Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (part one)...

Under orders from tesciowa we made sure we booked flights early in 2009 so we could go to Katowice for Christmas. We bought them in March for £200. By October the same tickets were up to £500 - half the price they were in 2008 - and they stayed around this level. So why so expensive last year? Maybe the stories about lots of Poles returning home are true and easyJet are finding it more difficult to sell seats. I don't really care, we still got our flights at a good price and it was lovely to arrive in Kraków and hear the pilot say it was minus twelve degrees outside. The looks on the faces of the all-girls school choir were priceless, as was their disbelief when they were expected to cram, suitcases and all, on to the bus to the staion.

From tesciowa's flat on the tenth floor all was clear, crisp and white and we felt sure it would last until Christmas. This meant, unfortunately, that the game of mini-golf was out. Here is the course:

It's been a couple of years since we were here for Christmas dinner proper and I had forgotten just how much food you're expected to eat and enjoy. We had six courses: barszcz, pierogi, cabbage and mushrooms, pasta with poppy seeds, compote and one other I've forgotten. There was no way I could finish it all. This over-indulging continued for the next three days, with course after course being produced from a kitchen the size of a postage stamp. Every time one of the dogs moved there was a rush to see if they wanted to go out for a walk, to get abit of exercise to work off a few calories. At one point, even the dogs got fed up going out and refused to move from their comfy places. It was phenomenal and, at times, painful. It would've been nice to see more of Alicja and less of the food but...

This isn't Christmas dinner, this was the breakfast the day after...

Although Christmas Day in England was, I am told, white, there was no hint of snow in Poland. What there was disappeared along with the sub-zero temperatures and we basked in a balmy five degrees for the best part of a week. We went to Warsaw on the Sunday as we had bank stuff to do and on the Monday, as we tramped around from bank to town hall to court (doing what could and should be done far quicker and more easily online), we were constantly ploughing through snowflakes.

Although it had stopped for our journey back to Katowice, on the Wednesday morning when we got up to go to the airport, it had started again with a vengeance. We waited for the bus, which arrived on time, on this street, and there will be more about snowy roads in a later post.

We were in town on time, on the train on time, at the airport on time. The flight left on time. Compare this to the 6mm (half an inch in old money) of snow that fell the weekend we left which closed several airports for a couple of days, leaving many irate Poles stranded in the UK for Christmas. From what we saw on the television, they weren't impressed at having to spend their festive season stuck at an airport.

Finally, as we come from different cultures and celebrate Christmas in slightly different ways, we find we adopt certain characteristics from each other's culture. Being in Poland I embrace the quiet, family-orientated Christmas, where the emphasis is on a nice meal with close family. However, as I am English I take some of our traditions abroad. Normally this is just crackers for the table (the ones with hats, mottoes and crappy jokes) but this year Agnieszka made a traditional English Christmas cake, although she did substitute the 'dead flies' (currants, raisins and sultanas) for 'proper' fruit like figs, dates and cranberries. We took icing sugar and marzipan and decorated the cake while we were there.

With all belated best wishes for the Christmas season and good luck for the New Year 2010!

Wszystkiego najlepszego!