18 December 1999
Olsztyn
Today I went to Olsztyn, the city closest to my town.
I worked until 12:15 and then caught a bus to Olszytn (8.30zl) at 12:47. If that strikes you as an odd time to catch a bus, well, it is. I was suppose to catch one at 13:05, however, a bus that was on it’s way from Gisycko to Olszytn stopped at the bus station in my town, so I decided to try to get on it. I showed my ticket to the driver, and he said something in Polish to me. I said (in English), "I don’t speak Polish", and he said "Dobshe", which means "Good", and motioned for me to take a seat. I don’t know if he just didn’t feel like trying to communicate with me and he let me on, or if I was actually able to get on that bus with that ticket, even though it specified the time of 13:05. Whatever it was, it worked. I arrived in Olsztyn at 13:58 (66km). I only had about 47 minutes left of daylight.
It was a nice ride past the lakes and through the rolling snow covered hills of my area. What a brilliant part of Poland this is.
The bus station is in the same building as and is connected to the train station. They are both about a 15-minute walk from the center of town. You can get a city bus ticket at one of the RUCH Kiosks outside of the stations, but I chose to walk. It was a nice walk to take on my first time there, but from now on, I will take a city bus.
The main reason I was going to Olszytn was to go to a store called EMPiK. It is a bookstore that has a good selection of English language materials. I was in heaven !!!
I found three magazines (The Economist (12zl !) and 2 different issues of Newsweek (6.50zl each) and two newspapers (The Warsaw Voice (7zl), The Weekly Telegraph (8.50zl) to purchase. I also found a different store with a smaller selection and found two more magazines (National Geographic (19.80zl !!!!) and The World of English (4.90zl)) and a map (5.80zl) of the region to buy. I know that the National Geographic was very expensive, but I was so happy to have access to media in English that I bought it anyway (plus, it had a big article on the Florida Keys in it). When I walked into the second store, I asked the lady behind the counter if she spoke English. I wasn’t expecting her to, as she was about 50 years old, and, usually the only chance you have of speaking English with someone in Poland is if they are young (and even then it is still a longshot), and to my surprise, she did. After she helped me find what I was looking for, I thanked her and also asked her where she learned English. She said that she studied it on her own in Poland and then spent 3 months in England to improve. She spoke quite well (I made sure I told her that). She inspired me to work harder at learning Polish. They also had postcards, but I didn’t buy any, as they were 0.80zl, and here in Mragowo, I can get them for 0.30zl
The next place I wanted to visit was the Stare Miasto (Old Town) and the Castle area. It was quite nice and really has the "old" felling about it. They also had Christmas lights and decorations all around the area. However, most of the old building now house modern stores. Oh well. I still like it. However, was dark, so I couldn’t take pictures. I will go back for that some day soon. Also, I found a CD in a small store called Rossmans for only 7.95zl that has 4 of Handel’s Concertos on it. Quite a good price.
Next, I found a place called Bar Staromiejski for a decent late lunch. I had the spaghetti bolonaise, and it only cost me 4zl !! It even tasted good! That place is what (loosely) translates to a "milk bar". Basically, the are kind of like a cafeteria style place, where you go up to the counter, order and pay, then go to your table until they call you up to get your meal. After the meal, you take your tray to an area designated for dirty dishes. They are all over Poland and were set up many many years ago to enable people on low wages to be able to afford an inexpensive meal. I had eaten at one in Warsaw, one in Gdansk and one in Krakow when I was in Poland last year. Other than the one in Krakow, they weren’t all that good. The ones in Olsztyn are very nice. They are set up like regular restaurants (with nice décor and have tablecloths) and even bring the meal to you and take away your dishes at the end ! I counted three of them in the Stare Miasto.
After that, I walked back to the bus station and caught the 16:45 bus back to Mragowo (8.30zl). We went through a few small towns along the way. There aren’t a lot of Christmas lights up, but there were some. I was glad to see them, as they break up the darkness of the Polish winters. We didn’t arrive until 18:15, but that was mainly because the roads had iced up even more and the driver had to go slower than usual. The bus did slip quite a bit even with the driver being very careful.
