Tag Archives: Bydgoszcz

New Year…..New Beginning…..I am not ready.

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

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On New Year’s Eve 2015, my husband and I loaded up our 7 suitcases and checked in at the airport in Warsaw, Poland to begin our trip back to the United States. img_8589 2016 was a new beginning….back in our own house, with a new job for my husband, a possible new job for me and a boatload of memories, travel and friendships to look back on and blog about.  (Read about that here This Is A Test)

Reflecting back on 2016, I can say that right now it seems like it flew by…..but in reality, there were times when it just dragged on and on and on.  Continue reading →

Checking Out Churches

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

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All you have to do it wander down the street, take a few wrong turns on your way to a market square that you haven’t been to before, with a friend who has been there but doesn’t quite remember where it is, and ta-da! You’ve walked by four churches you’ve never seen before.

The first one, I’ve driven by multiple times (ok, ridden by….David was driving), but it’s not readily apparent that it’s a church.  It’s the local Mormon church and it’s neatly tucked in-between some other buildings. IMG_6457 Continue reading →

A Walk in the Park

03 Tuesday Nov 2015

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Today was a very gray and dreary day in Bydgoszcz….it was foggy all day (the perfect day to stay in a do all the laundry that has piled up)….and also the perfect day to regress and go back to the sunny days in August…when I started writing this post about a park that had just re-opened.  So grab a cup of tea if it’s cold where you are and read on….

There are parks of all sizes scattered throughout Bydgoszcz.  It’s not uncommon to go for a walk and pass through a park with people sitting on benches enjoying the day, eating lunch, strolling with babies…just relaxing.  One of the parks had been undergoing a renovation and  re-opened the last week of August, so David and I decided to take an evening stroll to check it out.IMG_5076The park is called the Jan Kochanowski Park and is located in the “Music District” of Bydgoszcz.   Continue reading →

Driving on the River

29 Saturday Aug 2015

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Years ago Volkswagon used to air commercials for their VW Beetle saying that they would float in water.  One journalist tested that, sure in his thought that it was false advertising.  But as it turned out…the orginal Beetle did indeed float. vw-floating Of course you couldn’t DRIVE it in the water, but that’s beside the point.  Bydgoszcz DOES have “cars” that drive on the water and we took advantage of a few beautiful days to do a test drive.   Continue reading →

It’s Finally Happened…

28 Friday Aug 2015

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Yep, It’s finally happened.  I had to move to Poland for my dream to come true…but I finally live in a town with an IKEA!  Yes, I dream small, but it’s something.

When David first came here in January he told me that an IKEA was being built and that it would open sometime during the summer.  But it wasn’t until we were taking a quick tour of nearby Toruń, one of the oldest towns in Poland and the birthplace of astronomer Nicholaus Copernicus (a fun fact for you), that the dream became a reality.    We went to the middle of town – Square Rynek Nowomiejsk – and that is where I saw this.  A big banner advertising the opening of the IKEA in Bydgoszcz.IMG_3659 Continue reading →

Going to New Heights

23 Sunday Aug 2015

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IMG_4285 My nephew Drew Andrew came to visit us almost two weeks ago.  (I have to try and call him Andrew now though since he is grown up and a college graduate.)  But it’s probably not going to happen…sorry Drew!) He graduated from college this year and it was his present to himself to visit us in Bydgoszcz for a few days on his trip that took him through Reykjavik Iceland, Warsaw, a short train trip to Berlin and Gdansk. It was great to have a visitor….and someone to speak English to besides my husband.  Drew Andrew is an avid soccer player and fan and as luck would have it Zawisza Bydgoszcz, the 2014 Polish National champions, were playing a home game. Continue reading →

Riding Along….Singing a Song….

18 Tuesday Aug 2015

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There are lots of ways to get around when you live in the city.  Walking is the most obvious (and what we do ALOT!).  But when you don’t feel like walking or you walked to the mall, and all around the mall and now you’re tired and your feet hurt and you don’t want to carry the two bags of groceries slung over your shoulder for that 30 minute walk home, there are other options.  Like taking a tram ( I like to call them trolleys, because they remind me of the trolleys in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis)  Clang, clang, clang went the trolley…. Ding, ding, ding went the bell… (sorry, got carried away there for a minute).

Trams Continue reading →

Dirt and Soap

02 Sunday Aug 2015

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Soap MuseumThere are lots of museums in Bydgoszcz.  And lots of history.  But perhaps the most unusual is the Museum of Soap and History of Dirt.  The museum is the only one of its kind in Europe and is located in Old Town. From the outside it looks like a charming little shop….but inside is a whole world of soap and dirt.  A few Saturdays ago, David and I made the rounds of a few of the museums in town.  We tried to go to the Museum of Soap and Dirt.  It is listed as one of the “things to do”, but they didn’t have an English speaking tour guide on duty, so we scheduled a tour for the following day.  So on Sunday after church we headed over to see what we could learn about Soap and Dirt.  It was a nice little surprise to find out that we had our own private tour – probably because we were the only ones that didn’t speak Polish.  Continue reading →

Let’s Take a Walk (Part 2)

27 Monday Jul 2015

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Hope I didn’t leave you sitting too long!  You should be all rested up and ready to continue our walk.  If you had looked the other way up the street, you saw this. IMG_3915

Did you stop in at the café for a cool drink while you were waiting?  Hope you didn’t go to the Kantor….that’s a modern day “money changer”.  They will take your US dollars (or whatever kind of money you have) and exchange it for Polish zlotys. The exchange rates are usually higher, so hold on to your cash and look for an ATM machine.

But for now turn around, we are going to walk the other direction.  Up the street and just around the corner, we come to this: Continue reading →

Let’s Take a Walk (Part 1)

26 Sunday Jul 2015

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Walking is good exercise.  It’s also a good way to get to know where you live especially when you live “downtown” and right in the midst of everything. David and I do a lot of walking because who needs a car when you can walk or take one of the convenient trams.   Friday was a beautiful day here…the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the temperatures were in the 80’s with hardly any humidity….a perfect day.  I thought it would be nice to take you on a walk with me (through pictures) and see the sights near our flat.

IMG_3888 Continue reading →