Yesterday (Saturday) we were bussed up to a Kashubian part of the country (a bit west of Gdansk.) Kashubs are a subculture of Poles, whose language is somewhat different, with lots of German influence. They were mostly fishermen, who went out into the Baltic & fished the region's lakes. Szymbark itself is a combined ethnic museum, with houses brought from Siberia & Canada, to represent old Kashubian lifestyle, a train which carried Poles to Siberia, a copy of an underground bunker as used to fight the Germans in WWII, complete with ear-splitting sound effects representing an air attack on the bunker, but then also an upside-down house, children's attractions, an overdose of tourist kitsch.
The ride up was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours. It took four. Traffic was bad, the drivers got lost, twice taking the wrong turn & having to turn these gigantic buses around, the roads were hilly & curvy, one girl sitting in back got carsick, so we had to stop & let her off to settle her stomach. We had breakfast at 7:00, arrived at Szymark at 11:30, de-bused. We were given sack lunches for the day. Nobody knew anything about whether we should take our lunches with, or when we'd be able to access the buses again, so most of us left them on the bus, where they experienced 6 hours of 90 degree temps and were basically inedible.
Traveling in Poland can be very frustrating. The lack of facilities, signs, planning, and so on would drive a Type A German tourist to obscenity. But the people are so warm, so sympatico, they (almost?) make up for the obstacles...
More on Szymbark later in the Blog.
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