Our trip to Grajewo came to an end, for now. We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving there but it was time to pack-up and drive back to Tarnów. The one difference on this drive home was that we had company. We convinced Marzena to take a few days off to visit us, relax and check out our freshly renovated condo. She hasn’t been away from her home for more than a day in probably two decades. The six-hour drive was mostly uneventful, going through Warsaw towards Kraków and then finally making our way to Tarnów. We did make a pit stop in Grójec, just outside of Warsaw to visit Sylwia and Jacek, relatives on Marzena’s side of the family. It was a relatively short visit but we managed to stretch our legs, stuff our bellies with pizza and sushi and the kids played with Lucky the Beagle. By the time we hit the road again it was dark.
Sylwia and the kids visited Santa while Marzena and I enjoyed some American style BBQ at the “Crazy Pig”. The next day we explored Tarnów for a bit before grabbing a bite to eat at “Pyza”, a Polish pierogi restaurant. After that we called it a night.
That evening Sylwia’s aunt Gosia came over to babysit the kids for a few hours as we had a comedy show to catch. The “Please, Stand Up! Comedy tour was in full swing and they were in Tarnow that weekend. Good thing we booked tickets well in advance because the arena was packed. The other fortunate part was that the Arena “Jaskółka” is just a 5-minute walk from our condo. There were cars parked everywhere imaginable. It was a zoo, but lucky for us, we were on foot. The main comedian, Łukasz “Lotek” Lodkowski is actually a distant relative of mine, as I recently found out. My grandma and his grandpa are siblings. I vaguely remember visiting them in Warsaw back in the 80’s when we were both little kids. He was probably only an infant at that time though. Family or not, it was nice to get a good laugh. We sat fairly close to the stage as I was hoping to get his attention and let him know that we are distant cousins. Fortunately for me it didn’t work because I’m certain that I would have been the center of one or more of his jokes that night. Overall, all of the comedians were witty and made us laugh throughout the evening. The show was a blast. Even Joanna Jędrzejczyk, a UFC fighter turned comedian was also there doing her skit. Believe it or not, she was quite funny.
On Sunday, we booked Marzena a nice little condo near the center of Kraków within a short five-minute walk to the train station. The plan for the day was to drive to Kraków, explore the city a bit and say our goodbyes to Marzena who was spending the night there so that she could catch the 5 am train to Grajewo the following morning. We could tell that she was aching to head back home. “You don’t transplant an old tree” she told us. Nevertheless, we were happy that she at least spent a few days with us. Downtown Kraków was a zoo, packed with people everywhere. We walked around, enjoyed a bit of street food in the main square, drank some “Pijana Wiśnia” hot wine and hit up a small local restaurant as well. It was also nice to see the Christmas lights and all of the décor in full effect during the evening. We checked out Marzena’s condo and said our goodbyes. Our first official overnight visitor at the condo was in the books.
