Where have you been?

While I was last living in America I was lucky enough to be invited by some friends at work to participate in "Beer Can" races. These are casual week-night sail boat races put on by local Yatch clubs. The races are split into different catagories and each group will race around a different set of buoys (beer cans) and the first one back wins. My friends were part of the Redondo Beach Yatch Club which is located in King Harbor in Redondo Beach California (shown above).

I was crew on a 26 foot Excalibur cruiser named My Crystal. I was alway on the boat so I don't have any action shots of it. We usually raced in the non-spinnaker class and, once the boat owner bought new sails, we were very competative. Our boat was similar to our competition shown here.

Sailing is very peaceful and I enjoyed racing very much. Someday it would be nice to own a boat but while the boat itself might be inexpensive the slip and maintenance can be quite costly. One is rewarded, however, with views such as the two above. Wonderful...

Unfortunately the Biedronka bunch have been an elusive lot and I have been unable to capture an image of them at work. As a consolation here are other Men at Work, down under as it were. Ah, those were the good old days. We are going to break from the Warsaw pictures and try to bring a bit of summer back to Poland with some California sailing photos. Look out for those starting Wednesday!

Biedronka is our local store. It is the size of a small Trader Joes (or Tesco Express in the UK) but with products of (much) lower quality. The staff are mostly bitter and unhelpful and no matter how close you come to giving exact change they always ask for one more grosz (Polish penny). There are usually two or three local vendors selling their produce outside along with what my girlfriend and I call "Biedronka Staff". These are a group of men, around 20 of them, who take turns simply hanging-out in front of Biedronka drinking beer. They don't seem to bother anyone but themselves and I have never seen them ask for money. They just stand out there and watch life pass by. One of them, the dirtest, recently got two puppies and reguardless if he is out there or not his two dogs are there just like the men, watching life go by. It was a bit strange at first but not only am I used to it now but I have seen it at many of the smaller stores around Warsaw. For one of my next posts I will try to get better pictures of the vendors as well as the Biedronka Staff.

We have heard many stories about people living in flats where their cats decided to jump off balconies. The cat downstairs jumped off their 5th floor balcony twice, a woman at the place where I teach English's cat jumped off their 7th floor balcony, one of my girlfriend's friend's cat jumped and on and on. All of the cats lived (surprisingly) but had broken legs, internal injuries and the like. We decided to put up this sweet retaining net (shown above) so if Kobra decided to end it all he would have to negotiate it first.


After watching him try to climb it and scratch his claws on the bamboo supports we decided that he would be safe and allowed on the balcony unsupervised. Naturally he was thrilled as you can see from this picture.


During the spring a family of sparrow looking birds decided to build a nest on the roof of our balcony. Kobra was as excited to sit watching the nest as he was to look down on the people walking their dogs. Unfortunately they are quite dirty (see the shit in the picture?) so they are not welcome back next year if we still live here.


So, more recently, it has been a rough few days for Kobra because he has been really sick. He acts happy, purrs, meows, and all that, but walks around as if he was three sheets to the wind running into walls, falling over, etc. We took him to the Vet today and she said he had probably eaten a poisonous plant and was suffering from the toxins. After a few shots and a couple of pills he seems better but we need to take him back for a follow up visit.

We were bad pet owners and didn't check our plants before we got him but for everyone else considering a pet here is the list of toxic plants published by the ASPCA. We have the Dracaena which Kobra finds really tasty. Fortunately he also likes the chicken and rice we prepare for him. So much in fact that he often tries to eat it before its fully cooked!


And when there is no chicken on the stove he knows where we keep it (plastic container with the blue lid directly in his line of sight). He has tried several times to climb into the fridge just, you know, to get a closer look.

You've heard about Gary Busey and the cunt who fell between the train and the platform, now you get to hear about the two people I have seen pass out while riding the busses and trains around Warsaw.

The first time was several months ago while riding the bus. I was heading to one of my afternoon classes when we came up to one of the many stops along the route. I watched some guy wearing thick glasses stand up, start towards the steps off the bus and then slowly, like in a movie, crumple to the ground. Initially I though he was probably drunk, drunkenness is not uncommon on the busses here. Then, after he was down for a few seconds, I realized there was probably something wrong with him. His glasses were especially thick and his teeth and the general look on his face suggested he suffered from some sort of physical or mental disorder. Fortunately someone else on the bus tried to revive him while telling the bus driver to wait a few more minutes. The guy eventually came to and was helped off the bus by the good Samaritan to recline on the bus stop bench and perhaps wait for an ambulance.

The second guy I saw pass out was just last Friday. I was on the metro early in the morning this time heading to a different class. We approached my stop and above the sound of my head phones I heard a loud thud from behind me. I looked back to see some poor kid laid out cold on the train floor. I have no idea what happend but there were several people trying to revive him. As I exited the train I looked back and noticed that he was probably between 18 and maybe 22 and was still out.

Hopefully both guys are feeling okay now and thinking back on these events make me want to apply myself a bit more to pick up this language. If I need to help someone in the future, or if I myself need help, it would probably end better if I at least had some command of Polish. The picture above is one of the local bus stops in Piastów. Most of the windows are broken out and the metal is rusted but they do keep a regular schedule posted which is nice.

Sorry for the delay in posting. There have been technical difficulties here as far as IT is concerned. But now things are sorted so we shall continue our look at Warszawa.


A major recent historical event in Poland (expecially Warsaw) was the Warsaw Uprising during World War 2. Basically the people of Warsaw, in the form of the Polish Home Army, tried to fight off the Germans until the Soviets had time to come to their rescue. Unfortunately things did not go according to plan and now there are numerous monuments around Warsaw to celebrate their valiant effort. Here is one such monument located on Długa street that I have come to know well. The Foreign Office, where I have been 12 times in an effort to get a Residency Card, is located on this street...


I don't really understand the "art" behind this monument but it is interesting none the less.


This is a photo of the building associated with the monument and the relection of the library across the street.

We can get back to the serious issue of some quality photography. Here are the remaining photos from the lake near my girlfriend's parent's summer home. A bit of nature, my girlfriend in the raft, and the always lovable Tosia.

I could count the ways that I love my Polish girlfriend for you all but fortunately I have found a dandy of a website that does it for me. This gem provides insight into the complex situation that is dating a Polish woman. The site provides advice covering everything from the first date to meeting the Polish parents to marriage. And with such hidden secrets as shown below how could you possible go wrong?

"Over the years, Polish men have learned that certain behaviors can improve their chances of having a desirable date. The most effective and probably the most prosaic way to impress a girl is showing off one's financial security. A good car, designers clothing, a jazzy haircut can in many cases do the trick. It is a shallow and in some way vulgar method, but it seems to be impressively successful. Although most women don't want to admit they are attracted to rich men, only very few will be unimpressed with financially stable potential partners who happen to drive a BMW or a Suzuki bike."

I am not sure how I was so lucky to catch such a beautiful Polish woman, I owned (of all things) a Triumph when we started dating plus I never combed my hair! Please enjoy the link and happy hunting!

Here you can see a picture of my Polish sweatheart as we enjoyed a leisurely raft ride in the local pond near her parent's summer house.

Poles love picking mushrooms. My girlfriend's parents have invited us just about every weekend since the beginning of mushroom season. They can search through the woods for hours looking for those little guys. IMHO its okay but after the first twenty minutes its just more of the same.


Naturally they go to their summer house when they go mushroom picking and take Toshia. She loves their summer home because she is able to basically run wild. My girlfriend explained that when they walk ten kilometers looking for mushrooms the dog walks/runs about thirty kilometers. When I have gone my neck got sore watching the dog run ahead, stop and turn around, and come racing back only to run past us where she will stop and turn around, and then...you get the idea.


The pictures here show both the target and the field. The mushroom shown at the top is the main mushroom for cooking that people will pick in Poland. The lower two photos are of the forest near the summer house.

Although Poland is a relativly poor country just about everyone has a vacation "home". Sometimes these are actual homes while other times they are more like back country shacks. My girlfriend's parents have something more like a shack. Her father bulit it by hand about 20 years ago and although it has electricity there is no running water and the toilet is an out house out back. There is a pretty sweet well though and it is super peaceful because there is nothing around it for miles.


In the top picture you can see my girlfriend's mother and me sitting at the bench outside their vacation home. In the lower picture you can see my girlfriend washing her legs at the well.

I ride the trains and busses everywhere in Warsaw. To work, to the store, to the movies, everywhere. On average I guess I spend about 20 to 30 hours per week on one. Sometimes they are nice and clean and on time, sometimes they are not. But, we don't have a car so I really don't have any other option.


I do, however, get to experience many funny and strang things riding on the trains. I have already told you about Gary Busey but there have been many other wierd things as well. One time I saw a guy get caught in the closing doors of the metro. He was a few steps in front of me and we were both running to get into the train before it left. As he jumped into the car the doors closed catching him in mid-jump. Suspended in mid-air, he came crashing to the ground as the doors opend again and landed flat on his back with one leg stuck between the train and the platform. His friend, who had made the jump safely, doubled over in laughter but eventually helped his poor buddy to his feet. Everyone else in the car tried to control themselves which was a feat considering I wanted to shit myself it was so funny!


These pictures show Zachodnia train station. The top is looking towards downtown and the Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury i Nauki) while the second is towards our village of Piastów. The thrid is an example of the beautiful women one can find in Poland.