Journey into the past

What to do on a soggy day in a city with a toddler? Well, there are a couple of possibilities, today we're testing one of them. We visited The Museum of Technology and Transport in Szczecin. This lovely museum has been put together in an old depot which only adds the charm to it. You can really travel into the past - most of those rarities I can't remember. But I know them from movies and legend stories so it was educational even for me. I don't look back with emotion to the old times so for me it was only educational, but I imagine that for elderly people it might be quite a touch of tenderness to see all of that.

Orienteering event in Puszcza Bukowa

My desire to be in the bosom of nature didn't stop with us coming back to Poland. Sure, this has been a hectic time for us with the move and me starting working full-time, but these are the days like this one that keep me going. Our friends Magda and Michał are frequent contestants of orienteering events and I always wanted to join them on a trail. So yet another "to-do" thing to be crossed out :) Theoretically it was only a 10 km route, however you needed to double it to get to the starting point and came back to the car. So all in all we closed this soggy but rain-free day with ~22 km.

 

The start was at the Lion's Mouth fire place in Bukowa Forest. I really intend to get to know this forest better. It's close to us, vast and beautiful. And the names of the places are so funny. I have to say, the organizers did a great job. There was a fire place, maps, 10 orienteering points to be found and lovely prizes for everybody who attended. I was very excited to be taking part in this event.

 

Group photo credit: Arek Arecki

The route was very pleasant and the points were really easy to find. We struggled only once (which actually cost us the place on the podium but I'll come to this later). I had so much fun on the trail, it was pure pleasure to me. Have a look at the photos from the contest.

Radek and I finished fourth. The first two places were taken by runners and we lost by seconds with a third couple. Radek was pouting a bit because we decided to run the very last part and I slowed him down with my turtle pace. And I didn't let him leave me :) Well, you decided what's better - winning a podium place or being a decent husband :)

We will sure be back the next year!

Seagulls in Międzyzdroje

I don't remember having such beautiful autumn in Poland. It's absolutely outstanding! I guess global warming is getting us faster than we think. Anyway, I can't complain. I simply love it and it made my return to our home country way easier. We also try to benefit from it as much as we can, so we made our way to the seaside. Many people think Szczecin is at the seaside. It's not :) But it's not that far and Baltic sea makes a perfect one-day destination for us.

Międzyzdroje is kind of a celebrities' resort at our shore line. Of course - polish standards :) Off the season it is reasonably calmer, a bit less tacky but still full of life which is good (especially if you travel with children). So we made a walk around but our obvious destination was the seaside.

The shore was surprisingly calm. We didn't walk too much, we just laid down on the sand, enjoyed the sunshine, built sand castles and played by the water. Oh, and we watched the seagulls. We finished the day with a stroll on the famous jetty and fish and chips. Kids loved it!