The Ladd Family: Stockholm Sweden - on the Baltic Cruise

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Stockholm Sweden - on the Baltic Cruise

Stockholm, on the eastern coast of Sweden represented a nice quiet entry point into our 2 week Baltic vacation. We joined the Johnson family at our hotel in the outskirts of the city, and then headed out by train/subway to explore the city. Our main goal was to do a brief boating excursion into the harbor. This was a wonderful way to see the city.

Walked through the old city.
Saw the old city fortress.
Watched the band play.
Went to the museum (Vasamuseets).
Had dinner at Friday's and wandered the city with the King's.

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Stunt Double

As we walk around Krakow or travel to other places, we will sometimes do a double take, thinking we've seen a friend. As it turns out, some of you have a double walking around Europe. These doubles may not be an idential twin, but the similarity is enough for them to be your stunt double. We'll keep adding names if see more of you walking around town.
So far, we've seen the following:

Liz Johnson (from the back) in Norway
Adam Pearle
Stacey Myers (at the Paris airport without Chloe and Charlie)
Bette Canelakes
Ellie Blackman
Sylvia Cohen (when she has very light highlights)
Mr. Pitillo
Rebecca Siegel

I need a 2 zloty coin!

The U.S. grocery stores could learn from their Polish counterparts when it comes to carts. Everyone always returns their carts to the bin, but you have to in order to get your coin back. When you arrive at the store, you must put a certain size coin in a slot on the cart in order to release the chain that ties the cart to the previous one. When you are done with the cart, you just push it back in line and use the device hanging from the chain on the previous cart to push your coin back out. you get your coin back but your cart is now locked to the one behind it. It's a fairly smart system to get people to return their carts to the correct place. It doesn't cost anything to use a cart because you get your money back. The problem would occur when I didn't have change or I didn't have the right size coin. AArrgh. Then, I got to have more conversations in Polish and sign language for "I need change...no, not that change...the change that fits the cart."

Valentine's Day or Walentynki

After the collapse of communisn and the opening of Poland's borders, Valentine's Day began to be celebrated in Poland. Technically, every day in Poland is a saint's day, but Saint Valentine has his day on February 14th, just as in America.

In Poland, Walentynki (pronounced Vahl-en-tin-kee) is the patron saint for those romantically in love and for the mentally ill. Yes, that is pretty funny.

Romantic Poles were very quick in adopting Valentines Day, but as a result, men in Poland are now "burdened" with two occasions to give their ladies gifts and flowers. The old custom of Women's Day (Dzien Kobiet) is still as popular as it used to be in communist times. It is celebrated on March the 8th of each year. On Women's Day however only the men give gifts and the women just receive the gifts. Women's Day isn't just a romantic holiday but is a national holiday to celebrate all women, whether they are 8 or 80 years old. Usually women in Poland will receive a flower (typically just one, not a dozen) not just from a husband or son, but from friends, classmates, work, etc.

NATO Afternoons

The kids got 1 day off from school because of snow, but my kids were also sent home early on Feb. 19th and 20th because of a NATO conference taking place in Krakow. The American Consulate sent an e-mail to US citizens in Krakow alerting us that several groups are planning demonstrations in the city of Krakow on February 18, 19 and 20th.

"Anarchist groups from across Europe are planning to gather in the main market square and in the vicinity of the Sheraton Hotel in protest against the planned NATO conference. Additional demonstrations are also planned in the vicinity of the Cracovia Hotel and Blonia Park. According to local police, no violence is expected but the crowds will be loud. We remind American citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. American citizens are therefore urged to avoid these areas of demonstrations, if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations."

The school wanted to make sure the kids were home before anything happened. As it turned out, we didn't witness any of the demonstrations and the only anarchist comments were from some kids objecting to parental authority. :)

Emergency Room Visit

I was hoping we could spend our entire time in Krakow without visiting the Children’s Hospital, but no such luck.

As you may know, Ariana had her ears pierced in Dallas during this last visit. I actually pushed up her 10th birthday present so we could have it done in Dallas and avoid complications. Ha! In February, Ariana remarked that her earrings seemed to be going back in her ears. I looked at her earrings and they did seem less prominent in her ears, but her ears weren’t infected or inflamed. I just cleaned them well and she went to sleep. The next day, Saturday, we went skiing with the ISK Ski Club. We had a great day on the slope…one very nice run. We had great weather, nice snow and fun friends to enjoy. All the kids had to wear ski helmets and luckily no one was injured skiing.

When we got home, Ariana ran in to say her earrings had disappeared. When I looked at her ears I realized that her earrings had been pushed back inside her ear lobes. The backs were still on but I couldn’t see any part of the studs she got as a starter set. We tried to push them back through, but we didn’t have any luck during the 5 minutes she let us touch her ears.

On Sunday morning, we made several phone calls including one to her pediatrician. He sent us to the Polish Children’s Hospital Emergency Room. Corey and I left in a taxi with Ariana. I made arrangements for a friend of mine to pick up Brody later for the brunch we were supposed to all be going to with the Sabre crowd. Luckily, I have 2 friends who have kindly tried out the hospital facilities before me. I had already heard stories that despite the 1950’s décor, the doctors and equipment are all modern and sophisticated.

We made it to the hospital, but then had the challenge of getting to the emergency room. My friend Sara had provided the Polish words for emergency room but when we got to that door it had a sign with Polish we didn’t know and arrows pointing to the front of the building. We went around to the front entrance and entered an empty lobby. On a Sunday, no one is in the information booth. We searched and found the Polish word for Emergency Room near a hallway and were able to make our way back to their registration deck.

The women behind the desk didn’t speak English but we could explain Ariana’s condition with hand signals and show her ears. The women did decide to get an interpreter in order to understand our insurance and how we were going to pay.

After being called in for an initial consult, they told us to wait for the surgeon. We were called later, but the first guy said he was an orthopedic surgeon and we’d have to wait for the surgeon on-call who would be there in 30 minutes.

When we got called in for that surgeon, he spoke excellent English. He looked at Ariana’s ears and then said, “Who’s fault is this?” At first I thought he might be asking how it happened, but then he said, “The parents. They are supposed to watch out over their children.” I wasn't really liking the guy at this point.

The surgeon gave her a shot of local anesthetic in both ears and then removed the earrings. He told us there was no sign of any inflammation or infection. Ariana had taken good care of her ears, but the earrings were too small. He commented that we should have taken them out, but we told him they were starter earrings that were supposed to be left in for 4 more weeks. He definitely thought they were too small for that. Maybe now he'll put the fault on Claire's at the mall. But for all the moms of girls, UWAGA- don't get the small starter earrings.

In the end, despite the comment, we received excellent medical care. We have to pay for our medical care all up front and then seek reimbursement from the insurance company. So what’s the cost for a visit to the emergency room with a procedure provided by a surgeon on Sunday with 2 shots of anesthetic given? 60 zloty…About $17. One of the things that is inexpensive in Poland is the medical care.

All is well now and Ariana is already looking foward to getting her ears pierced...again.

Mileage Comparison

We have compared the number of miles we traveled on our trips from Krakow to where those miles would take us from Dallas. If we had taken our trips in the US and traveled the same number of miles, we would have stayed in the US the whole time.

Krakow to Jerusalem, Israel (1492 miles) is the same distance as Dallas to San Francisco (1493 miles).

Krakow to Budapest , Hungary (182 miles) is the same distance as Dallas to Austin (181 miles)

Krakow to Vienna , Austria (213 miles) is a little less in distance than Dallas to Houston (224 miles)

Krakow to Prague , Czech Republic is about the same distance as Dallas to San Antonio (252 miles)

Krakow to Paris , France (787 miles) is about the same distance as Dallas to Chicago (798 miles)

Krakow to Barcelona , Spain (1061 miles) is the same distance as Dallas to Charlotte , NC (1060 miles)

Krakow to Cairo , Egypt (1516 miles) is a little less than Dallas to New York City (1560 miles)

Krakow to Gdansk (303 miles) is about the same distance as Dallas to Amarillo (333 miles)

Krakow to Athens, Greece (857 miles) is about the same distance as Dallas to Flagstaff, AZ (863 miles)

Mileage is in airline miles, or “as the crow flies.” Your individual mileage may vary. :)

Thanksgiving 2008

Poland does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but we did our best to bring the holiday to Krakow. I (Chris) have a cooking club with several other women from different countries. Teresa (another American) and I co-hosted cooking club on Thanksgiving Day. I didn't have to worry about what to do with the rest of the family as the kids were at school all day and Corey had to work as well. Luckily Teresa's husband is Polish so he was able to order a whole turkey, something you normally don't see at a Polish grocery store. Along with the turkey, we enjoyed mashed potatoes, carmelized sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli, pecan pie, apple pie and pumpkin pie. Afterwards, we felt the traditional bloating.
On Saturday, the entire family went to the Johnsons' house to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of the American Sabre families. In addition to eating all the traditional food, we were able to watch the Dallas Cowboy Thanksgiving football game which Tommy had recorded and played back on his sling box. That day (and every day) we are thankful for this experience in Krakow, thankful for our friends here, thankful for our friends and family back in the US, and on that particular day- thankful for the slingbox. :)

Halloween 2008

While Poland does not celebrate Halloween, we have found other ways to celebrate the holiday. The week before Halloween, the kids' school encouraged all the students to dress up one day for Spirit Week. (Not spirit as in ghosts, but spirit as in rah-rah, go team go.) The kids decided to go as spies. (see pics below). The week after Halloween, we went to an All-American Halloween Party at the Johnsons' house. That night Brody came as a baseball player and Ariana went as a cat. The kids got to trick-or-treat at the various doors in the house. Each parent had their appointed spot and we were well supplied with candy! Our Halloween may not have been on the right day, but we got to celebrate fully.

Past Affects the Present

We all know the past affects the present, but in Poland I have noticed an interesting modern day consequence to Poland’s history. According to my Polish teacher, Poland did not engage in the African slave trade like America and many other countries. In fact, one source I have read states that Poland outlawed slavery in the 1400’s. Over the centuries, Poland probably didn’t seem like the land of golden opportunity for African natives looking to voluntarily migrate, given the country’s continual skirmishes with its aggressive neighbors: Germany, Russia, Austria and Prussia. The country took a beating in World War I and World War II, only to find itself subjected to communism under the watchful eye of the Soviet Union. Poland only freed itself from communism in late 1989, which really isn’t that long ago. Adults, what were you doing in 1989?

So what’s the modern day impact of this history? A very pale complexion for the city. Once the summer is over and the tourists have left, I notice how homogenous the population seems. We live in the city center where we walk and take buses or trams, so we are around people of all walks of life and all socio-economic backgrounds. But, despite my constant movement through big crowds, there are days where I feel like I hardly see any minorities, particularly Asians and Africans. Clearly Jews are a minority too, but often difficult to spot, you know.

On the kids’ second day of school, I decided to see how long it would take me to see someone I thought was of African descent in the city. Clearly this is not a scientific study as my decision is based solely on appearance. I started at 10 am on September 2nd. Guess how many hours it took? …or should I say days…it took until the afternoon of September 12th! Yes, 10 days.

I almost hesitated to post this information in the blog because I didn’t want anyone to think this indicates a prejudice on the part of the Polish people. Ironically, it’s probably more because of their decision not to enslave the Africans and their own economic challenges. Luckily, the Polish people we have met are all very open, accepting and kind. They just happen to live in a very pale part of the world.