Learning Polish

Anyone tried to learn the language?
They are not wrong when they say it’s one of the hardest languages to learn. I’m heading off there next week to Warsaw and then to Krakow, so I thought I’d try to learn a few words just so I don’t look like your typical English tourist.
I’ve had to write down the phonetic way to say phrases as I’ve no chance to say them otherwise and I thought Dutch was bad enough.

Due to the fact it’s now autumn and the weather has now turned crappy, there’s no way I’m taking my bike, this will be an adventure in my Toyota Aygo, whose longest trips have mostly been to the shops.

 

Cheers Adie
This is the itinerary so far
Drive to Potsdam (600km from home) then the next day another 600km arrive in Warsaw. Staying 4 nights
Things I’m planning whilst here:-
The Royal way
The Polish Uprising museum
The old town observatory

Drive to Krakow for another 4 night stay
Things I’m planning whilst here :-
Auschwitz
Oskar Schindlers Enamel factory museum
Salt mine tour

Then back to Potsdam again before driving home. I estimate I’ll do about 2500km round trip. Potsdam itself is a very interesting place if you’ve never been.

I’ve got my restaurants lined up, the food looks amazing so looking forward to that and an odd beer or two or should I say Piwo.

lve got several useful phrases written down but there’s no way I’ll remember them off by heart

There will be plenty of photos and videos posted.

 

My Krakow hotel is right in the center so I’ll have plenty of opportunity to just stroll around, but yes an official walking tour would be good too. I’m actually thinking that I should’ve allowed more days, but I’m restricted somewhat as I have to make sure my cats are (royally) taken care of. But I think 4 nights in both cities will give me a good feel for the place.

 

That’s all I need really

 

Take a look a Polish, there’s no vowels only consonants

 

Day 1 Potsdam.
Having done quite a few trips in the motorhome this year whilst again in semi (or probably full)
retirement I’ve gotten used to having a kitchen and more importantly a toilet with me at all times whilst on the
move. This trip to Poland in the car, from a convenience standpoint, is somewhat of a let down. I
now have to search for a loo and being from Yorkshire I don’t like to have to pay 50 euro cents just
to relieve myself.
Anyway I digress, with all the packing done last night, it was just left to put the case in the car and
sort the cats out. They always seem to know when I’m leaving them and start sulking as they can’t
go out as they normally do after their breakfast.
At 8:50 I left the house and wasn’t exactly relishing the 600km drive in a tiny car. The weather was
changeable, rain showers one minute sun the next. All along the roads by fields farmers had turned
the Dutch flag upside down. There were literally hundreds of these flags. The Dutch flag is normally
A red horizontal stripe, then white, then blue. Now the blue is on the top. Normally this would be a
sign of distress for example by a ship, but in this case the farmers are protesting against the
governments policy on cutting nitrogen emissions which is badly affecting the farmers livelihood.
At 10:45 we crossed the border into Germany. I stopped for lunch at a service area just off the
autobahn at around noon. I ordered a curry wurst with chips thinking it would be a sensible size.
When it arrived it must’ve been easily a foot long. I also took the opportunity to have a free pee in
the toilets. (Yay!!)
The motorway to Berlin passes through the old border crossing between west and east Germany at
Marienborn/Helmstedt. The old crossing is now a fascinating museum and well worth a look if you
are in the area. Back in the early 1980’s I crossed here on my Suzuki GS550, but that’s another story.
After lunch we continued the drive and arrived in Potsdam at 4pm. The apartment is very nice, but
I’m only here overnight. Due to the huge curry wurst I won’t be venturing out for anything else to
eat this evening. Tomorrow we have another 600km to do and this will involve Polish toll
motorways.

 

Apologies for the text formatting, but after writing the blog in Word on my iPad it wouldn’t let me copy and paste into the thread. No idea why so had to use my cell phone to get the text here.