Villa Nova Jelenia Gora

... If he had worked in an English speaking country, he surely wouldn't be living in Poland now. Fair point.

He took us out to visit Anita's babcia. We went to a tiny little village out of town that looked like it'd seen better days. In fact, most of Poland had seen better days. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, and more recently, the induction into the E.U, all of Poland's wealth and labour force had moved west across the border ...

Jelenia Góra ('deer mountain') is about couple of hours south from Wroclaw (trains or buses). It is close to the Karkonosze mountain range running along the Polish-Czech border. Only 10-15 km of the town there are few ski resorts such as Karpacz, Szklarska Poreba.
Nice, colorful Market Square, Cyprian Kamil Norwid Theatre, Saint Cross Church, the Old Town are just few places worth of seeing.
Jelenia Gora, Western Poland, Poland ulka

... of pleasure, prayer, and balance in life. Hornet Flight by Ken Follet An espionage-action novel set in WWII Denmark by the author of Pillars of the Earth. A pretty eclectic mix, which is how I like it. I actually NEED to re-read the Chesterton because it was such a paradoxical page turner that I am still trying to wrap my head around it. Still, I look forward to Krakow in a few days and the promise of some new reading material.

... of the journey we did by a payable way of transportation. Ahh, again, we made thousands of km, mostly via hitchhiking! We did something impossible (hitchhiking in Greece), met individuals that showed us how to not judge people from their look (the Greek monk, the Bosnian family), we saw gorgeous places, but also the places making us concerned; we travelled through 10 countries and like 6 capitals. We spent so much ...

... sloping plateau of the Karkonosz range. It was still quite cool, so after taking some photos of the view and the nearby small wooden chapel we made our way back down. Although we had dinner in the centre of Karpacz, we decided to return the next morning for a leisurely stroll. It was a beautiful sunny day, and given we'd done what I wanted to do the previous day, the next few hours activities were Ania's. After having some lunch and ice-cream we got back in the car and drove a few ...

... sure how this happened, obviously I haven't been looking after him properly, which is one of his favourite catch phases. So 4 loads of washing, one dryer, charged by the hour, and its 14 degrees so not the best weather for drying. Washing really has become a obsession of mine, it's a war, you have to focus and be ruthless with all your competitors, this is not about making friends people, this is about survival of the fittest). Victory at last for ...

... the main square with the arcade over the sidewalk, so you always walk in the dry! Later when we were back home, we headed back to the hill with some sledge, slide a bit, got all wet, made a pregnant snow-woman and played in the snow. The playing in the snow was... quite romantic I must say, I will surely always remember the moment as I loved it eventhough nothing actually happened. It was still full of nice thought ...

The day after crossing back into Poland, we stopped in Wollmierz. If the Eagle's were European, this would have been their Hotel California. Greeted by smiles and tea, unfortunately no pink champagne, we toured this defunct train station now offering daily departures in puppet theatre, oil painting, and welding junk. . After eating the special cake, we were offered to sleep in "Dracula's guest house". We checked out at 7 am despite the voices down the corridor.

... then walked decided to eat at the hotel restaurant; very cute -- like dining in a peasant's courtyard, but clean, and with orchids. After dinner, the rain had let up, and it was still light. So we walked to town and had ice cream and capuccinos in a very cute cafe -- candles on the table, wood burning in the corner fireplace. At hotel, Kyla was very hyper. We played a game of cards; I won.

... South of Poland. Some hours later we arrived "Stonsdorf", a small and pitoresque village near Hirschberg in South Poland. We lived in a hotel which was a former castle, really luxory and beautiful. The next days we just enjoyed the landscape and the nature, one day we went to Breslau. When our time in South Poland was over after 4 days we went via Prague (eating duck with dumplings) home to Stuttgart. As I already said, one of my best short trips ever, really amazing...!