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It seems like such a long time ago, Jowita and I settled in for a nights sleep off [ ] on the bank or a fast moving river in Albania. We prepared our tent on the moss strewn beach, built a fire and prepared some tea for what would be the moment i had been anxiously waiting for for the months leading up to this spot. My strategy was simple – “Jowita, we have come a long way together on this journey, but I can not go any further without asking you to be my wife.” I dropped to one knee and asked her to marry me and she agreed.
Nearly two years later, Jowita and I will be receiving the sacrament of marriage on Aug 20th, the year 2011 at Our Lady Mother of the Church Polish Mission in Willow Springs, IL at 3pm.
Following the ceremony, we will launch a bicycle procession from the church, through the town of Willow Springs to arrive at the Royalty West Banquet Hall. Everyone is invited to bring their bicycle and celebrate with us through the machine that has played such an important role in both of our lives.
Please check back to this blog for more details as our special day draws closer. For those of you interested in our registry information we have a mix of traditional and contemporary. You can find more information about all of our options at our official Honeymoon registry page here.
We are so excited for this day and hope you will be able to join us!
Much Love – Jowita and Chad
Fresh with the excitement of the previous nights affirmed commitment to adventure into the unknown together, we could not be intimidated by the sounds of the strong downpour pummeling our tent fly. We quickly, and excitedly accepted that we would not be moving anywhere far today. No, it was a rainy day, and what better to do than spend a rainy day in bed.
Chad prepared the camp for a day of rain. The tarp, that many people thought was an excessive addition to our packing list, made its value as strong as gold as the vestibule to our tent grew from its normal state of eight square feet to nearly eighty, complete with a campfire and a view of the rising river.
Home
We said it before, Vienna ate us alive upon our arrival. We arrived to the Danube without accommodation. It took a few minutes of laziness by the river to discover the missed messages on our phone from Jowita’s sister-in-law, Beata, announcing our shelter for the next couple days with Herr Franz and Frau Hermina south of Vienna in Weiner Neudorf. Beata had met Franz on a train in Poland when he leaned over to tell her that she reminded him of a love he was separated from during the war.
Franz is 83 and Hermina, on Monday the 28th, 75. We showed up at their door, one day late, catching them totally of guard. Navigating Vienna was a nightmare on a bicycle. It took us three hours and three scoops of melting ice cream a piece to find the tourist information center to get a bicycle map of the city and a better tourist map. It was clear that there was no chance we would be making it to Weiner Neudorf that day and we pretty much gavc up on the idea of going to meet Beata’s friend. We criss crossed the hostel scene trying to find a place to sleep while mulling over our plans for the next day. We had agreed, seeing Vienna with our loaded bicycles is not going to work and we would leave Vienna the next day to take our scheduled rest day in Krems, further west on our route along the Danube. We finally found a place to sleep, and after releasing the weight of our load literally, and figuratively, we thought over our plan with more clarity. Plain and simple, we had been feeling rushed. We had only planned for two nights in Vienna and did not want to have to spend both in a pension or a hostel. One night with authentic Austrians would not be sufficient especially if it took one day to get there.
Franz and Hermina’s home in Weiner Neudorf was quite far off our route to Krems, but Krems put us into a path that would take us dead on into the Alps. This was not going to work for us. Chad had worked the route and rough schedule to allow for 60-70 km days in the mountains and we have found our limit sits somewhere around that even on flat land. We needed to make some changes. This was the right decision to make. The planned route was too constricting and produced an anxiety that should not exist on a trip like this. We woke the next day, bought some more maps and rode the 40km to knock on Franz and Hermina’s door hoping they were home and hoping they would take us in for a couple nights. What a wonderful decision it was. We had a really special experience with Franz and Hermina. Despite our inability to speak German and theirs to speak English, we managed to keep good conversation using Polish and some Russian to move us through our thoughts. We left Franz and Hermina and began heading south without knowing our exact destination, only knowing we are headed for Slovenia. We bought really excellent maps of the vast trail network in this region of Austria and are camping along the way. We are very happy with out descision.
Hermina is a remarkably beautiful woman. We wish her a Very Very Happy 75th birthday! It just goes to show a common language is far from necessary to become good friends.
With the help of Jowita’s sister-in-law, Beata, We found Franz and Hermina. We are so glad we did. Thank you Franz and Hermina for such a wonderful time and such wonderful hospitality!
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- Franz and Hermina Each have their own Digital Cameras
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- Jowita with Franz and his 20+yr old cacti
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- New friends
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- The Happy Couple
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- Hermina hand makes the sewn frames
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- Franz and Hermina don’t have a car and both ride their bikes to get around
Wow, Tereza has given us a truly wonderful first experience with Couchsurfing.com. We cooked together, she gave us an internet connection at her University’s Library and gave us a nice bed in her Grandparent’s incredible apartment near the center of Olomouc. We wish we had snapped a photo of the apartment. It contained an incredible collection of memories, and are very happy to have been able to look into a few.
The day has been long and we are finding ourselves growing a bit anxious again, knowing that we face anther big, departure day in the coming week. We will be leaving on Monday the 14th, and we keep having to remind ourselves of the loose ends that still remain whilst enjoying our time visiting family. The multiple departures comes with a sort of strange feeling. We left our friends and family in the States talking about our plans for the ride, then we departed and we still are talking about our plans for the ride. Its as if it is forever wrapped in words or talk of leaving. The gluttony and minimal exercise has not helped. Perhaps we will be able to get out for a nice ride tomorrow after we tweak our drivetrain to correct the kinks.
Today we woke early to catch the 7:14 train to Wroclaw and then the 13:50 bus to Jowita’s hometown Zabkowice. The layover gave us time for a cup of espresso we suspect was actually instant coffee, and a beer in the main square. The center of Wroclaw is unexpectedly beautiful — on par with Krakow — and the colors are pretty awesome, especially under clear blue skies. We got home after six hours of being in transit and a few of sightseeing, and Chad immediately got busy and built a house with Jowita’s brother Janusz, while Jowita did a little babysitting and rasberry picking.
Dobranoc
Chad and Jowita
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- Chad and Jowita In the Wroclaw main square
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- Wroclaw’s colorful square
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- Super serious about our beer!
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- Chad and Junusz conquer the communication barrier to build a house
Out the door early this morning brought us back to Ciocia Marysia’s home and this time she brought the bridge club and out to hunt we went. This crisp, dewy morning was spent in the forest foraging for our dinner’s main ingredient, the wild mushroom, and with the bridge club, we were in good hands. These jolly women knew how to hunt! What a delightful set of friends!
Chad and Ciocia Marysia headed out to hunt grzyby ('gje-by')
After Picking many mushrooms only to be told 'ne dobry", Chad finally found a good one
Cake and Compote Break
Our Treasure
Jowita and the Bridge Club heading towards the one o'clock mini bus
Ciocia Marysia and her rose bush backdrop
And in the Grzyby spirit, another Czech cartoon (Thanks Marysia for reminding us of Krecik!)
Wow. Plain and simple. Wow. Full can hardly describe us at this point, rather, ‘On the verge of exploding’ might do it. Our gastro-intestinal debauchery is putting our stomachs and digestive tracts to the test right now. If the two days of festivities surrounding Marcin (mar-cheen) and Gosia’s (go-sha’s) wedding did not leave us fat enough, today definetly did. We are like squirrels storing up for winter, or like two idiots getting ready to ride their bicycles for three months straight.
The wedding was beyond any of our expectations. It was elegant and straight-forward. Simple in its purpose, Extraordinary in its quantity and quality. Everyone was there to celebrate and celebrate we did. It was a night that seemed as though your stomach gave way to half a cow, one entire pig, two heads of cabbage, a barrel of pickles, a jar of lard with bacon, one whole cake, a bowl of fruit, another bowl of fruit but this one covered in chocolate, and two bottles of vodka. The wedding was executed with such precision that you never felt too drunk and never too full. The DJ was always on cue and took break at just the right night for everyone to refill their stomachs. The chronological break down of is impressive, starting at four:
Dinner; Vodka; Dancing; First supper; Vodka; Dancing; Cake; Vodka; Games and Dancing; Second supper; vodka; bouquet toss and dancing; Pig roast; Vodka; dancing; Soup; vodka; dancing; Croqueta (meat filled eggroll like dish) with beet soup; vodka; dancing ……….. and then we passed out who knows when.
The second day of celebrations began with ‘Swedish style’ Breakfast, ie, help yourself at the banquet hall and a stroll around town with the cousins. We then returned to the banquet hall where now the drink of choice was beer from the tap at the entrance of the hall. It didn’t take long for the beer to give way to more vodka once dinner was served. And then, you guessed it, more dancing! Chad was quickly a controlled, two sheets by the time it was ready for the two of us to make our way to the train station in Opole to Catch our train to Kreczowice (good luck with the pronouciation for all of you non-polish speakers) to visit Jowita’s three cousins, and her aunt.
We had a great, warm and sunny day today visiting with Jowita’s Ciocia (Aunt) and Wujek (Uncle) and their pretty goat. We ate a wild mushroom soup that was the best soup we can recall, cabbage rolls, drank fresh raspberry compote and Ciocia’s homemade raspberry vodka, fresh made goat cheese, and Chad even attempted, and failed to milk the goat, but Ciocia Marysia came to the rescue and we then drank it. We love fresh goat milk and we will surely have a goat of our own one of these days. We then met with the rest of Jowita’s cousins here, drank more coffee, drank some beer, went for the best ice cream and a walk in the park and then back to the house for kielbasa and more beer. Holy Crap!
Well Dobranoc, we need some shut eye as we must be at Ciocia Marysia’s house for breakfast before we head out to go mushroom picking at 7.
Chad and Jowita
Oh yes….a word of caution for those of you who might be sensitive to the sight of excessive carnivorism, the following photos are pretty excessive, and We must stress how important it is to eat meat in moderation and how important it is that you eat you vegetables, but this was a Polish wedding, and is hard to expect much less.
Marcin i Gosia tying the knot
Aurelia keeping the parents on their toes
The Meat Cart....the lard with bacon on the fresh bread was amazing!
This was sort of scary....yes those are giant sparklers
The full moon granted us permission to go pass out
A Hangover free stroll with the Cousins after breakfast
Bottoms up...again
The Wyszomirski Family
Chad with Aunt Marysia, drinking a glass of delicious, straight from the utter, goat milk.
Uncle Lubov and Goat
Really good Ice Cream with cousins, Ela, Basia, i Anya
