Today was.....

Interesting. So I skipped like a week of our Road-trip (whoops) but we have been having so much fun and are so exhausted by the end of the day that there just isn't any time to write anything. But this afternoon was to great to not write a quick post about. I should probably back up to this morning. We have been in Macedonia the past 2 days and made our way to Albania this afternoon.  

This morning we drove to the big lake that connects the borders of Macedonia to Albania. As we got to the beach I realized that it was a swimming beach and my swimsuits were all packed at the bottom of my bag that has been packed Tetris style and takes about 10 minutes to close every morning. So since I was being extremely lazy there was no swimming for me, but after stepping out of the car I was completely okay with that. The place, although it was beautiful, reminded me of a stinky bathroom in China. I don't really know why, but I think it may have been all of the people and trash around, or that the bathrooms were big and stinky to begin with. The beach that we picked was also a campsite/super crappy trailer park, which had cars, people, tents, trash, and old trailers thrown about the area. I was completely satisfied with sleeping on our wonderful Picnic mat. After the rest of the gang jumped in and out of the water for a while we decided it was time to get some lunch seeing that it was almost 3 pm and hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. 

After lunch we stared on our drive to Albania. The drive from the lake to our hotel was suppose to be around 2 1/2 hours so we set off. After about 30 minutes we made it to the border. Border crossings have started to become one of my favorite part of the trip. Something funny or unique always ends up happening and I also get another stamp in my passport. We waited in line at the Macedonia gate and after finally pulling up and waiting for a few minutes with nothing happening Alex got out of the car with our passports and went to the police office. Typically thy take a look at out passports and vehicles registration. Sometimes the give us a fine or make us pay a tax to leave the country, but Macedonia was different. He walked up to the border patrol and told them that we had 4 Poland citizens and one U.S. while trying to hand him all of our passports. He looked at the car and we all waved and he said something along the lines of "okay, you can go." A little shocked but excited that our wait time was cut down we drove around the corner to get into Albania. 

We heard that it is difficult to get into Albania. You need extra paperwork and sometimes it takes a long time. We waited in line watching as people in cars unpack their trunks with police men watching, then it was finally our turn. We rolled up to the window with big smiles on all of our faces looking at the officer. After a few minutes he waved us through. It was easy. I grabbed my passport to look at my cool new stamp from Albania and gasped. He didn't stamp it. There was no way that I was going into a country that I would probably never travel to again and not have proof. I yelled out and Alex stopped the car and I got out and ran back to the border. 

When I got back to the window I put on my biggest smile and explained to the 4 officers that were standing there that I really wanted a stamp. They agreed and gave me some big creepy smiles back asking where I was from. I exclaimed that I'm a California girl and they all got so excited that I was from probably one of the few places they know in America... A little overly excited but I wasn't going to ask questions. I smiled some more and finally got my passport back with a stamp from the Albanian border. 

After getting everyone situated in the car we were off. We started driving down a well paved road, completely unexpected in such a rural country, and did switchbacks down the mountain. Unfortunately as soon as we left, we got stuck behind a truck pulling a trailer, so Alex passed it. One minute later a women police office pulled us over. We had made it almost 3,000 Kilometers without being pulled over and 2 minutes into the country and they got us. We pulled over not knowing what was in store. Apparently you aren't allowed to pass super slow cars on switchbacks down mountains in Albania. Who knew?! At first it seemed that we were going to have to pay to get out of the situation... Then she asked where we were from and Alex told her explaining that we were tourists from Poland and America. She looked at all of us squished and tired in the backseat. I grabbed the kids hands and we started waving. We had big smiles on and did the biggest and happiest waves from the whole car. She gave us back our papers and told us that we had a beautiful family and could go as long as we didn't pass anymore cars. Excited, we drove off. A few minutes later we got to the slow truck pulling the trailer again. After contemplating and looking around for police cars we quickly passed. A second later a police car, which came out of nowhere turned on its lights. We all held our breath for a minute as Alex started slowing down, and a
second later it zoomed passed us. We decided our one run in with the police was enough for the whole trip. 

We finally pulled up to the hotel after 4 1/2 hours of driving through the crazy highways in Albania. Complete with 45 minutes of the freeway being gravel rocks, potholes the size of a small car and a beautiful sunset.  Our hotel greeted us with happy faces and yummy food so it was the perfect ending to a great day! 

A Roadtrip for the books

I have now been with my Poland family for a little less then a month, and it has been a roller coaster to say the least. After hanging out with the kids and exploring Warsaw for a week we loaded all 5 of us (including 2 car seats with me squished between them) and left for a month long road trip around the Balkans. I have been on some great road trips with friends during college, but driving for hours and hours and hours with 2 kids in foreign rural countries where you cross the border and have sex trafficking signs all over is completely different. 

Our first stop: Romania. We drove for what seemed like hours and final made it to the Romanian border the first night. At the border they  decided they needed to hold onto my passport for a long time. It is interesting because at a all the borders they take my passport for however long they want to have it and barely glance at the families European passports. We finally made it to our first stop for the night and passed out from exhaustion. We spent a total of 6 nights in Romania. Though I should have been writing ever little detail down, I didn't so I'm just going to write down a few of my favorite parts. Every day we traveled to a new city to spend time looking at all of the old towns, churches, Gypsies, landmarks, and sometimes yummy, often times not very good, foods that Romania has to offer.

One of the best parts about our drives have been the rows and rows of Sunflowers that seem like they go on for miles. Every time we passed a field full of them I can't help but smile. It seems like we end up spending most of our time in the car during this road trip, but We have found ways to have fun... Oh like having Maks throw up a couple times from eating to much and the whole car getting motion sickness except for Alex who is driving up and down windy roads like a maniac. But honestly it has mostly been good. When the kids are asleep we put on a audio book, but most of the time we just sing songs, dance, eat pretzels, and play a game of who can spot the stork nests first. 

The first town we went site seeing in was Spanta and saw the amazing artwork on the Merry Cemetery. While driving through we also stopped at an old Village Museum. Apparently these type of museums are really popular in Europe, they are a village where they bring all of the old country houses that they could find to one place and made a town with them. Featuring all of the old tools, barns, and the simple way of life. It was fun for the kids to run around. 

The next day we went on a very long train ride through the mountains. We thought we were getting the best deal because when we got there there was a cart that was completely empty, but then after sitting around for an hour we learned that our train was going to be the slowest. We were suppose to leave around 9, but didn't end up leaving until 10:45. It was pure beauty riding around and through the valley, but after 2 hours we were all hot and tired. We ended up getting to the top and jumping on a different train to ride home in 1/3 the time it took to get there, but we still did not end up getting back until 16:00. 

That night we went to the beautiful town of Sighisoara for a medieval festival. We slept in a AirB&B right next to the main town square so we were blessed with the Irish/polish/Bulgarian folk bands jamming until late at night. The music was awesome!!!!!! We spent the whole next day around the town watching sword fighting, dancing and climbing the bell tower. 

Those first few days were my absolute favorite so far. We also traveled to Bucharest, which is Romania's capital, but there was nothing fun about it. The rest of the country was beautiful, filled with colorful buildings and happy people. Unfortunately Romania, like a lot of the countries over here, have been ruled by communism for a long time, so all of the building in the big cities are boring, old and look very dirty. Though times have changed it has still taken them a long time to get where they are now.

 

 

Riding on the train 

The Kajdy Family

 One of the beautiful churches

On top of the bell tower

At the Old Village Museum 

I made it to Poland

   For those of you who do not know, I am now officially an Au Pair (or nanny) for an awesome family right outside of Warsaw, Poland. Most people asked me why I decided on Poland, and it was easy for me. Obviously I love to travel and see all the tourist sites, but I love being in places that are off the path. Places that not very many tourists go... like Poland. I am living with a family in their home, eating their food, driving their car, going on all of their trips and hanging out with their children for the next few months. It's going to be an adventure to say the least.


   I have been in Poland for two weeks now, and it has been a blast! I got picked up at the airport by the Dad, Alex. He then drove me to the summer house, which reminds me of Sun Valley with tree’s, streams and the great outdoor with no shops or anything nearby. I stayed there for a week with Grandpa, Anna’s brother, Mickey, who is handicapped, and Maks, the five-year-old boy. Around 9 or 10 at night Grandma would come home from work and then leave again early in the morning. Our days consisted of taking walks, fishing, playing tag, eating a lot of yummy Polish food, reading books while Maks watched TV and sleeping. My first week in Poland was nice with relaxing while not doing much, but after a couple of days I was tired of being all cooped up in a house where the closest town is 15 minutes by car.
    On Tuesday afternoon, the whole family went to pick up Julie, the seven-year-old girl, from summer camp. She went to a performing arts camp and at the end they put together a show where they sang and danced a few songs and after we watched a few LONG movies that they put together over the week. Imagine watching six movies, which were all 10-14 minutes long, all in Polish that little kids created. It was great. But honestly they were done well, I was just bored by the end. After we packed up Julie and the car we drove to their house in Warsaw.
    I have been here for the past few days, and we have had a lot of fun. The kids are great and play well together until about 3 PM, when they start getting tired and annoyed of each other then are super cranky, and they fight and yell and scream and cry. I guess that’s kids though, right? It hard because I can adequately communicate with everyone in the family (even the extended family) except for Maks, so he starts to get annoyed with everyone speaking in English. I think that has been the biggest struggle for him so far, but we are working on having him learn English. My biggest struggle is when they all start speaking in Polish. Usually, they are just discussing things like parents or explaining to the kids what is going on, but every so often I hear my name being said or the few words that I know in Polish. I usually have NO idea what they are saying, but I know that it is about me. Sometimes they will translate it and other times I think they forget that I don’t know Polish. Everything about becoming an Au Pair is a learning experience.

me with the 2 kids, Julie and Maks.

We went sailing one day on the lake by the summer house

Fishing on the river with Grandpa and Maks

There are beautiful views everywhere here!

While we went on our daily walks at the summer house we became butterfly catchers.