Dublin to Warsaw

When I woke up during our descent into Dublin, I was greeted by a light tinkling of Irish music from nearby headphones. On the TV was the type of dancing that involves folding your arms and jumping up and down in boots. It felt like Ireland. Our late takeoff made for a tight transfer schedule. Being a lowly American, I had to stand in line to get my passport stamped while Dan waltzed through the EU citizen line, stopping only briefly to flash the outside of his French passport. The idea was that Dan would go and make sure that the plane didn’t take off without us. He was already through security when I arrived at the start of the line, where one of the employees informed me that I couldn’t get through security with those “tennis rackets” I was holding. I put up a rather weak fight and soon I was marching back down the stairs to check the rackets. Fortunately, the connection was not as tight as we originally thought and by the time I did get through security, we had time to stop at the Guinness store to pick up a gift for our Polish hosts. As it turns out, Dan had already picked up breakfast while he was waiting for me, and we sat down at our gate to enjoy a smoked salmon bagel. Dan ended up finishing mine; fish and cream cheese that early in the morning turned out to be too much for me. The flight to Warsaw went off without a hitch and we found ourselves trading Dollars for Zloty while waiting for our bags. Dan’s bag came and so did all the others, but our rackets did not. There were no Aer Lingus employees in sight so we sent the reconnaissance team (Dan) out to survey the area. I have no idea where he went, but he came back with the location of the oversized baggage area, where our rackets were waiting for us, all 140 ounces of them cowering next to some more appropriately categorized luggage.
Outside of the baggage claim, David, David’s mom and Bess were waiting for us. We sat briefly and drank some tea and soda before David’s mom drove us through Warsaw to the restaurant above the Jewish theater. On our way in we passed a painting of a Jewish money counter hung above the entrance; David’s mother pointed out that this was considered good luck and, indeed, during the rest of our stay in Poland we saw several more examples of this tradition. Many of David’s family members are involved in the Jewish theater of Warsaw. The food was delicious. After lunch, we made our way down through the theater to meet David’s grandfather. Along the way we passed throngs of young actors and actresses who were singing, dancing and, I’m sure, wondering what we were doing there. Eventually we made it to the back where David’s grandfather was about to sit down for lunch. When asked why he wasn’t going to eat in the restaurant, he said that he had eaten there a week ago and was still trying to digest the food. As it turns out, David is an excellent translator and having him around in Poland was invaluable. He was translating for us while he was discussing current events in the United States with his grandfather. Apparently there was some kind of ant invasion in Texas that made it into the international news. It is really a shame, David’s grandfather told us, not that ants are invading the United States, but that it isn’t possible to somehow steer them in the direction of the White House. We all had a good laugh.
From the restaurant, we drove towards a large park where David’s mother was going to drop us off. During the ride, David described the buildings around us. Warsaw was heavily damaged during World War II. As a result, it is very open but there is construction going on everywhere. We passed by the Central Anti-Corruption Office as David and Dan were discussing Poland’s political system. Irony prevailed in the case of Stock Exchange building, which, as it turns out, is in the same building as the former Communist Party headquarters. The discussion shifted to the difference between two-stroke and four-stroke engines and, thankfully, we arrived at the park only a few minutes later.
The Royal Gardens in Warsaw is an expansive park that is home to many monuments, fountains and little critters. The highlights of the park included Bess being courted by a particularly aggressive (and loud) peacock, Dan trying to negotiate the rental of a guided-tour tricycle, Bess being attacked by a red squirrel, Dan sneaking up on a deer, ridiculing Dan for suggesting that we were witnessing an Asian wedding and subsequently finding out that we were witnessing an Asian wedding. My favorite monument in the park was Chopin’s. We ended our visit with some apple pie at a nearby outdoor café where Bess tried and (inevitably) failed to explain her inexplicable dislike for fruit. David’s mother came and picked us up and took us to her house, which is about 20 kilometers south of Warsaw. It is a tall house with a brightly colored interior that is covered with family photos and paintings. Dan and I were given the fourth floor. Bess and David prepared some spaghetti and that was the end of a very long day. I was asleep for about two hours before I felt a large hand come down over my covers and all of the sudden I was losing a tug-of-war match to an unconscious Dan. He had fallen asleep on top of his own blanket, but I was in no position to reason with him. Dan was making a noise that was something like a squirrel call. I managed to yank my blanket away from him and he let go with a loud “Hey!” I was too tired to worry about what animal Dan might summon next, so I just went back to sleep.