Poland 1991 #4of5

(Except Gdansk, Kraków, Oswiecim, Poznan, Szczecin, Warsaw, Wieliczka, Wroclaw.)

Most gasoline stations in Poland had very few pumps, but now we see new stations under construction with a half-dozen pumps or more. We see flocks (gaggles!) of geese at farm after farm, raising geese is very popular in Poland these days. The Paris Herald Tribune says that French farmers are unhappy, since low cost goose liver for Pâté de foie gras is being imported from Poland, and the French goose farmer is going broke.

There are still more horses being used for farming in this part of Poland than we have seen in all other parts of Europe combined. The other “beast of burden” are the older women. In the fields digging potatoes, harvesting wheat, tending cows, Polish women seem to be doing all the work. When we see all these women and few men, we wonder. To be charitable, maybe the men have jobs in town, rather than on the farm.

Perhaps halfway between Warsaw and Kraków, there were villages filled with wooden houses, some just shacks, some built of logs interconnected at the corners, some with sod roofs, and some that appeared to be made of a pressed material.

At the edge of one town, we tried, unsuccessfully, to park and shop at a grocery store located among dozens of apartment buildings. It was a food store, but no parking lot was needed or available, everyone in the nearby buildings walked, or rode a bike to the store.

We stopped for lunch at a large roadside area. There was a raised ramp, like in an auto garage, that the men in the neighborhood could use to change oil, and to work on their cars. There were several large trucks and tour buses here, and one bus was filled with high school students who were very interested in our RV. Several came over to have their picture taken in front of our vehicle, then they wanted to take our picture. One of the young ladies was named “Ola,” a name we heard several times in Poland.

We finally turned our windshield wipers on for only the second time in about six weeks on this trip. That must be some kind of a record. It doesn’t appear they are having a drought in Germany and Poland, we are just missing the rain. Farmers are busy, using both tractors and horses to harvest in the fields, and to take the harvest to the barn.