Running errands in Gliwice

Imagine stepping into a tiny electronics workshop in a Polish city and being greeted by a large burly fellow with Semper Fidelis tattooed on his forearm. That happened to me as I tried to find a way to get my cell phone to function on a local network. I do think he spoke a little English but fortunately Aneta was with me to explain my mission. He checked out the phone and suggested we go find a T-Mobile store and get a Sim card for it that would work locally and internationally. He refused payment for his service and smiled broadly at me when I said, "Jin couya" (my version of phoneticic Polish for "thank-you.")

Then we were off to find the T-Mobile store on the main street of Gliwice. On the way we stopped at Aneta's bank and I deposited my money in her account for safekeeping. Then we went to an ATM and withdrew cash in Zlotys so I would have some usable currency. Our next stop was T-Mobile, which is brand new in Poland. I was successful in my mission and now have a sim Card that will let me call internationally for 2.45 zlotys a minute (about $1 us)and 30 Grozny per minute throughout Europe (about 10 cents us). And, if I can find any, I can call any other T-Mobile customer in Europe and talk for 2,000 minutes for 9 zlotys a week! As anyone who knows me well knows, I dislike talking on the phone so that isn't likely to happen!

Aneta took me to lunch at The Golden Donkey, a vegetarian restaurant she had heard about and wanted to try. The food was superb and we filled right up on Lasagna and three salads. We capped our lunch with a delicious cup of coffee complete with steamed milk foam on top and raw sugar to take the bite out.

Then we were off to collect Aneta's daughter Ania from her Bopsha's flat. Ania fell asleep as soon as we put her in the car and had a nice nap before Aneta woke her for her swimming lesson. I was supposed to join her today at swimming but my back hurt so badly by the time we got back to the flat that I opted to take a muscle relaxant and stay home.

Tonight Kojak will come for a visit and tomorrow Witek's parents are coming over for lunch. They speak exactly no English and I speak the same amount of Polish so that should be Fun. The baby I get along with just fine - she uses grunts and sign language and I'm pretty good at figuring out what she is saying.

Tomorrow I hope my back is more improved than it was today. Today was much better than yesterday though so I am not complaining.

The weather has been disappointing with rain the past two days and predicted to stay this way until the weekend.

So long for now.
Linda