Old Russian Palace

Congratulations!

Lily was baptized last week - she was beautiful! 

Desiree celebrates her FIRST birthday this weekend - she's a walking, talking wonder!

We are in the process of applying for our residency cards and need to visit various offices with an accumulating pile of paperwork. I am glad the Elders in the Mission Office help us with all of this, we would be lost without them.

The other morning we went with them to a government office in the metro (underground train) station downtown only to find that it did not open until noon. This gave us just over an hour to visit the Old Russian Palace in the center of the city. Many people consider it an eyesore in the middle of all of the modern skyscrapers, badly in need of renovations, which are expensive, but I find it fascinating.

Can you see us in the bottom left corner?

On our way to the front door

Is this line to get into the theater? Starszy i Siostra Roulstone with one of the office missionaries Starszy Baranowski, and few other 'friends'

We finally found the entrance. America seems to have found it, too.

Inside we met a group of students on tour; one of them proudly displaying the Polish flag - on his face :) He agreed to pose with a smile. He even said, "Ser!" (cheese)

We paid for a ticket to ride the elevator to the viewing deck near the top of the tower and then took a picture of the grounds where we started from:

If you look closely you can see a little red car parked at the left edge of the line of cars angle parked on the street in the top center of the picture. That's the one the office missionaries were driving us around in for the morning.

Can you see all of the red rooves in the distance? That is the 'Old Town' area where the old market, the Rynek, is that we toured a week earlier.

 

 

I am fascinated by the variety of architecture in the city. There are also large billboards and banners on the sides of many of the older buildings. Can you see the bright red lips on a billboard in the center of the bottom right photo above? 

I still haven't been able to get rid of that smudge on my lens :( 

Starszy R. in the center of the tower.

Our reward for getting this part of our residency application done - a visit to Amrit's Kebab - a 'must-do' when in Warszawa!

It has been a very busy two weeks with continuing our Polish language training, planning for a Young Adult Conference, getting to General Conference broadcasts, participating in our Senior Missionaries Conference followed by the missionary apartment inspections and 'transfers' which occur roughly every 9 weeks. We help with all of that. We are still trying to settle into all of our duties and routines and find our way around. I can't believe we've already been here over a month! Time flies when you're having fun.

Later this week I hope to post pictures of some of the wonderful people we've been getting to know here.

Hugs and Blessings to all of you. We know the Lord lives. He loves us and will give us aid in all we do as we strive to serve Him by caring for one another at home or abroad, for we are all brothers and sisters in the Family of God.

Tourists in 'Old Town' Warszawa (I)

Happy Birthday to Mike & Aaron and special congratulations to Robynn & Josh for their sealing in the temple on Friday!

We've had a busy couple of weeks. We attend a Single Adult Family Home Evening on Mondays, try to visit members of the branch on Tuesdays, teach an Advanced English class and then attend a Young Single Adult (YSA) Book of Mormon class on Wednesdays, participate in a Branch Missionary Training and then a Polish Language class on Thursdays and offer a Leadership Principles course on Fridays. Saturday is prep-day when we shop and clean and attend other Church activities as they are scheduled such as Relief Society/Priesthood or YSA activities. Of course on Sunday we attend our three hour block of Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Priesthood (for the men)/Relief Society (for the women).

During the day we study the Polish language, prepare lessons we have to teach and a meal for the YSA after Book of Mormon class on Wednesdays.

This Sunday Siostra Roulstone was called as Branch Music Assistant and the two of us were called as the Branch Youth Sunday School Teachers . We will have fun with both of these callings.

So, we are keeping busy!

But last Monday we took a 'cultural day' and visited the reconstruction of 'Old Town' Warszawa:

Entering 'Old Town'
Shops on the left, Zygmunt's Column in the center, Royal Palace on the right

Papa in front of old Royal Palace

Old Warszawa was flattened by bombing during World War II and the Polish have painstakingly reconstructed the whole area, it is amazing!

The streets are narrow, the arctitecture is fascinating and many of the walls are embellished with designs and sculpture:

 

(Can you find the 'Subway' restaurant sign?)

 

 

There are also both magical and mythical sites to visit:

Nana at the Wishing Bell

Papa with the Mermaid

You may even see a man in a gold robe walking across the Rynek!

There are fascinating historical sites:

The home of Madame Curie

The line marking the Warszawa Jewish Ghetto created in World War II

 

The old city gates and an archway on one of the streets

Papa buying postcards inside a souvenir shop

 

Papa before his treat - Papa with his 'gofry belgiesku' (Belgian waffle with whipped cream)

Papa after his treat with the 'football' stadium in the background

It was a cold and drizzly day, we'll have to come back when the sun is shining because there is so much more to see!

Next post - views from the Russian Palace of Science & Culture.

A Quick Tour of the Neighbourhood

Happy BIG THREE OH to Levi this week! And I hope Robynn doesn't 'pop' on her birthday, although at this point I'm sure she'd rather sooner than later :)

Spring is popping out all over here in Warszawa (Warshahvah = Warsaw), but these pictures were taken in the past two weeks when we had a bit of time to explore our neighbourhood:

Our apartment building from the ground up. Can you see Papa holding a red tulip?

We are in the apartment on the top left corner, facing the front, second floor down from the top. We have a glassed in patio facing the city center - fantastic view (you'll have to forgive the smudge on the lens):

The tallest building in the center back of the picture is a fascinating piece of architecture. We were able to get a closer shot of it from the 'Russian Palace' when we were downtown later in the week:

 

There it is behind us on the grounds of the Russian Palace and there it is from the viewing deck of the Russian Palace. There is a lot of amazing architecture here in Warszawa.

A couple of guys were hanging around at a building next door:

 

And a little further down the street is the television station:

Pretty neat looking building, eh? What does Papa have his foot on?

When we go for our walks we often have to share the sidewalks with parked cars. Parking is at a premium and everyone parks where they can:

 

 

Once we get past all of the cars we have to dodge the buses, trams & trains to get to the Poczta (Post Office)

 

Oh yeah, and the two-toned crows!

 

The grocery store, Carrefour, is on the ground floor of the mall. It's hard work trying to find what we need when it's all in different packages and a different language! My first major purchase using actual Polish złoty (zwoti) was a new jacket which I model in front of the fountain at the mall - all very chic, tak? (yes):

On the way back home we see a good example of the mix of new and old found everywhere in the city of Warszawa:

 

Old brick building in front of a new convenience store

Mixed in amongst the apartment blocks are blocks of family garden plots with flower gardens, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, grape vines, picnic shelters and garden sheds. We love walking past these on our way home from shopping. They are like a breath of fresh country air after rushing through the traffic.

 

There are lots of large billboards. Here are two from our street that you will recognize even if you don't read Polish:

 

We love getting to know our Polish neighbours. They seem to love it when we try to speak the language and are very helpful.

Watch for our next posting of a few tourist sites; Old Town Royal Castle, Rynek (market) & Palace of Science & Culture.