TRIP REPORT:
POLAND, JUNE / JULY 2002
Part Two: July 3 - July 11
Wednesday, July 3, Krakow/Opole/Wroclaw weather: Hot and sunnyWe ate breakfast in the hotel dining room, making our choices from a set menu. After breakfast we packed, checked out and rolled our luggage to the car in the parking lot. During the ½ block walk we were approached by a man who offered to sell us cigarettes out of the trunk of his car. We continued on to the parking lot, loaded the suitcases into our car, paid the attendant, and drove to the rynek. In April I had placed an order for 3 folk costumes with a company in Krakow, “Perfekt”. I had hoped to have time to visit the store and perhaps bring home one of them but we didn’t have the time. We did have time to do some shopping, though, and take more pictures. Josh’s history fair project for 8th grade was going to be a reproduction of St. Mary’s church, trumpeter and all, so I needed to take some close-up and side photographs of the famous church, and Cloth Hall is the best place we’ve found to buy inexpensive souvenirs. We arrived at Cloth Hall (Sukienice) about 9:30 a.m. Lucky for me it opened early on Wednesdays. I won’t go into detail about Cloth Hall because I describe it in detail in earlier diaries. We all bought a few things, including pysanki, pens, amber jewelry, crystal vodka glasses, and t-shirts. We couldn’t pass up the bookstores on the rynek and purchased a couple of things there, too, including birthday cards in Polish. I have a difficult time finding these back home. I was surprised to see the Hallmark trademark on the back of many cards. I had been looking for 2 particular books about Polish costumes and some how-to books about wood carving, pysanki, szopka and the like, but I didn’t find them there and the store clerks couldn’t help me. We stopped for ice cream and then walked back to where we parked the car. We had chosen a parking lot close to the rynek which meant it was expensive, but we didn’t want to take the time to drive to the other side of the rynek to a cheaper lot. Parking cost us 21 zloty or about $5.25. Yikes!
Our itinerary now called for us to head for the city of Wroclaw in western Poland via Opole. We found a quick route out of Krakow and onto the tollway that lead to Katowice. I was able to drive 90 km in 45 minutes going about 130 -140 kph. There were two tolls between Krakow and Katowice costing a total of 10 zloty or about $2.00. A bit high but it was nice to go fast without detours or roadblocks. This tollway is not used much and I suppose it is because of the tolls. Unless you’ve got a reason to drive the back roads, the tollway is worth it. There didn’t seem to be many villages between Krakow and Katowice. Katowice is very industrialized. Just past Katowice the tollway ended and was still under construction, but it was certainly farther along than when I had traveled it two years before. Unfortunately, when the tollway ended the road signs took us in a back and forth route through slow, busy villages. This wasn’t the route I had mapped out but we didn’t seem to have much choice. Dave and Josh were able to experience the Nazi tank road which was put in place during WWII to allow the German tanks to travel through Poland without sinking. This road was made up of very large and thick concrete slabs joined roughly together. It is very noisy and bumpy. Finally the signs brought us back to road # A-4, which is, apparently, the tollway extension. The tank road runs alongside the construction site for the new extension. The tank road had obviously held up well the last 60 years and I thought it would be a good idea to leave it open for truck use only. That way the new road would last longer. There are only two lanes on the old road, which would have been fine except a large truck lost a wheel causing a 45 minute delay while a construction truck made its way down to pull the wheelless truck out of the way. I think the way I mapped out the route would have been shorter but since the road numbers were different, we couldn’t be sure.
We finally arrived in Opole. My mission was to buy some more of the Opole design porcelain that is sold mainly in Cepelia stores. Since it was manufactured in Opole I had decided that it would be cheaper to buy what I wanted at the source. I still haven’t found the factory store, but I was satisfied with the prices that I did find. In preparation for the trip, I had made up a list of all the Cepelia addresses in the cities we would be visiting. This Cepelia is located at ul. Katedralna 8, just down the street from the cathedral. I had made up a list of the porcelain I already owned and added a list of what I wanted. I was able to buy almost everything on my list. Good thing I brought bubble wrap! I was especially pleased that I bought a china tankard to serve as my big coffee cup at home while on the computer. After the short shopping trip we ventured out looking for a particular restaurant, the Gospoda Opolka. The owner, a Brit, had emailed me about two years ago suggesting I stop in his restaurant the next time I was in Opole. Well, I was too late as the restaurant had changed hands. So we took some pictures around what used to be the ice house and ate at McDonald’s. It was easy and fast and we still had to drive to Wroclaw. Dinner for the three of us cost 16.30 zloty = $4.08. A Happy Meal cost 73 cents and you even got a toy that is different than the U.S. toys. On our way out of town we stopped at a mall. Malls are moving into Poland in a big way. I was looking for a new hair dryer and curling iron as my tastes and hairdo had changed since I bought the ones I already had. The hair dryers they offered were all too short and the circumference of their only curling iron was too small. I bought some books for children, a map of Wroclaw and priced washing machines. We also exchanged money at the kantor in the mall; best rate yet, 4.01 zloty for $1.00.
After the unsuccessful detour to the mini-mall we drove to Wroclaw. You could tell we had a teenager in the car. He laughed hysterically when we passed the village sign for “Krapowice”. All I could do was sigh.
Something I had noticed during the drive from Krakow to Wroclaw was the use of suspension bridges as overpasses over the motorway. Each was a different design and color unlike the same old bridges we passed under at home, mile after mile. The road from Opole to Wroclaw was also like a freeway. We traveled between 120-130 kph and drove 90 km in about 45 minutes. There is an obvious difference in the architecture of western and eastern Poland. Wroclaw was very interesting. We were welcomed to the city by two large tanks which sat at the front of a park. We didn’t have trouble finding the hotel we’d be staying in for two nights, the Hotel Tumski. This hotel has a web site and email.
Hotel Tumski info:
Wyspa Slodowa 10
50-266 WroclawTwo nights, three people, including breakfast and locked parking behind the hotel.
Price including VAT was 590 zloty = $147.50 or $73.75 per night.This hotel has an elevator which was a welcome convenience. The lobby area was nice and bright. The male clerk spoke English and told me the parking was behind the hotel. I gave him my passport (as is necessary) and picked it up again before we left the hotel the next time. The hotel is on an island in the river and is right on the water next to a bridge (Wroclaw is loaded with bridges). The weather was very hot. We were in a corner room so we opened the windows hoping for a breeze. Unfortunately, spiders came in first. My husband went down to the desk and asked for bug spray and a fan. The desk clerk came up with bug spray, a duster and a fan. The fan had been sitting in an office unused. The young man seemed puzzled as to why we wanted the spiders taken care of. Being from Texas, we don’t trust any bugs. The young man stood up on the 24" deep window sills and cleaned out spiders. Well, we ended up keeping the windows closed anyway. Josh needed to take a shower but we found that the shower drain was clogged. Another call to the desk with a little confusion as to what the problem was. The desk clerk came up once again, this time with a tiny can of lye and a tiny plunger. Dave and I hadn’t seen lye in years, but it sure did the trick in short order. That little can of lye caused an absolute eruption of gunk from the shower drain. A couple of pumps with the tiny plunger and a quick rinse later and the clerk was on his way, with the shower draining just fine.
Josh showered and I repacked all five suitcases. Uh, oh, not everything would fit. I would eventually have to expand a couple of suitcases even after giving the Tomalski and Zuchowski families their gifts. Dave and I went to bed about 1:00 a.m. We slept fine and the fan made the heat tolerable.
This was the first hotel that had a small vanity in the bathroom. This made it easier to get ready in the mornings. In addition, the room had three beds, a closet with shelves, dressing table with a mirror, chairs, TV, telephone, clock radio, bottled water and a combination coat rack/suitcase stand with another mirror. Mineral water was also provided as usual. So far this trip we had not had a room that provided kleenex or shampoo.
Thursday, July 4, Wroclaw weather: rainy and cool
So glad to have rain because that meant the weather would be cooler, and it was. We still wore shorts. Yes, we received odd looks but we were enjoying the cool weather. We had breakfast in the quaint restaurant situated just off the hotel lobby. The breakfast was buffet style but with a very limited selection, of cheese, meat, salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, rolls, coffee, tea and juice. I stepped outside onto the patio, which was by the parking lot, to take a few pictures.
We left the hotel at about 11:00, having taken our time getting ready. I was pleased to find that all of the hotels on this trip had extended their breakfast times by an hour. I asked the desk clerk where I could buy a hair dryer and she sent us to a very large mall, the Galeria Dominikanska. This mall had three levels which included restaurants. We looked into quite a few stores and all were fully stocked with numerous choices available. A big electronics store had the sort of hair dryer I was looking for, although it was very expensive and heavy. It cost 159 zloty = $39.75! That’s more than I would pay at home. I don’t know why hair dryers are so expensive in Poland. While in this store I noticed that thought they had a couple of dozen different kinds of clothes irons and that they were all big and very heavy. I was surprised that the new models hadn’t been made lighter and thought how tiring it would be to have to use these irons. We stopped into a drug store and a cosmetics store to pick up a few things. It appears that every cosmetic company from the U.S. is selling their wares in Polish stores; Maybeline to L’Oreal. I was amazed. With the high unemployment in Poland at the time, I wondered why so many imports were allowed instead of putting Polish people to work in Polish companies making the same sorts of products. Before leaving the mall at around 2:00 p.m. we relaxed watching the water in a fountain dance and do aerobatics reminiscent of Disney World.
We enjoyed the beautiful architecture around the city before stopping at the rynek. Couldn’t pass by the Cepelia without stopping in. I ended up buying two 3' x 5' Polish flags simply because they were so much cheaper in Poland than at home. There is a very interesting fountain/water display in this rynek. I was quite impressed with the different types and number of water features in Poland. The fountain was long and narrow with a sculpture in the center made of thick sheets of glass stood on edge parallel to one another. The top edges of the sheets were irregular and the water ran over the glass. Its modernity stood in sharp contrast to the ancient buildings around the rynek and the ancient cloth hall/town hall in the center, but the overall effect was quite pleasing.
Though it was raining Dave wanted to walk around and sightsee, but I wanted to look for my books in the bookstores on the rynek, so we agreed on a place to meet and split up. Josh went with me. We met at the agreed spot and since I still had one more bookstore to check out, Dave went to look at a big historic church just off the rynek. (What a reversal! At home, it’s Dave that can’t be dragged out of the bookstores and me that wants to keep going.) We really didn’t see much of Wroclaw as we took things leisurely. We decided to go back to the mall for dinner as we’d seen a little Polish restaurant there that looked interesting and Josh really wanted to try the ice cream restaurant he’d seen earlier. We had dinner at Sami Stoij’s. Evidently he is a Polish actor, and Josh surprised us by being familiar with him. We had kielbasa, pierogi, galabki, and bigos. It was all pretty good, though not cheap. Typical mall prices. For the three of us it cost 45.80 zloty = $11.45.
We walked around the mall for awhile and then indulged in lavish ice cream deserts the Poles are famous for. I think I even took a picture of them. Three deserts cost 33.70 zloty = $8.43, but they were goooood.
Back at the hotel we got ready for bed and ready to leave for Gniezno the next morning. The weather was cooler, but we still used the fan and didn’t open the windows. While getting ready for bed we heard about the gunman killing people at the El Al terminal in Los Angeles. News was sketchy but seemed up -to-date.
Friday, July 5 Gniezno weather: sunny, clear but cool.
Up at 7:30 a.m.; Dave and I ate breakfast in the hotel while Josh chose to stay in the room. I suppose he had too many pierogi the night before (or was it that he enjoyed watching familiar cartoons in another language?). I left my old Polish hair dryer for the maid along with a few small U.S. souvenirs I had brought with for this purpose.
After checking out of the hotel we stopped at the post office to mail some postcards and then stopped for gas. This little car really guzzled the gas. We supposed it was due to the air conditioner. We actually got on the road about 11:15 a.m. and arrived in Trzebnica about noon. What I haven’t mentioned is how often we’d stop during our drives so I could turn around, go back and take a picture of something. I tried to take as many pictures as I could of parishes, their cemeteries, roadside shrines, memorials, babcias, old people on bicycles, quilts airing out over a balcony, storks, homes and everything else! That’s how I used up 54 rolls of film in 24 days. Hopefully, a lot of these photos will end up, properly captioned, on my web site.
We stopped at Trzebnica to see the church. Before going in, I walked across the street to a little souvenir kiosk. I was soon joined by a group of school children who were also visiting the church. In my broken Polish I asked the clerk if she had any souvenir books in English. No, she only had them in Polish and German. I had trouble with the Polish word for book (ksiazka, bookstore is ksiegarnia). It was not unusual for me to get it confused with the word for priest (ksiadz). I’m sure I asked for an English priest as the young boy next to me snickered. I asked him if he spoke English, and he said that he did. He told me that he was learning it in school. I asked him if he was also learning German, but he said no. I bought a couple of small things, thanked everyone for their help and started to head for the church. I turned around and went back to the children, asking if I could take a photograph of them. They agreed, and as I was lining them up I explained in broken Polish that in America we say “ser” (cheese) and I gave them a big smile. They understood. When I was ready to take their picture they all said “ser!” It was so cute.
Dave, Josh and I walked around inside the church reading everything and taking pictures. What a beautiful church. Once on the road again we passed through the villages of Dziadkowo, Cieszkow, Krotoszyn, Kozmin, Walkow, Jarocin, Zerkow, Przybyslaw, Komorze, Ruda Komorska and Borowiec. During this trip we saw many storks, not just in their nests but walking around in the fields too. I noted that western Poland doesn’t make haystack soldiers as they do in eastern and southern Poland. The haystacks in this part of the country were more like what I’d seen in the U.S., rectangles of hay piled high in the fields. I also realized that we had crossed all of the major rivers of Poland: San, Warta, Wisla, Odra, and Dunajec.
We had a little trouble in Jarocin trying to find the correct road to Zerkow, but we eventually found it and continued on. Zerkow has a huge public swimming pool which was full of happy swimmers.
We stayed off the main road as we approached Wrzesnia (old woj. Poznan), an ancestral parish of mine. I wanted to see as many villages as possible. One parish church, Kaczanowo, had new wood stacked up around it as if it was going to be renovated soon. There was a very interesting wooden pole in the churchyard. It had been carved on all four sides with intricate pictures. The carvings appeared to be quite old and pieces of it had weathered away.
We spent some time in Gozdowo. It’s possible that an ancestor died in this parish but I haven’t proved it yet. We stopped anyway because I love the way this church looks and sits up on its little hill. I was hoping that my new long lens would take really nice pictures from across the farmers field that stood in between the church and the road. We also stopped in Bierzglinek, which is definitely an ancestral Chojnacki village, and drove street by street through the whole village. It’s not small, but it is spread out, and part runs alongside the “freeway.” We didn’t stop in Wrzesnia but instead drove onto Gniezno, about another ½ hour. We had no problem getting to the hotel since I had stayed at the same one in October, 2000. Finding any place in Gniezno by car isn’t something to be taken for granted; it’s a maze of twisty-turny one-way streets that is hard to navigate even when you’re fairly familiar with it. We pulled into the locked parking lot behind the hotel, took out our luggage and checked into the hotel we’d be staying at for the next six nights.
Hotel Lech
ul. Bl. Jolenty 5
62-200 GnieznoSix nights, three people in a suite (apartment), breakfast included.
Price including VAT: 1050.00 zloty = $175.00 or $30.00 a night!!! Best deal yet! I had found that if you stay over a weekend or stay longer than a couple of days, you can usually get a discount. The parking, which had been included in the room price during my last visit, now cost 73.20 zloty = $18.30 for the entire stay.I checked us into the hotel, again leaving my passport so the clerk could copy down my information. We carried our bags to the second floor and were pleased with the room. Whereas the room I had stayed in previously was tiny, this suite was much roomier. The couch in the living area opened into a bed and the bedroom held two more beds pushed together to form a king bed. There was a locking closet with shelves, refrigerator, dresser, table and chairs, desk, TV, telephone, clock radio, bottled water and a door between the bedroom and living area. The toilet was separated from the rest of the bathroom by a door. This bathroom had a shower and a long shelf to lay things on. This hotel not only provided soap (as did the others) but also shampoo.
We unpacked a little and put the bottled water that we brought in the fridge. We took our dirty laundry, with hangers, to the desk and asked that it be washed and ironed. No problem, but it would take two days. That was fine. I figured we’d give them some more when we picked up the clean laundry. Since Dave and Josh had not been to this hotel before, we decided to eat in their restaurant which was located in the basement. The restaurant/bar is relatively small and if the TV isn’t on, the radio is. At 8:00 p.m. we were the only guests. After dinner I took a cup of cappuccino back to our room. I usually bring instant coffee a little contraption to heat up water in a glass, but somehow my coffee didn’t get packed this time. From our room we could hear music, talking and laughter. Apparently a dance was being held in the large recreation building behind the hotel, which also contains an indoor pool. We all slept well that night with the windows open. The cool air felt wonderful. We couldn’t do this at home. Although vinyl siding has come to Poland in a big way, window screens have not. Poles use lace curtains as a combination window screen/blind. This doesn’t work very well in keeping bugs out and it doesn’t work as a blind at all when the sun is shining brightly at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. Long days in Poland mean beautiful flowers, though.
Saturday, July 6 Gniezno, Lednogora, Wrzesnia weather: clear and bright and cool to warm. Perfect.
I woke up at 7:30 a.m., my usual time since it takes me longer to get ready. The new hair dryer worked much better. Dave had also rigged a mirror I had bought so I could hang it on the bathroom wall. I brought a hook with a special backing from home. Every time we changed hotels I would pull the magic strip and the hook would come free from the wall without leaving any marks. At the next hotel I could attach another magic strip.
We ate breakfast at the hotel, choosing from about 6 different menu selections. As the week wore on, I excluded items from whichever breakfast I ordered. For example if the breakfast #2 included eggs and ham, I would ask the waitress not to bring the ham. This worked out much better for me. Unfortunately, Josh wasn’t feeling well. His nose seemed to be congested and he said his tummy didn’t feel well. I figured it probably wasn’t anything to be concerned about; perhaps too much fat and snacks in his diet and not enough vegetables and fruit. Josh felt well enough to go on with our plans so after breakfast we took a few pictures of the cathedral and then drove to Lednogora.
We had been here previously but I was still trying to replace some handcrafted items that were lost by American Airlines while returning from our last trip. I knew that neither this skansen nor the one in Sanok would be having festivals while we were in Poland so the chances of my replacing the clay pots, baskets, handmade ropes, and so on were slim. Lednogora is on the main road (#5) between Gniezno and Poznan. Lednogora is similar to the skansen in Sanok, in that it has many old peasant homes, a manor, church, windmill, and so on. The insides of the homes are furnished and decorated as if Jadwiga had just stepped out for a minute and would return shortly. The park was open so I walked into the ticket office/gift shop and looked at the few items they had for sale. I bought a couple of things and we left. Walking out I heard the familiar sound of an American voice. Two American women were with a Polish woman who was obviously showing them around and doing the driving. They reached their car before I could make my way to them. I thought perhaps I’d see them further down the road at Ostrow Lednicki, but that wasn’t the case. We stopped at Ostrow Lednicki but didn’t go inside the exhibits. I bought a couple of handmade clay pots and we each had something to drink. We stopped at the churches in Komorowo and Lubowo for pictures. It was now 1:00 p.m. and getting warmer. We had no idea what to expect of the weather since the British channel we watched on TV didn’t give the weather forecasts for Poland. It was going to be a hot day.
We drove back to Wrzesnia, the parish where Gaspar Chojnacki’s first child had been baptized in 1707. The family stayed in the parish until 1829 when they moved east to Gradowo in the parish of Piotrkow Kujawski, and then onto Podebice in Kruszyn parish where my great grandfather Szymon Chojnacki was born in 1868. This was the first time I was able to see inside my ancestral church and take pictures. My timing has always been off when I visit Wrzesnia so I have not met the priest. All the church records have been filmed by LDS, so up until now I hadn’t needed a reason to contact him. We parked the car across from the church and left Josh to sleep in the back seat. Dave and I walked around the church, up the streets and around the rynek. It was after 2:00 p.m., so everything was closed and we didn’t even see a bookstore! We drove out to the new cemetery on Kosciuszko Street. This cemetery was started in the mid-1960's and is huge. We had been to this cemetery previously but I wanted to take a better look around and take a photograph of the war memorial. This cemetery doesn’t have a war memorial! It does have some odd carport-like mausoleums that each house the graves of the members of a particular family. Three walls are glass or iron bars so you can easily see the flowers, photographs and mementoes. Though very different, they look expensive and grandiose. The parking lot at this cemetery is unlike most I’d been to in Poland in that it is large and off the road. The usual permanent flower and candle stalls are set up in the parking lot just outside the cemetery, but they were much larger and more elaborate than usual.
Our next stop was the old cemetery on Gniezniensko Street. Dave and Josh had not been there before and I wanted to show them the mausoleums at this cemetery. Unlike the ones described above these are the usual little closed-up buildings with no way to see inside, and many are permanently bricked up. There are a lot of them at this cemetery. (There are far more in a cemetery near the cathedral in Gniezno, but we’ve never had a reason to do more than see it from the road.) We tried to figure out how old this cemetery was, but because of the way people are buried in Poland it was difficult to determine. The oldest graves date back to 1928; not very old. This cemetery is in town with no real parking area at all. We finished our wanderings at about 4:30 p.m. and turned back towards Gniezno. We stopped at a grocery store and bought yogurt for Josh before dropping him off at the hotel. Dave and I drove to the centrum, parked near the archdiocesan archives, and then walked around looking for a place to have dinner. It was very hot so we wanted a place where we could eat outside. Most ryneks in Poland are now full of tables covered by large umbrellas advertising beer. Bars, but mostly restaurants, rent these spaces from the cities. These advertising umbrellas do detract from the charm of the colorful surrounding buildings, but make for more comfortable dining. We decided to eat at the Sphinx. This is evidently a chain restaurant in Poland. We’d eaten at one in Lodz during our last visit and had since, seen others in various cities. We ordered dinner and, as usual, the servings were much larger than you’d see back home. Dave had two beers (½ liter cost 95 cents), while I had Coke. The total bill came to 69 zloty = $17.25 for the two of us. You may have noticed that we hadn’t been eating lunch. With the large breakfasts, we found that we could generally make it until dinner time without another meal.
After dinner, though, we stopped at a cukernia (pastry shop) and bought a few goodies to eat in the room later. We walked around the centrum for about an hour keeping our eyes open for bookstores. We only spotted a couple and one was on the rynek. I noticed that the Cepelia that used to be located just up from the cathedral is now just a regular souvenir shop. It appears to sell the same items as Cepelia, but just wasn’t carrying the name. We stopped into a little sklep (grocery store) for an ice cream. No, I hadn’t forgotten about the pastries. While there a boy about ten years old came in and talked to the store clerk for a moment. Just as I was turning to leave, he dropped some money and it rolled under the ice cream freezer. He got down on his knees but couldn’t see the coin underneath it. I asked the clerk how much he had dropped and she said one zloty. I tried to give the boy a zloty (25 cents, big deal) but he kept refusing so I gave it to the store clerk to use towards the boy’s ice cream. As Dave and I were walking back to the car, the little boy ran after us and tried to give the zloty back. When I said no, he put it in Dave’s shirt pocket. I couldn’t help but wonder how many children in the U.S. would have done that.
On our way back to the hotel we drove down the street where I thought the retired priests’ home is located. I had guessed correctly and it was just around the corner from our hotel. We know a priest who is living there but because we did not have an interpreter with us we decided not to visit. This priest had been the pastor at Pieranie. I had toyed with the idea of staying at the retired priests’ home, since I knew they rented out their empty apartments but decided against it even though it would have been very cheap and has locked parking too!
Back at the hotel, Josh seemed a lot better. Maybe he just needed some downtime. We ate our pastry treats and then I washed out a few things and ironed a couple of blouses. I wanted to ask the desk for an ironing board but couldn’t find the word for it in any of my translation books. I had brought a small travel iron so I just laid towels on a table and used that. After watching the English-language news on TV for awhile, we turned in.
Sunday, July 7, Kruszwica, Pieranie, Dziewa, Konary, Nowy Dwor, Dabrowa Biskupa weather: overcast, a little humid, but cool. Sky cleared by mid-day.
After a light breakfast in the hotel restaurant we drove to Kruszwica. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures of churches, cemeteries and Poland in general! In Kwieciszewo we came across an abandoned church sitting on a little triangular strip of land. Down the road a bit, the new church was obviously in use. We noticed that many of the secondary roads we had been traveling had been recently re-paved, making the driving easier. With night falling not until about 9:30 p.m. we could drive pretty far and still make it back to Gniezno before dark.
After viewing the area for miles around from the Mouse Tower, we had a snack from the little “fast food” kiosk in the parking lot. Dave had a zapiakanka (cheese, mushrooms, sometimes pickles on french bread covered with ketchup) while Josh and I had a “hot dog”. Afterwards, we drove to the Romanesque basilica and its graveyard which were very close by.
I was busy taking photographs of the church for a friend while my husband and son walked around. A little old woman grabbed Dave and started talking to him. All Dave claims to know in Polish is, “prosze piwo,” and it’s not far from the truth. He had heard me use the words “moja” and “zona” and knew that one meant “my” and the other meant “wife.” Unfortunately, when he tried to tell the woman to talk to his wife it came out, “mona zona.” Josh, whose Polish is much better than Dave’s, could barely stop laughing. Dave was finally able to call me over. I told the woman that I was his wife and we were from America. She walked me over to the war memorial in the churchyard because she wanted me to know that the men who died during the war were not killed there in Kruszwica but far away and that their bodies are not there. Though their names are listed, it is only a memorial. I asked her if any of her family had died and she said no. I told her my family was from Wrzesnia, Pieranie, Ropczyce and Sanok. She told me her mother’s brother and sister had moved to France. I mentioned that a distant cousin of mine lived in France too. She asked if I wasn’t cold, as I was once again wearing shorts. I told her the weather was wonderful and that I was from Teksas (Texas) where it was too hot. The old lady told me she was the oldest of seven children. I told her we had to go on to Pieranie and thanked her. This sort of thing has happened to us before, especially in cemeteries.
We had a little trouble getting to Pieranie from Kruszwica due to the inconsistencies between the road numbers on the road signs and on the maps we were using. But we only had to turn around once. Once in the parish of my great grandmother, Zofia Kolodziejska Chojnacka, I took many pictures. We drove down all the streets in Konary and stopped once to use the great outdoors bathroom. We passed one farmyard that was white with geese. I’d never seen so many geese in one place. In Dziewa, Zofia’s birthplace, I noticed that the overgrowth had been cleared away from the gateposts which mark the road to the now very run down manor. Although the entry road has been cleared somewhat, the house itself has not been touched since we first saw it in 1996. It is still occupied. This village is so small now it doesn’t even warrant a sign on the road. The road in the village is just dirt, but it has some remnants here and there of having been paved at one time with shaped paving stones. In jest, I asked my husband what he thought about me taking home an ancestral paving stone. Milling on it, down the road he asked if I wanted him to pick up the ancestral potato chip bag on the side of the road. Very funny!
We drove to the parish which was just a minute down the road and I tried to take some nice photos of the church. It seems that the churches in Poland are either closely surrounded by trees or they are situated on a busy intersection where you still can’t get a good picture. Pieranie has an old wooden church surrounded by big old trees. The priest’s house sits right next door. After Pieranie we drove to Nowy Dwor, another ancestral village in this parish and one I had not been to before. It was way off in the forest down sandy back roads. Dave was driving and he kept questioning me as to whether there really was a village in this forest.
We did find quite a few homes and farms in the forest and on its outskirts. Nowy Dwor is very spread out but the sandy path eventually led to paved roads with street signs. After driving around this village for awhile we drove onto Dabrowa Biskupia which was the next closest village. It too, had paved roads with street signs. At about 6:30 p.m. we decided to drive back to Gniezno and at the same time began looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, all we passed were little villages without restaurants. We arrived at the hotel about 8:00 p.m. and had dinner there. The dining room was empty again, though we knew there was a group of older teenagers staying at the hotel. Their presence had something to do with soccer. I must say they were a quiet bunch.
At dinner Josh ordered “frytki” (french fries). He said he really liked the ones at this hotel. After tasting the soup Dave had ordered though, Josh said to the waiter, “po prosze zurek?” Josh liked the sour soup!
Our laundry had been returned to our room a day early. The warm sunny weather made that possible. It if rains the clothes don’t come back as fast since they are hung outside. Watched a little TV and then went to sleep. I had to be careful about letting Josh watch TV at night because there are shows on broadcast TV in Poland that you could only see on cable TV in the U.S. To say they are risque is an understatement. I had to point out to Josh that things are just different in Poland and some things are acceptable which aren’t at home and vice versa. Gas stations and bookstores often openly display magazines that have half naked woman on the covers. I knew Josh was embarrassed by this and tried to keep him away from it.
Monday, July 8, Gniezno, weather: clear, hot with a breeze.
We had a quick breakfast (without Josh again) because this was our first day at the archdiocesan archives. I had a lot to research in a short amount of time, three days. The archives are located behind the cathedral and are open Mondays and Wednesdays through Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. On Tuesdays the archives are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We arrived at the archives about 9:20 a.m. and parked in the area next to the square building that houses the archives, a Catholic radio station and the archdiocesan museum. We went up to the archives and rang the bell. I had practiced saying, “Chcialabym przeprowadzic badania w archiwum,” (I would like to do research in the archives) a tongue twister to be sure. I barely got out, “Chcialabym” and the priest rang the buzzer to let me in. Must have been my accent.
We greeted the priest in charge of the archives, handed over my passport, locked up our bags and went into the reading room with notebooks and pens only. I immediately requested a couple of record books while Josh started copying the parish index for me (Dave would later proof-read this). There were only a few people in the reading room. Much to my annoyance, Dave and I were only allowed one book each, even though we were sitting at different tables and working on different parishes. If I had been there by myself, I would have been given two books. This made it difficult to refer back to the previous book, since you had to turn one in to receive another. I had told a couple of people I’d look up some info and I took care of that right away. Once I got into my own work, I found that I had the wrong maiden name for my great great great grandmother Kolodziejska. I’m not sure if I misread the name the last time I was at the archives or if the priest at Pieranie had given me the wrong name. Now that I have the correct surname, I should be able to find her records a little easier. I located a few more children of my g.g.g.grandparents. There was a long spread of nine years between two of their children but no others were in the record. The records, 1809 -1850, were in Latin and easy to read. (Did I say that?) However, that particular baptismal book had been in a fire and some pages had been burned to the point that you couldn’t use them unless you had more than one fact to go on. So it’s possible that one or two of their children were listed among those pages. A search of death records will eventually answer the question.
The Pieranie baptismal book had been repaired so that each burned page looked like a silhouette on white paper. Another book from Pieranie had not been repaired and I cringed each time I turned a page, knowing these parish records had never been filmed. A few of the books had loose pages or other papers that were just stuck inside the books. Some of these were requests for verification and some were notices of an event such as a marriage or death. Many had the Nazi swastika on them and one letter hauntingly ended with, “Heil Hitler.”
Josh did really well and worked diligently, asking questions when he came across something out of the ordinary. I was quite proud of his work and hoped that even though he was only copying information that maybe someday he’d pick up the research torch.
At 2:00 p.m. we packed up, gave the priest the two record books we had out at that time, picked up my passport and told him we’d be back Tuesday. The priest is really nice and I bet I’d like him even more if I could understand everything he said. He spoke slowly and clearly, but I couldn’t recognize very many words.
We left the car parked at the archives and walked to three bookstores where we bought a book, some maps and two atlases. We then went to the main post office to find out how to mail books back to the U.S. in a burlap bag. Over the previous year I had found out that using the Polish post office’s bag is the cheapest way to send books to the U.S. from Poland, having already received two bags from Poland at home. I knew that not all post offices send books this way, so I needed to find out if that one would do so. I was able to explain that I wanted the price for the cheapest way to send books. Well, the woman gave me a form and I immediately knew that it wasn't what I wanted. The price she quoted me was also way too high for that to be the right method. I went back to the Hotel Lech determined that I was going to send books home in a bag instead of carrying them in our suitcases. I asked the desk clerk if he could help me by telling me the correct Polish words to use at the post office. He had, of course, no idea what I was talking about. Most people don't, in Poland or in the U.S. Few people have ever seen books sent in big burlap bags. My mail carrier thought somebody was sending me body parts! Though the desk clerk’s English was good, he wasn't getting the picture of “books in a bag,” so he called down to the hotel restaurant. A woman who worked at the post office was good friends with the hotel manager and she just happened to be downstairs enjoying obiad! Sometimes the Genealogy Fairy is quite generous. The woman came up to the desk and I told her that wanted to use a "worek", a "Sw. Mikolaj bag!" She called the post office and talked to a woman about what I had said. They worked it out on the phone and she gave me the name of the woman to ask for at the post office. I had the desk clerk write out in Polish what I now needed to say to get what I wanted. Well, "worek" turned out to be the magic word. The first time I was at the post office, the word I used was the word for shopping bag and that didn’t make sense to anyone in that context.
Earlier in our trip I had noticed that car washes had arrived in Poland. Shoot! Another investment idea gone. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for gas at a gas station that had a car wash. Our car really needed a bath so we paid for one even though it is a bit expensive for Poland: 15.45 zloty = $4.00. (I don’t think car washes will catch on unless the price comes down.) The car wash was just like the ones in U.S., you put the coins in a little machine at the entrance to the car wash. We pulled in and all of a sudden a man comes running up, grabs a garden hose and wets down the car. The car wash starts up and washes the car. While the machine is rinsing the car, the man hoses down the car again, takes off his shirt and starts drying the hood of the car with it! I asked Dave where this man came from and he said he had run over from across the street. I was sure that the man didn’t work for the station and that he was going to hit us up for money. Sure enough. When the car wash was finished he walked to Dave’s side of the car and held out his hand. I asked, “Co?” (what?). I didn’t understand his answer but I was pretty sure he wanted money since he held out his hand. I told him (in Polish) no, and that we had already paid 15 zloty for the car wash. He persisted, so I repeated my answer and we drove off. It doesn’t matter where you are, everybody’s got a scam.
After I worked out the postal issues with the help of the clerk, we went up to our room and wrapped the books for mailing. I didn’t want them to be loose in the bag. They would be damaged when the bag was thrown from the dock to the boat. I made three bundles of books, each wrapped in numerous plastic bags, and then covered the corners of each bundle with cardboard pieces to protect the corners of the books. I put lots of tape around the outermost plastic bag and put my address on each little book package. It was too late to take the books to the post office, so we decided to just have dinner in town.
We drove down to the cathedral and parked the car on the side street. We knew where to park from a parking ticket we had received during a previous trip. For dinner we chose the City Bar which is located on the rynek. A telekomunikacja office (place to buy telephone books) used to be on the corner. But it had moved and in its place is another restaurant. We chose to eat outside as it was still too warm. Inside, Dave ordered a ½ liter of beer which cost 95 cents. The food portions were quite generous and very good. Josh wasn’t hungry yet or maybe it was just that pierogi weren’t on the menu. We enjoyed sitting outside, watching people walk through the rynek. After dinner we walked around a bit and, of course, bought ice cream before going back to the hotel.
Once we were back at the hotel, Josh’s appetite came back. He was now hungry for frytki. Dave and Josh went down to the hotel restaurant and ordered french fries. I went up to the room to get things organized and to get ready for bed. When I had been in the room just a few minutes there was a knock at the door. I said, “slucham?” The response was, “Cappuccino.” Dave had the waiter bring me a cup of coffee! What a nice surprise. We went to bed relatively early that night, 10:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 9, Gniezno weather: hot, sunny and clear
Per our usual routine, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. This morning I only had bread and coffee. Like Josh, I had been eating too much.
Today was our long day at the archives as they were open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We parked behind the archives, as usual. We walked past the small church which sits behind the cathedral. The church and cathedral had been repainted in 2000 like most other churches in Poland. This was done in preparation for the Church’s jubilee. While walking past the smaller church I noticed that someone had painted graffiti on one wall. The churches in Poland look so pretty with their unusual and often bright colors. Certainly they don’t receive a new coat of paint every year and it was a shame to see this vandalism.
Once inside the archives we all worked feverishly until noon. Dave and Josh took a break and walked to the rynek for a light lunch, while I stayed at the archives and worked. At approximately 4:45 p.m. we stopped working. We had found new records and information which led to other records. This meant we had to come back on Wednesday. I had hoped that this would be my last day at this archive, but that wasn’t to be the case.
We drove to the post office so I could mail my books. Dave parked in front of the post office but remained with the car as we weren’t sure if it was O.K. to park there. This time the clerk understood exactly what I wanted. I didn't know that I needed to supply a mailing tag, though! It had to be cardboard and a certain size. The clerk drew out the dimensions (about 3" x 5") and I fashioned a tag from the cardboard back of a spiral notebook I had with me. The books were placed in the huge burlap bag and re-weighed. String was wrapped around the neck of the bag and the tag was tied to the string. I expected the bag would take 4-6 weeks to arrive at my home. I have no idea why it takes so long unless everyone in Poland carries the bag by foot to the boat and then it's carried by foot again when it arrives in New York. The books weighed 10.74 kg (23.63 lbs.) and with the weight of the bag the cost was 66.50 zloty ($16.63).
Pleased with my “mailing bag” accomplishment we decided to have dinner at the Hotel Pietrak. This is probably the nicest and most expensive hotel in Gniezno, but one reason we didn’t stay at this hotel is because it doesn’t have parking. We chose the new restaurant downstairs. This is a highly decorated fancy room and has Polish cuisine. Even though we were the only people in the restaurant, I was concerned that we were underdressed. I questioned the hostess/waitress by tugging at my denim skirt. She understood and assured us that what we were wearing was fine. The food was very good, but very expensive ($48.70 for three people). It was also very hot. We regretted eating inside.
It was still hot by the time we arrived back at the hotel. We had the windows open but there just wasn’t a breeze. We had kept our bottled water in the little refrigerator so that helped a little. Being from Texas, we just weren’t used to being served drinks without ice. I guess the heat had gotten to me and I crashed (went to bed) immediately, leaving Dave and Josh to watch TV. No cappuccino that night!
Wednesday, July 10, Gniezno. weather: hot again!
I awoke at 6:30 a.m. as usual. It was so hot getting ready in the morning that I was using the cool setting on my hair dryer as a fan. We ate breakfast in the hotel and Josh and I were still not eating everything. Easy access to ice cream probably wasn’t helping, but it was so good. Ice cream stores are hard to find in Texas and of course we couldn’t just walk to one.
We arrived at the archives about 9:30 a.m. and found only two other people doing research, although a nun did come in later. We quickly got down to work. I wanted to leave before 2:00 p.m. so we could make a quick trip to Poznan. Josh finished his assignment and was tired of writing so he sat quietly and read a book he had brought from home. He finished his book and then read all the “boxed” information in my Polish Rough Guide Phrase Book I was pleased he had done this.
I finished the Pieranie record book I had been reading (Book 12, Marriages) at about 1:20 p.m. and attempted to order another book. The more information you find the more you have to look for. The priest told me it was too late in the day to do that but that the book would be ready for me the next day. Of course we were leaving the next morning. I decided we would close up shop and head for Poznan, knowing that in the future I would have to make another trip to Gniezno to do more research. The Pieranie records have not been filmed by LDS because the priest (now retired) had kept all the books at his parish instead of turning them over to the archdiocese. The books were finally sent in after his retirement. We handed the books back to the priest, retrieved my passport and gave the priest 200 zloty towards the preservation of the record books. As he had done before, he didn’t want to accept the donation. I insisted.
I had several alternatives in mind for the afternoon. One was to make a trip to another ancestral parish which we had visited on previous trips, and another was to try to meet with a woman in Inowroclaw who had written a number of short history books about parish churches. I had sent Katarzyna a couple of letters trying to arrange a meeting, but she didn’t receive them because her mailbox was broken into repeatedly. My reason for meeting with her was to learn what was involved in writing and publishing church history books. I was hoping to hire her to write books about my other ancestral parishes thereby giving her an income, allowing the churches to sell the books and, of course, bringing some books to the U.S. I was also hoping that other people back home would want to do the same thing. I saw this as a great opportunity for a lot of people to get information on their ancestral parishes even if the books would be in Polish. Katarzyna speaks English too, so it was entirely possible that the books could have been bilingual. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear from Katarzyna so we decided to visit Poznan.
Dave and I hadn’t been to Poznan since our first trip to Poland in 1996. Instead of seeing Poznan, though, we met with new friends and spent two days and one night with them near Bydgoszcz.
We followed the signs and used a small map I had brought with. Josh regaled us with information he had read in the Polish Rough Guide Phrase Book. It surprised us that he retained so much. The streets around the Poznan rynek are all one way; the way you don’t want to go. It’s difficult to get near the rynek to park. This was our first experience buying a parking ticket from a machine. The machine was on the corner of the street. A meter attendant approached us letting us know that we needed to buy a ticket. A man happened along who understood English and took Dave to the machine and explained how it worked. Parking at this location was expensive. I think it cost $1.00 for an hour. Meter men would walk up and down the block looking for expired tickets and upon finding one would issue a citation. We placed the ticket in the car window and headed off to explore the rynek.
Poznan rynek is very pretty and a little different from others we’d seen. It was similar to Krakow in that there is a building in the center of the square. The building here is comprised of a government office and a really ugly modern museum. Tables with umbrellas lined the perimeter of the rynek, moving the restaurants outside. The buildings looked as if they had been recently painted. One thing about Poles, they do like colors. I love seeing the brightly painted churches and buildings. Even the cars are bright colors. We visited two bookstores, and a Cepelia. I was still looking for some Polish costume and craft books and some regional books too. We stopped at the tourist office and I picked up some hotel brochures to take home. Like Krakow, souvenir vendors line up on one side of the building in the center of the rynek selling mostly postcards and original artwork.
Our parking time was up so we went back to the car and drove to an English bookstore. We didn’t find anything we wanted, but I did ask a clerk where I might find the costume and craft books. She suggested Empik which is a large bookstore two blocks away. We walked to the bookstore and spent quite a bit of time there, but found nothing, except that Dave bought a CD (of Portuguese music from the Cape Verde Islands, for cripe’s sake). We drove back to the rynek for dinner. We chose the Pod Koziolkami restaurant and dinner for the three of us cost $17.30. . We ate outside as it was still hot. Josh and I had pierogi and Dave had bigos. Eating outside was a rather nice experience for us. In Texas the only time you can eat outside is in November, but we don’t have the ambiance nor people walking around. After dinner we finished walking around the rynek and then headed back to Gniezno.
The laundry we had turned in on Monday had been returned to our room. As before, the bill for the laundry had been left with the clean clothes. We packed as much as we could, since we would be leaving Gniezno in the morning.
Meals, ice cream and pastries for three people for six nights cost about $137.00.
Thursday, July 11, Chodziez, Solec Kujawski. weather: cool
We had our last breakfast at the hotel. Even though we had left a small tip at each breakfast, we left a few more zloty today. I also left some trinkets for the maid that I had brought from home and a couple of Polish books for children that I had bought in stores we had been in so far. We paid our room bill in cash which left us without enough zloty to pay the parking attendant. Josh and I, with our luggage, waited in the hotel lobby while Dave drove to the rynek area to exchange money at the kantor. The parking attendant was a little concerned that Dave might be leaving without paying, but Dave somehow made him understand that he would be back (I think he said “mona zona” again). Dave returned, we loaded the car and headed for Chodziez. Although a kantor has never refused our currency, some have studied each bill very carefully, taking quite some time. Much to the consternation of our bank tellers at home, we always take clean, new looking bills that don’t have any writing or marks on them so as to avoid any currency exchange problems.
As usual, we took secondary roads to Chodziez. We see so much more of the real Poland this way and I get to take a lot more pictures too. It took about 40 minutes to drive from Gniezno to Wagrowiec and then another hour to Chodziez. A short trip really. I took quite a few pictures of shrines, churches and memorials along the way. We surprised ourselves by passing Pietronki Palac (palace). We had visited this palace with our friends from Solec during our trip in 2000. As soon as I realized where we were, we turned around to take pictures since I don’t have any from that previous trip. Josh recalled that during our first visit there we had coffee in the basement while he, Dave, Karol, and Stefan played pool (biliards). He also remembered walking down a snail covered sidewalk to see a centuries old tree.
We arrived in Chodziez at 1:30 p.m. and had a little trouble locating the factory store. This was a short stop on our way to Solec Kujawski. Chodziez is where the china (porcelana) is manufactured and I knew there was a factory store in the town. My grandmother had bought her good china from Chodziez during her one trip to Poland in the 1970's. Her china was passed down to me (the favorite granddaughter). In 2000, we had the privilege of taking a private tour of the factory and our friends had given me several pieces of Chodziez china. I enjoy using this china when my neighbors and I have coffee at my house. I wanted to add a few pieces and knew I could buy them for less in Chodziez. Once we found the store, I was quite pleased to find coffee mugs and desert plates in the same pattern that I have at home. I bought 8 mugs, 2 plates and a large platter. I also picked up a couple of small bowls to give as gifts and a cup and saucer for the neighbor who made my 9 -11 bracelet. She collects antique cups and saucers and although this set was not antique, the style gives that appearance. I had hoped to find some porcelain Christmas ornaments but none were available. I bought 18 pieces of china for $39.00! A real bargain, I think. I took a picture of the store so I’d have its address if we decided to come back again. The store wrapped each piece in paper and then put them all in a box. The box came in very handy when I packed the china for our trip home.
We drove on to Solec Kujawski taking a slight unintended detour due to the differences in maps. Before we left for Poland I had written out explicit instructions for each leg of the trip. Sometimes these didn’t work and we had to figure out how to get back onto my route since my route was faster and more interesting. We left Chodziez at 2:15 p.m. and arrived in Solec Kujawski at 4:30 p.m. At the turn-off from road #245 into Solca (the nickname for Solec Kujawski) we found that a stoplight, median and sidewalks were being installed. The whole process was finished within a week.
Atos and Czika, the dogs, let everyone know that we had arrived. Karol (19) and Waleria (his great aunt) came out to greet us. Warm, long hugs and traditional kisses all around. I was so happy to see them. Stefan, Karol’s father was upstairs taking a nap and Barbara, his mother, was still at work. Missing was Florentyna, Stefan’s mother and Waleria’s youngest sister. Florentyna had died of cancer in November, 2001. While it was wonderful to see the rest of the family, I was sad that we wouldn’t hear Florentyna’s laugh or play cards with her anymore or visit her garden. Her absence was certainly felt by all of us.
Karol, Josh and Dave brought all of the luggage into the house and up to “our” bedrooms. Josh slept in Karol’s room while Dave and I slept in Basia and Stefan’s room. Karol camped out in the computer room which was quite tiny. Basia and Stefan stayed in the room that used to be Florentyna’s. Stefan awoke and gave Josh and me big hugs and kisses. We chatted awhile about our trip until Barbara arrived. She and I hugged for the longest time, tears in our eyes.
Karol was no longer a boy; he was now a man. His features were becoming more defined as he matured. It was obvious that everyone was very happy to see us, but Karol was a little reserved, still a teenager and not comfortable with giving hugs or kisses yet. Karol called us cioci (aunt) and uncle David. He always referred to me with the Polish term but referred to David in English. I’m not really Karol’s aunt, but when he stayed with us in Texas for a month in 1997 he asked if he could call me that as it was easier than the alternatives. There is a slight chance that we may be distant cousins, but I have still not been able to prove it.
Barbara prepared obiad (late lunch) and, as always, it was wonderful. She fed us all the traditional foods, pleasing Josh to no end. The family always likes it when we visit because Basia can stay home from work and cook all the time. They enjoy just having us there but Basia’s cooking is a treat for everyone.
While we were still sitting at the table after obiad, Basia gave me my gift. A salt and pepper set with two cruets on a stand - from Chodziez! How wonderful! Joshua received a watch! He really liked this. He didn’t have a watch and had been asking us for one. Dave was quite appreciative of his gift (as was I), a bottle of vodka! We all went upstairs to visit. Waleria usually doesn’t come upstairs as it is a bit hard for her, but that night was special and I was going to hand out presents to them. The Tomalscy family is always so generous in opening their home to us and escorting us around that I always want to give them lots of gifts. I distributed the presents one at a time, making sure each person was opening something. Karol received a pair of corduroy pants, a shirt, a colored t-shirt, a t-shirt from my older son’s band, “Hide The Real”, three CD’s, and a sheet of U.S. stamps depicting each of the 50 states as if they were old fashioned postcards. We gave Stefan two polo shirts and a Lion King t-shirt from the Broadway play. Basia received 2 blouses (one cotton, one silk), a small porcelain box, knee high nylons and a visor cap. We gave Waleria two blouses, a blazer, and an original framed watercolor of bluebonnets, the Texas state flower. We also brought a few things for the family: a carving knife and fork set, a coffee table book about America, two cans of Cheetos, a can of Planters nuts, metal hooks that fit over the top of a door to hang things on and new clothespins. All the clothes fit! Vodka for everyone!
We stayed up pretty late visiting, using Karol as our interpreter when I didn’t have the words, which was most of the time. I told Stefan and Basia that I needed to get more family information from them to continue my research on their side of the family. Waleria and Florentyna were Chojnackis and Waleria was baptized in the same parish as my Chojnacka great grandmother. The Chojnacki name is a common one, so it certainly could be coincidence. I was also researching Basia’s family hoping to locate her distant relatives, who had emigrated to the U.S. 100 years earlier. Basia had done some research over the past two years and was more than willing to share what she had found. I gave Basia copies of Florentyna’s baptismal record and the marriage record of Basia’s parents. Granted, neither of these were very old, but they were documents that Basia had not requested and I thought they were important especially since Basia and Stefan had obviously been bitten by the genealogy bug. Basia made apologies for not sending for the records herself. I told Basia that I knew how busy she always was and that it was no big deal as most of the information had been taken from LDS films. It was funny though. I had Polish records sent to me in the U.S. to bring back to Poland!
We finally went to bed at about midnight. The Tomalskis gave us a table fan to use in the bedroom (we had left it with them on our last trip). We had it on all night.
End of Part 2
Debbie's Polish Pictures Home Page