant. Good family time.
The drive up was uneventful, still dark as we drove out of Prague, light traffic all the way with intermittent rain, but never really heavy or dangerous rain, and already dark again by the time we arrived, but not terribly late.
We found our apartment (booking.com) easily enough. Nothing special about it, a bit small, but everything works just fine and it’s an easy walk from here into the center, which has a pedestrian zone as large as Prague’s and it’s still all decked out for Christmas. It was lovely and we’ll go back again tomorrow (also planned: a museum trip) to see it in the daylight. Dinner was pierogis filled with meat and topped with bacon bits for me and Helena, a chocolate crepe for Isabel, and a burrito for Sam. Actually, I had a bite of that and think Sam ordered the best meal, but certainly not the most authentically Polish.
Then we did a bit of grocery shopping, came home and played Scrabble at which I have a bit of an unfair advantage but it was still close. For someone with pretensions of being a writer, I’m really not very good at the game.
Looking forward to tomorrow.