Margaret's
Polish Home Page.
1990
Since my mother had sent packages to Poland through most of the 80's, we arranged to go and visit the family in Rybnik, through whom the packages had been distributed..
We borrowed a Toyota Hi-Ace from my mother's cousin, asked my nephew, Espen, to come with us, and drove 3 days to Ystad, Sweden to catch the ferry to Swinoujcie, Poland. I got my first lesson in Polish on the night crossing, learning to say "Good morning" and "Good bye".
Arriving in Poland was a big change to us. When we waited to clear customs and passport checks, people started to wash windshields and head lights in hope of earning some money.
The first day we drove to Warszawa, arriving late in the evening. As we were unknown to the city, we had some trouble finding a hotel. Finally, I saw a police car, and asked the officers if they could show us the way to a hotel, where we knew there would be rooms for us. After some persuasive talk, they agreed to drive in front, and anxious not to loose sight of them, I had to cross a couple of intersections on red light.
The police car stopped in front of the hotel, and I asked if I owed them something for their service. They looked at each other, and finally the driver asked if I had some beer. I had brought some bottles of Norwegian beer, and receiving some of those, the officers seemed quite happy.
Checking in at the hotel was an experience, since the clerk started with asking if we should pay at that moment, or wait until we checked out. When asking if there would be any difference, he gave me a long explanation, saying that:
If I payed directly to him, however, he would register the rooms as payed for, giving me a 50% discount and putting half of that in his own pocket, while the rest was put in the register.
Getting this unusual answer made me a little uneasy, but, willing to save some money, I payed him right then. We parked the car outside the hotel and took our luggage upstairs.
Coming out of the hotel the next morning, we saw some boys sitting next to the car with a bucket of water and some cloths. We assumed that they too, as in Swinoujcie, washed off the windows and lights in hope of some money. We pretended to have no connection with the car, since we shouldn't use it that day. In stead we walked around, looking for a taxi stand to hire a driver to take us around the city.
We found a driver speaking English, and told him that we had certain places we wanted to see, and asked if he could recommend any other places worth to see. We agreed on a 4 hours tour and to pay him $10.
We went to the "Old town", where we left the taxi and walked around, the driver telling about its history.
From there we went to the Jewish Getto.
Thereafter he took us by the Presidential Palace on a tour to an old palace outside the city. We had lunch there, inviting the driver to join us, before he took us back to the city.
On our way to Kraków we saw big differences in field working methods, some places the farmers used modern harvesters, other places they used manual labour and sickles. My mother said the working methods were as in Norway when she was a young girl about 50 years earlier.
We arrived outside the walls of the Old Town in the afternoon, and spotted 2 police officers on motorbikes next to the road. We asked them to show us the way to a hotel, but they denied, saying they had to remain on their post. But after indicating a possible bribe, one of them agreed to drive in front.
The next day we spent at the Wawel, before exploring the night life of Kraków.
Irena and her husband Marek gave us a very warm welcome, and invited us to stay with them. Knowing that we should arrive, Irena had arranged with her father that he should act as translator, as our knowledge to the Polish language was scarce, and so was their language to the English language. All communication therefore went via Irena's father, who translated between German and Polish. My mother was curious about what Irena made for dinner, and since they didn't have a common language, it was "muh, muh"; and "oink, oink" to settle what kind of meat she was preparing.
We spent a couple of days in Rybnik, and Irena and her family tokk us around to see the city and its surroundings. One day we went to a swimming resort, and Irena's brother was unlucky to dive into the water and hit the bottom. Another day we went to see Marek's family, next to whom he and Irena was building a new house.
On our way to Berlin we still had lots of Zlotys left. In order to use them before we crossed the border, we decided to stay overnight in Zary, approx. 30 kilometres from the border. The next morning the car refused to start, so I had to call the Norwegian Automobile Association (NAF) to get some help. The hotel clerk was very helpful, and ordered the call. Due to an old telephone system with manual switchboards, we had to 4 1/2 hours to get an answer, which, of course, was at a wrong number. When telling the clerk, she called the public switchboard again, ordering them to call again. This time it took only 3 hours to get connected.
The guy at the NAA gave me a phone number to their Polish counterpart in Warszawa. I explained my problem to a very helpful lady, Elzbieta, and she said she would contact their nearest garage to send me a mechanic. It lasted some hours before he arrived, and after a short check of the car, he said that the diesel pump was gone.
After a new talk with Elzbieta, we decided to tow the car to Poznań the next day, where the nearest Toyota garage was
We arrived outside the garage in Poznań late in the evening in heavy rain. The driver told us to wait, and left. He was gone about 1 1/2 hours, and we wondered where he was. Finally he came back and told me to follow him through several streets. It turned out that, since he only spoke Polish, which I didn't, he had searched for someone speaking German, and took me to their house to explain through them what was to happen next.
After working at the car for 2 hours the mechanic declared that the diesel pump was OK, but the glow plugs were gone. This, of course, led to a new phone to Elzbieta, to inform her of the situation. After a while she called back, informing us that the nearest place to get glow plugs was Brussels, Belgium, and it would take 2 to 3 days to get them to Poznań.
This resulted in growing despair, since we had a ferry from Denmark to Norway to catch in a few days. However, the mechanic ment that he was able to get the engine started, but then I would have to let it run until I reached Berlin. After another hour working we pushed the car downhill to get it started, and set off towards Berlin.