Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Yesterday was total relaxation at the spa day and today turned out to be walk till our feet were sore and we ached all over day, but we’re back at the flat now and our heads are full of new experiences and beautiful moments. The original plan was to take a train ride to another town and spend the day seeing the sites there, but that fell apart when we got to the front of the line and found out the trains weren’t running and they didn’t know when they’d start again, something about water on the tracks which was really not too surprising, it rained like a bastard last night. Then we wandered around a bit and had a bit of a family argument because Isabel didn’t want a group photo and I didn’t care for her attitude, and Helena totally took her side. Then I rejected a couple of restaurants as too expensive, we found a lovely Thai place outdoors next to a stream, but Isabel didn’t want Thai, but eventually we found some place with good food and a rather strange atmosphere, it was like a big beer hall. After that, we took the funicular up to the top of the mountain, and walked back down. The crowd at the top of the mountain was just as huge as the crowd in town, but it thinned out pretty quick as we moved down the path. But it was raining, and that lasted a while. We snacked on wild raspberries. The scenery was beautiful, much like Switzerland or Austria, mountain meadows with the occasional cow in them, very picturesque. I forgot the umbrella at a place by the side of the road where there was a monument because the pope (the popular one, the Polish one ) had been there.
It took us a couple of hours to walk back down and then we were at the other side of town from our flat. If we keep this up, I could actually lose some weight and get fit. But I don’t have any intention of keeping this up.

This morning was foggy and misty, which provided an interesting view of the mountains from our balcony, but did not bode well for a day at the lake, so we decided to make today thermal springs day. In retrospect and all things considered, it was the right choice. However, several thousand other people made the same choice.
I don’t think I’ve stood in such a long line since Disneyland. My wife said “It’s the largest thermal pool in Poland, 3,000 square meters’ and I said ‘Yeah, that’s about 1 square meter per person’ and I thought I was joking, but it was true. I can’t complain about the facilities, there were lots of different pools and lots of things to do and we spent over 3 lovely hours there, mostly just going from warm pool to warm pool, but there was also a wave pit, several warm waterfalls, and a lap pool which was totally futile because of the crowd. I am feeling so thoroughly relaxed right now that I just stood up to stretch, right in the middle of this sentence, and knocked a glass of apple juice halfway across the room. I am not, at this moment, fully in control of my own body, I am so relaxed, is what I’m saying.

It rained on us a bit while in the big pool, and by the time we exited, it was pouring. We were wet by the time we got to the car. The suggestion I made, which I expected Helena to reject outright, was that we continue driving in the same direction, away from the mountain resort where we are residing, until we come to a normal, non-touristy Polish town, where we could stop and get a big, nourishing, Polish dinner at a reasonable price, and I was kind of surprised when she accepted. However, after driving for about half an hour, and the rain getting steadily worse, she decided it was a ridiculous plan and we turned around.
Stopped at a supermarket, made spaghetti bolognese for supper, and now we’re going to play a game of scrabble. It is still raining.

Last night while we were strolling through the beautiful, albeit kitschy and touristy town of Zakopane, we came to a church. Helena and Isabel went in, but it looked rather crowded as the people were streaming out and visitors had to wait to get in, in the manner of letting passengers deboard before getting on the Metro. I decided to wait outside, partly because of that, partly because if you’ve seen one church you’ve seen them all (which is even more true of mosques – Istanbul gets quite repetitive after a while), and partly because it was just a light, pleasant drizzle at that point and not the downpour that nailed us before we got home.
But, its presence loomed and dominated my thoughts, and hence this blog. Churches are, indeed, impressive buildings, with all their gold and statuary, and they can be peaceful places of contemplation, with their high ceilings and cavernous inner expanses. Much like a cavern, a church is a quiet place, isolated from the outside world, a haven.
But, they are places of religion so I feel like a hypocrite when I step inside them.
Religion is declining in our times, and I reckon it will disappear from the face of the Earth within a century or two, and here’s why: Christianity, and Islam, are only followed by billions of people today because, up until just a couple hundred years ago, you had to believe in them, or at least say you did, under penalty of death. In those circumstances, I would become a Christian, too.
Today, we’ve gotten past that, at least in the developed world, and that’s the world most people want to live in. Now that we live in a world where it’s socially acceptable to self-identify as an atheist (or agnostic, which is just the politer,less confrontational version), more and more people are doing so, and the percentage will rise with each generation.
Of course, there is still the pull of family, and tradition, and sometimes a church is the only place in town big enough for certain events, so they are popular for weddings, funerals, and political photo ops. The buildings will stand for thousands of years. They were built that way, and that is admirable.

I was very depressed this morning to read of Nina Turner’s loss. I don’t have any evidence of fraud, but she was ahead by about 30 points just a couple of months ago, so it sure feels like rigging. It just seems like progressives can’t win. Of course, after the 2016 election, the courts ruled that the DNC could cheat if they wanted to. I’m still surprised there was not more outrage about that.
I spend a lot of time on Facebook arguing with people who are to the left of me, who say there is no hope within the democratic party, and that we should all leave and form a 3rd party, or have a revolution. I know that neither of those things are likely to happen, but on this day I have to say, I agree with them.
Then, at 7:30 a.m., we hit the road (Helena, Isabel and me – Sam thinks he is too cool for a trip with the parents so he’s going to a friend’s cottage, or so he’s told us at any rate) for a week’s vacation in Poland. I had thought that here in the South of Poland it would not be a major tourist area, so we could enjoy some lovely scenery in a laid back atmosphere without the crowds and the kitsch but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The market here in Zakopanec is about as kitschy as I have ever seen, and there were huge crowds in the center this evening, despite the rain. But, that’s all cool. It is a lovely area, much like the resort H and I went to a couple weeks ago, and the place we are staying is comfortable, and we’re having a good time.
The world is probably doomed, but things are still pretty nice in my little corner of it.

This story here is both sad, scary, a horrible statement on the difficulties of having the intelligent conversation we need to have if we want to save our species from extinction, and absolutely gut busting comical, all at the same time.
It seems some of Trump’s inner circle decided to start a free speech website, a place for Trumpers to post where they wouldn’t be bothered by people saying ‘that’s not politically correct,’ ‘that is completely false,’ or ‘jeeezus, what the fuck is wrong with you people?’, or just blocked outright. So, they started a site called GETTR. Within a month, it was absolutely flooded with Islamic revolutionary propaganda. Like, the really bad stuff. Beheadings, flag burnings, death to America in every video.
It’s just like Trump vodka, Trump steaks, and the list goes on and on. Some people who didn’t know anything about websites started a website and it was a disaster, a flop of epic proportions. In this case, they were eaten by trolls. Figuratively, of course.
Sites like Facebook, and any others you might use, are only navigable because the admins are blocking the crazies right, left and center. If the internet has proven anything it is that humanity has a dark, and extremely stupid side. Of course, the censorship could probably be better managed. Algorithms make absurd mistakes, and human moderators can’t handle the volume, so everybody is walking a thin line.
Walking a thin line is not something Trump, or his people, are good at.