There are many great things about Couchsurfing, besides meeting some really great people, you get to have an experience with knowledge you can’t find in a travel book. Yeah, we visited the castle in Predjama along with the bus of American and then German tourists, but we also walked into a giant cave led by a local geologist who was taking samples of the water from the three rivers that ran through it. Our bicycles could not have taken us there, a bus could not have taken us there, only a Sara and Gandalf could take you there.

Chad, Tobias, sara, and Gandalf at Predjama Castle

Aqueduct runninfg out of the cave

Mist hovering above the river at cave mouth

Natural Bridge

The low river left furry rocks

Mouth of another cave

New friends, old cave

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!)

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