Around Poland in 14 days
In October of 1872, Phileas Fogg began his journey around the world, aiming to complete it in 80 days. Starting in August, my mom, sister, cousin and I began our 2 week trip around Poland.
The Kingdom of Poland was established by Duke Bolesław I the Brave in 1025, marking the beginning of a country that has lived for almost one thousand years. My mom was born and raised in Poland. She has been wanting to take us there for as long as I can remember, and early this year, she started thinking about taking us to her home country for the first time.
On August 14th, we hopped into the car and began our trip to Poland, the land in the center of Europe.
After the long flight, we met our grandparents and uncle for the very first time, and for a week, we stayed in Raciborz, the town where my mom was born and raised. Every night, we ate delicious, homemade Polish meals, and we explored Raciborz and some of the surrounding towns. But our trip was only just beginning. After a tiring Saturday, we woke up early on Sunday morning, said goodbye to our family members, and hit the road! Our destination? Well, we had many.
For two weeks, we traveled all around Poland, stopping at famous castles, family and friends houses, and beautiful cities! In this post, I’ll be telling you all about those two weeks!
Poznan, the City of Goats
Our very first stop was Poznan, the beautiful city where my mom graduated from university, and where I got to ride my first electric scooter!
Located in the “Town square” of Poznan stands a tall, 16th century clock tower that is home to the two famous mechanical rams that come out at 12pm and 3pm and butt heads for about 4 minutes straight. The clock tower and goats were built around 1550 as an addition to the town hall, after the original 14th century Town Hall burned down.
Visiting Family in Rural Poland
After Poznan, and after stopping at the famous Malbork castle(which I will talk more about in another blog), we made it to our mom’s cousin’s house, which seemed to be in a little town hidden away in a forest. The houses were very pretty and the environment was very lush and green.
We had a delicious meal, met our cousin, and went on a nice walk around the neighborhood, where I got to ride an electric scooter for the second time.
After a good night of sleep, we went on a bike ride that was.. Painful.. To say the least. I was riding a kind of small bike and it was slightly difficult to ride.. Especially up the hills.. But later that day we also got to go to this beautiful lake, and actually went in this peddle boat kind of thing.
Our next stop was Monke, where another one of my moms cousins lived. This time, it was in the really rural part of Poland. Everyone there had cows, guard dogs, outdoor cats, and their own gardens producing food. I mean, home grown cherry tomatoes are SO MUCH better than store bought ones.
It was also in Monke that I found a 20 zl bill, just lying on the ground. It was my lucky day! But later, the others forced me to buy ice cream for everyone haha…
I also found a very cute cat..
On another one of our days staying on the farm, we drove to a friend’s house where they were hosting a BBQ! It was.. Chaotic. All the adults started singing songs in Polish, and my cousin told me she was glad I didn’t understand them
The Big Cities – Warsaw, Krakow, and Zakopane!
It wasn’t long before we hit the road again, this time on our way to the big city, Warsaw, also the capital of Poland.
In Warsaw, we met our mom’s long-time friend, Gosia, who provided us with a small flat to stay in for the days that we stayed there.
While in Warsaw, we visited a place called Łazienka, that basically translates to bathroom, so, we visited the bathrooms!! We also saw the Palace of Culture and Science, famous mermaid armed with a sword and shield, a castle that was almost completely destroyed during WWII [Also known as the Tomb of an Unknown Soldier, where the ashes of unknown soldiers are buried], and, as we were leaving, we went on this roller coaster that you basically got to control how fast or slow you went. It was really fun!
One of the best parts was, of course, the food! We got to try a ‘Kebab’ and they were delicious! I lovvved them!
In Krakow, which is where the cousin that was traveling with us lives, we visited the famous Salt Mines and got to eat some [very] salty lavender chocolate, as well as visit the Wawel castle AND we saw the Wawel dragon breath real fire! It was so cool!!
Along our trip around Poland, we also took a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp in WWII. Today it stands as a reminder of the atrocious crimes committed in the second world war, and visiting the camps was definitely a very sad experience.
Zakopane was the most laborious part of the journey, where we walked a tiresome 26,000 steps! Our new high score!! But, the view when we reached our destination was beautiful. To give you a bit of context, we were walking a trail which led up to the Morskie Oko lake, which is the largest and fourth-deepest lake in the Tatra Mountains.
But, on the upside, we met some more family members and got to buy some cool clothes.
Just like that, trip around Poland had come to an end. After a little bit of relaxing in Zakopane, we drove back to Raciborz, and stayed for one more week before going back to America.
Maybe we didn’t travel around the whole world like Phileas Fogg did, but traveling all around Poland felt equally exhausting. We met new people, tried new foods and all in all had an amazing time. I can’t wait to go back!
Tune into future blogs, where we’ll talk about Polish food, castles, our plane experiences, and more!
If you’d like to learn more about our homeschooling adventures, check out these posts:
