8 January, 2000
Today, Mary (the other English teacher) and I took a day trip. It turned out to be shorter than we thought it would be. Our original plan was to go from Mragowo to Wegorzewo, Reszel, and then back home, as we wanted to see the castles in both of those places. However, when traveling independently, not everything goes as planned. Read on.
We met at the PKS (bus) station at 8h on this cloudy, foggy and cold day, and went to purchase tickets. We found out that the 8:20 bus we wanted only runs weekdays. So, we decided to reverse our plan and take the 8:40 (6.30zl, 36km) bus to Reszel, from there, we would go to Ketrzyn, and catch one of the many busses to Wegorzewo.
On the way, the bus passed an older man and lady on a horse drawn cart (the cart was so simple that it reminded me of something from the Flinstones era). Some people really do still get around that way here.
We arrived at 9:30am and disembarked the bus at the first Rezsel stop. We should have stayed on until the second one, as that would have put us closer to the Centrum (town center), however, in some small town like this, sometimes there is only one stop, so we didn’t know if there would even be a second stop.
I am glad that we did get off at that stop, as it gave us a chance to walk through the quaint little hamlet. We walked up and down the curving, hilly roads, about 2km, to the Centrum. On the way, we passed a (real) blacksmith shop, with the blacksmith inside creating something (we saw inside the shop as we passed; the fire was going and he was banging on some metal to bend it into shape). We both liked that a lot, as blacksmiths are an "endangered species". That art is dying out in the western world (the only blacksmith I have ever seen is at a show or fair). This was a real live blacksmith in his shed doing his trade! If my Polish was better, we probably would have asked if we could’ve watched him for a bit. I began to wonder of all the other great things that happen in this town (and country) that I would never be able to witness. What a magical place Poland is.
Reszel is a small place. It has a small Rynek (town square) and, as with many towns in Poland, has cobblestone roads. It’s one of those places that, if there wasn’t a castle, would have just been a spot on the road, and I would have never visited.
We walked through the Rynek and approached the old 14th century gothic church. An absolutely beautiful structure. We didn’t go in, as it appeared not to be open. Instead, we walked towards the castle, which is on a (snow-covered) bank, overlooking a small river. It is all brick and has a round tower. A quite impressive place. We arrived there before the museum that it houses opened (it was suppose to open at 10h), so we walked around it and explored. We also went inside the open courtyard, which houses a well. As we were walking out of the courtyard, a lady came in. We asked her if the museum was open, and it turns out that she was the lady that ran it. She went inside and opened it up (it was now 10:20) - this seems to be a trend in Poland).
I had read in my guidebook that the inside of the castle was now an art museum, but mainly wanted to go in with hopes that they left the interior of the castle original. Also, it only cost 2zl (we each received a 1zl discount with my ITIC card). There were a few different exhibitions going on. On the ground floor was a kind of creepy, eerie one called Mystery of Time. We went upstairs and saw a couple others. All of the exhibitions were excellent, but we were disappointed that they had not left the interior as it should be, but had given it an "art museum" kind of feel with wood floors and white wall.
After admiring the works for a while, we purchased postcards (0.50zl each), left, and headed to the Centrum PKS station. We waited about 20 minutes and then the 11:10 bus to Ketrzyn picked us up (2.5zl, 22km). It took us past Swieta Lipka (see 27 November write-up) and on to Ketrzyn, arriving at 11:40. Once in Ketrzyn, we found that the next bus to Wegorzewo left at 13:10, which gave us 1-½ hours to kill. We wandered around Ketrzyn looking for a place to sit and have a cup of tea (and stay warm, the temperature was –3C (24F)), however, not a place was to be found. The only place I knew of didn’t open until 13h. So, we ended up going to the Super Market to purchase a snack and eating it inside the PKP (train) station, which is adjacent to the PKS station.
13:10 came, and a bus to Mragowo pulled up. We looked again at the board that lists the times and destinations again and realized that there was no 13:10 bus to where we wanted to go (there was a slight language barrier that prevented us from realizing this earlier…(translation…I can speak Polish better than I can read it)). Since the option was (barely) still there, we hopped on the Mragowo bus (28km 5.10zl) and came home (arriving at 13:55). So much for the big day trip. We arrived back about 4 hours earlier than we thought that we would, alas, we decided to walk around Mragowo. I attempted to help Mary out by showing her around, as she had not yet had much of a chance to explore our town. Finally, we had a tea, then went to our flats. We didn’t get to do all the things we planned on doing, but the day was still a lot of fun with what we did get to do, and also the good conversation. All in all, as the saying goes, it was "Just another beautiful day in paradise."
