exodus to europe: 2007.08.20 | a weekend (plus one) at kosin

what a late blog this is... but i suppose later is better than never. i didn't bother to proof read this entry too much so no remarks about my poor, unstructured english :P

anyway... two weekends ago, i took a monday off and went for three days to visit my granddad at kosin. he's currently working there as a technical supervisor and co-ordinates all the technical aspects of the renovations that are happening then. the place itself is a holiday destination and has a western theme to it (with a fake western town as well). when i was there they also hosted school groups, which took part in daily activities. there actually quite a lot to do there from horse riding, canoeing, quad biking, mountain walking (which can include mushroom picking if the conditions are right) and of course, lots of drinking. also marcin and his family were there on holiday so that made the trip all that much more enjoyable.

i've taken photos of my time there and they are online (links below). seeing as they are split in into days, i suppose i'll explain what i did each day.

on day one; after i finished work, i went straight to central station to catch a train to krzyż. what an experience. when i got there, all that i knew from my ticket is what time the train is leaving. now, normally this wouldn't be a problem as you can check the static timetables to find out what platform the train is leaving on. but... the train that i was taking had a marker on the timetable indicating that the information had changed. that's all, no indication of what it has changed to... only that it has changed. again, that would not have been a problem, if only the dynamic boards actually contained the train number along with the destination instead of some obscure details (obscure to any non local i suppose). if i wasn't able to speak polish, so that i could ask some people about the platforms, i would have probably missed my train. i'd hate to thing what the polish train experience is like for foreigners.

anyway, four and a half hours later i made it to krzyż and we went to kosin by car from there. by then it was already 22h00, so not much happened after that (except for some drinking).

day two; i really quite regret that i didn't take any photos of the dining tables after they brought in all the food. hungry is definitely something you will not be at kosin. just about every meal consisted of three parts; cold meats with cheeses and bread, a warm dish and then dessert (even after breakfast). also during most lunches and suppers, there was a soup dish thrown into the mix as well. granted as was sitting with all the bigwigs of the place so i guess the food might have been more extreme than it would be for normal visitors.

after letting all the food from breakfast to settle all of us guys (marcin, his dad, my grandad and i) all went horse riding. and no, not all at the same time if that's what your thinking. all of us had either never ridden or have not ridden for many years, so we rode in one of the circular pens. we did some rather strange balancing practices which included lying on your back on the horse, to trying to touch the horses ear with your hand from the other side that you're trying to touch. we also learnt about some english way of riding a horse which involved hopping at the right time to avoid getting hurt by the saddle as you would if you were to just sit there normally. it's quite the workout riding a horse. all in all, quite fun. if they didn't smell so bad, then i could have seen myself doing it again on a more regular basis.

the rest of the day involved more food and more drinking.

day three; it was raining lightly in the morning so we were confined indoors (well not so much confined but more like, couldn't be bothered to go out and get wet). but this suited us quite nicely as we needed the time to rest after yet another huge breakfast. but later that day the rain stopped which allowed us some time to go quad biking. what fun. they take some getting used to as they have such a small turning circle. if you try to turn too quickly the whole thing is likely to topple over onto you. they have a nice little course outside of the main grounds and we sent a great deal of time practising on quads. i'm quite keen to get one of my own (in fact i've wanted one since i was about five as my parents can tell you) but you really need a nice big plot of land to ride them on.

so after that it was time for dinner, then came more drinking and that was it for day three.

day four; it was time to leave on monday so after we had breakfast, we started getting ready to leave. the weather could not have been better for travelling; overcast but not cold. actually we get that sort of weather a lot in poland :) i travelled back to warsaw by car with marcin and his family. being the geeks that we are, marcin and i played worms world party over wifi with his mac and my ibm. we didn't play all the way so i had a lot of time to take in some of the scenery that is poland. an almost instant impression (the same i got in the neatherlands) is of how green the country is. it really sticks out at you after living so many years in south africa. anyway... there are some pics of the country side down below so you can see for yourself.