Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, PolandPoland - observations
- A Catholic-led government has closed most shops for three Sundays per month . .......including malls. Imagine that happening in New Zealand?
- Speed limit on the expressway is 140 kph, believe me people drive MUCH faster than that – one car went past us (Andy was doing 160) and disappeared into the distance within seconds. Scary.
- Saturday morning lying in bed at 7.30 could hear birds chirping and even a cuckoo! Never heard that before and we’ve heard it again frequently through the week.
- Maybe I live a sheltered life but we were very impressed with a can-saver top that fitted very tightly over the top of an opened can. I must look around to find one, very clever.
- Cemeteries are large, very well kept, and the graves are covered with flowers, a very pretty sight. There’s always a flower stall outside the gates too.
Friday 7 June
The children were at kindy and school. At 5pm we visited Patryk’s school, a sort of
open evening with cakes and drinks available, and a few games. School starts at age 7 and they attend only
about four hours a day, there are AM and PM sessions. Classrooms are light and pleasant enough but
the buildings themselves are old and have lots of tagging outside; toilets
looked newly renovated; there is a playground and a couple of sealed courts but
the grass was quite long all around.
Teachers have recently finished a three-week strike for more pay, and
they are definitely poorly paid. This
school was named something like ‘Monte Cassino Memorial School’ with the
mountain in its logo, we couldn’t find any information about it but guess it is
in memory of Polish troops who lost their lives in the battle (they were on the
Allied side).
Sunday 9 June
Andy and Pete took Patryk to soccer at 8.45, his
team won and Patryk scored one of 13 goals so he was pretty pleased. We went to Justyna’s parents’ for lunch –
lovely to see them again, they are great hosts and as always there was enough
to feed an army and all delicious from the tomato and chicken soup to the
strawberry sponge cake topped with lots of cream and berries set in jelly. We rolled home after that one.
Later on Andy took us to his
school to have a look - it's very tidy and fresh - https://dynamicenglish.pl/en/home-page/ He has five classrooms of
varying sizes on the ground floor of a residential block (common to have businesses at street level). I had to show off my drawing skills on the whiteboard with Ellie. In the evening we babysat the kids while Justyna and Andy
went to a concert, an unknown experience for us Skype grandparents, but the
kids managed and were in bed in good time.
Pete had been to 5pm Mass, the church
is through a small ‘woodland’ near the house and he did come home safely - I
asked if he had seen any wild boars; families of boars are known to wander
through, he said no though he had definitely looked out for them.
That’s true, they’ve seen them a few times
and I think they’re protected so nephew Craig wouldn’t be much use with his
gun.
Monday 10 June
Late afternoon we
took the kids to a newly-opened waterpark, what a great place. There are three
in Katowice with chopped rubber non-slip base, seating around the outside, no
depth because the water is on the move, all sorts of spray features (bucket
fountain, water cannons, run-through tunnel), big grassy area, clean toilets. It was great fun, safe, and the
family will certainly be back. Nelson
should take note.
Tuesday 11 June
An 'at home day' with
Pete having a project – assembling a set of outdoor furniture; he definitely
put on his ‘not sharing’ face when Andy and Justyna offered to help (I knew
better than to offer) and struggled through in the shade. In the afternoon we sat out in 30 degrees watching
the kids playing in the paddling pool and on Patryk’s new waterslide, and some
of us, like the cat, ‘likes to hide in boxes’ when Pete had finished.
Wednesday 12 June
Patryk and Pete
went to see the ‘Pikachu’ movie at midday, they loved it; it was in Polish but
Pete managed to follow the story and always enjoys seeing Bill Nighy in
anything.
They were the only people in
the cinema, exclusive! Justyna and I
wandered around the very smart new mall, three levels, only about six months
old and full of ‘high street’ stores. We
tried on a few things but they weren’t for us, it was good to look around
though. Colours this summer in Poland
are very vivid pinks, greens and mustards with beautiful forest green being
quite popular, jungle-type prints with flowers and birds, all very pretty.
And we managed to
find a new hat for Pete, it looks pretty good too. I couldn’t resist buying one for Ellie too, what’s not
to like about cat ears?
Tomorrow we're off to Krakow for some touristing.
Cheryl
2019-06-13
Wow looks like you have settled in with the family and loving every minute. Everything shut on Sunday reminds me of Perth when we first arrived. We decided one Sunday we would cook a roast and drove all over Perth unable to find a supermarket that was open and ended up having takeaways lol. They are open there now but we struggled to believe that even the supermarkets were closed ...just the little corner 4squares were open so not much available in the way of a Sunday roast. Weather looks good....has warmed up a bit here after a couple of frosts last week. Enjoy Krakow xx
laceys.log
2019-06-14
Cheryl - Just like when I went to Manila when Pete was living there, Easter, nothing open except McDonalds and a very few convenience stores. Just as well we had toast and jam for breakfast to break the monotony of Big Macs! Still HOT here.
Karin the cat minder
2019-06-15
The speed limit sounds frightening! What are their accident and vehicle crash mortality rates like?
laceys.log
2019-06-16
Karin - 38.5m population and 2800 road deaths from 37,000 crashes reported. It is scary on the roads sometimes for sure and being on the 'wrong' side doesn't help.