August 8

August 8th (sunny and warm)
We enjoyed breakfast and cleaned up and were on the road by nine again this morning heading southeast towards Warsaw along mainly rural roads. The people of Poland seem very happy, are polite and appear surprised when we open our mouths and speak English. Only some of the children have any command of English at all so we have been using our eastern European phrase book a little lately and we have still been getting surprised looks. Could it be our pronunciation is a little off?
The camping spots in Poland are a little unsanitary and remind Georg and I of Bulgaria in the 70’s when we travelled. Also, we have been comparing Poland with Mexico a little in that everywhere are half-finished buildings, roads and the infrastructure in general. Even though they are well behind western standards, Polish people display themselves with style and grace. As with anywhere else in the world, however, there are the slum areas through which some of them we travelled that are very, very depressing.
Along our drive today, we stopped at a marketplace in Dzialdowo where people looked at us like we were from outer space while we struggled to purchase different grocery items. I know I am repeating myself, but it is quite a lot of fun to buy such delicious-looking and tasting vegetables, bakery goods, etc. Needless to say, we are eating very well – thus the XXXL shorts I purchased today. All Georg could say was “what’s next? -- is there a Jones Tent and Awning in Poland?”
So far we have fared quite well in getting around Poland without the full use of the AutoRoute software, however it has resulted in some tension-filled moments. Today was one of the first times that I took a quick, direct instruction from Georg without debating. Had we not, we would have missed the one and only campsite in Warsaw in rush-hour traffic. Georg has revamped the next phase of our route to Budapest. Instead of heading south, we are taking in Prague first after Krakow, but that again can change. No solid plans on this trip.
We settled in, had a delicious potato salad and the smoked salmon from Leba was the best we have ever had. In our short walkabout of our immediate surroundings, we came across a soccer game where both sides were Orientals. This struck us as rather odd so I enquired and found out that it was the Vietnamese Immigration League. It appears that as Polish youths leave for other countries of the EU for better-paying jobs, people from other countries such as Vietnam are coming in to fill their places.
Also, next to us is a huge enclosed area with soccer pitches, Olympic swimming pool, large buildings, etc. and seeing that one of the buildings has an Olympic logo on it, we were wondering if the Olympics were ever held in Warsaw.