South and north, mid-winter journeys

Off to Bielsko-Biała (my first ever trip to the city) to meet my girlfriend’s family (parents, grandparents, siblings). This time refraining from any personal anecdotes (though the visit was enjoyable whatsoever), I will just focus on the sightseeing part of the trip.

We left Warsaw after 8 a.m. in the morning to reach our destination four hours later, meaning the travel time if you drive considerately and economically (after driving 10 thousand kilometres within 9 month I began to appreciate benefits of eco-driving not in town only) is comparable to a duration of Pendolino ride. Also the cost is similar if two people travel (just slightly more than PLN 200).

In late afternoon we headed to the city to roam around. To the right, illumination of Reksio, a classic dog from old-school Polish cartoons serving as a reminder Bielsko-Biała was a home to the biggest Polish “factory” of cartoons, where origins of the famous dog trace back to. Next to the barking, lit-up large dog, a small bronze (or brass) monument thereof.

Although the Christmas tide was long gone (photo taken on 3 February), the market square (one of four in the city, yet the only one not adapted as a car park) was wonderfully lightened by bright diodes. It was the middle of winter school holidays in Silesia province, so hundreds of teenagers were rambling about.

Around the end of our saunter, another classic-cartoon monument, Bolek i Lolek, a statue next to Sfera, the biggest shopping mall in Bielsko-Biała (sadly, a place whose name nearly turns everybody on and trips to which are the main pastime activity of the city’s inhabitants).

As on Saturday the weather was autumn-like (+1C, cloudy), Saturday morning brought snow in abundance. This is the sight we woke up to on Sunday around 8 a.m. By then and over the next hours a nearly 10-centimetre layer of white powder has accumulated (snow ceased around midday). I was frightened the snow would wreak havoc to the traffic and our journey home would last far longer than four hours, but by early afternoon road clearing services have done their job and the return turned out to be smooth.

Undaunted by severe weather, we headed for a short trip to nearby mountains, firstly by a cable car, then we climbed (through the ascent was anything but steep) to Szyndzielnia and somewhere further towards Klimczok. To the right, somewhere more than 1,000 metres above sea level, trees struck by gusty wind around last Christmas.

And yet another trip, towards the land of lakes. To the right, Śniardwy, the biggest lake in Poland, frozen over. The temperature was -6C, the water was frozen solid so that people confidently walked on it or rode quads. We did not venture far into the ice. The view, shortly before the sunset, magnificent in the depth of its gloom.

The major attraction of the next day was a visit to a wildlife park in Kadzidłowo (Park Dzikich Zwierząt) where many species of animals normally living in the woods or not inhabiting this part of Europe are bred (and tamed). A lovely place to pop by, especially if you have small children – in my opinion a far more interesting than visit to a zoo (to the right a flock of... errr, tell me what animals these are).

Learning to live together

Spent the last two weekends roaming around Poland. Over the first weekend of February I ventured south to meet my would-be in-laws, a week ago into Mazury, to take delight in wintery landscape of the lakes area in the low season. For technical reasons, I will catch up with the photo coverage somewhat later, at best in a week J

The common denominator of the last weeks were ups and downs of living under one roof with my better half. Both of us had never had a chance to get accustomed to cohabit with a life companion under one roof, therefore such major change has been a sort of stressful for both of us. Living together is mainly about fighting some of one’s habits and accepting some of your partner’s habits, where both sides should find some areas where they decide to give in and others where they insist to hold on to what they are used to.

For many couples a common dwelling is not just a turning point that marks moving a level up, but also the end of so-called bed of roses. This regularity pertains mainly to couples whose dating prior to living together confined to going out, spending time together, but without sharing down-to-earth duties. This is unfortunately what daily life is all about and what has brought to an end the carefree periods of my friends’ relationships (they all hark back to times before finding themselves with their life companions under one roof). I need to confess the process of moving and early days in “our = rented” flat have been quite smooth and painless. We both displayed a lot of patience towards each other and held back our emotions for several occasions. The first days went without a major spat, however a few more serious, frank talks turned out to be essential to sort some things out and clear the atmosphere.

I cannot say I am disillusioned, but I am slowly coming to terms with abandoning my dreams of an ideal relationship. Every human, inevitably, has drawbacks, and while spending lots of time with somebody you care for, clashes are inexorable as well. It only takes good manners and lots of composure not to lose one’s temper and to stand up to what you believe, balancing this with a proper dose of respect to your partner and their autonomy. Whenever a crisis hits me, I recall my better half has accepted my several shortcomings and puts up with me which is not easy; this gives me more strength and patience to cope with her idiosyncrasies.

For the time being the biggest challenge are eating habits. My better half is a vegetarian, not a hard-line one, meaning she does not accuse everyone around eating meat of contributing to killing what once has been alive, but as she declares, she had never ever had a single gram of meat (nor fish) in her mouth, while I, in order not to stay hungry, need regular intake of nutrients with animal proteins and I am unwilling to give up on it. For a while it is not a big concern (though cooking a lunch we would both eat is impossible, which makes me kind of sad, in the light of my new resolution to learn to cook after entering this new stage), yet many people have advised me to think it over how it all would look when she gets pregnant and children are born. Coercing would not work (or would rather have the opposite effect), convincing somebody who is very sensitive to any conversation on the topic of their eating habits (after hearing regularly she was weird on account of refusing to eat meat at all) could also work like a red rag to a bull. I can only tell myself nutrition habits and not a fundamental part of relationship and definitely should not become a deciding factor when choosing a life companion (which oddly enough is not as obvious, after I met many people who would declare they would not accept a partner who does not eat meat “as normal humans do”). By the way it gets to the worst, while you are influenced by opinions expressed by several people around to such extent that you fail to distinguish whether your view is your own one of shaped by influencers who whisper beliefs into your ears.

Besides, worth noting this weekend marks the ninth anniversary of blogging. My activity here has been on the wane for a while, yet I have my goal of keeping up the job for one year on, to reach the milestone of round decade of roughly regular writing. Most bloggers from once buoyant English-Polish blogosphere have dropped off quite long ago, so maybe instead of griping about my malperformance I should rather take pride in relatively long record of blogging.

Renting a flat

If there is somebody breaking a record in length of property lookout, I believe I would stand a chance of being in among leaders. I set off to search unhurriedly in late 2015, in 2016 I was giving it up on a few times, while considering moving to another European capital as part of secondment and buying a flat after I return, or moving to Wrocław (this involved a promotion I was doomed not to get). There was a time when my housing needs were met by hotels or time of absolute indifference and little hope for the future when I still hunted, but with not much zeal, nor pressure to buy.

Though I have not bought a flat, it does not mean I have not found any which I had been keen to purchase. After my “relationship status” changed for the better, the search accelerated and after somewhat loosening the criteria I have found four flats I was intent to buy. As it turns out, it takes two to tango, which means if a vendor puts up an advertisement, they do not necessarily aim to finalise the deal.

Without going into details, reasons why I am not a flat-owner are as follows:

Flat #1, the sellers wanted to sell their flat, but expected a buyer to let rent it from the new owner until June 2018, when they would be able to move in to their brand-new flat, currently under construction. Since such transaction would not help my housing needs be met, I gave it a rest.

Flat #2, the one which took my fancy the most. I kept a diary of negotiations… I found the ad directly from the owner (actually son-in-law of owners handling the whole stuff) on 18 July and immediately called him. After three calls I saw the flat on 7 August 2017, then once again with my parents on 12 August, then met the owners on 18 August to discuss details of the deal. Since asking price was quite attractive, there was no room for haggling and potential buyers were expected to place bids and the winning bidder would buy the flat. On 25 August the sellers called me to inform they would keep on letting the flat, instead of getting rid of it and maybe they would return to the market in a year.

Flat #3, quite OK rather than dreamt-up, but attractively priced. I was the first one to visit the flat and place a bid. The process kicked off immediately, but while I asked for a set of documents required by a notary to draw up a notarial deed, they turned out to had been missing, since 2001 when there was some mess with the housing co-operative which went bankrupt upon the completion of that estate…

Flat #4, also good enough and well-priced, with little additional outlays required. I carried on with negotiations, arranging a crew of dab hands to turn the bathroom (which needed a thorough refurbrishment) upside down, finally cheerful and putting faith everything was on track, I did not notice the seller was hanging back on arranging a date with a notary. Soon she called me to notify she had sold the flat to someone else.

I picked up that last call on the last week of November. Sadly, I must notice the number of flats put up for sale has dwindled recently and I blame high rent yields (according to the recent NBP report residential rent produces five times higher earnings than an average bank deposit) which induce several property-owners to let their flats instead of selling them. NBP figures which show number of transactions on secondary residential property market diminished from nearly 2,100 in 3Q2016 to 1,100 in 3Q2017 might support my presumptions.

In 2018 I have not a single flat I would wish to visit and the number of new advertisements is close to zero (this could be put down to winter holidays as well).

In the meantime my girlfriend, who rented a room in a flat, despite several attempts had not had her rent contract, which expired on 31 December 2017, renewed. The flat-owner, who lives somewhere in Poland, was too lazy to come to Warsaw and sign the papers, so from the beginning of this month she lived there without an agreement. On top, just before we headed for Norway, her flatmate told she would move out at the end of the month.

We discussed all pros and cons and arrived at the decision we would rent a small flat together and reside there until I buy something reasonable. After returning to Poland two weeks ago we entered a race against time. We knew the rent market in Warsaw is red-hot and any attractively-priced flat draws in a queue of potential tenants. We knew once we found something which would meet our needs, we would need to make a decision swiftly. In the first two flats we visited we made a mistake by being too sincere and declaring we would not promise to rent for at least a year. The prospect of looking for new tenants in a few months has probably put off landlords and our bids were immediately were turned down. There was a story of a cheap flat to be rented for a short period, until a 104-year grandma, who is formally entitled to reside until death there but reside in a nursing home, deceases, but I don’t feel like recounting it. In the fourth flat we lied we would want to rent for at least a year, but insisted on a just-in-case 1-month notice termination option. Out there, we signed the contract within one day and fended off the threat of my girlfriend becoming homeless.

This marks a new stage in the relationship, but still is perceived by me as a temporary solution, a quick fix before my own flat is found. Until this happens, may we dwell the rented one uneventfully.

Since next weekend we head south so that I meet my girlfriend’s parents and in two weeks we head north to get some well-deserved relax, the last before my girlfriend’s exam in mid-May and the subsequent holidays, the next posting will be due around 18 February.

Tromso, Norway

The trip 300 kilometres north of the polar circle was not taken off my own bat, this had been the idea of my girlfriend to which I had acceded, knowing otherwise she would not be keen to go to some warmer places next late autumn or winter. The execution was facilitated by a new direct flight connection launched recently by a pink-violet cheap airline between Gdańsk and Tromso, the biggest city beyond the polar circle in the civilised word (Murmansk and Norilsk in Russia are more populous, yet would not rank among my agreeable destinations).

Getting to Tromso is now much cheaper from Warsaw. Previously you could take a cheap flight from Poland’s capital to Oslo or Bergen and then board a plane of a local airplane, a few times more expensive than a flight from Poland. Today the cost of a return plane ticket from Gdańsk to Tromso and Pendolino train to get to Gdańsk from Warsaw might be as low as 300 PLN if you are lucky to hunt cheap flights and buy train tickets in advance. The only drawback are late hours of the return flight, meaning the plane touches down in Gdansk at 1 a.m. and we had to wait five hours at the airport for the morning trains home.

We have not taken checked-in luggage for four full days of stay, but travelled light in terms of clothing and filled our hand luggage (suitcase and rucksack) with stocks of food purchased in a supermarket in Gdańsk. Food in Norway is somewhat four to five times more expensive than in Poland, so as our Airbnb (again) lodgings was with access to a kitchen so we made substantial savings on the trip (total cost per person of mere 1,100 PLN).

Now time for some impressions.

The main purpose of the trip was to see the northern lights. Not a single time during five evenings have we spotted it, as most of the time chances of seeing the aurora are below 20%. Sky should be cloud-free and solar activity are you should stray far from external lights (difficult, unless to take an organised chase which costs nearly 1,000 PLN, can be called off without money refund and does not guarantee you see the lights). All those conditions have not been met and we ended up roaming around in the evenings and not spotting any aurora on the sky.

The climate in Tromso, despite its sub-arctic location is quite mild in winters, thanks to warming-up impact of the Gulf Stream. Temperatures during our stay fluctuated between -1C and -5C. Though average temperature of January is 2 Celsius degrees lower than in Warsaw, thaws are frequent. Thermal long-johns and vest proved useful, same as snow boots and trekking socks, but the second pair of gloves, foot and palm warmers were rendered useless.

Polar nights are also over-rated in terms of darkness (to the right how light it is on a typical not-cloudy day). Sun is not seen, but sunlight make hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. visibly lighter. It also needs to be noted our stay fell just before the first sunrise which in Tromso is celebrated on 15 January.

The biggest challenge in moving around town is ice, particularly treacherous during thaws. When heaps of snow melt or rain falls on a frozen ground, water freezes immediately, but the top layer is watery and therefore hazardously slippery. Gravel is put down on most paths; main roads and pavements in the centre of the town are mechanically cleared of snow. Locals have gotten accustomed to the ice (we saw locals jogging in sneakers and riding bikes on ice), many have ice spikes attached to soles of their footwear, vehicles are fitted with snow tyres with spikes thanks to which they hold the icy road well (no skids).

Spikes in tyres are the only way they prepare their cars for winter. Despite cold climate many car-owners keep their vehicles in the open air and parking facilities lack sockets for engine block heaters which are common in Scandinavian countries and Canada (in Siberia where petrol is cheap cars kept outside heated garages, their engines are not turned off at all).

Electricity in Norway is dirt-cheap and light in the winter is treated as a common good, therefore lights are on outside every inhabited dwelling and on in all rooms except for bedrooms when dwellers are asleep. Oddly enough, curtains or rollers in windows are not common, so actually you can see from a street what is going on inside a house.

Locals seem to be trustful. Fences do not separate private properties, people keep skis and bicycles unguarded in the open air. In terms of communication, they are very reserved. One can easily communicate in English, but should not reckon on a longer conversation, since nobody is keen to engage in it.

On top, some more photos. To the right, Prestvannet lake, frozen over and snow-covered. Looking towards the place on the horizon beyond which the sun shines, through a mist. Enchanting, yet harsh.

A close-up of southern part of Tromsoya island in winter daylight. Shot taken from an island to which one can get by a cable-car. Trip there was one of four main expenses made there (other than weekly bus tickets, entrance to the polar museum and one visit to a café for a cake and a coffee).

A view from Mount Something (not condemn me for not remembering the names which are enough difficult to pronounce), a peak whose name my girlfriend has found, Norgeskart application displays as Heastajalga - Google Maps proves here useless, which I climbed reluctantly, but sight from the above compensated for the hardship of ascent in knee-deep snow which is not my favourite form of leisure.

The Way of the Superior Man…

…A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire

The book by David Deida was one of my birthday gifts received in December. When I spotted it on my desk the morning after I turned thirty and upon leafing through the book and reading out some random sentences, I was pretty sure the gift had been handed by my workmate, who is… (unlike me) fond of spirituality and always intent to spill her fascination over everyone around.

I actually do not truly share her enchantment with spirituality and probably I am too self-constrained to make out elements of spirituality in processes such as ejaculation, therefore I treated reading the book with reserve, but with a dose of curiosity.

I am sceptical towards any guides how to live your life, because (watch out, cliché) every human is different, therefore there is no single recipe how to work on yourself to become a better man, as well as how to build relationships with fellow people, since each of them is unique. Giving credence to “how-to-live” guides means following somebody’s steps blindfold, while I believe one should rely on one’s wits, emotional intelligence and experience in handling relationships with other humans. Needless to say, it takes errors along the way, but lessons learnt from one’s mistakes are those most memorable.

Nevertheless, the book fleshes out some concepts which I believe are universal and pave the way to happiness and self-fulfilment of a male.

Firstly, be yourself and shape the world around. Trying to shape oneself, or at worst pretending to be someone else just to live up to your mates’ expectation is a bumpy road to nowhere. Only being yourself and knowing the rest of the world accepts the way you are can drive away the frustration. Beware though, this is not at odds with striving for perfection on every step you take. Besides, a wilful male impacts the world around him. You should not entirely accept what surrounds you, your power sets direction in which things drift.

Secondly, keep a healthy distance, towards life in general. There are matters you have no influence on and for the benefit or your mental health you should least worry about them. When it comes about things you have an effect on, do not get carried away by emotions, stay calm, comes hell or high water.

Thirdly, be decisive. There is nothing more infuriating than seeing a male who dithers or is afraid to take a decision. It does not matter much whether such sight is seen by a woman or by another man. Being decisive proves responsibility and maturity.

Fourthly, focus on spiritual aspect of your relationship. I would argue while the honeymoon is over and the daily grind becomes overwhelming, it is essential to remember about non-down-to-earth sphere of life to keep the flame burning. Dissecting the spiritual aspects of ejaculation is maybe not the essence of this, but my good friend skilfully put it into words. He said being together means putting up with your partner’s shortcomings which will not f**k you up only if you love your partner to bits.

Fifthly, discern and make us of your manly and womanly traits. This piece of advice dwells on the concept of gender and the fact no human has its profile in 100% consistent with their biological sex. While pairing up, two people ought to supplement one another, so that the sums of their womanhood and manhood in their relationship should add up to 100%. Relationships with surpass of womanhood or manhood end up with a clash and are less likely to last long happily.

Having read the post over and over again I see my own writing has become a preacher’s twaddle. To escape this philosophical mood, I am flying to Tromso, Norway, beyond the polar circle. Coverage of this trip to ensue in two weeks.

2017 in a nutshell

Customarily, last days of an ending year are a time of summaries, concluding thoughts and attempts to predict events in a coming year. Hence, let’s break it down to three main topics the blog has been meant to broach.

1. POLITICS

I admit not to have devoted much attention to current affairs in 2017. I have grown weary of nasty stuff going on around and have given in to the feeling I am too powerless to change anything. Many liberal voters have also displayed similar fatigue, so the activity of anti-government protests has generally waned, with one noble exception of mass protests in July to stand up for independent justice system.

PiS is holding strong in power and enjoys support of nearly half of all surveyed in polls, a larger part of electorate than those who voted for them in October 2015. The popularity of PiS is an effect, not a cause. Seasoned observers of the political arena keep arguing what has driven high support for party which resorts to autocratic measures and slowly, yet consistently dismantles democratic mechanisms. The blame weak and quarrelling opposition with lack of counter-agenda, they blame policy of lukewarm water in the tap, pursued by PO-PSL government, social inequalities, fear of migrants and criticism towards run-down Western Europe.

The key political event in 2017 was, in my opinion, change in the position of the head of government. Home-like housewife Beata, being a prime minister of ordinary people, was (unsurprisingly?) replaced by a modern-looking, wry-smiled former CEO of Bank Zachodni WBK whose net worth of over 30 million zlotys does not rank him among ordinary people. The nomination must have been a blow for several members of PiS who have stood aside Mr Kaczynski for many (mostly bad) years, while Mr Morawiecki started his political career merely two years ago and lacks merits several faithful henchmen of Mr Kaczynski could boast about.

Adrian (named after a character from “Ucho Prezesa”) has finally wasted his chance to morph into Andrzej. President Duda in July vetoed two out of three drafts law prepared by the parliament and in September came up with alternative proposals. As it eventually turned out, amendments pertain mostly to division of power between wielders of executive power and do not touch the lousy gist of new laws.

In 2018 I do not foresee a breakthrough. Unless weak opposition not only unites, but also lays out a reasonable and credible counter-agenda to rulings of PiS, little is going to change. I even doubt if a serious scandal breaks out, it will not drag down this government. The government has had numerous cock-ups along the way, but it remains teflon-coated. PO also has been shaken by several scandals for many years and support to it oscillated near 50%, in some time PiS follows the same path, provided they do not rig the elections beforehand (which is not improbable with the amended elections law recently enacted by the parliament).

2. ECONOMY

The Polish economy kept growing strong, however too low investments and too high reliance of GDP growth on consumption are still the ailments which need to be tackled by the government economists who seem to be complacent with how things come out.

The labour market in Poland has never witnessed such shortage of labour force. To fill in vacancies several companies need to hire migrants from Ukraine and retain current workforce with solid pay rises.

Pressure on wages is slowly translating into spurt in inflation which is not yet above central bank’s target, but has lifted from near- or below-zero values where it has been for some time.

The threat of inflation so far has not convinced central bankers to tighten monetary policy; consequently real interest rates in Poland are now around -1%. Most members of Monetary Policy Council tentatively speak of the first interest rate increase in the second half of 2018, those who would initiate monetary tightening right away are unfortunately in the minority. Unfortunately, since in my humble opinion the buoyant economy would withstand slightly higher interest rate with no major problems.

Poles also eagerly buy durable goods. Sales of brand-new automobiles and dwellings have been record-high in 2017. The car sales may dwindle rapidly, but the property market is not poised for sharp decline, since it is hard to find a reasonable flat in the advanced phase of construction or finished. Property developers have no problems for finding buyers for dwellings whose construction has not yet commenced, meaning they will not be left with stocks of built, ye unsold flats for the coming two years. Also property prices on the primary market in Warsaw, after being flat for four years, began to go up, but still in a moderate single-digit pace, fending off the risk of a bubble.

3. SOCIETY

Little has changed in this sphere in 2017. On the blog I dedicated more posts to private stuff.

2017 has been a year of frequent travels abroad. Never earlier in my life have I been outside Poland four times (Spain, Germany, Italy, Malta) over one year and never have I spent abroad 24 days in a year in total.

The affection has struck me out of the blue when I least expected it, after weeks of ruining uncertainty it has shaped up and is likely to last long.

Paradoxically, with a mass of good things happening to me, I was also struck by an illness. I am still trying to overcome (therapy proved fruitful, yet badly prescribed medications have wreaked some havoc and got things worse, currently I am on the mend) it and hope to fight it down in 2018.

I also hope to find enough inspirations for writing in 2018. Most bloggers active in the best years of English-language blogosphere in Poland have dropped off, two of us hold on. My goal is to carry on at least until I reach a full decade of blogging, namely until February 2019.

Cicha noc - film review

Not a secret for (sparse) faithful readers of this blog I am fond of Wojciech Smarzowski’s films. I watched all, except for Róża (time to catch up tomorrow or on Tuesday),  and reviewed here Drogówka, Pod mocnym aniołem and Wołyń. If so, seeing “Cicha noc” by Piotr Domalewski (silver screen debut of the young gifted director and scriptwriter) was a must.

If naturalistic depictions of grossly imperfect reality and acutely presented characters take your fancy, you will definitely not regret watching this recently premiered film. Unlike in most films where Christmas Eve is a bright day and snow lies all around, here even the weather is painfully realistic – the day is dark, grey and it rains. Just like on most Christmas Eves over the last decade.

The dark side of Polishness and shattered family relationships are played up in the entire plot. The Christmas Eve is finally shown as it looks out in many homes, as a source of distress and far from being ideal. The director has deftly managed to squeeze all sorts of familiar shortcomings into one family. A viewer beholds a multi-child family, grandfather with strong inkling for alcohol, jobless father on the rehab, over-caring, tired-out mother, children arguing over dividing proceeds from inheritance after another grandpa.

The director has put together all nasty things which might happen on this one special day and bestowed them on one family spending Christmas under one roof. This reflection of uneasy celebration is probably an amplified version of what many of us could see in a mirror. Luckily, if some of us witnessed or heard of scenes similar to those played out in Cicha noc, this was a just a fraction of the dirt showed in the film. Besides, the dirt is bearable, it does not flow out of the screen into audience as it does in Smarzowski’s films.

Many would be brought down by the cumulation of dirt the film, but my spirits have been lifted. Every time I see most people have it worse than me, it reminds me I ought to be grateful for what I have instead of complaining about what could come out better.

Toruń, just before turning thirty

Off to Toruń and nearby over the last weekend. The purpose of the trip was to take a break from everyone and everything, from all thoughts and tribulations that could bring us down. If you are to forget about the daily grind, the best recipe is a short foray to a nice destination, as at home your mind-bothering stuff keeps you company.

The very trip, except for the fuel, was a birthday gift, the one which I kind of extorted from my girlfriend, yet the idea was brilliant. On Saturday morning I only knew we were about to head for Torun, but had no idea about the details of our accommodation.

Instead of taking A2 and A1 motorway, I decided to take a shorter and more picturesque route via DK7 and DK10, both not actually congested on Saturday and Sunday. Landscapes of Mazowsze were much more eye-pleasing sights than drab noise barriers fencing the motorway off.

I visited the very city for the first time since June 1998 (counting out one business trip during which I turned up to a warehouse somewhere within the administrative borders), when Toruń was a school trip destination. Finding a place to park a car near old town was a challenge and one of less efficient methods of wasting some twenty minutes, but we took our time. Then we took a walk around the historical part of the city.

To the right, a Christmas tree, lit up by LED diodes. By dint of late-autumnal weather, the place still lacked typical Christmas climate, yet we should have got used to it (last truly wintery Christmas in Poland was in… 2002). The day was dull, grey, short, yet unforgettable.

We strolled further to come across a Christmas fair, a festival with German origins, getting increasingly popular in Poland and staged in most bigger cities in Poland, usually on market squares. Maybe not the best place to do the shopping, but it does not hurt to catch the climate, scents and the scenery.

After eating a lunch and finding the car, my better half programmed the navigation so that it led me to our destination, but somehow showed only directions but not where it guided me exactly. Thus until the last moment I did not know what the destination was. Finally it turned out to be Pałac Romantyczny in Turzno (here snapped on Sunday morning after most of the snow fallen on Saturday evening has melted) – a lovely place, now the object of lovely memories.

For posterity, a short (and duly incomplete) record of my probably bestest birthday ever. The good has come, hope the best is still to come :)