Photos From Poland

**scotthidley** · 03-09-2014, 10:15 PM

It's illegal in Germany to wash your car at your house. The car washes in Sweden also had a spray that smelled like pain thinner, it was used to remove the winter road salt / grime.

**95 Z/28 LT1** · 03-11-2014, 04:06 AM

The morning of our flight out to Poland, we were still packing our bags, and the photographer was supposed to show up to get photos of the place as we were putting our house up for sale later that day. We stayed in a hotel nearby the night before because the movers had already came and took all the furniture, etc.

My wife finished packing things up, and I started lugging trash out to the rental car (we sold the X5M and E63 a few days before). Maybe I was a hoarder, but in the few years we lived in this house, I had collected a ton of cardboard boxes, packing materials like bags of styrofoam peanuts and paper, etc. from stuff I had ordered and other stuff I didn't recycle or throw away. In fact, there was so much of this bulk material that we completely filled up a Chevy Traverse from top to bottom except for the front seats.

This meant we had to take a trip to a dumpster somewhere and unload it, and then get back to the house to load all our bags, then stop by the car storage place to set up a spot for the Camaro. We also had to stop to go in to the bank, and the post office...

Time was getting tight, and we knew of a dumpster not far from our place. As luck would have it, the dumpster was there and there was a guy in a garbage truck just pulling up to it to dump it when we arrived. I pulled up beside the guy and said "Can we PLEASE use this dumpster?" The guy said, "sure, no problem", so I pulled up beside it and started unloading the Traverse.

We filled that dumpster and it was starting to go over the lid. I was getting worried. The guy tapped the horn and said that he would dump it, and then we could put more in. He dumped it in the truck and I shit you not we filled it up completely again. Maybe he didn't realize it but that guy saved our ass. I gave him 20 bucks and thanked him profusely, he didn't want to take it so I forced him and explained that we were leaving the country, then we took off back in the Traverse to get our bags at the house.

We got home and I started loading the bags. 9 huge suitcases, 2 big rollaboard carry ons, each of us had our work bags packed to the brim, and we each had another bag - a large camera case and my wife had a huge purse bag.

We sprinted to the car storage place and took care of business, then to the post office and waited in line for what seemed forever to mail a package of stuff that didn't make the air shipment and wouldn't fit in the bags. I remember it weighed about 30 lbs and cost us $160... Then we hit up the bank by the airport and I pulled up to the curb at check in to unload all the crap. The one photo I regret not taking is all those bags and my wife - 8 months pregnant - standing out by the curb at the airport as I dropped off the rental. Trust me though, it was a huge amount of stuff and a really close call to get it all there on time.

After we got the bags checked in, it was easy. We took a few flights, PIA-ORD-FRA-KRK. Got to KRK and only 1 of our checked bags made it... They told us the stuff was held up in Frankfurt and would come in on the next flight in a couple hours. We had a couple people there to meet us, so we got our hugs, grabbed the rental and took what we had to the apartment, which was a 1 hour drive away.

We dropped the crap, turned and burned and arrived back at the airport. Flight was delayed by a couple hours. Went to a 'restaurant' at the airport and got something to eat. At this point we had been up for around 24 hours. My wife is so tough, she hung in there like a champ. Finally, the flight came in, they slid our bags through a slot in the wall which bypassed customs and we loaded it all and made the drive to the apartment again. Took everything home and got it lugged inside and up to the 5th floor. I slept well that night.

**motownrx7** · 03-11-2014, 08:34 AM

I remember when we came to USA 20 years ago now. Me, my sister, my mom and shit load of suitcases and bags filled with all our crap...I remember that as it was yesterday cause we were also up for seems like two days...Flew from Warsaw to Chicago, layover there for like 5 hours then off to the D. Experience of a lifetime coming from a tiny city in Poland to USA... Rest if history..

**Polak** · 03-11-2014, 08:25 PM

Zajebiste zdjecia pozdrowić rodaków. Anyways great pics. Takes me back home. Have not been back since 2002 thanks and keep posting.

**scotthidley** · 03-12-2014, 06:11 PM

I believe I used Fedex (went to a Mailboxes etc.) to ship some boxes back here when moving back from Sweden. The guy advised me and showed me it was much cheaper to ship 3 boxes at the same time rather than sending them seperately as I got a bundled rate. That saved me a good 4-600. Stuff adds up quickly, I'd been leaving 1-2 suitcases a year with my parents of stuff I was working on moving back. I ended up filling up half their closet and still brining 3-4 times the amount of luggage back as what I went there with. I also filled a V70 with stuff to move back to my wife's parents in Germany. It definitely pays to look over what you have each month or so and see if there's at least a small handful of things you could do without and to get rid of them.

**95 Z/28 LT1** · 03-23-2014, 04:44 AM

Don't ask me how, but here's a 'local' energy drink. Apparently this is quite popular as I see it sold everywhere. Tastes nearly identical to Red Bull.

They had a huge advertisement on a building at the airport last year. Who would have thought Tyson could make it in Poland?

A restaurant in Nowa Dęba near a supplier I have spent some time at. The place is really good, I'm going to need to buy some new clothes if I continue to eat here.

Military truck I saw outside.

I was visiting another supplier in Częstochowa and saw a glass factory run by Guardian. Here's a shot of the back side of the place from inside the industrial park.

It's a huge pile of glass out back.

**95 Z/28 LT1** · 03-23-2014, 04:45 AM

Spent some time in Krakow yesterday with a friend visiting from Japan. I took most of the photos with my Nikon but haven't pulled them out yet. For now here's the phone pics I shot.

St. Mary's Basilica, originally built in the early 13th century.

Wawel Castle.

Building 'downtown'.

Main market square and cloth hall.