Most of Szczecin was destroyed in the war, but the Embankment area was left, noone knows why but it has some beautiful buildings so it was very lucky that they survived. We were to this area for lunch and a look at the buildings, and then afterwards we went shopping. On Tuesday we had seen some very old-fashioned shops in the town of Goleniov, but here in the city there was a new modern shopping centre, like the MetroCentre only smaller.   Funnily enough,  I did a spot of shopping,  picking up some biscuits which Nat had recommended, and some other presents that had better remain secret for now.

After shopping it was time to return to Goleniov, and get ready for our farewell dinner. It was in a restaurant in Goleniov and we were the only people in there.  I am not sure if the restaurant doesn’t open during the week,  if it was quiet,  or if they knew we were coming and told the other people we would be too noisy. 

We had a great evening with lots of laughing, and we all tried some Vodka.   It was quite bittersweet as we were really having a laugh but we knew it was our last evening and we would have to say goodbye. The 2 Magdas had been brilliant hostesses, and we are really sad to leave them.   We also got to know more of the Slovaks today.  It has been more difficult as we have more of a language barrier, but we managed to bond by laughing at each other,  which is a universal language.

We are all really looking forward to meeting again when we host them in the UK.  I hope it will be as successful as Poland has been.

Magda and Magda, Dziekuje  

Today we were collected by coach for a trip to the seaside.   The baltic sea is about 2 hours drive north of here.  there were only 13 of us on a big coach so we had plenty of space!

We drove through forests and countryside,  we didnt really see many other towns on the way.  The town we visited, Miedzyzdroje, is a very popular seaside resort for German and Polish tourists,  although possibly not in November.

Our first stop was to look at a lake, and then we went for a walk through the forest to a small zoo where we saw some Bison, deer and other native animals.  Rob also found the worlds largest potato.  It was a nice walk through the woods but on the way back it started to rain,  and then it didn’t really stop the rest of the day.

After the walk,  we went down to the pier to have lunch.  The lunch area of the pier was inside,  so we sat and dried off while we had pizza or pasta.  I had a spaghetti carbonara which was lovely.   After a very relaxing lunch break we went out for a walk along the pier and beach.   it was a little damp….  and rather bracing….  but in a bizarre way it was kind of fun.  I think.   We walked all the way to the end of the pier, and felt rather proud of ourselves.  I honestly thought we were going to get blown off,  and insanity did cross my mind.

The Slovakians had never seen the sea before,  so they were really excited and collected pebbles and shells as we walked along the beach.     After our walk,  we were all rather wet but in good spirits

.

We got back onto the bus and drove about halfway back to Goleniow and then we stopped for a meal at a very traditional Polish restaurant. I had some Kielbasa and Pierogies and was quite happy. The restaurant was in a beautiful converted barn and was really warm and welcoming

From BERLIN

From Berlin and Poland Trip

At breakfast we met up with the teachers from the 3rd partnered school which is in the Slovakian Republic.  Three of them can speak English, but the other 2 cannot,  and obviously we aren’t so great at Slovakian!  But we all said hello and introduced ourselves.

Today was the official opening of the Comenius Meeting.   At 10 o’clock we were collected by 2 English teachers, Magda & Magda,  the headmaster of the school and also the owner of the school.  They took us to the school and we were taken into an Assembly.  The children were all there are very excited.   The hall had been decorated for the day,  and it was obviously an important event.

From Berlin and Poland Trip

They started assembly by singing the national anthem with great gusto,  I was really impressed with how well they all knew their anthem.  Then a school flag was brought in,  and the meeting was officially opened.  Their are 4 schools on the site,  with children ranging from 3 to early 20s,  but we are officially matched with the primary school,  so each class from the age of 6 to 13 did a song or talk to welcome us.  They were all in English,  from the youngest who sang the Hokey Cokey,  to the oldest who told us about their school,  city and country.

It was a really lovely event and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

After the Assembly we took a tour of the school visiting all of the classrooms and saying hello to the children,   it’s a brand new building and was very clean and bright.   At the end of the tour we were given a ‘pre-lunch’ of polish delicacies.  There were Pierogies,   bread & dripping,  a soup which we didn’t manage to determine what it was,  and lots of cakes.   It was really lovely and all made for us by the parents.

Magda & Magda, our 2 hosts,  took us out for a walking tour around Goleniov after lunch.  This town was part of Germany before WWII, but become Polish afterwards.   I was asking if that meant the grandparents were German but apparantly all the German people had to leave and the town was repopulated with Polish people.  

The town was quite badly damaged during the war,  so there are not many older buildings  but we did see some beautiful older buildings on our tour,  as well as lots of flats. However,  even the flats looked nice as they had all been painted in pretty colours,  rather than the grey that I would have expected.

From Berlin and Poland Trip

We walked around Goleniov for a couple of hours,  and took a look in a household shop.  I wish i had taken a photo in the shop,  it was very different to our shops (although it was pointed out it wasn’t that different from Maughns in Whitley Bay).  The prices weren’t particularly cheap though,  we had all been expected prices in Poland to be very very cheap but they are quite similar to at home.

After our tour,  we went back to school for another lunch.  This was in the school cafeteria which was absolutely tiny.  We were really shocked ot hear that 120 children had a hot meal in the cafeteria every day.   It was a very small room that had many 6 tables in it,  I think possibly 25 children could have sat down at once,  so they had to eat in shifts.

Lunch was soup,  followed by pork and chips.  The pork was rolled up and wrapped in bacon.  It was really nice.

We had the afternoon free  and then we met up again in the evening for a meal.  It was quite challenging trying to work out what we were ordering as the menu was only in Polish,  but I ended up with a Chicken Kiev which was really nice.  We walked along to the pub after dinner and played some pool and drank a few beers,  just for the cultural experience you understand….