Poland 3

Our next adventure was a 5 day stay at the Palac Maciejewo. It is an old Palace in a small village about 2 hours outside of Szczecin. This Palace was built some time around 1899 and belonged to the Flemming Family. Here is the link if you are interested in finding out an more history or information on this Palace: www.palacmaciejewo.pl/ (After you open the link, if you look in the left hand corner you will see a German flag and a British flag, click on the British flag and it will be in English)

We took Damian's parents and brothers dogs with us (which are not allowed in the Palace) so we stayed in the hunting lodge in the back. It had 3 bed rooms and a living area with a small kitchen.

Here is a picture of the dinning room inside the Palace. The food was pretty good and because we stayed 5 days we got to try every thing on the menu.

Here are the girls sitting on the sofa in the den.

There was a play area outside for the kids with a slide, swings and a sandbox. There was also a ping pong table, pool table and a swimming pool but unfortunately the swimming pool was broken until the last night. I had a really bad stomach ache that night and did not go with them but I was told that the water was freezing.

We had a whole lot of time to do nothing so we played a little badminton and volleyball went mushroom hunting in the woods and fed the birds. There was a bird house with pigeons, ducks and peacocks which the girls loved, they would take the left over bread from our meals and feed it to the birds.

On one of the days we walked to the small village to get ice cream and some supplies to cook the mushrooms we found. On our way back a wasp thought that it would share Aniela's ice cream with her and stung her on the eye in the process. Yep, my poor baby is allergic to bees. Her little eye was so swollen and red. It looked like some one punched her. We waited 2 day and it still did not get any better so we drove the the closest town to get some calcium. I was amazed how fast it worked! By the next day it was almost back to normal, it was still a little red and puffy but by the end of that day you could not even tell any thing had happened.

Areya and Babcia (Grandma) went for a walk and picked some wildflowers. They brought me back some and made a head band out of the rest.

The Palace had it's very own lake at the bottom of the hill. Damian, his dad and brother and Areya and I all went fishing. While we were there Damian and Areya got in a little treasure hunting and we tried our luck at fishing. Areya was amazing and catch several, where as me not so amazing, I only caught one. Damian's dad was pulling them out left and right and I was just sitting there with nothing. Our poles were right next to each other and still he would get one and me?........... nothing. It was so frustrating that I gave up and played a little pirate with Areya.

It was a nice stay at the Palace but on Friday we needed to pack up and go. Sunday we were scheduled to be in Slupsk for Julia's baptism and we needed to stop in Szczecin to do a little laundry and get our stuff needed for the next few days. From Szczecin it is about a three hour drive to Slupsk. (this is the town where Agnieszka's parents live)

The street sign game

Ok here's how to play. Get a piece of paper and number it 1-30, then look at the signs below and make your best guess at what they mean. Some pictures have more then one sign guess both. (there are some duplicates so you get a few freebies)
There are a few rules:
1. No peeking at the answers
2. No using the Internet for help
3. Give it your best try
Then see how many you got right and leave me a comment letting me know how you did.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

How did you do? Below are the answers.

1. Speed limit (70 KMP)

2. No passing

3. Loose gravel

4. Caution

5. Right curve ahead

6. End of city limits

7. Yield

8. No left turns

9. Stop

10. Must turn left

11. Two-directional road

12. Toilet

13. Caution

14. Accidents

15. In 30 meters there is a bump

16. Speed limit

17. No stopping or parking on road

18. Entering the city limits of ___________ (insert city name here)

19. Has the right of way

20. Railroad crossing without barriers

21. Do not enter

22. Roundabout

23. Falling rocks

24. Slippery road

25. Wharf nearby

26. Traffic light ahead

27. Slippery road when wet (Accident)

28. Watch for Pedestrian (Accidents)

29. School crossing

30. Strong winds

Don't forget to let me know how you did and what you think of my little game. Thanks for playing!

Poland 2

We went to visit Damian's cousins in Pyrzyce the village where Ida was born and they live for several years. There is an old wall around the village that was build in the 11th century. Next we walked to a park where an old WWII tank was left. Damian remembers crawling up inside it with his cousins when he was a kid. We also stopped at a old catholic church which had amazing architecture and beautiful stain glass windows.

Here we all are standing in front of the tank. From right to left: Veronica, Michal and their dog. (Damian's cousin and his wife) Damian, Areya, Eva and Aniela (Damian's cousin) Adrian (Damian's brother) and Kuba (Eva's fiance).

On our way home we stopped at the cemetery so that Damian could visit his grandparent's graves. (His grandma died a few years ago and Damian was unable to see her before she passed.)

Just outside the Cemetery there are several shops where you can buy flowers, candles and other tings to decorate the graves. Many of the older people in the village make a daily trip to the cemetery to visit the graveside of their loved ones. I thought this was very neat and a great way to remember the ones who have gone before us.

This picture shows the section of the cemetery where the children are buried. Damian told me that they pay for the plot for a certain amount of time (like 50 years) and then after the time is up if no one continues to pay on that plot they dig up what ever is left (the casket) and the plot is used for someone else.

After the cemetery we headed back to Michal's place for dinner. After dinner was drinks and conversation. Damian's other cousin Roman came over along with some of Veronica's friends. They all had a great time talking and drinking. I watched the girls and did my best to keep them out of trouble. (I have no clue what anyone one was talking about, maybe I should learn so more Polish)

During our visit Areya and the their dog had a little, well lets say disagreement. Areya wanted to pet him and he didn't really want her to so he let her know by biting her on the cheek. The bite was not very big but was kind of deep. She did not get any stitches but probably should have. She now has a little scar that looks like a dimple when she smiles.

When it was time to leave Damian and Adrian had a bit to much to drink so I needed to drive home. Let me tell you how nervous I was about this. The signs are different and the rule are different and I had no clue where I was going. We ended up home safe and sound with no accidents.

Playing catch up

***FYI we are all back safe and sound. It was a very interesting trip and i'm glad to be back.
Sorry I have not updated in a while, it is amazing how much needs to be done after being gone for a month. I think I am pretty close to having it all taken care of so now I have a little time to let you all know more about our trip.***

Update on Aniela

I really hate doing posts out of order (for some strange reason) but I thought it important to let everyone know what is going on with Aniela.

From what I understand (no one speaks English here but Damian and he has never been very helpful when it comes to filling me in on what's going on) Aniela has acute bronchitis and to keep it from turning into pneumonia we had to put her into the hospital. Why you may ask? We tried to treat her at home but even after everything we tried we could not get her to take the antibiotics, and believe me we tried everything!

On Thursday the doctor came for a house call and gave us a prescription which we filled and tried to force feed her. (She gets sick really easy and has been forced feed lots of drugs in her short life) We were also given a few other medications so instead of force feeding them and making her so upset we simply hide them in her sippy cup of juice. When it was time for the next does we thought we would try the sippy cup trick again, to bad the antibiotics taste overpowers the taste of the juice, so we had to try and force feed her again. This time she spit it back out in our faces! We tried again making sure to get the medication in the back of her throat and again she just spit it out. We tried the sippy cup trick again this time with a different juice and she would not even take the cup from us. So on Friday morning the doctor came back and suggested that we take her to the hospital because with out the medication there was a great chance that it would progress into pneumonia. So we packed up and headed off to the hospital.

At the hospital a doctor took her information and listen to her lungs and thought it best to admit her. We were taken upstairs to the children's wing. (this is where I now call home) Next they had us take her to get a chest x-ray which was the WORST experience of both our lives. The nurse took her from me and then put the iron apron on Damian. (because he spoke polish, I guess) They tried to have her stand against the board and strap her legs to it while Damian held her hand above her head, but she was not having that. She got out of that in a less then a second. Next they strapped her into a horrible torture device. It is a tube that they use to restrain children, it is cut long way down the middle and has a strap at the top and bottom, it has a hole cut out for the face. They put her in with her arms above her head and tighten the strap and then did her legs. ( At this point she is screaming at the top of her lungs and I am bawling my eyes out) After she is in they hung her from a hook and took the x-ray. ( I left the room for this part, I could not take any more) Next they had to take blood and put in the IV start. Good thing they would not let me in the room for that part. I could hear her screaming all the way down the hall with both doors shut. (Damian's mom and I were both still bawling our eyes out)

She is given a very strong dose of antibiotics 3 times a day by IV and a breathing treatment 3 or 4 times a day. Aniela and I are staying at the hospital day and night. I have been getting a few hour break each day by Damian's dad to go home, take a shower and check my e-mail. Then it is back to the hospital to be with my baby and a bunch of Polish nurses that don't speak English.

The doctor said that Aniela is doing better but is still not well enough to leave. They told us it might be at least 3 more days if not longer.

Poland 1

Ok, I am going to try and do a post on this computer so I hope it works out alright.

Here we are at the Paris airport waiting for our connecting flight to Berlin. We were all so tired and there was no where to sit so Aniela is still in the front facing baby pack and Areya is sitting on her booster seat next to me on the floor.


Here the girls are enjoying the gifts that they got from their aunt and uncle. They loved the gifts and will have some more fun things to do on the air plane ride home. Thank you Adrian and Agnieszka for the gifts.

Here is Aniela (with help) holding her baby cousin Julia. Aniela really loved the baby and every time I took Julia off her lap she would get upset and pat her lap asking to hold the baby again.


We did not do a whole lot for the first few day, mostly stayed home and took walks to the pond near their house.


We also went to a huge mall complex that was recently built in Szczecin. We got ice cream, it's a soft serve ice cream and it's called "American Ice Cream". It does not taste the same as in the U.S. and was pretty good.

Here is a picture of the museum we went to. (We were not allowed to take pictures inside) They had this really cool old car that is called Smyk, it was designed by students in Szczecin. Instead of doors the front part of the car opened the motorcycle engine was in the back.






More to come soon!