On the road again! In Kolobrzeg I reunited with my favourite hiking companion = the husband. He arrived in Kolobrzeg by train from Berlin, I arrived on foot from Karnice, and we met at the train station. It's kind of incredible that this actually worked. Thank you, Internet.
Today was an incredibly hard day as we got lost again and ended up walking about 30k. I wanted to see two of Poland's oldest trees, 750-year-old Warcislaw and his older brother, 800-year-old Boleslaw. One highlight was telling a helpful local lady that we were looking for Warcislaw and Boleslaw, and she actually knew what we were talking about and directed us to the forest.
Unfortunately there were many many many trees in the forest and we didn't find the two really ancient ones. Instead, we got lost.
However… when darkness fell… and we felt thoroughly sore-footed and broken-shouldered… we arrived at a RUSTIC POLISH INN. Precisely the kind of place I've been yearning for, for about a week now. It's in the middle of gorgeous countryside and the lovely owner fed us home-pickled gherkins and red wine. Pictures tomorrow.
Over dinner, the owner told us that this house is actually an old German house. In 1990 or so, an elderly German man turned up at her doorstep. He had lived here as a child, and hid in the communal bread-baking house with his six siblings when the Russians came. He then walked from here to Rostock, which must be about 150km or so, working for farmers along the way to feed himself (he was 13 at the time). Anyway, he came back to see if he could find any of his siblings here, and to look at the old house. He said he was happy for the new Polish owners to live here, as it was theirs now, but just wanted to see the old pear tree his grandfather had planted in the garden. He stayed under the tree for a long time and prayed.
The Polish owners then became friends with him, and their daughters even spent a month in Germany with his family. Apparently it was strange for many Poles as well to live in these vacated houses with other people's plates, cutlery and furniture (the Polish families were also forcibly relocated here at the time so it wasn't their choice).
Well, here we are, old/new Baltic people happily swapping stories over wine and pickled gherkins. It's really nice to see these old houses to beautifully restored and filled with life. I wonder who lives in my granny's old home now? We've got another week until we reach Stolpmünde/Ustka.
Stork of the day: sighted near Strzepowo.
 |
| Note the little birds on the wires. Every stork's nest has them, they seem to live as tenants in the bottom of the nest. |
No comments:
Post a Comment